Red "haze" on map on fresh install

[Torakka]

I have a new computer with Windows 11 (and thus the infamous 24H2 update), Ryzen 9800X3D and RTX 5080 (also with newest available driver) and my game looks like this:

I have no mods installed (yet) and I have verified the integrity of game files via Steam. This happens both when starting a fresh game and using an existing save (in my case the saves provided in the V3 performance thread). Trying different graphics settings hasn't helped, but I might have missed something there. I also seem to have exactly the same issue with CK3 too on this computer.

I had no issues on my previous Windows 10 machine, but of course this new one is a completely different computer with different parts, different OS and even (I think) slightly different GPU driver version...

EDIT:

In case someone has similar issue and finds this thread, the TL;DR is that I did manage to find a solution to this issue and it was switching the renderer away from DirectX 11. For CK3 and Victoria 3 that meant switching to Vulcan and for Stellaris and HoI4 that meant switching to DirectX 9 (OpenGL didn't solve the issue). EU4 uses DirectX 9 and I didn't have any issues with it to begin with.

I tested that in late April 2025 with the most recent non-beta versions of those games available at that time. I've mostly played some non-Paradox games since then, but am currently (July 2025) playing Victoria 3 (1.9.6) and Vulcan has worked without issues. DirectX 11 still causes that red "haze", but now that Vulcan is officially supported and not just launch parameter, it seems that some of the performance issues I noticed in spring are now solved and I don't feel like I lose anything by using Vulcan instead of DirectX 11.

Oh and if anyone else has this issue, but manages to find what actually causes it and fix it while using DirectX 11, please post here how!

 

[AndrewT]

No real idea, I am sorry!


DXDIAG is a program you run from the Windows search box on the task bar. After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.
IF dxdiag.txt fails to attach here, rename it to dxdiag.log , or zip it up.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3/pdx_settings.json .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log

 

[Torakka]

I started a fresh game as Krakow (in debug mode) and let the game run a bit. This graphics glitch is present from the very start:

Requested files (plus bonus logs and save from where I stopped) are in the attached .zip file. Do note, that the most recent error.log file is from yesterday, so presumably this run didn't generate any new error-entries.

 

[Torakka]

Character graphics seem normal, although I'm not 100% sure about some beards. This far I've spotted this issue only on the actual map.

I also opened a similar thread for CK3. Afterwards I tested with other Paradox games:

EU4: Everything seems to look normal, so no issue here (at least on a quick glance)

HoI4: Red "haze" appears again, although substantially less prominently than in other titles. Seems to be limited to forests in controlled (or owned or with visibility) territory. Also, snowy forests look normal. (For example, when I started game as UK, whole Finland looked normal, but there was this red stuff in parts of England and Scotland, and when I started game as Finland whole UK looked normal.)

Stellaris: It's been long while since I've last played Stellaris, but the Sol system and the advisor look far more red than I remember.

All of these games were booted for the first time in this computer and I didn't touch any settings. Seems that whatever the issue is, it is common with newer Paradox games.

 

[AndrewT]

I see in that dxdiag you've had a couple of bluescreens (BSoD). Did you see those, were they associated with this game or something else? You can look at them in your Windows Event Viewer to see what they were about.

As to the games affected, you're having this issue with DirectX9 and 11 it seems. In CK3 go into the launcher's Game Settings menu and change the. renderer to Vulkan - any different?

Basically I think this is either a hardware fault in your new Nvidia card (I really hope not!) or an incompatibility between that new GPU range and our games (I also really hope not!).

 

[Torakka]

I saw only one BSoD and it happened when I was trying to run that V3 1840 benchmark save in observer mode. In-game date was either the first or last of July 1840 and everything went normally until that point, when the game completely froze, ALT+F4 and CTRL+ALT+DEL did nothing and after a couple of minutes BSoD appeared and the computer booted. I assumed the crash was this known issue, but I probably should have nonetheless mentioned it too for comprehensiveness sake in the original post. I think it is this one (the mentioned dump file is attached):

There indeed seem to be multiple mentions of bluescreens in my DxDiag.txt, but I have observed only one time when the computer booted unexpectedly (it of course did some automatic and manually prompted re-boots while installing all the updates, drivers and such).

CK3 seems to actually look normal when using Vulkan:

EDIT: Running V3 with "-vulkan" launch parameter also seems to make the game look normal.

 

[AndrewT]

Bug Check 0x9F DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE - Windows drivers

This bug check has a value of 0x0000009F. This bug check indicates that the driver is in an inconsistent or invalid power state.

learn.microsoft.com

As I feared you have an Nvidia issue! That link says driver but I'm sure it could be hardware too; conceivably even that your PSU cannot power your GPU sufficiently.

Can you please contact Nvidia support about it, they should be able to tell from that Windows .dmp file.

Good luck!

 

[Torakka]

Bug Check 0x9F DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE - Windows drivers

This bug check has a value of 0x0000009F. This bug check indicates that the driver is in an inconsistent or invalid power state.

learn.microsoft.com

As I feared you have an Nvidia issue! That link says driver but I'm sure it could be hardware too; conceivably even that your PSU cannot power your GPU sufficiently.

Can you please contact Nvidia support about it, they should be able to tell from that Windows .dmp file.

