WTF are thesr red dots

Post » Fri May 27, 2011 9:57 pm

Hey so FCOM along with some other visual mods that I installed (Qarl's Texture Pack, Illumination Within (?) Revised Optimised, LOD Pack) is running beautifully except for one annoyance that occus whenever I'm in an interior zone. These red squares/rectangles randomly pop up inside and completely hinder the game experience. It seems very random and sometimes a little bit will appear, and sometimes a lot will. They usually stay for around 5 secs before disappearing. They also happen after I save sometimes because in the load save game screenshot you can see them even.

Funny thing is, this guy has the EXACT same problem:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/theelderscrollsivoblivion/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-42525744&pid=924363

Here is a pic:

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/9716/oblivion20080412140838dn0.jpg

Mine is like that but usually a lot more red dots.

Also this guy:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1313582

Both threads have NO solution. I tried deleting the LOD mods to no avail. Also tried disabling the illumination mod. Please help!
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Nichola Haynes
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 6:51 am

Well, a bunch of things that might not be helping come to mind. Is the lighting on Bloom? If it is, try going to normal lighting or HDR, that should fix the whole issue you are having with the objects turning to black at least.

I don't know much about what causes those red dots, other than the fact that when I was making Elsweyr Plantations & co, placing certain NPC's outside caused similar dots to appear, except for also being in blue, yellow and green.
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Erich Lendermon
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 8:11 pm

Both threads have NO solution. I tried deleting the LOD mods to no avail. Also tried disabling the illumination mod. Please help!


That's a fairly common graphical error, usually caused (not the only cause) by the graphics card getting too warm or not being up to task for running all the add-ons you've plugged in. What card are you running now? :read:
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Patrick Gordon
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 6:36 pm

what are the settings in your Oblivion.INI for fLightLOD1 and fLightLOD2? if these are any higher than 4000 this can occur, so on the off chance they are, reset them to 1000 for 1 and 1500 for 2.
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vicki kitterman
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 5:45 am

Well, a bunch of things that might not be helping come to mind. Is the lighting on Bloom? If it is, try going to normal lighting or HDR, that should fix the whole issue you are having with the objects turning to black at least.

I don't know much about what causes those red dots, other than the fact that when I was making Elsweyr Plantations & co, placing certain NPC's outside caused similar dots to appear, except for also being in blue, yellow and green.


Do you know any other mods that can cause this? I'm using FCOM along with Vim and Vigor and All Natural.

That's a fairly common graphical error, usually caused (not the only cause) by the graphics card getting too warm or not being up to task for running all the add-ons you've plugged in. What card are you running now? :read:


I'm running a 5770. The card stays below 50c at all times as oblivion doesn't seem to stress it at all.

what are the settings in your Oblivion.INI for fLightLOD1 and fLightLOD2? if these are any higher than 4000 this can occur, so on the off chance they are, reset them to 1000 for 1 and 1500 for 2.


They are at default :(.

Thanks so much guys, it would be great if you could keep me updated or any other ideas you might have. Really trying to immerse myself but these random red dots are hindering the experience.
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Damian Parsons
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 8:17 am

I'm running a 5770. The card stays below 50c at all times as oblivion doesn't seem to stress it at all.


Which 5770? Radeon? GeForce? FX? GT? :blink:

The http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/561101-unofficial-technical-faq/page__view__findpost__p__8103698 in this forum lists out various video cards, and many have poorer performance with Oblivion (especially modded Oblivion) than you might expect. Every graphics mod you run will increase the demand on your card a bit more and it sounds like you have quite a few. In the linked thread there they list the 5700+ series as insufficient to the task:

NVIDIA GeForce FX series ("5700 or above") <-- Nope: all still way too slow! may have issues as well


Is your card part of that series? You might want to check the linked post for more info on graphics card issues. Post back with more detail on your card type if it's not a GeForce card. :dance:
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Tyler F
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 5:49 am

Which 5770? Radeon? GeForce? FX? GT? :blink:

The http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/561101-unofficial-technical-faq/page__view__findpost__p__8103698 in this forum lists out various video cards, and many have poorer performance with Oblivion (especially modded Oblivion) than you might expect. Every graphics mod you run will increase the demand on your card a bit more and it sounds like you have quite a few. In the linked thread there they list the 5700+ series as insufficient to the task:



Is your card part of that series? You might want to check the linked post for more info on graphics card issues. Post back with more detail on your card type if it's not a GeForce card. :dance:


Hey, sorry to be so vague.

