Flickering screen- very bad, good thing i dont have epilipsy

[Bishop99]

My old computer died on me- but I finally have a new one....

Unfortunately my video card is flippin out on this game. When i start the game I get the blank black screen but the menus are still active. I found out my video card isn't supported so I had to add some lines to my shortcut that makes it try to load a module that doesnt exist and then I can cancel that and am able to see the menus.

The next problem comes when I enter the game, my game screen is flickering like crazy- my hotkeys/text bar are not affected by this though.

Anyone have suggestions?

Comp specs:
AMD 64 X2 dual core 6000+
2 Gigs of corsair XMS
GeForce 8500 GT

running windows xp professional

[Amoenotep]

change your resolutions around and check your vid drivers. i got that blank black screen for a while, but i had to change my res in game to match my res on desktop..or close to it. flickering might just be vid drivers.

[Trogdorbob]

Not sure what you mean by flickering. If you mean by changing from the game to the windows desktop, I myself have had this problem as well. As Amoenotep says your game resolution should match or be as close to the resolution of your desktop. I also have fixed that problem and have had the "flickering" again. I was told by bid D slider that there are some other problems in the windows that contribute to game harrasment as I like to call it. This includes disconnection and flickering. What she told me to do was scan the computer for all kinds of spy ware, mal ware and ad ware. I clicked off as many of the services that i didnt need to run windows or other applications. Think of it as trimming the grizzly fat of a nice trim steak.

Im not sure if sharing or telling of programs is allowed so im going to say pm me for the details of the programs that i used. Just to be safe. There are a number of programs out there that can assist you in this epic undertaking. If your not sure about the windows services then do an internet search to find out what is needed and what is "fatting" your resources.

Since I have done this I have improved my game 50% better and have had a large party and lots of crap going on and I didnt disconnect nor did the screen flicker under intense graphics from the game. EG the attack of G1 in front of the NS castle. NOT ONCE. Im a happy man.

[Lorkar1]

I had a similar problem after I installed my "newer" video card. It turned out to be the refresh rate. Once I turned it up to around 85 mhz it stopped. I had to mess with it on multiple occasions because it seemed like it wouldn't remember its settings the first 5-6 times. Now I have the problem only with newer games that are really taxing the system. The other thing I did was install the latest nVidia universal drivers...one of the following drivers worked for me I believe it was 94.24. but then again I could only put a 6200 into mine not the 8500. Hope it helps.
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/94.24/94.24_forceware_winxp_english_whql.exe

Or this one.
http://http.download.nvidia.com/Windows/93.71/93.71_forceware_winxp2k_english_whql.exe

[Tinsicka]

While we are on video card problems, I to have a new comp and different video card. All run wells except the brightness in the game. When I go to desktop or log on and off it's very dark in game when I come back. I go to the video options and adjust the gama slider and everything is fine again till I leave the game. I keep on having to go back to that gama slider and flick it to the right *or* left just a touch to be able to have daylight in game again.
Anybody know how I can adjust the brightness so that it stays?

[cely]

My old computer died on me- but I finally have a new one....
AMD 64 X2 dual core 6000+

You're probably running into the CPU Affinity problem. NWN can't handle SMP (dual core processors). Something about the way timing is coded into the engine. It causes all kinds of weird problems from graphical glitches to players teleporting around. One time I was at the bottom of the giant caves and thought it'd be funny to enable nwn on both cores and the lava flames tripled in size. Of course lots of stuff flickered making it almost impossible to play, but it sure looked cool.

http://nwn.bioware.com/support/patchdetails167.html

"Added a new option to the nwnplayer.ini file under [Game Options] "Client CPU Affinity" (for Windows only). If you have more than one CPU on your PC, then you can use this setting to make the game run on only one of the CPUs by specifying the number of the CPU (0-31). Setting "Client CPU Affinity=-1" will turn off CPU affinity."

All you have to do is change Client CPU Affinity to 0 or 1. 0 will force nwn to run on the first core and 1 will force nwn to run on the second core. I don't think it really matters which core you set it to, but I set mine to 1.

[Tinsicka]

That's got to be it, Cely! Because yesterday when we were in game together he said... "I can teleport around!!! Did they add a new feature while I was away! "

[mgrjebbo]

lol yeah i just got that same chip and celron helped me fix the affinity problem

[JesterOI]

If you get a "flicker" or what looks to be a tear through the screen with two slightly different images on either side of the tear you might be getting a higher framerate than what the monitor's refresh rate is.
Easy fix is to do what Lorkar said or turn Vsync to Force On in the drivers.
Vsync really only matters for CRT monitors though.

One thing to watch out for when using Vsync is that the framerate needs to exceed the refresh rate regularily. If it doesn't, the vid card slows down the framerate so that it can sync up with the monitor refresh rate. This usually means your frame rate will drop to half of the monitor refresh rate, or worse 1/4th.
So it's a good idea to keep the details/res settings low enough to exceed the refresh rate or change the refresh rate so that it's lower than the framerate most of the time.

[Bishop99]

My old computer died on me- but I finally have a new one....
AMD 64 X2 dual core 6000+

You're probably running into the CPU Affinity problem. NWN can't handle SMP (dual core processors). Something about the way timing is coded into the engine. It causes all kinds of weird problems from graphical glitches to players teleporting around. One time I was at the bottom of the giant caves and thought it'd be funny to enable nwn on both cores and the lava flames tripled in size. Of course lots of stuff flickered making it almost impossible to play, but it sure looked cool.

http://nwn.bioware.com/support/patchdetails167.html

"Added a new option to the nwnplayer.ini file under [Game Options] "Client CPU Affinity" (for Windows only). If you have more than one CPU on your PC, then you can use this setting to make the game run on only one of the CPUs by specifying the number of the CPU (0-31). Setting "Client CPU Affinity=-1" will turn off CPU affinity."

All you have to do is change Client CPU Affinity to 0 or 1. 0 will force nwn to run on the first core and 1 will force nwn to run on the second core. I don't think it really matters which core you set it to, but I set mine to 1.

Yep this was it. Thanks.

[Celorn]

Cpu affinity = the new shiny water!

On a sadder note, my 4 month or so old AT 2900XT seems to be damaged, possibly by heat so I will be downgraded to an old nv6600 until it comes back from sapphire.

[frogofpeace]

Cely, you rock! Just got me a new lappy which I love, except NWN runs VERY choppy on it. Changed the CPU affinity setting and now all i swell. Thanks!

[Gornickthy]

Hey thanks for the posts.. I am just posting here because I need to reference back to this post later to fix some probs on my end... and the search engine sucks butt on these forums.