Graphical Issues

Minion52

Here's my problem ever since Steam finished downloading Build 166 of NS2: All the maps, even the main menu, seem as if they have no light and many things simply don't render properly. Below are links to screenshots and a youtube video to show you what I mean.

<a href="http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/6618/ns2mainmenu.jpg" target="_blank">http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/6618/ns2mainmenu.jpg</a>
<a href="http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/4539/ns2tramlmg.jpg" target="_blank">http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/4539/ns2tramlmg.jpg</a>
<a href="http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/6271/ns2trampistol.jpg" target="_blank">http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/6271/ns2trampistol.jpg</a>
<a href="http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/1994/ns2tramknife.jpg" target="_blank">http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/1994/ns2tramknife.jpg</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UzdWM7jUDI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UzdWM7jUDI</a> - Please watch this video in 720p because anything lower is incredibly pixellated thanks to the improperly dark environment. Even at 720p it looks terrible and I don't know what I can do to help it look clearer. The raw video file looks fine.

Changing graphics settings has no effect. I have also tried to validate game files through steam and that didn't fix anything. I would like some suggestions as to what I can do to help fix this without a complete reinstall of NS2 because my internet connection is on the slower side.

My specs:
AMD Phenom II 6-core 1090T @ 4 GHz
8GB DDR3 1333
AMD Radeon HD 6970

ScardyBob

Whenever I get this, I solve it by just reloading NS2. Not sure the cause.

Scythe

I encountered that issue when changing anti-aliasing in my video card control panel. Setting it back to "application decides" fixed it.

Also, setting "Catalyst AI" to disabled helped.

--Scythe--

uffo

I encounter this same bug in the menu screen fairly often when launching the game. With the exception that my game freezes and I have to alt+tab to get away from it. Some times it can take up to 6 tries to get NS2 properly launched. Really annoying.

Zeno

I think the most important thing to know to help solve this problem is what driver and what OS you're using. I had heavy graphical issues too once but updating the driver solved most of them. Maybe even downgrading the driver could help. Or trying to run it under another OS (64vs32bit, 7 vs XP)

Minion52

I knew I forgot a few important details. My system is running Windows 7 64-bit and I am running Catalyst 11.2 video drivers. I'm not currently on my gaming computer but once I can get on I will try what Scythe said. I have a feeling the drivers are set to force AA to x4 because I was playing Oblivion earlier in the day. If that doesn't work I'll try downgrading my video drivers to 11.1 since the game worked great on those drivers. Thanks for the help you have given me so far.

sheena_yanai

ive encountered the exact same issue in the first 3 build versions of ns2, i was unable to run it. im not sure what fixed it, maybne it was just the build, maybe ive updated drivers..or downgraded something

uffo

Well it's not limited just to ATI drivers. I'm running on win7 64-bit and 8800GTS with 266.58 drivers and the bug has been occuring with previous drivers aswell during atleast last 6 months (can't remember when it began, but it's been in lotsa builds).

Minion52

I changed the anti-aliasing in my catalyst settings to "Use application settings" and everything went back to rendering normally. Turns out I really did forget to reset that option after playing Oblivion. Again thanks to all of you who provided help and insight into the situation. Time to get back to shooting aliens and chomping marines.