Update 18.01

[STRONTIUM DOG]

Lime and limpid green, a second scene
Now fights between the black you once knew
Floating down, the sound resounds
Around the icy waters underground
Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda and Titania
Neptune, Titan, stars can frighten
Blinding signs incoherent flap,
Flicker, flicker, flicker blam, pow, pow
Stairway scare, Dan Dare, patch where?
(cant say i have noticed any flicker doing combat drops atm driver or card specific perhaps also cant see any glitch on my cobra mkIII either but then again according to picture
1 in post 146 by @-Dmitriy- thats the strangest looking cobra i have ever seen.........)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UbNbor3OqQ&ab_channel=PinkFloyd;
)

 

[Paul_Crowther]

Can you check that you have 'Shader Preparation on Startup' in your 'options->Display' set to 'on'.

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

OK, so it's been a few days, plenty of time for all of the hamsters to spin up but my game still sits at a black screen for exactly three minutes before showing the title screen. During those three minutes, I can see the executable sitting at about 10-13% CPU while everything else is essentially idle. Then, at the three minute mark, the executable jumps briefly to around 35% and the title screen shows after which the executable's usage drops to sub 10% and all is well with the world. Anyone else running into this?

Have you tried stopping virus checker and anything else that might slow it down...
Monitored other processes running to see if anything is unduly high?
Run launcher as Administrator?

 

[Fixitman]

Can you check that you have 'Shader Preparation on Startup' in your 'options->Display' set to 'on'.

I'm getting random flickering, and I've always had that turned off. The flickering seems more common after a soft relog (exit to main menu, then re-enter the game). I'll try turning on Shader Prep before I get started tonight.

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

it may prove prudent for anyone experiencing shadow flicker to state what card and driver used may prove usefull for fdev to find any common denominator so to speak.............
newbs type dxdiag in windows start to find

 

[Markov Chaney]

I'm getting random flickering, and I've always had that turned off. The flickering seems more common after a soft relog (exit to main menu, then re-enter the game). I'll try turning on Shader Prep before I get started tonight.

I had random flicker appear about a month back (maybe a little more, but in 2024) and it turned out that was an issue in the recent-ish nVidia drivers I had installed.

I installed a hotfixed version (via an nVidia forum post) and the flicker stopped.

The timing of the nVidia updates was unfortunately close to 18.01 but it does look like it was nVidia that was the issue in this case.

• At the time of writing I am on 555.41 so you could call that known good. Except it doesn't seem to be up on the knowledge base any more so I can't recommend downloading it
• I haven't tried the latest 551.76 yet and I have no way of knowing whether the fix in the 555 hotfix branch has made it into that later 551 main release.

* But regardless of what you think of as "latest known good" looking back through the list on nVidia's website I am unsure whether 546.65, 551.23, 551.52, or 551.61 broke it, so if you're on any of those versions, consider it suspicious, but the fact the last three were all in the space of two weeks is suspicious all by itself. And 551.76 is probably worth a go.

[ETA: ED and iRacing are fine on my odd hotfix version but I do keep having to kill the GPU thread in Edge, so something's still up]

 

[Fixitman]

I had random flicker appear about a month back (maybe a little more, but in 2024) and it turned out that was an issue in the recent-ish nVidia drivers I had installed.

I installed a hotfixed version (via an nVidia forum post) and the flicker stopped.

The timing of the nVidia updates was unfortunately close to 18.01 but it does look like it was nVidia that was the issue in this case.

• At the time of writing I am on 555.41 so you could call that known good. Except it doesn't seem to be up on the knowledge base any more so I can't recommend downloading it
• I haven't tried the latest 551.76 yet and I have no way of knowing whether the fix in the 555 hotfix branch has made it into that later 551 main release.

* But regardless of what you think of as "latest known good" looking back through the list on nVidia's website I am unsure whether 546.65, 551.23, 551.52, or 551.61 broke it, so if you're on any of those versions, consider it suspicious, but the fact the last three were all in the space of two weeks is suspicious all by itself. And 551.76 is probably worth a go.

[ETA: ED and iRacing are fine on my odd hotfix version but I do keep having to kill the GPU thread in Edge, so something's still up]

I'm a little apprehensive about updating again. I've heard they are going to start making their GeForce expeirence bloat a built-in part of the driver install. I want to part of that.

 

[Markov Chaney]

I'm a little apprehensive about updating again. I've heard they are going to start making their GeForce expeirence bloat a built-in part of the driver install. I want to part of that.

There is still a download for driver only. There is also still a checkbox for GeForce. Don't be apprehensive. I've done this in the last month and I did not install GeForce!

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

going to start means a future event not yet current
i hope driver only remains an option

 

[ZombieF1]

I had random flicker appear about a month back (maybe a little more, but in 2024) and it turned out that was an issue in the recent-ish nVidia drivers I had installed.

I installed a hotfixed version (via an nVidia forum post) and the flicker stopped.

