New Invisable Npc/pc/mobs thread.

So I returned two days ago. All was fine and dandy, head out from Uld'ah to work on the event, and I was doing it ok... Until the npcs appeared invisible.

http://i48.tinypic.com/e6y7pd.jpg

Ok, so.. I can see where they are, by the glow, but they arn't targetable to me. Not with with tab, not by clicking, nor command. Ok, fine. Relog fixes it. Happens again. And again. And again. Eventually the ballons in the middle even poof, and the npc, too, so I can't even get my ash. Flustered, I log off for now and fiddle with settings, come back and do something else since we were failing the event anyway. Sometime after, I get into a party to work on my 40+ jobs, and I thought.. "Just in case it happens.. I should mention it in advance.." I am glad I did. While ON THE WAY to the wolf camp still, people and mobs started to disappear. I was nervious, and said that when we arrived I need to relog. The party worked, but I felt bad for having to relog a lot. I learned I can /assist <p#> to target invisible enemies then, too. Also, this effects everything, randomly. One second I can see them, the next I can't, and sometimes it flickers back.

So, party done, I head back to a city and try my hand at the event again after more tinkering with settings. Sure enough, they go invisible again. Ask LS some, they never heard of the issue and think its some bug. I search here for the first time to no avail, and then give up for the time. I learn that I can reset it by crossing mini-zone lines, which was nice. Its still not convinient.

Anyway, so last night.. I broke down and really got to working on it. I found the other, older, "Invisible npc/pc/mod" post on here, which I didn't want to bump, btw, and so I decided to make this post. For pc specs..



-=-=-=-=-=-=- System Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-

Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition Service Pack 1 64bit (build 7601)
Processor AMD A8-3820 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics
Number of Processors Logical Core Count 4 Physical Core Count 4
BIOS Ver: HOL_715.ROM vHOL7.15
Language English (Regional Setting: English)
Physical Memory 7666.848MB
Virtual Memory 2047.875MB
Page File 15331.887MB
Storage C:\ Hard Disk Drive Total Disk Space 914.576GB Free Disk Space 818.198GB
Storage D:\ Hard Disk Drive Total Disk Space 16.837GB Free Disk Space 2.103GB
DirectX Version DirectX 11
Graphic Device(s) AMD Radeon HD 6550D
+Device \\.\DISPLAY1
+Chip ATI display adapter (0x9640)
+Maker Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
+Video Memory 493.105 MB
+Shared Video Memory 3577.424 MB
+DAC Type Internal DAC(400MHz)
+Display Mode 1600 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)
+Driver aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx32,aticfx32,aticfx32,atiumd64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atiumdag,atidxx32,atidxx32,atiumdva,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll
+Driver Version 8.17.0010.1114
+Driver Date 12/5/2011 10:16:00 PM
+Driver Language English
+Vertex Shader 3.0
+Pixel Shader 3.0
+Vertex Texture Supported
Sound Device(s) Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
+Device ID {A2954321-0CAF-46F5-B330-1F7250813992}
+Device Name RTKVHD64.sys
+Driver Version 6.00.0001.6531
+Driver Language English
+Driver Date 12/20/2011 10:16:00 AM
Input Device(s) {6F1D2B60-D5A0-11CF-BFC7444553540000}
+Name Mouse
+Notes Axis 3 Button 3 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {6F1D2B61-D5A0-11CF-BFC7444553540000}
+Name Keyboard
+Notes Axis 0 Button 128 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {A4DBC700-9CA1-11E1-8001444553540000}
+Name USB Keyboard
+Notes Axis 0 Button 573 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {A4E3B640-9CA1-11E1-8002444553540000}
+Name USB Keyboard
+Notes Axis 0 Button 3 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {A4E3DD50-9CA1-11E1-8003444553540000}
+Name USB Keyboard
+Notes Axis 0 Button 0 Field of View 0




Above gotten from the FFXIV config system information. If thats not good enough, people ask me to post a different method.


Anyway! What I HAVE tried.

-Updating Graphics driver to best one.
-Tried 12.6 Beta thing.
-Went BACK to 12.1 driver(Which was supposed to work)
-Tampered with settings - low to high
-Reinstalled FFXIV
-Made sure "My pc is plugged in" (This is a joke, don't take me serious >_>)


Any other methods I forgot, or if you have some forms of idea's, I would adore the help. It really, really sucks to be doing.. Oh say.. CC, and your party and enemies vanish, can't click the ???'s, ext.

Just to note, that screenshot is from the summer event in Ul'Dah, and i've been there.
The amount of active elements in that event tends to be gigantic, and by that I mean easily two or three times the max rendering capacity of the game (which is 40 elements). When I was doing it myself, in the final wave the other PCs were disappearing to give place to Bombards and I was easily hitting the cap on rendered elements.