I'm running a ATI 5770 1GB, with 4GB of RAM and an AMD quad core.
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Alisia Lisha
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 10:21 am

Hey, sorry to be so vague.

I'm running a ATI 5770 1GB, with 4GB of RAM and an AMD quad core.

Hmm... that combo "should" run the game adequately. Sticking the the ideal that the problem might possibly be heat related...

Is your case well ventilated with adequate air-flow? You might was to try the old trick of removing the case side-panel and positioning a house-fan so that it blows directly into the case opening and see if it resolves the issue. Also, while the case is open double-check and make sure any and all fans, including the GPU fan, are spinning! If you have a can of compressed air handy, you might want to clean out the case interior, fans included, at the same time. (Do that with the power off.)

-Decrepit-
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Steeeph
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 8:52 am

Here is a pic:
http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/9716/oblivion20080412140838dn0.jpg

OOPS! I only now looked at the image. Sorry 'bout that!

Yeah, these "color-blobs", as I call 'em, are generally caused by far-distance files that contain unneeded info. They are NOT the fault of your GPU. If one is savvy enough and able to pinpoint the exact objects in question, it's possible to fix 'em with third-party software. Alas, I lack this knowledge, so suffer a few "blobs" myself. It you can trace "blobs" to a particular mod, it's best to find that mod's official thread in the Mod sub-forum and report the issue there. I've done that several times, which resulted in the author uploading corrected files.

-Decrepit-
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JR Cash
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 8:41 pm

OOPS! I only now looked at the image. Sorry 'bout that!

Yeah, these "color-blobs", as I call 'em, are generally caused by far-distance files that contain unneeded info. They are NOT the fault of your GPU. If one is savvy enough and able to pinpoint the exact objects in question, it's possible to fix 'em with third-party software. Alas, I lack this knowledge, so suffer a few "blobs" myself. It you can trace "blobs" to a particular mod, it's best to find that mod's official thread in the Mod sub-forum and report the issue there. I've done that several times, which resulted in the author uploading corrected files.

-Decrepit-


Hi Decrepit,

Do you have any knowledge as to what mods you're using that might have caused this? If possible could you post a list of mods you have, and I will post mine, and we might be able to find the culprit. Also, do you remember which mods you reported? Thanks a lot. Here is mine:

Oblivion.esmFCOM_Convergence.esmCobl Main.esmAll Natural Base.esmFrancesco's Optional New Items Add-On.esmFrancesco's Leveled Creatures-Items Mod.esmVVAdvanced.esmOscuro's_Oblivion_Overhaul.esmMart's Monster Mod.esmUnofficial Shivering Isles Patch.espFCOM_Francescos.espFCOM_FrancescosItemsAddOn.espFCOM_FrancescosNamedBosses.espBob's Armory Oblivion.espFCOM_BobsArmory.espUnofficial Oblivion Patch.espFCOM_WarCry.espFCOM_Convergence.espFCOM_RealSwords.espDLCHorseArmor.espDLCOrrery.espDLCFrostcrag.espDLCThievesDen.espDLCVileLair.espDLCMehrunesRazor.espAll-killable.espDLCSpellTomes.espKnights.espFFVV_OOO_Birthsigns.espDLCShiveringIsles.espOblivion WarCry EV.espFrancesco's Optional Chance of Stronger Bosses.espFrancesco's Optional Chance of Stronger Enemies.espXSPipeMod.esp100% Harvest Chance.espVVAdvanced-SI.espVVAdvanced.espFCOM_DurabilityAndDamage.espFCOM_FriendlierFactions.espFCOM_Cobl.espFCOM_Knights.espFCOM_NoReaversInGates.espFCOM_SaferRoads.espFCOM_LessRats.espFCOM_HungersUnitySI.espFCOM_Archery.espFCOM_BobsGuardUnity.espOscuro's_Oblivion_Overhaul.espBrighter_Torches.espNatural_Vegetation_200%_by_Max_Tael.espNatural_Habitat_by_Max_Tael.espNatural_Water_by_Max_Tael.espMart's Monster Mod - Hunting & Crafting.espMart's Monster Mod - Extra Wounding.espMart's Monster Mod - Looting NPCs & Creatures.espMart's Monster Mod - Less Reavers.espMart's Monster Mod - Shivering Isles.espMart's Monster Mod - More Passive Wildlife.espMart's Monster Mod - Friendlier Factions OOO.espMart's Monster Mod - City Defences.espMart's Monster Mod - Dungeons of MMM.espMart's Monster Mod - Farm Animals.espMart's Monster Mod - Diverse WaterLife.espSkipTutorialv2.espBashed Patch, 0.espLiving Economy.espLiving Economy - Items.espOOO-Water_Weeds.espHarvest [Flora].espHarvest [Flora] - Shivering Isles.espHarvest [Flora] - DLCVileLair.espHarvest [Flora] - DLCFrostcrag.espCobl Glue.espCobl Si.espCobl Races.espCobl Races - Balanced.espSalmo the Baker, Cobl.espOOO 1.32-Cobl.espMMM-Cobl.espIWR-Windows.espIWR-Lights.espIWR-Shutters.espAll Natural.espAll Natural - Real Lights.espAll Natural - SI.espUOP Vampire Aging & Face Fix.espOblivion Citadel Door Fix.esp

