[Win10] Flickering black bars over water followed by freezing (the game, not the water)

[lordcooper]

The problem

Bars like these appear shortly before the game freezes entirely, requiring a hard reboot. It's possible to save+quit between the artifacts appearing and the game locking up if they're noticed in time. Launching the game after doing so prior to a system reboot results in this happening far sooner than it usually does. The problem does not appear to be related to any particular game state (happens regardless of year, character, government type, map filter etc). This can even occur while time is paused.

DxDiag and all non-empty log files are attached, and I'm happy to provide anything else that might be useful.

I've recently been playing a lot of Blood Bowl 2, Witcher 3, and Dark Souls 3 without issue, so it seems unlikely to be down to failing hardware.

Things I have tried to fix this

Removing all mods
Performing clean reinstall of graphics driver
Removing the game and all related files (inc in documents folder, game saves, and even redists) and reinstalling from scratch on a different hard drive
Verifying game files through Steam (it doesn't flag any as incorrect)
Running the game as admin and not as admin
Trying to keep all water off screen
Cleaning the inside of my PC (it was about due anyway tbh )
Swearing a bit

Edited to add settings.txt

 

[AndrewT]

Has this happened ever since you've had the game? Or only since what change or update?

Does it happen in EU4 also?

I've recently been playing a lot of Blood Bowl 2, Witcher 3, and Dark Souls 3 without issue, so it seems unlikely to be down to failing hardware.

That doesn't actually follow, as we push the GPU harder than they do. And this looks like a video card or driver problem to me.


Please report the temperatures of your CPU and video (GPU)
1/ before starting the game up and
2/ after say 30 minutes' play.
If your PC's vendor has given you no way of reading temperatures, install
SPEEDFAN http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

 

[lordcooper]

Has this happened ever since you've had the game? Or only since what change or update?

It used to run just fine. Unfortunately I can't state a specific patch with any confidence, I've been on a fairly long break from the game. Going purely from achievement unlocks, I bought the game in 2013 and stopped playing mid January of this year. I don't recall this happening back then.

Does it happen in EU4 also?

No Idea, I kinda bounced off that one. If it'd be helpful then I could reinstall it and test?

That doesn't actually follow, as we push the GPU harder than they do.

That is kinda surprising, I assumed the vast majority of game processes were CPU bound. What's the GPU being used for other than displaying a map?

I'll get back to you on the temps.

 

[lordcooper]

Heh, I can't actually get to 30 minutes.

Idle: CPU - 31 GPU - 37
At time of crash: CPU - 34 GPU - 51

Looks pretty reasonable to me, Witcher 3 generally has my GPU in the high 70s without any instability.

Attempting to get these numbers has brought something else to light though. If I alt+tab out of the game after the flickering bars appear (instead of closing the game) then instead of merely freezing it gives a BsoD with the message "video scheduler internal error" and automatically reboots.

This can be reproduced, and it only happens if I tab out at this point.

It might be worth mentioning that Stellaris runs just fine, that's using the same engine, right?

 

[AndrewT]

That is kinda surprising, I assumed the vast majority of game processes were CPU bound. What's the GPU being used for other than displaying a map?

We use the GPU to process particular types of data that it can do better and faster than the CPU can.

If I alt+tab out of the game after the flickering bars appear (instead of closing the game) then instead of merely freezing it gives a BSoD with the message "video scheduler internal error" and automatically reboots.

That error is certainly caused by a problem with the video hardware or driver, as you'll see if you google it !

It might be worth mentioning that Stellaris runs just fine, that's using the same engine, right?

They both use Clausewitz but this game is the earliest version of it still in use, whereas Stellaris is the newest. Stella is also much less demanding as the map is simpler, and it doesn't have the thousands of characters to deal with that this game does.

 

[lordcooper]

The issue still occurs with up to date drivers, but I reverted to a really old driver (359.00) on a whim and both CK2 and EU4 run flawlessly. These remain the only games I've had problems with while running up to date drivers. I can play the game now, but it's obviously a tad inconvenient to keep switching to old drivers for just a couple of games.

Is there any real chance of someone from paradox looking into this? Failing that, is there any point in me getting in touch with nvidia? My hardware is evidently fine, your games just don't play nicely with modern 780ti drivers for some reason (or vice versa, I suppose).

Edit: I've verified that this isn't mere coincidence. After racking up over 24 hours of gameplay between CK2 and EU4 I updated my drivers again and they both resumed the graphical glitches and crashing pretty much instantly.

 

[AndrewT]

Failing that, is there any point in me getting in touch with nvidia? My hardware is evidently fine, your games just don't play nicely with modern 780ti drivers for some reason (or vice versa, I suppose).

But only for you ... which I can't explain, I have to admit. As an nVidia customer you are absolutely entitled to lodge a support issue with them.