Just stating that it might or not be you simply hitting the render limit, i'm unsure about the other cases but at least on the event case, that should be it.

It happens to Renala no matter what is currently going on, not just for the event. We were doing Caravans? The NPC at the end disappeared -> no reward. Doing Cutters Cry for AF? The sand-trap targets disappeared so they couldn't proceed. Stuff like that.

I'm of the mind that the issue is the graphics card (overheating or overheated at some point and now is somewhat corrupted), but Renala is still looking around for some other solution.

Hrm... Yes from what I gather between server tossing to you the data and th stuff rendering on the screen there is a large place wherein your system might muck it up somehow.
I do know that 90% of my 'lag' issues are actually hardware limitation. I'm not sure if I can lend more assistance than just that, I hope you get your problem resolved and i'm sure a mod will catch wind of this thread come monday.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skies

Just to note, that screenshot is from the summer event in Ul'Dah, and i've been there.
The amount of active elements in that event tends to be gigantic, and by that I mean easily two or three times the max rendering capacity of the game (which is 40 elements). When I was doing it myself, in the final wave the other PCs were disappearing to give place to Bombards and I was easily hitting the cap on rendered elements.

---

I know, I wish I had thought to screen shot the wolf camp party or during CC/AV runs. But, thats what I had offhand. Its very annoying, npcs can load in and I hear them (Say in Crafting guilds) but I do not see a single one.

Also, raldo also mentioned the caravans - I had to run WAAAAAAAAAAY off and hit a zone line(My choco is invis when this happens, so I can tell when they reload by when it reloads) to come back to get my reward, and by that time I missed the next ones starting. So, I DID get the reward, but. And yeah, I hope I get some attention come monday.


Someone was talking to me and talked me threw to try things, and she thinks it might be how my Graphics card is in my motherboard, which may be the cause. I can't try to fix that until friday when my old tower that the motherboard fried comes back/is brought back, its graphics cards worse, but ran this game fine - and is still fine.

Minor update before tommarow's Gm's..

- Tried 12.7 beta driver, no good.

Also, more pictures.

http://i49.tinypic.com/2md5vmc.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/1acya.jpg

Third picture sadly didn't save.. Sigh. it was of two bombs visable, 5 bombs invisible, and me visable.

I've noticed radeon cards aren't very.... efficient in rendering the game. In fact i'd say around 70% of the problems I see posted users have radeon cards.

I personally think this is a driver issue. SE has not posted recomended drivers, so it's hard to confirm this.

Have you rolled back drivers? try something from early January.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Onisake

I've noticed radeon cards aren't very.... efficient in rendering the game. In fact i'd say around 70% of the problems I see posted users have radeon cards.

I personally think this is a driver issue. SE has not posted recomended drivers, so it's hard to confirm this.

Have you rolled back drivers? try something from early January.

---

It could be. And yes, I did. I tried 12.1, which reportedly still worked. My old PC had a 4000 series AMD/ATI card and it ran the game no problem, but for some reason this one... /sigh

Also, I forget if its been mentioned, but this PC was a store bought PC(I know, I know, don't remind me "YOu need to make your own!") and the graphics card came installed/intigrated with the motherboard, I was told after giving some info about this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Renala

It could be. And yes, I did. I tried 12.1, which reportedly still worked. My old PC had a 4000 series AMD/ATI card and it ran the game no problem, but for some reason this one... /sigh

Also, I forget if its been mentioned, but this PC was a store bought PC(I know, I know, don't remind me "YOu need to make your own!") and the graphics card came installed/intigrated with the motherboard, I was told after giving some info about this.

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onboard vs. offboard doesn't matter for the GPU. there are a few small tweaks, but they do the same job. it sounds like this is a laptop? can't remember the last time i saw an integrated chipset on a desktop mobo.

anyway. I personally have had nothing but problems with the AMD/Radeon chipsets. there drivers are the absolute worst. keep trying different versions, it may take a while before you hit a sweet spot. try rolling back to last october. you might also call the customer support line and grill the tech guys about recommended drivers. if they say they don't know keep asking. ask them to escalate. ask them if they use AMD/Radeon. ask them which drivers they use. etc. etc. the more specific the question you ask the better off you are. if it sounds like they are giving you a generic response ask for escalation/talk to a manger.

For FFXI i had to use drivers that were almost 2 years old. so buckle down and keep trying. if you can't get anything out of SE, try calling Radeon or posting on an AMD/Radeon forum to see what drivers other people are using.

and having a retail vs custom PC shouldn't matter either. I always highly recommend people to buy retail PCs if they dont' know how to troubleshoot or have the motivation to constantly do benchmarks to tweak their PC. it's like a car almost, you need to always be messing with it and fine tuning. custom PCs are not for everyone so don't let the elitist bastards get you down with the constant 'build your own PC!' crap.