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Lady Shocka
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 6:05 pm

... running beautifully except for one annoyance that occurs whenever I'm in an interior zone. These red squares/rectangles randomly pop up inside and completely hinder the game experience. It seems very random and sometimes a little bit will appear, and sometimes a lot will. They usually stay for around 5 secs before disappearing. They also happen after I save sometimes because in the load save game screenshot you can see them even.

Funny thing is, this guy has the EXACT same problem:

Here is a pic:

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/9716/oblivion20080412140838dn0.jpg

Mine is like that but usually a lot more red dots.

Do you have any knowledge as to what mods you're using that might have caused this? If possible could you post a list of mods you have, and I will post mine, and we might be able to find the culprit. Also, do you remember which mods you reported?

First, let me make sure I understand all this. I take it the linked capture is NOT yours, but belongs to the fellow (?) with a similar issue? Second, you say it occurs only in interior zones. What exactly does this mean? Inside buildings? Within an enclosed city? Something else? Might be nice if you include a screenshot or two from your own game showing exactly where the "blobs" appear.

As for me, one mod I recall having "blobs" that got corrected once I reported 'em was the far_view supplement to Fort Akatosh Redux. Onra took care of that right away. One area where I sometimes still see "blobs" is while traveling south along the easternmost of the two West Roads (mod) toward Skingrad. The "blobs" aren't caused by West Roads however, but something at or near Skingrad itself. I've never been able to exactly pinpoint those Skingrad "blobs" but a great many of them disappeared during an upgrade from RAEWVD 1.7 to RAEWD 1.8. I've not noticed them at all during the last several weeks of play, but then they were always a hit-or-miss proposition. I needed to be at a certain distance from the offending objects, and the viewing angle had to be exactly right. Turning the "camera" a degree to either side would clear the "blobs". The only other instance I recall occurred a LONG time ago, and was fixed either by reports from myself and others or just naturally got fixed during a mod update. I don't even recall where those were any more. I'd link a few screenshots of my own, but Photobucket has gone flaky on me since a recent site "update".

Woot, looks like Photobucket is functioning normally again!

Here's a link showing some of the http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20errors/FARglare_2.jpg. These were all corrected within days.

Here's one of http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20errors/ulSkinOutskirtsLOD1.jpg. Many of these no longer exist, and I've not seen the remainder in quite some time.

-Decrepit-
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chloe hampson
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 8:25 pm

Hmm...

I didn't post my Load or BAIN-Install order because our mod lists are almost totally different. We share COBL and several Unofficial Patches, but that's about it.

Looking over your Load-Order, something doesn't seem right. Do you not use BOSS to make sure everything is in its proper place? I also don't notice a Bashed Patch or the Unofficial Patch Supplemental, though they might be there out of order. I myself don't use any major "overhauls" so don't know for sure, but don't they pretty much require a Bashed Patch to function properly? As to the Supplemental, it corrects a lot of issues ignored by the original Unofficial Patch (3.2.0) and is definitely worth acquiring.

NOTE: I just looked your load-order over again. There are indeed some glaring errors. Not only is the Shivering Isles Unofficial Patch loaded before the Unofficial Oblivion Patch (it should be the reverse), but before Shivering Isles itself! That can't be right. The Vampire and Citadel Door fixes should also be higher. Sadly, I'm not familiar with your other stuff so can offer no advice.

-Decrepit-
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Breautiful
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 7:18 am

Hmm...

I didn't post my Load or BAIN-Install order because our mod lists are almost totally different. We share COBL and several Unofficial Patches, but that's about it.

