Graphical Clipping

[GokuSS400]

Hi

So today around 1 PM ish, while i was in the World of Darkness raid....my screen suddenly just "freaked" out (thats basically the best way i have of describing what's happening without images).

The most obvious part of this is that I can see various yellow boxes "clipping" on my screen in the majority of places. However, this is not limited to just in-game when i've logged in with my character....as the "clipping" also shows up on the "start" screen (where it says "start" "data center" "opening movie" etc.)


Here are 3 screenshots I took of the whole thing, 2 were during the raid.







This third one I took just a few minutes ago


Now, I have tried numerous things in an effort to fix this problem....I have exited the game and restarted it, restarted my computer, waited for the computer to cool off and tried launching the game, and have updated my graphics card to the latest version.

Please help!!!!

[Raist]

Either your refresh is highly out of synch to your monitor (VSynch disabled, no buffering enabled if it is on, etc.), or timing/voltages are out of spec for a component or your cooling solution isn't up to snuff and causing components to overheat.

If you've done some tweaking to clocks (overclocking), may want to try backing off a bit.

We see this happen sometimes with the high-performance versions of some cards too--they basically are overclocked slightly or dramatically compared to the reference design. Sometimes the fan/heatsink or other components aren't fully up-to-snuff and don't hold up so well in every environment. Can see problems like this crop up when weather heats up---ambient temps go up, so your case temps go up sharply as well. May want to compare your card's clocks to the reference design at the manufacturer's site (AMD or nVidia--not EVGA and such, the original designer of the model). If they are indeed in "turbo" mode by comparison, may want to try scaling them back slightly to see if it helps.

[GokuSS400]

To my knowledge I haven't changed the clock speed of anything on my system.

As for comparing the card's clock and the reference design, i'm completely in the dark as to how to do that.

Additionally, this only JUST started happening today. I've had no problem with the game until today.

[Raist]

Came home today and it was 83 degrees in my room. 4 windows face the sun all afternoon. Not EVEN trying to play on the PC. Pretty much don't play on it at all anymore since the laptop handles it fine---but typically I don't game on the PC in the summer because the room gets so hot and the card simply gets too hot after a couple hours. It's a pretty common thing if your cooling may be marginal already.

As for checking the specs, you can get the particulars with a free tool from TechPowerUp called GPU-Z. It will tell you all kinds of details about your card. Here are some screen shots from their page:



Then you can go to the manufacture's site (amd.com or nvidia.com) to look up your card, or you can google your card and the word "specs" (ie: "nvidia GTX 760 specs").

You will often find that third-party manufactured cards will have clocks set higher than what the original design called for, and that can create issues if they aren't adequately cooled or powered. The level of cards we use today need more dedicated power from the power supply than can be delivered through the motherboard, and most power supplies rarely ever deliver their full rated power out of the box (an 850W PSU may actually only provide a steady 650-700 under load, and that is split up across each set of plugs). Then they degrade over time and regulation gets worse as they heat up as well. As the environment becomes more harsh (heats up), things can degrade just enough for things to get flaky.

That is why we see problems crop up more often during the hotter seasons.

Edit: Oh, and I may have edited the first post after you originally replied... somehow chopped off part of it when editing before posting. Stupid phone. May want to check your Vsynch and Triple buffer settings. If the card is racing too far ahead of the monitor's refresh rate, you can sometimes get weird tearing and stuff.

[Etiken]

I use to have a similar issue where every summer the GPU would heat up but what was happening was that the stock software that controls fan speeds was not configured well enough to suit the temperatures. So for example what would happen is that by default the fan speeds stay at a low speed when the card is cooler (as do most graphics cards). So strictly for an example, the fans would be at 20% speed when the GPU was at 55°c, 30% at 60°c, 40% at 65°c, 60% at 70°c etc. you get the point.

I don't remember the exact temperature but what was happening was that the moment the GPU hit 80°c I would start getting artifacts, tearing and crazy stuff going on like your screenshots. What I found out was that the software by default was configured to only crank up the fan speeds to 100% until 94°c! I looked up the safe max temps for my card at the time and they listed 95°c. So it starting to crud out at 80°c was an unexpected problem.
What I did to fix it was downloaded a program called MSI Afterburner. It allowed me to configure what fan speed will kick in at the temps I tell it to. So I reconfigured it to gradually increase and to kick in at 100% when at 77°c. (It's possible you already have software that came with your motherboard or graphics card that allows you to configure it yourself. I used Afterburner because I've always had great luck with it for configurations and easy overclock adjustments.)

The problem was solved but unfortunately the 100% fan speed was loud as heck! Installed a liquid cooling kit and never looked back =P

Not saying this is your problem, but I wanted to share my experience in case it may be of help to you or anyone's help as we are getting into summer.