Well, a small update(And a bump to this).

A friend had me update my.. Chipset I think it was to 12.6, and it.. actually helped a good bit. It didn't FIX it, but I was able to go to natalan and exp my bard from 44-50 without it ever once happening. But when going to skirmish dock, it happened. Twice. (We wiped. XD) So, its one thing someone can try to do.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Renala

Well, a small update(And a bump to this).

A friend had me update my.. Chipset I think it was to 12.6, and it.. actually helped a good bit. It didn't FIX it, but I was able to go to natalan and exp my bard from 44-50 without it ever once happening. But when going to skirmish dock, it happened. Twice. (We wiped. XD) So, its one thing someone can try to do.

---

He probably just updated your drivers and wanted to make it sound fancier.

you migth update the firmware for your mobo too.

I got to thinking some. What if its a program clashing with 14? What programs are known to cause issues with FFXIV?

Renala: For what it's worth, any sort of program that draws the attention of my graphics driver makes XIV crash.
Hell, even the "Are you sure you want to install that? You need admin access for that" screen will kill XIV

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skies

Renala: For what it's worth, any sort of program that draws the attention of my graphics driver makes XIV crash.
Hell, even the "Are you sure you want to install that? You need admin access for that" screen will kill XIV

---

That I know. But thats not what is happening. My game doens't crash, npcs go invisable/untargetable.

it's a rendering error. a crash is a catastrophic failure. non-catastrophic failures can include failing to load or discoloration. I had an error a couple weeks ago while doing WHM quests. they toss a glowing ball of energy at you. i got a square and the game crashed immediately after the CS. these things happen now and then. but they have a higher rate of occurance for FFXIV due to inefficiencies in the coding etc.

packetloss can also impact this. the SE server is telling your PC what to load. if it's losing half the data your PC doesn't know what to load so it just doesn't load anything.

So what can I do to fix the rendering issue? D:

Bolth of my friends who i invited using buddy keys have this problem (bolth with Radeon cards btw) They are playing on their desktops although. So much for having them think this game is better since beta! >_<;

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Evanth

Bolth of my friends who i invited using buddy keys have this problem (bolth with Radeon cards btw) They are playing on their desktops although. So much for having them think this game is better since beta!>_<;

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Well, I would start off by telling them this isn't normal. Its not a thing that affects everyone, and some simple short term solutions can be done as followed:

1) Cross a zone line, it'll reset the npcs.
2) Less convinient sometimes, others more convinient - Log out to character screen, then back in.

Either will help fix it... normally. I wish I had a one way cure to fix this, since I hate it so, so much. I can't do anything outside primals without it coming in to mess with me. Well, I should say anything party-dependent.

This just in! AV run time!....

http://i48.tinypic.com/xawa3k.jpg

(Its hard to tell.. but that is coincounter.)

this happens to skuller as well from time to no idea y tho

Hope a mod can help you out soon here, that's a pretty big problem. I'm honestly not being a jerk, but it's spelled 'invisible'. Sorry...
I hope you get fixed!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lordofthedisc

Hope a mod can help you out soon here, that's a pretty big problem. I'm honestly not being a jerk, but it's spelled 'invisible'. Sorry...
I hope you get fixed!

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I know, I spelt it wrong in the title, and I don't think I can fix it. D;

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Onisake

onboard vs. offboard doesn't matter for the GPU. ~lots of talk~ custom PCs are not for everyone so don't let the elitist bastards get you down with the constant 'build your own PC!' crap.

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If you've played with lego as a child, you can build your own PC. They are not elitist-bastards.

Onboard vs. dedicated GPU makes a HUGH difference! Perhaps couple that with a 65w CPU that doubles as the GPU and under 500mb of system-memory dedicated for the 6550D APU=CPU+GPU unit.
15gig page files seems insanely large but that's more of tweak'n then issue.

Does your PC have an open PCI-E slot? If so, fill-it with an nVidia card ;) ( I dont go for this fanboi-bs but I have used&still possess a PCI-128 from ATI and used ATI until the 9000-series. Went to nVidia when I got back into 'puting with a 220...I'll never go back to ATI Always had issues using ATI (before and after AMD bought that lil Canadian company)

CCC 12.1 was the solution for me. I'v tried every driver up to 12.4 and finally gave up on the driver updates until 2.0.
People will say to do things like turn off AA in your game config and then turn it on in CCC. That may help with NPCs loading slow but the issue your having is a different problem that I have also seen first hand.
But yeah, CCC 12.1 works great for me running in fullscreen with crossfireX.

I have also talked to players having luck using the CCC BETA builds. I have not tried any of them, but I do believe ATI now offers them on their website. Good luck.