The timing of the nVidia updates was unfortunately close to 18.01 but it does look like it was nVidia that was the issue in this case.

• At the time of writing I am on 555.41 so you could call that known good. Except it doesn't seem to be up on the knowledge base any more so I can't recommend downloading it
• I haven't tried the latest 551.76 yet and I have no way of knowing whether the fix in the 555 hotfix branch has made it into that later 551 main release.

* But regardless of what you think of as "latest known good" looking back through the list on nVidia's website I am unsure whether 546.65, 551.23, 551.52, or 551.61 broke it, so if you're on any of those versions, consider it suspicious, but the fact the last three were all in the space of two weeks is suspicious all by itself. And 551.76 is probably worth a go.

[ETA: ED and iRacing are fine on my odd hotfix version but I do keep having to kill the GPU thread in Edge, so something's still up]

I've just updated to 551.76 and the problem is still there. To avoid it I set Directional Shadows to Low. I did that before seeing if it did it on planetary settlements because I kept getting it on approach to stations and inside stations. Shadows and anti aliasing are the things that let this game down graphically - even without the flickering shadow issue.

I've never considered turning off shader preparation on startup, so it's always been on. Even so, I got some pauses when leaving the station after updating drivers for some reason.

 

[Fixitman]

I turned on shader prep last night, and didn't see any of the flickering on my ship. I also didn't have much time for further soft relog testing. Shadows inside a station's docking bay were definitely flickering though. I'll have more time this afternoon to update drivers, etc. Shader prep will stay on, since it only delays loading a second or so. I can live with that.

 

[papamobile]

So this update was supposed to fix titans, precisely the issues about cores not exposing or not retracting, and the torus triggering as soon as you get into the insance?

Because all of these issues are still there.

Althought feels a bit weird that the only new feature released with a new update would be broken and unplayable, I could just move on and wait for the hotfix. No update comes without an hotfix, nowadays.
But seeing that even the hotfix that was supposed to fix such game-breaking issues didn't work out makes me doubt about Fdev's ability to properly solve this situation.

 

[Hellrider]

They not gonna fix that, like all other bugs with p2p instances, which are in game since first days.
Max what they can do is decreasing chances for such bugs.
And for some weird reason, maybe I just play in other game...idk...
I seen much more working instances, than bugged

 

[Rat Catcher]

I seen much more working instances, than bugged

I've not seen any bugged instances around the Titans, but it may be that I'm busy playing in PGs rather than open - my last visit to Taranis in open was like a slideshow, going back in a PG was back to normal. (but, being honest, open was quite crowded and P2P networking isn't a great strength of ED)

 

[Weps]

I've seen a lot more bugged instances than working ones, in Open at least. In fact, I think all of the damage I ever did to cores since 18 dropped was in PG - that's what I have to switch to, to get some contribution going. I'm a little miffed, tonight I tried twice to do a Titan run, broken instances with pineapple stuck outside every time. It doesn't help that when you need to reset the instance you have to run the gauntlet again, those caustic sinks are so damn expensive! Now I'm concerned that my previous damage won't be in the time window anymore, and I will only have tomorrow to try again before the Titan gets swarmed by everybody and taken down on Friday. Bah...

And I think a lot has to do with instance continuity. I think the game tries as much as possible to place people in existing instances, no? Which in this case is a broken one, that gets perpetuated endlessly. That's because every time I do a run, I catch a glimpse of other CMDR's TV beams in the cloud, but when I reach the Titan, there's no one there. And then when I quit to menu myself, I hear the pulse charging, meaning there's another CMDR trying to get in, that will inherit the broken instance from me. Over and over.... Maybe somehow getting broken instances identified and isolated would be a good enough workaround, but what do I know about the game's coding....

 

[seanstorey]

Titan Leigong still very buggy :-(

 

[Hellrider]

Well, so I'm seriously thinking, that we play in different games, cause today I did 3 runs (2 were very short, because I died in few minutes ), and all 3 worked.
Anyway, if it works for me, it works.

 

[Planewalker]

And I think a lot has to do with instance continuity.

IIRC devs stated as much years ago during the transition to horizons; longer interview about the networking in elite.

In any case it can also be witnessed in ground CZs; if the first arrival has poor net or low-end PC, the instance has a higher chance of bugging out.
-in open the taranis issues before it went down was solved by having everyone leave to reset. Not a solution i know, but a workaround.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Titan Leigong still very buggy :-(

One of the drawbacks to playing in open, or very large PG, possibly? (When I visited Taranis in its final week, in Open, it was very stuttery / rubber bandy - but there were many players present in open, allegedly)
Playing in a small PG I've not had a single buggy instance.

I appreciate that open is the most 'social' mode, but also most affected, in performance, when there are a large number of players present.

 

[Jack Brolin]

It was intensely buggy in open, worse than Taranis in my experience. I hope they can sort it, it was terribly frustrating. Soloing a titan just felt like missing the point somehow. Fingers crossed for 18.02?