Good luck! ^.^

[Laraul]

Try reinstalling the game.

[Etiken]

Try reinstalling the game.

I would be very surprised if those graphical issues are resolved by a reinstall.
My opinion is that what he is experiencing is more than likely a hardware or driver issue. But I'm leaning towards hardware malfunction or overheating.

[GokuSS400]

So I'm still having problems with the choppy graphics. A few people in my FC originally suggested that I try lowering my graphics setting (my game defaults to Laptop High, and i changed it to Laptop Standard; did nothing but it was worth a shot).

Now the big thing to note here is that I'm playing this game on a laptop. I started playing it....last month I think? i know its been a really short period of time. Anyways, as I said, this graphical stuff only JUST started happening out of nowhere, and thats basically freaking me out so to speak. Now since im playing on a laptop, i can't remove the case or pull stuff out to clean off dust and such. However, I basically keep my laptop in the same place every day...on top of this computer desk i have.

The room i'm in is by no means the hottest area in the house...and i used that tool that Raist recommended...and without the game running, the GPU temp is about 54 C. Additionally looking at the clock speed listed, and the one listed on the Tech Powerup page, it's not overclocked.

For most of the things you guys are saying to check, i've absolutely no earthly idea as to how to go about that...

Finally, I did try uninstalling/reinstalling the game....in the hopes that that would fix it or do something beneficial, and sadly no luck.


Two more things that I think are relevant....first is that before going into World of Darkness (and subsequently getting my graphics going to all hell...) i went into my graphics card's menu earlier in the day and had it optimize the game for me, which changed a TON of settings around

The following is the list of my CURRENT Settings:

Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
Anti-Aliasing: FXAA
Display mode: Fullscreen
Enable Depth of Field: On
Enable HDR Rendering: On
Enable Lip Sync during chat: On
Enemy Physics: Full
Enemy Shadows: Display
Glare: Normal                                                            
Grass Quality: Normal
Limb Darkening: On
LOD: ON
LOD Streaming: Off
Map Resolution: High
NPC Physics: Full
NPC Shadows: Display
Occlusion Culling: On
Other Battle Effects: Show Limited
Party Battle Effects: Show None
Party Member Physics: Full
Party Member Shadows: Display
Player Physics: Full
Radial Blur: On
Real-time reflections: off
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion: Weak
Self Shadows: Display
Shadow Cascading: Best
Shadow Resolution: Mid: 1024 pixels
Shadow Softening: Strong
Texture Filtering: Anisotropic
Use Low Detail Shadow Models: On

Now here's what my card wants to change to "optimize" the game

Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
Anti-aliasing: Off
Enable HDR Render: Off
Enemy Physics: off
Enemy Shadows: hide
Glare: off
Grass quality: off
Limb darkening: off
LOD: off
NPC Physics: Off
NPC Shadows: Hide
Occlusion Culling: Off
Party Member physics: off
Party Member shadows: HIDE
Player Physics: off
Radial Blur: off
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion: Strong
Shadow Resolution: Low: 512 pixels
Shadow Softening: Weak
Use Low Detail Shadow Models: Off

Now I don't know if any of these being changed could explain what's going on with my game or not....because I only know enough about computers to just get by.


Anyways...the second thing that i think is important and should be stated....is that the other night, I was playing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and I noticed that the detailed local map was having some of the same clipping/graphical issues i was having in Final Fantasy (except that it only affect the black colored areas of the map). So its not isolated strictly to FF14.

ANY HELP, to try and get to the core of this issue and subsequently fix it.....would be WONDERFUL!!!!

[Raist]

Since you are on a laptop... highly likely there is an issue with the system's cooling. Not uncommon for there to be issues with the thermal filler they use between the graphics core and the heatsink, or for issues to crop up with the fans and such. If it is still under warranty or otherwise a maintenance plan, might want to contact the manufacturer. It is possible they have documented incidents and there will already be a bulletin for replacing a component or other form of repair.

Otherwise, try reducing the strain on the card (which is what it looks like it was recommending you to do) and/or improving the ambient temperature of the laptop (like using a cooling pad or something).

[Etiken]

Knowing that you are on a laptop also supports my thoughts on overheating. I would try getting a program like afterburner or somrthing that will allow you to manually set your GPU fan speed. Even motherboard controller may have it. Set the manual fan speed to 100% you will hear it crank up to full speed. Go in game and see if you have any issues.

Eport back after trying that if you like and we will take it from there. Keep note of how long you can play before problems come back (if they do).

Also if you plan on gaming with a laptop for any extended period I would highly suggest getting a cooling pad. For example the CM strom sf-19.

On a side note, please remember I am not a professional in any way. Simply another player trying to help out. Take my suggestions if you like but do so at your own risk.