Looking over your Load-Order, something doesn't seem right. Do you not use BOSS to make sure everything is in its proper place? I also don't notice a Bashed Patch or the Unofficial Patch Supplemental, though they might be there out of order. I myself don't use any major "overhauls" so don't know for sure, but don't they pretty much require a Bashed Patch to function properly? As to the Supplemental, it corrects a lot of issues ignored by the original Unofficial Patch (3.2.0) and is definitely worth acquiring.

NOTE: I just looked your load-order over again. There are indeed some glaring errors. Not only is the Shivering Isles Unofficial Patch loaded before the Unofficial Oblivion Patch (it should be the reverse), but before Shivering Isles itself! That can't be right. The Vampire and Citadel Door fixes should also be higher. Sadly, I'm not familiar with your other stuff so can offer no advice.

-Decrepit-


Hi Decrepit,

Apparently, BOSS wasn't running correctly and it didn't change my load order. Everything is fixed and is in place now, and I have installed the Oblivion patch supplemental. I have also tried deleting the oblivion.ini file, deleting LOD mods, and enabling triple buffering to no avail. Also, sadly my blobs aren't restricted to Skingrad and now happen anywhere - be it outside, or inside. However, I have noticed that it rarely (if ever) appears in the wilderness. http://i52.tinypic.com/2e5md08.jpg is a picture of it in action at the Inn of Ill Omen.

Thanks so much for replying, I really hope we figure this out! Sometimes (as seen in the pic) it's so obtrusive you can't see anything at all.
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Nathan Risch
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 5:24 am

Hi Decrepit,

Apparently, BOSS wasn't running correctly and it didn't change my load order. Everything is fixed and is in place now, and I have installed the Oblivion patch supplemental. I have also tried deleting the oblivion.ini file, deleting LOD mods, and enabling triple buffering to no avail. Also, sadly my blobs aren't restricted to Skingrad and now happen anywhere - be it outside, or inside. However, I have noticed that it rarely (if ever) appears in the wilderness. http://i52.tinypic.com/2e5md08.jpg is a picture of it in action at the Inn of Ill Omen.

Thanks so much for replying, I really hope we figure this out! Sometimes (as seen in the pic) it's so obtrusive you can't see anything at all.

Holy moly!

Those definitely look like the blobs seen in other screenshots, but I've never heard of them being seen inside small structures since they have no need for LOD files. Inn of Ill Omen certainly shouldn't need them, and is a plain-old vanilla structure to boot. You didn't perchance try anything fancy like PyFFi'ing your vanilla meshes BSA? I don't think PyFFi would cause that, but something's going on for sure. I'm almost back to wondering if it's heat or hardware related, except those blobs don't look anything like the "spots" I experienced years ago while having GPU overheating issues. I'm gonna think on this some more, and hopefully others will chime in too!

Have you ran other high-end games and/or test-utilities to see if they also display odd visual anomalies?

(I'm still inclined to think it an in-game issue, especially as you say it rarely if ever happens in the wilderness.)

Reading through your initial post again.... what exactly is "LOD pack"? Seems like the most obvious candidates to cause odd visual problems are either it or "Illumination Within". Qarl's is pretty standard so surely can't be at fault?

Did these anomalies exist BEFORE you installed the visual mods?

-Decrepit-
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Becky Cox
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 6:21 pm

Holy moly!

Those definitely look like the blobs seen in other screenshots, but I've never heard of them being seen inside small structures since they have no need for LOD files. Inn of Ill Omen certainly shouldn't need them, and is a plain-old vanilla structure to boot. You didn't perchance try anything fancy like PyFFi'ing your vanilla meshes BSA? I don't think PyFFi would cause that, but something's going on for sure. I'm almost back to wondering if it's heat or hardware related, except those blobs don't look anything like the "spots" I experienced years ago while having GPU overheating issues. I'm gonna think on this some more, and hopefully others will chime in too!

Have you ran other high-end games and/or test-utilities to see if they also display odd visual anomalies?

(I'm still inclined to think it an in-game issue, especially as you say it rarely if ever happens in the wilderness.)

Reading through your initial post again.... what exactly is "LOD pack"? Seems like the most obvious candidates to cause odd visual problems are either it or "Illumination Within". Qarl's is pretty standard so surely can't be at fault?

Did these anomalies exist BEFORE you installed the visual mods?

