Hello fellows,

this thread is about the famous "black Texture" issue.


Here are some pictures first:

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/230074563815199878/7FB225CFBFD9525F96515160738B6203672B12C9/

or

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/200801800550826375/D36E16D27195D9CD95EE9436EE4E95F86F000068/

or

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/200801800550826107/5BF7DD2D52E04BC0B9DD38B753192AF765645832/

and so on.

Those experienced with Bethesda games, do know this issue is already part legacy.

You will encounter this glitch in

- Skyrim SE

- Skyrim

- Oblivion

- Fallout New Vegas

- Fallout 3


and most probably Fallout 4 as well.

It seems to happen in conjuntion with dynamic lights, torches, candles, candlelights, etc.

As far as I know, ground textures are affected, and in Skyrim the wooden trunks used in taverns as well.

When dynamic lighting accours they will begin to blacken out, at approach, at certain angles, et cetera.

A very dominant issue, destroying any immersion.

I did hope Skyrim SE wouldnt have this issue, because of the much impoved lighting.


What I do want to know now, are developers at Bethesda aware of this issue?

Do they know the cause?

And is there hope for any relief...some day?



Please fellows, help keeping this thread alive, until we get some answers.

Is this on PC or console? I play Oblvion on console and never encountered this

I also have not seen this bug in any Bethesda games I have played. I have heard that there are some mods that might cause this type of issue, but I'm not 100% certain.

PC versions, all of them.

Ok that makes sense

I've certainly experienced this issue in Skyrim. I'm sure Bethesda are aware, I'm pretty sure they're not gonna fix it.

It usually deals with mods that use lighting mods. I have only encountered that when using lighting mods. It might be due to too many lighting sources in a close proximity and then the the issues starts.

I think the issue might be related but not entirely the same, you certainly see it Skyrim and Fallout 3 when there are too many lightsources. But it also happens in Skyrim with only one or two lightsources, specifically around roads at night.

I have only seen it when using lighting mods or texture mods. I usually do not use texture mods.

a texture pack?


I have another theory.

Maybe the shadowing, lighting is one of the least important steps in the engine's pipeline, for every frame.

And considering, it cannot hold a certain rate (60 fps), it is going to clip/ leave out certain steps, like the correct lighting with dynamic lights.

The gamebryo engine is capable of this, we all know.

Thats why this error occurs mainly on PC, when the rig isnt powerful enough.

Texture Packs are more RAW data on a lower lewel, and need more processing ime,

so this could be an explanation, why a lot do consider texture packs to be a reason for this issue.

But i do not know for sure.

I can't see what you are talking about in those images.


In my experience, black textures are either saved wrong or are too big.

Bethesda engine can only use textures up to a certain size. Bigger than that is useless.

I once got black faces because I tried to alter face n maps and don't know the proper way of saving them.

Dxt3 did not work and neither did bmp.


I have never experienced this bug with vanilla textures.


Edit

@getting answers: I would be very surprised if Bethesda answered this or any thread personally.

This bugs exists in vanilla, unmodded Skyrim as well.

As any other of those games i named.

I personally experienced this.


The bug CANNOT occur because of wrong texture formats, as they are untouched.

IT is a engine bug. OR a feature. As I could not test on two different rigs, with one of them more powerful than mine, in order to get the threshold, the engine needs.

The gamebryo engine is known to "clip" or Shortcut certain features, in case processing times are running short.

This is one cool feature, as it allows for example the scripting of mods.

But scripting differs in Oblivion and Skyrim, in Skyrim scripting can be delayed (to the next frame), not in Oblivion.

Anyway, I dont know if the texture issue is based on such, or a mere graphics pipeline / shader bug.