Screen tearing that seem unrelated to... everything?

[Quemaqua]

I'll try to be as concise and to the point as possible.

Previous version of Aquaria ran beautifully, no issues.  But I was on a 7800GT at that point.  I'm now on a Radeon HD 4850.  I never played the game on the 4850 until after I'd uninstalled the old version and reinstalled the new.  Unfortunately, I can't find a copy of the old setup file, so until I do this is strictly related to the new version (and I'm guessing it has something to do with my new video card, not the game itself)

So I got the 1.1.1 download and was pleased as punch, loaded the game up, all seems fine.  Opening cinema is fine, new game is fine, first bits play fine, then I get to Home Waters and... something seems off.  I'm not sure what exactly.  I go into Naija's home, things seem fine again.  Go back out... again, something isn't right.  I take stock of the situation and the problem, as I can determine it, is as follows:

Basically, the foreground is jumpy and seems to be tearing as it renders.  It's just kind of... jerky.  I turn on FRAPS to check speeds (though it doesn't appear to be strictly related to framerate), and I'm getting about 150 frames or so in Naija's home, and about 70ish in Home Waters.  I bounce out of the game, and try every combination I can think of at different resolutions with vsync on/off, framebuffer effects on/off, etc.  No change with any of these combinations at 1280x1024, nor 1280x920, nor 1024x768.  I update my video drivers to see if that helps as a new version came out on the 10th... install, reboot, and it doesn't help.  Problem persists.

Now, here's where it gets weird.  I go back into the game to test again, and I notice that Naija isn't tearing or acting jerky, nor are the game's backgrounds -- only the foreground environmental features and sprites.

Any ideas?

[Chibi]

  This sounds like a MAJOR problem - have you done anything weird with the Aquaria files?

Besides that, make sure that the problem isn't with widescreen (try 4:3) and post a screenshot. I have nowhere near Alec's expertise, but these are my best ideas. (Also update your drivers, and play with the graphics card and Aquaria settings)

[Quemaqua]

Drivers already updated, messed with the vsync/framebuffer options, and this is a fresh install of the game, no file modifications at all.  I just realized that I hadn't tried it in a window yet, and I tried that with the same results.  Also, I don't have a widescreen display at this point.

[Chibi]

Looks like a problem with the graphics card then. - Do you have another computer you could try it on? Besides that tidbit, my only advice would be to wait until new drivers come out, or downgrade the graphics card. It makes little sense that a better graphics card makes for a worse gaming experience. Good luck! 

[inkblob]

I'm playing through the first bit of the game, just in the song cave now, and have experienced several graphical issues. I've made screenshots of them and will post them soon but saw that I have a new driver for my graphics card available and will see if that makes any difference.  what sort of info would you need on your end besides screenshots Alec?

I reluctantly played w/o framebuffer effects and that made no difference. one thing I found that cleared up my graphical problems was toggling out of the program and switching to task manager, swishing that around, and going back to the game. I find that task manager is a very good screen 'brush' and can clear up screen refresh problems just by wiping it over the fritz'd area.

[Chibi]

Ouch I hope this issue isn't widespread - that would be awful. Right clicking has worked wonders for me as a "screen brush." Alec would definitely need the contents of your User Settings xml document (right click then select edit) and maybe all your system configuration settings.

[inkblob]

well, new drivers didn't work. I was able to play intermittently, toggle out of the game and return to it and resume playing until about 45 min in I got a bsod. I'll compare to see if the previous version of Aquaria did this as well and if you need any screenies or info particulars let me know Alec. I was definitly enjoying playing the new version and got a huge kick out of the new mapping system! please no advice on this unless it's constructive, it's not a calamity, it's just part of debugging.

[Alec]

One thing you guys can try is setting darkfbuffer to 0....

not sure why that would be a problem though.

Its really disheartening to hear about this, because I haven't heard of anything like it before.


Quemaqua: could you try installing the original demo and seeing if it has the same problems? Thanks.

Also what OS are you guys running? If its Vista, it might be a settings file problem.