-Decrepit-


I have played STALKER, Two Worlds 2 and Arma 2 with no conflicts whatsoever. I have also run Furmark and it shows that my GPU heat never exceeds 55c when using stock clocks.

The LOD pack I installed was Optimized Distant Land Max and some other LOD mod apparently, because I have a folder called DistantLOD in my Oblivion Data folder. However, after disabling both of these LOD mods AND Illumination Within, the problem still persists. I automatically take QTP3 out of the equation as well since it ran fine on my old system and runs fine for 1000x other people.

I'm not sure if the anomaly exists in vanilla oblivion. I installed it straight away and started installing FCOM + mods. I really do not want to uninstall Oblivion just to check and then have to take a whole day off again to install FCOM etc. Is there anyway to play vanilla oblivion without uninstalling? Will it work if I just uncheck every .esp in the data folder?

Thanks once again, at this point I'm even tempted to substitute Two Worlds 2 for Oblivion but Oblivion is so much better in so many aspects... except for the red freaking blobs :(.
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Mark Hepworth
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 2:47 am

I have played STALKER, Two Worlds 2 and Arma 2 with no conflicts whatsoever. I have also run Furmark and it shows that my GPU heat never exceeds 55c when using stock clocks.

The LOD pack I installed was Optimized Distant Land Max and some other LOD mod apparently, because I have a folder called DistantLOD in my Oblivion Data folder.

Here I assume you refer to C:\xxxxxxx\Oblivion\data\DistantLOD? Just about everyone will have the sub-folder. Not only do a few mods provide their own LOD files that are housed there, but that's where TES4LODgen performs its magic. In fact when you run TES4LODgen it will overwrite whatever mod-loaded LOD files are present there. There might be a few exceptions to this, but if so they are rare. Speaking of which...if you don't already run the TES4LODgen utility consider doing so. It's pretty foolproof and does its job extremely well.


I'm not sure if the anomaly exists in vanilla oblivion. I installed it straight away and started installing FCOM + mods. I really do not want to uninstall Oblivion just to check and then have to take a whole day off again to install FCOM etc. Is there anyway to play vanilla oblivion without uninstalling? Will it work if I just uncheck every .esp in the data folder?

I wish I knew more about your particular mods. Theoretically you CAN just un-check all non-vanilla ESMs and ESPs and be able to test the game. However, some mods require special uninstall routines before the game is playable without them. None of yours might fall into that category but again I just don't know. If you have an early save made before any mods were installed all's well since that save won't expect 'em in any case. That's your best option if available.

Be aware too that just un-checking an ESM/ESP will not necessary remove any added textures and meshes, but you say the most likely candidates have been uninstalled already. If you use Wrye-Bash then uninstalling (and later reinstalling) is a breeze. Uninstalling an OMOD is easy too, though the fear here is that it might not restore some mod-overwritten files so that you end up with missing textures and/or meshes. But since you are trying to return to vanilla this likely won't be an issue as just about everything is housed in BSAs and thus not easily lost.


Yeah, don't give up the ship just yet. Something went wrong somehow, but it's gotta be correctable. We just have to figure out the source.

-Decrepit-
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Skrapp Stephens
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 1:03 am

I'm pretty sure its got something to do with how the LOD files are shown. I encountered similiar blobs after installing RAEVWD and regenerating the LOD files on an already heavily modded game. For context, this was on an E8400 Core 2 Duo with an ati 4870 video card. It's definitely not an overheating problem, as my system gets to max 50c under load, and usually hovers around 30.

It's been a while, but if I remember correctly, running TES4LODGen again fixed the problem. It regenerates all the LOD files based on what mods you have active and installed.
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Ben sutton
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 1:05 am

Hey, just an update. It seems turning off HDR and enabling Bloom eliminates the problem surprisingly. I also ran TOS4LODGen but it didn't work and caused black screens and crashes, so I delete the distantlod folder. Now, to my surprise, by just using bloom the red blobs are gone! I hope this lets us further pinpoint the problem. Thanks to all of you for helping me out, much appreciated.

EDIT: I've also noticed a new problem has arised..not sure if it's from bloom or LOD but the game will randomly freeze for about 5-10 secs, black screen, then my display will turn on and it will go back to normal. This usually happens when entering a store. Problem after problem, lol!
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Guinevere Wood
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 6:34 am

Haha, good to hear you fixed the blobs at least! I've never heard of your new problem, but hopefully someone else has a useful suggestion,
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Rhysa Hughes
 
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