Good luck!

Okay, thanks, I'll try to contact Nvidia support. Is this then a different issue than the known Windows 11 24H2 crash? All in all pretty odd, since I've been playing Cyberpunk 2077 now for something like 60 in-game hours with no issues, despite the GPU running near 100% utilisation most of that time.

 

[AndrewT]

Certainly the red haze is unrelated to the 24H2 issue ... of course there's no reason why you can't have both! Hopefully not of course.

 

[Torakka]

Certainly the red haze is unrelated to the 24H2 issue ... of course there's no reason why you can't have both! Hopefully not of course.

Yeah, that graphical glitch is of course unrelated, but I meant the BSoD (where that Bug Check 0x9F error code came from)

 

[Torakka]

I did get some help from NVidia for that BSoD, but no definite answer for what might have caused it. There's some chance it was just my motherboard's Bluetooth chip, since I hadn't installed its drivers at that point.

I can also circumvent the red "haze" graphical issue for CK3 and Victoria 3 by switching from DirectX to Vulcan (at the cost of some performance), but that doesn't help me with Stellaris or HoI4. Do you have any ideas how I could either circumvent this problem in Stellaris and HoI4 too or, preferably, get rid of this issue while using DirectX?

Note, this far CK3, HoI4, Stellaris and V3 have been the only games I've had any issues with. Other games I have tried (with this new computer) this far which haven't had any issues are: Cyberpunk 2077 (this one I've actually played a lot), Diablo 4, Europa Universalis 4, Eve Online, Jurassic World Evolution 2, TW: Attila (this one needed a bit of config file editing to handle a modern CPU, but no graphical issues), TW: Warhammer 2 and Witcher 3

 

[AndrewT]

Only CK3 and Vic3 have Vulkan as an option, those older games do not and I'm pretty sure never will.

They can both use DirectX9 and 11 , have you tried switching between those?

Aside from that all I can think of suggesting is a program of switching out components to see which is causing it, I'd start with the Nvidia card if say you have any other GPU around to do that!

 

[Torakka]

Only CK3 and Vic3 have Vulkan as an option, those older games do not and I'm pretty sure never will.

They can both use DirectX9 and 11 , have you tried switching between those?

HoI4: OpenGL has red "haze" too, but DirectX 9 looks normal without issues.

Stellaris: I don't see option to choose the renderer in the launcher, but quick googling revealed -dx9 launch parameter. Using that the game looks normal without issues.

In conclusion, the problem seems to be localised to the DirectX 11 version of CK3, HoI4, Stellaris and Victoria 3 (and OpenGL version of HoI4), while DirectX 9 and Vulcan works correctly. Other DirectX 11 games I've tried have worked correctly though.

Nice to have a workaround for those for now, thanks for your help! Hopefully you won't completely deprecate DX9 support in future from HoI4 and Stellaris.

 

[Sebastian123Xd]

Hi! - I have the same error

 

[AndrewT]

Did you try this?

I can also circumvent the red "haze" graphical issue for CK3 and Victoria 3 by switching from DirectX to Vulcan

 

[Torakka]

Hi! - I have the same error

View attachment 1334292View attachment 1334291

Is that HoI4? I had issues with it too, but managed to solve it by switching to DirectX9 (OpenGL didn't work and HoI4 doesn't support Vulcan). Also, you might want to test without any mods and verify your game files via Steam, just in case.

 

[Sebastian123Xd]

Is that HoI4? I had issues with it too, but managed to solve it by switching to DirectX9 (OpenGL didn't work and HoI4 doesn't support Vulcan). Also, you might want to test without any mods and verify your game files via Steam, just in case.

Yes it is, TNO mod. Even playing vanilla without mods I get the same error. Did a clean install deleting the folder in Documents, and all files of the game, and still the same issue just with a small change now units are without the red haze on them, but the map is the same. Tried play with DX9, but still had the haze... Verified steam files and nothing was missing. Will try later a clean OS install to see if it helps...

 

[Sebastian123Xd]

Did you try this?

Yes, tried to use dxvk, But still fails (((

 

[Torakka]

Yes it is, TNO mod. Even playing vanilla without mods I get the same error. Did a clean install deleting the folder in Documents, and all files of the game, and still the same issue just with a small change now units are without the red haze on them, but the map is the same. Tried play with DX9, but still had the haze... Verified steam files and nothing was missing. Will try later a clean OS install to see if it helps...

Hmm, very odd indeed... You might want to post your dxdiag and some other files following AndrewT's instructions I've quoted below (except replace "Victoria 3" with "Hearts of Iron IV" in folder path and "pdx_settings.json" file with both "pdx_settings.txt" and "settings.txt" files).

No real idea, I am sorry!


DXDIAG is a program you run from the Windows search box on the task bar. After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.
IF dxdiag.txt fails to attach here, rename it to dxdiag.log , or zip it up.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3/pdx_settings.json .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log

 

[Sebastian123Xd]

Hmm, very odd indeed... You might want to post your dxdiag and some other files following AndrewT's instructions I've quoted below (except replace "Victoria 3" with "Hearts of Iron IV" in folder path and "pdx_settings.json" file with both "pdx_settings.txt" and "settings.txt" files).

Oki, here you go. Did a clean OS install and still happens.