This is a long post and if you miss one line you won't understand all of it, so read it only if you're interested in the details of the matter.
Patch 1.20b was probably the worst patch for me, not for any of the content released with it, but because after its release I couldn't enjoy anymore the landscapes of my Eorzea.
The day of the patch, I logged out before maintenance as usual, I went elsewhere and returned 3 hours later,
no change done to the PC at all. The only update I did was with the FFXIV Updater, the new patch, so I logged back in 3 hours later, still in my dear Limsa Lominsa.
I ran to the Red Rooster Stead in Eastern La Noscea to get my Goobbue, that I obtained after the chit-chat with the wandering minstrel.
However, soon after I was running around with my new mount, I noticed a strange blur on the right of the screen and also the sky/clouds that weren't moving properly. The glitch of the sky was a known one, as mentioned by
another adventurer here, but very rare, while the blur was something new.
This new glitch, of which I already opened
a Topic here and also made a
video of it, was the start of the nightmare... because now it was semi-permanent.
I say “semi” because I subsequently discovered a “solution”: I had to log out and log in again many times, and the glitch would randomly fix itself. Also, I noticed that after the end of a certain weather condition, with the start of a new one the sky might return to normal (*might*, that is, randomly, but it only happened once).
I had no way to know how many times I had to log in and out back and forth, it just randomly fixed itself. Then if I logged out and back in, there it was again.
At the same time, I could stay – and I stayed! – over 30 minutes logging out and in, and the issue was still there. Not an acceptable solution.
I tried to be as patient as possible, trying to enjoy anyway my time in Eorzea in caves or dark rooms, until the staff would have given me a solution or at least a proper answer to what happened...
They answered me, I sent them my System Informations and reinstalled my drivers again and again.
I sent them my MsInfo and DxDiag as they requested, and in the next e-mail they told me there was “an inconsistency in the graphics driver details” and told me to uninstall them, reboot my computer and install them again; then, send a new e-mail with my MsInfo and DxDiag again. I had to send my data to SEE_Support@e4e.com, then write another e-mail to the Support Centre address saying that I had sent my data to the e4e address.
[If
I may make a suggestion, I think it would be a good addition if there would only be a single e-mail address to write and send the informations to.]
I understood, however, that the Support Centre is not a part of the graphical team, but take care of general technical support for every Square Enix game, so they couldn't tell me what exactly happened after patch 1.20b.
I tried other games, but they didn't give me any problem.
Like I said, I didn't change or update anything in my PC. Not the day of the patch nor in the past months. The permanent issue appeared after 1.20b, so all the tests I did, be it updating again and again my graphic drivers or my Windows 7 drivers, were useless (and stressfull, as I'm not a computer type), since it wasn't something I could fix on my side!
On that other Topic in “In-Game Bugs”, another adventuress had experienced the problem after 1.20b, but I don't know if she had it again since the Topic was closed.
I know one on Bodhum that experienced it, but... when I asked: “Did you ask your linkshell mates if they're having it, too?”, she replied: “No, but I doubt they'd even notice!”
Yes. I'm conscious that very few adventurers care at all for the sky or to just stop and watch a dawn or sunset, kinda like those skipping through quests' text, and might not consider this glitch a real problem, but I'd like to compare it to
screen tearing.
Screen tearing is not a good thing (
sample video in case you don't know what is it) and even if you don't care about the sky, you'd care about a permanent screen tearing effect on the sky while you move the camera or during cutscenes.
This is just a comparison, but for me, being an adventurer who always move the camera on his travels, be it exploration, gathering or questing, it's the same when I watch the sky, that after 1.20b gave me a headache to look at.
Although this is the kind of issue that many would say: “Until it doesn't happen to me, who cares?”, I'd like you to think about it for a second, if that would happen to you, and if you don't care about the sky, compare it to a permanent screen tearing that you couldn't not notice.
My experience in Eorzea started to become stressful for this reason, something that never really happened before, and I couldn't stay in Eorzea without relaxing.
I'm sure that an expert graphic technician could understand what in the seven hells happened after patch 1.20b, what is that “blur” on the right of the screen and why the sky is permanenlty glitched like that, randomly fixing itself up.
In my inexperience, I understood that the sky of Eorzea has two “layers”:
1. The “
Sky Layer”, that is the blue or foggy sky itself.
2. The “
Clouds Layer”, that is the clouds moving in the 1st layer.
And in this glitch is like if the 2nd layer is not working as it should, alongside that
mysterious blur on the right of the screen.
Anyway, the SE Support Centre told me to do other tests, using Driver Sweeper, and I also manually (!) deleted any relevant Nvidia reference from the registry... A pain to do... and I did it twice, because I also tried to install older drivers.
But the glitch was still there. So at this point, the Support Centre told me they couldn't help me and to write a bug report, where, however, it's written that e-mails aren't answered.
Left to myself and with every possible test done, there was only one thing left to do: reinstalling the game, as my guess told me something was changed in the data files after patch 1.20b.
I uninstalled and reinstalled it and... when it was installing the 1.20b update... I got a message of
corrupted data! Unfortunately, I didn't take a screenshot, but I never had this message before: it was a window with
three error messages (the ones numbered, like “error 3001”), saying the data was indeed corrupted.
I managed to complete the updates installation, but the glitch was still there.
I uninstalled the game again and returned to the registry, this time deleting every reference to Final Fantasy XIV... and started the reinstallation again.
This time it went smooth and the glitch wasn't there... at first... because when I improved my Play Settings, there it was again.
But I had already did tests with lowered settings in the past days, so why? Well, I tried again, put the settings to their default values and increased them one by one, doing at least 3 logouts/logins every time (...).
In the end, I finally understood the problem:
Full Screen. Before the final reinstallation, I remember I had the glitch also in Windowed Mode (maybe related to that corrupted data...?), but now it's apparently only if I'm in Full Screen.
Tonight and this afternoon I did more than 30 logins and logouts for testing, and the sky wasn't glitched anymore (it is, however, if I turn Full Screen ON), so I'm confident it's working properly now.
Since November 2010, when I arrived in Eorzea, I always used Full Screen; now, after patch 1.20b, I can't anymore. ...But trust me, after this week where I spent my free time with stressfull tests, if to enjoy again the sky and thus Eorzea I need to have that small border on the top of the screen of Windowed Mode, it's an acceptable compromise...
I'm glad I found a solution after an hellish week, I was starting to believe I would have been
forced to leave Eorzea, since I couldn't enjoy my time there anymore...
Although this experience left me with a bitter taste in the mouth, I'm confident that staying in Eorzea will bring the Spirit back to normal...
However, even if I've found my answer, since I also noticed that others are having problems after patch 1.20, and since I'm positive something was changed on the game side and not on our PC side, this is why I told my story and why above I asked if you that have my graphic card or a similar card can do some testing in Full Screen and tell if you see that sky glitch.
Thanks for reading.