Weird transparency problem

[Taskmage]

A few days ago I had to reinstall windows and FFXI because of a hard drive failure, and ever since then I've been having this weird problem with transparency and glow effects:


This is on a GeForce FX 5700, both with the driver version recommended by SE (ForceWare 91.47) and with the most recent set of drivers (ForceWare 93.71). I didn't have this problem with this card before the reinstall, and the driver I was using before war a version between the two that I've tested with, so if it were a problem with the driver either the newer version or the older version shouldn't have it. I think there must be some setting or something that I need to toggle that would get rid of it, but I don't know what it could be and I don't want to go around flipping switches not knowing what they do. My friend said something about Z-filtering, but I don't see anything like that in advanced options.

Any thoughts?

[Taskmage]

Re: Weird transparency problem

Oh, and I don't know if this is a symptom of the same problem, but I've also been having a problem with mobs flickering in and out entirely when they're at a distance. I think that maybe they're being partially occluded by the intervening geometry and the card doesn't know whether to draw them or not ...

[Murphie]

Re: Weird transparency problem

I used to have that same problem, but now I can't for the life of me remember how I fixed it.

If I remember I'll let you know. XD

[Jei]

Re: Weird transparency problem

Overheating graphic card? Or try change the driver version?

[Mhurron]

Re: Weird transparency problem

The option he's talking about is a driver option, not a FFXI option. You could go into the ForceWare settings and turn everything to default and see if that clears it up.

Now, I have an ATI card (and haven't had any of the problems that nVida owners have ) but the only specific setting close to what your friend said is the 'Force Z-Buffer Deapth' under the OpenGL settings with the options Disables, Force 16bit and Force 32 bit. I have it set to force 32.

I would say a good place to start is locate that and disable it, then turn off (set to application preference) any AF and AA settings. Disable anything that talks about Alpha channels (if their are any). You can always go back and turn them on one at a time if you get it to clear up.

Overheating graphic card?

Well there's always that possibility too, maybe take some compressed air to the heatsync and fan on the card.

[Thrasher]

Re: Weird transparency problem

Unless your playing new games with your just use the older drives, Guru of 3d has a large archive of 1st and 3ed party video drivers.
Personally newer drivers are not always better for older video cards.

[Macht]

Re: Weird transparency problem

ForceWare 91.47 is only if you have the GeForce 7 series that mean 7000+. You have a GeForce 5700 (5 series which I think is the FX series) for that one you need 56.64 version and make sure "Bump Mapping" is off.

It's similar problem that 1 of my 3 computers had it also has the GeForce 5700. I say similar because it didn't do the transparency, instead the character models would just sparatically vanish from the screen completly and not to the design of how the game does it.

If you experience blinking, bad glow effects, or model "shredding" (Making the wierd square cuts in the model) those are all driver related problems.

It happened when I went to high on the ForceWare for my 5700 and for my 6300 (Which only works up to the 66.93 version).


If you need to know FFXI supports ForceWare for the following:

GeForce 7 Series (ForceWare 91.47)
GeForce 6 Series (ForceWare 66.93)
GeForce 5 Series FX (ForceWare 56.64)
GeForce 4 Series (ForceWare 66.93)
GeForce 3 Series (ForceWare 66.93)
GeForce 2 Series (ForceWare 66.93)

That should fix your problem, it fixed all of mine. If you want my suspicions, I would bet that the older GeForce ones they only tested up till a version stopped working. So potentially you might be able to use ForceWare higher then those but I doubt SE has kept on it, so a version just above the stated compatible might not work but a couple higher just might. If you want to be certain it's compatible then just follow what SE has provided.


For a Video when it overheats it comes with more problems then just 1 game having trouble. I should know I've overheated maybe 3 video cards. Fun looking at it seeing all the parts bursted out like Popcorn. Also if it's the video card you'd know quickly after about 1 month your computer will not startup, when that happens look at the video card and you should see some of the transistors blow out (looks like burnt popcorn).

If you need to know though the overheating of a video card usually goes more along the line of the image "freezing" on you. Were you'll gets stuck for a while and when it clears you are suddenly appear somewere else in the direction you were heading. If you appear suddenly back were you had just came from that's more likely a network lag issue.

EDIT:

Forgot I should add, if you are messing with the drivers and want to test before getting in the game then try the Benchmark program. I've noticed it seems more sensative about compatbility then the game is, so if you notice it not working right in there it's a chance it won't in the game either.

[Taskmage]

Re: Weird transparency problem

Yes! That was the problem. I actually needed an older driver. I rolled back to ForceWare 56.64 and the problem disappeared. Thank you Macht, and thanks to everyone else for chiming in.

[Macht]

Re: Weird transparency problem

Yes! That was the problem. I actually needed an older driver. I rolled back to ForceWare 56.64 and the problem disappeared. Thank you Macht, and thanks to everyone else for chiming in.

Glad to hear it's fixed now. Hopefully those others I've stated the same thing to are seeing this and not disregarding what I said as just BS. Well have fun, I would tell you other tweaks I had done to make it perform better, unfortunatly I've forgoten those.

All I remembered is if your system has the RAM for it there is a setup you can do were it just about eliminates most of the Latency issue you'd experience in crowded zones. I say most because the only Latency you can't eliminate is ones were the server can't get the data to everyone efficently.

The lag responces were you shoot a mob and like 1 min. later they start chasing you (Actually happened in Valkrum to me, good think I was in my 50s at that time or that little army that ended up tailing me could of been a problem).