Lo-Fi Games

I just bought Kenshi on Desura but when I get to the character creation/beyond I get this crazy graphical problem coming out of all the NPC heads. Is this a known issue or is it just me? Is there anything I could do to fix it? Thanks!

Screens:

Well, that's tripping. Every one has laser sights. Or really strange noses.


Haven't seen that before. Have you tried restarting the game and importing squad to new game? Or removing the game and then re-installing it, in case something went wrong while install?

Oddly enough alt-tabbing several times seems to fix it for a while. I think it might just be my computer though as I had a similar issue in Empire: Total War last night. >.<

Something with your graphic card maybe? Have you tried updating drives?

That is some serious artifacting, if it isn't something to do with that version of the driver, then your video card may be overheating or something. Perhaps it isn't going to last much longer, if it is affecting several games it seems possible that you're having some hardware issue. Is the fan on your video card's HSF spinning? Are you using integrated graphics or a discrete GPU?

Yeah this is a video card issue. Either your drivers or your hardware.

Thanks for the input. Yeah it's affecting most every game I play one way or another. Pretty sure it is the card itself, though I will mess around with getting an older driver or something and checking that.

Using an ATI mobility radeon HD 5870. Can't see the card because it's a laptop, so I'm not sure if its fan is working or not but the temperature sits at around 64c. Been planning to try baking it in the oven to try and give it a little kick because the card is a variation specific to this model of laptop and is damned expensive too.

Oh well, glad it's not a problem with the game at least!

I would not recommend putting PC hardware in the oven

I assume it's out of warranty, but even still... Poorly functioning fans can be resolved or given a bit more life with a good air compressor, failing that a can of air sprayed into all of the vents of a laptop... Not much will put the kind of strain 3D graphics rendering does on a video card, on a laptop like that it's possible that you could pass the thing on to someone who'd just use it to putter around on the internet or something. Baking it in the oven sounds, well, crazy. I did I.T. for quite a few years professionally, and I've heard a lot of strange ideas for things that would "fix" hardware, but I've never heard the idea that baking a piece of hardware in the oven would restore fans. If anything, the first bits to fail at temperatures outside of typical operating range would likely be fan blades.

But like I say, you can try to hit it with an air compressor, or if you don't have access to one, a can of air. Usually fans, especially on a laptop, will start to get screwy before they fail entirely. You might be able to squeeze a little more life out of the hardware if you get it good and clean.

You might also want to try forcing vsync on the game. This will prevent your card from trying to post too many frames, which is one possible cause of overheating.

I'm running on a gtx 690 and it would get hot really quick while playing Kenshi until I learned this trick.

Clawdius Talonious wrote:I would not recommend putting PC hardware in the oven

To Clawdius Talonious - It's not to fix the fan! xD That would be, well, insane. Baking at 385 for about 8 minutes is supposed to resauder the joints on the card that may have cracked. I'm well aware that it's a very desperate last before the trash attempt but hey, if it fully dies and I have nothing left to lose then why not. I have seen a LOT of forums where people have gotten cards to work doing it. Though, that is assuming my problem is cracked joints.

Update for anyone who might care!

Stripped the card of all its stuff, 8 minutes at 385 worked. Three start-ups in a row without artifacts, nothing on my screen and nothing in Kenshi! Repasted and cleaned the thing out too, I'm idling 30-40 degrees cooler. Don't know how long it will last but it's fixed for the moment!

Edit: Propped it up on tin foil balls so it wasn't touching anything in the oven.