Flickering textures in Windows 7 and Vista

[Atomic_Skull]

Platform: PC Windows 7 64-bit (also appens in 32-bit version, happens in Vista 32 and 64 bit versions also)

ISP: AT&T

Type of Internet Connection: DSL

Internet Connection Speed: 2.57 Mbps DL / 0.34Mbps UL

Frequency:Always

Area and Coordinates: Any

Monster Name: Rocs are the most obvious example but occurs with many textures and objects.

Textures will appear to flicker, as stated above Roc type monsters are the most obvious example (their wings will flicker when then they are idle)

It doesn't appear to be a problem with any specific video card. I have seen the same problem with every Nvidia and ATI graphics card I have run FFXI on. It seems to be a problem with Vista and Windows 7 itself.

[Xophious]

Greetings Atomic_Skull!

We apologize for any inconvenience or annoyance the flickering has been causing.
The thread was moved over from the In-Game Bugs section over to Technical Support to try and get it resolved. Thank you for your patience!

[Atomic_Skull]

It's not something specific to my PC. I've seen the exact same bug with FFXI on many different PCs with various graphics cards. After some testing I've found that It's actually caused by Windows Vista and Windows 7 forcing applications which use a pixel shader version lower than 2.0 to use 2.0 instead ( FFXI uses Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader 1.0).

You can however force ATI's graphics drivers to be limited to a specific pixel shader version regardless of what the video card actually supports using the pixelshaderversion and vertexshaderversion registry values. When the video card is limited to Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader 1.0 the problem completely goes away. Although this is hardly a "fix" for the problem because it limits *all* applications to Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader 1.0 and disables Windows Aero (as well as any games that need pixel shaders and vertex shaders higher than 1.0)

[Nadeu]

Atomic_Skull,

We certainly apologize for the problems you are experiencing with FINAL FANTASY XI, and we’d like to help fix it. If you believe that there is an ongoing issue with FINAL FANTASY XI, the best way to bring it to our attention for resolution is by submitting this as a bug in our In-Game Bugs (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/forums/80-In-Game-Bugs) section of this forum. We’re glad you’re bringing this to our attention and look forward to any thoughts you may have in the future.

[Mirage]

Sometimes it seems to me like the game doesn't exactly know which parts of a 3d-model or texture should be on top of another. Usually this is most visible on the hair of various characters. Is this sort of what you guys are talking about in this thread?

-edit- reading the thread closer than just skimming it like i did before, yes, it seems like it is the same issue I've got.

Guess I'll fill out a bug report too:

Platform: PC, Windows 7 64-bit and 32bit, Vista 64bit and 32bit. The issue did not happen when I was using Windows XP x64 edition.

ISP: Altibox

Type of Internet Connection: optical fiber

Internet Connection Speed: 50Mbit download / 20 Mbit upload

Frequency:Always

Area and Coordinates: Any

Monster Name: Most commonly visible on monsters/characters with lots of details.

Symptoms: Flickering textures.

How to recreate:
Enter a zone where for example roc-type birds spawn, find one of them, and observe their feathers closely. Lots of other monsters and characters has got this graphical bug as well.

Video card: nVidia GTX 460, Geforce 8800 GT, Mobility Radeon HD3470

[Kaida]

Platform: PC, Windows 7 64-bit

ISP: Karoo

Type of Internet Connection: ADSL

Internet Connection Speed: 10Mbit download / 5 Mbit upload

Frequency:Always

Area and Coordinates: Any

Monster Name: Most commonly visible on monsters/characters with lots of details.

Symptoms: Flickering textures.

How to recreate:
Flickering around the Noticable on the neck. Feathers on roc

Video card: nVidia Geforce 9800 GT

[Atomic_Skull]

I did submit it as a bug but it was moved from that forum to here after that.

[Atomic_Skull]

Sometimes it seems to me like the game doesn't exactly know which parts of a 3d-model or texture should be on top of another. Usually this is most visible on the hair of various characters. Is this sort of what you guys are talking about in this thread?

Yes this is exactly what we're talking about.

It's apparently an issue with Windows 7 and Vista forcing FFXI to use Shader Model 2.0. FFXI is a DirectX 8 game that uses Shader Model 1.0, and when windows forces it to use a higher version it causes texture and rendering glitches.

As I stated above ATI's drivers have a registry setting to restrict the shader version regardless of what the graphics card actually supports, and restricting it to Shader Model 1.0 (anything less than 2.0 works, pixel shader and vertex shader versions must match however) will eliminate the glitches, but at the same time Windows Aero will stop working because it needs Shader Model 2.0 as well as any games that need 2.0 or higher.

[tlaloc]

i always thought that was a normal and rather cool electric effect on their wings.... dont fix their sparking wings!!! :(