Screen Displays/Scrolls Distorted Band

[scrapser]

My system is brand new. When playing Doom3, I have noticed a horizontal band of distorted graphics about a half inch thick that "scrolls" upwards as I move along or turn in place. The distortion is not extreme...just something you can see happening while playing. I have forced VSync off in the nVidia Control Panel and tried different levels of AA but nothing else. I have the screen set to native resolution (1280x1024).

I tried a couple other games but don't see this at all so I'm wondering if Doom3 is getting old for the hardware I'm using or are there some other settings I need to change to correct the issue?

I'm using DirectX 9c at present.

Thanks

 

[coozie7]

If it`s just Doom 3 doing it I`d just reinstall the game and get it patched to 1.3 before looking elsewhere.

 

[scrapser]

It is patched to 1.3 but tonight I will try uninstalling it, my graphics drivers, and running the DirectX update as well. I just built my system and installed many games. After poking around various sites, I think it's possible my drivers and DirectX may have gotten messed up with something older. Can't hurt to make sure everything's definitely current.

 

[gamerk316]

Sounds like a classic case of V-sync needing to be ON. The top half of the screen is getting drawn prior to the bottom half, which leads to a layer that can get distorted. Try turning V-sync on and see if that fixes the issue.

 

[scrapser]

It's not the entire top half of the screen (or the bottom for that matter). What I see is a thin horizontal band of slight distortion that "walks" up the screen from the bottom to the top and disappears...then starts all over again. I only see it while moving in any direction or turning in place. If I stop moving, the band stops...when I start moving...the band resumes moving upwards.

I uninstalled Doom3, Resurrection of Evil, and Quake 4 (all three have the same problem...Fear, Half-Life 2, Halo, and all others do not). I then uninstalled my graphics driver, then updated DirectX to be sure that was fresh, then installed the latest graphics driver (dated yesterday), then re-installed the games. They still show the same behavior. As a side note...Doom3 will not run at all without the 1.3 patch. I guess its days are numbered.

I have Vsync OFF as I have an LCD monitor but will try setting it on to see if that makes any difference. I have a much older game (Evolva) which must have the Vsync off or else I get lots of flickering in the upper half of the screen but Vsync off clears it up. This leads me to believe Vsync is not the problem with the id Software titles.

 

[coozie7]

All the games you`re having problems with have 3 things in common; ID software, the Doom 3 engine and Open GL, not DirectX as the renderer.
Do you have any other Open GL games you can test with? Quake 2/ HL1/
Star trek Elite Force 1+2? etc. It may be a driver issue with the Open GL ICD from Nvidia in which case perhaps OLDER drivers might resolve the issue.
Also, do n`t be afraid if calling BFG for tech help, I`ve been told the`re quite good.

 

[scrapser]

Your suggestion to try vSync did the trick!

It's funny, I always thought vSync was only for CRT monitors. As I said earlier, vSync screws up my Evolva game but corrects the problem with the id Software games. I guess they use different engines is the explanation. Evolva was sort of a showcase game for the GeForce cards back in 2000.