[inkblob]

I tried the darkbuffer zero setting and no luck. I'm on winxp sp2 with all updates except sp3. the graphics card is nvidia quadro fx 540 and box is amd athalon 3000+ w/1.5 gb ram. I'll try running the prev vs. of Aquaria tomorrow to see if it's showing up there, but I've never seen this particular sort of graphical glitching. it seemed to be happening every 5 minutes or something, gameplay was fine and then too much activity on the screen would set it off, bsod happens pretty soon after energy temple boss. I tried 800x600, 1152x864 & 1280 x 960 resolutions, with the 1280 running the smoothest and 800 running like porridge. I havn't tried running any of these windowed.  it's the same puter since the last time I played although it's been formatted since, but can't think of why that would make things worse, things have only been updated.  early in the new year I have a new graphic card scheduled to come down the pipe so hopefully that will fix the issue, but it would be useful probably to know what's going on and why it's happening.

[affliction]

Chiming in to say I'm having the exact same problem.  Using a radeon 4850, there seems to be some minor screen tearing when in certain places.  I can't really pin it down, except to say that it happens in Naija's home but only in areas where a beam of light is visible in the background.  Haven't moved passed home waters at this point, but it happens at odd times, and usually briefly.  It's minor for the most part and I ignore it.

However I get MAJOR slowdown whenever a piece of the environment moves, like when a stone slab slides aside after activating an energy pearl.  I'll drop to 8 fps until the movement finishes then everything is normal again.

[affliction]

Can confirm that the issue is present in the demo.  If anything, the stuttering might have been a little worse.  Had an old save from the demo in the song cave.  First time I launched it, game would get jerky whenever one of the electric jellys would discharge.  Second time u launched it, this didn't happen.  No rhyme or reason.  Don't get disheartened, Alec, it's ATI's fault.

Also, noticed that the pearl/moving wall thing only happens on pearls that stay activated permanently.  It doesn't happen with the one in Naija's home that you have to open every time you enter, but it does with the one that blocks the passage to the krotite armor.

[Alec]

Sounds like weird graphic cards / driver problems!

Glad its not my fault, at least. 

[affliction]

As a reply to Quemaqua, check your card temperatures.  If you are like me and bought the 4850 when it first came out, then you have one of ATI's reference cards.  They wanted to be able to say that the fan was super quite, so they cheated and set the drivers to max the fan speed at 24% and only when the card is already cooking.  If you haven't monkeyed with the overdrive settings, then your card may be running hot.  I have mine set up so I can manually control the can speed through CCC, and I noticed the problem got a lot worse when I forgot to kick the fan speed up for 40% and my card got up to 108 degrees.  Still happens when the card is cool, so not entirely heat related.

Guide to creating the fan speed profiles http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=14111

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, I read about that problem and unfortunately, my card is no stranger to the fan speed issue.  However, the card runs very cool thus far (few months in) and doesn't seem to have any troubles handling games for long periods of time.  Long periods with The Witcher and 90+ hours with Fallout 3 and not a single hitch.  So that definitely isn't the problem.  I haven't felt the need to do the manual control thing because it's a pain in the ass and if I haven't had the card overheat yet, why bother?  If at some point in the future heat becomes an issue, I'll probably mess with it.  Though it still pisses me off to no end that ATI haven't resolved this.  It should have been addressed in an update, plain and simple.

Anyway, I guess there's no point worrying about the demo now.  This definitely appears to be an ATI issue.

*sigh*

So much for replaying the game just yet, I guess.  But if I waited a year, I can wait a little longer.  I just hope it gets addressed at some point.  If it doesn't, I hate to think I'll have to reinstall my 7800 just to get at it again.  The prospect makes me very sad.

[Johnny Boy]

I've actually noticed the same problem with the screen tearing.  It's not major, but I never had the problem with the old version of Aquaria.  It's actually almost like a small screen flicker that happens intermittently, every few seconds, and that same jerkiness that was described by the original poster.  I know it's not my graphics card (and I do have all the latest drivers), plus I'm running Win Xp SP2 as well, shouldn't be a problem their either.  I'm pretty familiar with my system and settings and I've tried the game in several resolutions.  I'll play around a bit more with the Aquaria settings because I haven't tried everything yet, but almost.  I have tried it in standard (4:3) and widescreen as well but with no difference in the issue.  I'm using a standard 60 hz refresh rate as well so that shouldn't have an affect but I'll play around with the refresh rates as well (in different resolutions and screen modes, just to be sure).  I'll update if I discover anything.