Invisible NPCs, PCs, & Mobs

[Poggalogg]

I bought the game yesterday, and since then I've come across a big problem with actors not appearing at all. Their dot is on the minimap, and I can hear players run by me, but I cannot see or target/interact with anyone. This makes leves relatively impossible to finish as the only way to fix this temporarily is to log out and back in.

In some cases, even I disappear! It seems to occur when there are a lot of npcs & mobs nearby. I think it has something to do with the loading of actors on screen at the time.
I've searched for this problem but it doesn't seem like anyone else is complaining about it. Anyone have a clue as to what's happening?

Here we have Carline Canopy, completely empty [Note the minimap dots]


And here's what happens sometimes after I switch gear.


No amount of waiting fixes this, and it doesn't appear to be a connection problem.


My current specs, a la dxdiag:
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.110622-1506)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC
BIOS: InsydeH2O Version CCB.03.61.09F.21
Processor: AMD A8-3500M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics (4 CPUs), ~1.5GHz
Memory: 6144MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 5610MB RAM
Page File: 3556MB used, 7663MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode

[Coldfire]

Maybe the installation failed. Tried reinstalling the game?

[StateAlchemist]

Well for one, your CPU does not meet the minimum requirements. (2.0 GHz or higher, maybe it was 2.6GHz. not sure.) Also, if you are using a moble GPU or high end integrated graphics the game won't run for sh*t either. Recommend using a desktop PC or getting a better laptop. GL getting it to run on that one without issues.

[Coldfire]

Well for one, your CPU does not meet the minimum requirements. (2.0 GHz or higher, maybe it was 2.6GHz. not sure.) Also, if you are using a moble GPU or high end integrated graphics the game won't run for sh*t either. Recommend using a desktop PC or getting a better laptop. GL getting it to run on that one without issues.

The CPU is quadcore and definately fast enough. The IGP should good enough to run the game at medium settings with ~25fps.

[BPMatus]

I am having the same issue.

I can see them after a restart of the game for awhile then they disappear. I have turned graphics down, updated drivers as of today. the game runs decent even on standard settings. so why is everyone disappearing? sometimes I can walk away and come back and then I can see them. others not so much.

here is the rundown on my system

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name BRIANMATUS-HP
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model HP Pavilion g7 Notebook PC
System Type x64-based PC
Processor AMD A4-3300M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics, 1900 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard F.33, 8/18/2011
SMBIOS Version 2.7
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
User Name BrianMatus-HP\Brian Matus
Time Zone Eastern Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 7.48 GB
Available Physical Memory 5.10 GB
Total Virtual Memory 15.0 GB
Available Virtual Memory 11.8 GB
Page File Space 7.48 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys


Video
Name AMD Radeon HD 6480G
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9648&SUBSYS_3568103C&REV_00\3&2411E6FE&3&08
Adapter Type ATI display adapter (0x9648), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. compatible
Adapter Description AMD Radeon HD 6480G
Adapter RAM 512.00 MB (536,870,912 bytes)
Installed Drivers 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 8.930.0.0
INF File oem27.inf (ati2mtag_Sumo_Mobile section)
Color Planes Not Available
Color Table Entries 4294967296
Resolution 1600 x 900 x 60 hertz
Bits/Pixel 32
Memory Address 0xE0000000-0xF7FFFFFF
I/O Port 0x00003000-0x000030FF
Memory Address 0xF0300000-0xF033FFFF
IRQ Channel IRQ 4294967294
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\atikmpag.sys (8.14.1.6248, 319.50 KB (327,168 bytes), 12/5/2011 9:12 PM)

DXDiag
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.110622-1506)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: HP Pavilion g7 Notebook PC
BIOS: InsydeH2O Version CCB.03.61.22F.33
Processor: AMD A4-3300M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics (2 CPUs), ~1.9GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 7658MB RAM
Page File: 3295MB used, 12020MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode

Any information would be great. I understand that running this on a desktop would be better, but that does not solve the issue. This should be able to run the gme with next to no difficulty. and with the graphics below standard there is no reason for this issue to be happening.

[zaviermhigo]

The game can only load 40 pcs at a time, so if you're in an area with more than that, and you're computer is lagging to run it, npcs and people will not show up. Sometimes it helps to run in the opposite direction until you can't see the npc dot, then run back, since its a loading thing. If that doesn't help, try turning down your graphic settings in the FFXIV external config.

[BPMatus]

I understand that, but if I can see a pt's animastions (casting) then I should be able to see them. they are also the only ones around, yet I can not see the actual character.

[Soukyuu]

Seems like a connection issue to me, your R numbers are pretty close to 0 (17, 23), mine are usually close to 100.
What kind of internet connection are you using? Do you have any other applications downloading something in background (P2P, download managers?)

From what I read, you don't always have that issue, try finding out what was different at that point of time.

One more thing, my brother was having his character model disappearing on a system that was barely able to run the game at low-ish settings, maybe it's caused by memory issues? Since it's an integrated GPU in OP's case, maybe it's running out of shared RAM?

[Matsume]

This happened to me when i first installed the game on my laptop. The problem is that your your graphics configurations are too high and demand too much out of your processor.

If you would like to fix this, Open up the FFXIV Config launcher on your desktop (or in its rightful folder) and enter the "General" tab, there you will see a number of sub divided tabs, one being "Graphics". There should be several drop down menus that allow you to adjust settings from low to high (1 to 10) as well as a windower option. Under the Graphics tab you might want to drop your Drawing Quality down to "Standard" (5) or lower if necessary, as well as Background Quality to "3 or 4" and Shadow Details may as well drop down to "1" for the time being. Also in the next General Tab (maybe Details?) you can drop down Texture Quality and somewhere in there you should be able to turn off Ambient Occlusion.

Once you've done all of that, you may want to try messing with the ingame configuration menu and tweaking the graphics from there, but from my experience the off line FFXIV Launcher has a much bigger effect on lag and load delay.

If it still doesn't work well after all of that, then I don't know what to say.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

[Orsnoire]

I actually have to deal with this problem on an ongoing basis. As to turning down the graphics: I did that, turned EVERYTHING down to 1, and went in the game to test. Lo and behold, still happening.

Frankly, I think this has more to do with the fact that the graphics engine is horribly unoptimized for general chipsets than that there is something specifically "wrong" with these players' machines. The reason I say that is my wife's machine, who sits right next to me, doesn't have this problem EVER, and her machine is considerably less powerful than my machine.

I'm holding out hope that as the graphics engine is optimized moving towards 2.0 (and even the developers admit that the engine is not optimized now) that these kinds of problems will be fixed.

Here are my stats:
Time of this report: 2/21/2012, 08:32:13
Machine name: JAMES-PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.110622-1506)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: MSI
System Model: MS-7696
BIOS: BIOS Date: 06/18/11 00:14:42 Ver: 04.06.05
Processor: AMD A8-3850 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics (4 CPUs), ~2.9GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 7670MB RAM
Page File: 2314MB used, 13023MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode

Video:
Card name: AMD Radeon HD 6550D
Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Chip type: ATI display adapter (0x9640)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9640&SUBSYS_76961462&REV_00
Display Memory: 4071 MB
Dedicated Memory: 493 MB
Shared Memory: 3578 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Acer S231HL(Analog)
Monitor Model: Acer S231HL
Monitor Id: ACR01A6
Native Mode: 1920 x 1080(p) (60.000Hz)
Output Type: DVI

So yeah. My specs are clearly above the minimum system specs; I maintain that it's a problem with the graphics engine.