FFXI textures flickering

[Appie]

About half a year ago I got a new videocard (Nvidia 9800GT 512MB from ASUS). Yes the card itself is quite old, but according to sites it was the best my PC could handle without upgrading the power supply. The card itself is brandnew. My PC is a Dell Dimension 9200 with Pentium Dual Core 2.1ghz. Windows XP 32bit with 3gig RAM. Had the PC since 2006 and I don't feel like building a new PC yet until FF14 is released.

Anyway when I first installed this card I had no flickering issues, however I started messing with the background res in the windower advanced settings and I think I went too high because the spot I was at (Upper Jeuno AH) the sea started flickering, so I logged and toned the background res back down. At that time I would notice a little flicker on my Usukane Somen, but not as much as I seem to now, plus other textures like the sea in Beau [S] have some weird flickering going on (see the lines in the pic of beau) and Lekho's jacket (the fur part around the neck/breast) has some flickering.

It's only from certain angles of the camera and while I'm moving (but considering a taru moves when idle, it still shows).

Beau's sea how it is supposed to look:
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u...428_132835.png

Beau's sea in a slighty different angle, these lines in the sea settle after like 5 secs, but before that they move around alot:
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u...428_132829.png

My usu somen how it is supposed to look:
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u...428_223154.png

My usu somen with the flickering:
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u...428_223051.png

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u...428_223041.png

Now I tried installing new drivers (had 191.07 now 197.45), but that didn't fix the problem. I tried messing around with the driver settings in Nvidia's control panel, but don't seem to get it away (wrong combo? I don't know). I did a file repair for FFXI, it found 2 broken files which were most likely my salv dat swaps. But the flickering is still there. I loaded FFXI without windower, still flickering. When I switched textures compression in from uncompressed to "1- Low" the flickering actually got worse and now it includes a part of my hair above the somen in some cases even after switching back to uncompressed.

Somestimes I don't have the flickering on my somen or lekho's jacket, but in the next scene I do.

Anybody have any suggestions? My last option is reinstalling FFXI, but I doubt that's going to help?

[jimbobsonofgod]

I'd like to know too i have the same problem as well. I think posted in the forum before about it don't recall ever seeing an answer

[Appie]

Well installing basic FFXI (USA version) didn't help, still flickering. And now I can't get my full EU version on PC to work due to some installation path bullshit. Anybody got a fix for this, because this shit is driving me mad.

[thetruepandagod]

same problem

[Kaisha]

I just learned to deal with it, have had the polygon z-flicker for years, especially noticeable on Taru wearing headbands.

[Not Kuno]

Pretty sure it has to do with vid card. I fucked around with driver version and stuff and it got rid of it on my old pc. Looking at the ice pond for example in U.range was just seizure inducing.

[Appie]

Still need to try that, just not sure what are "good" nvidia FFXI drivers. Heard 169.17 and 175. something?

[Not Kuno]

I don't know but my Radeon is a flaming piece of crap in regards to ffxi.

[Kaisha]

For nVidia, has anyone tried messing around with the driver options rather than just trying different drivers?

[SaviorSelf]

Are you running something else while the flickering happens? I know mine spazzes out a bit when I'm watching a video on WMV or VLC.

[Appie]

For nVidia, has anyone tried messing around with the driver options rather than just trying different drivers?

Yes, I did. I said so in OP XD

And no I'm not running other stuff when it happens.

So far it seems to happen more when I'm in a crowded area like Rolan bazaar.

[Kohan]

What you're experiencing is Z-Fighting, and while the prevalence of this issue could be partially related to drivers, it isn't entirely. There is no permanent solution to this problem, as part of it lies within the game itself.

Although FFXI's engine is capable of displaying the game at higher resolutions than what its configuration GUI allows, the game wasn't tested nor marketed with those settings in mind. Therefore, the models and textures were never tested with them. Because of that, polygons which wouldn't exhibit sorting problems at lower resolutions may at higher ones, as they were never meant to be displayed that way.

To provide a bit of credence, before I became a journalist in the gaming industry, I worked in different aspects of it, including various positions involving development. A lot of problems were revealed in testing using resolutions that were ultimately listed as unsupported, while some were just left alone, as they were too complicated to fix. This included big games like "Call of Duty 4," to note, so it's unsurprising FFXI would have the same issue, especially considering its sheer size.

I run at high resolutions, and occasionally get flicker on random pieces of gear, or scenery. I personally suggest living with it, but you can indeed try different driver editions, and see if it changes somewhat.

[Appie]

Yeah, I'm just living with it, maybe some other drivers will fix it a little, but I'm not in a hurry to install new ones.

[nitsuj]

It seems like it could be connected to your # of mipmaps, but not likely. Try setting it to 0 to see if it gets any better.

[Appie]

Tried that actually, went from 0 to 6 in windower (it has always been set at 4). No dice.