Guild Wars 2

Ever since launch, I’ve been getting artifacts randomly. Normally it stems off of player models, but it can really be anything.

Before anyone points out that it could possibly be my GPU failing, I’ve run stress tests. No errors come from my GPU, heat is an average of 40 degrees while in-game, and no other game causes artifacts.

Here’s an Imgur album of the artifacts I experienced about ten minutes ago.

http://imgur.com/a/LulBj

The attached image is the best example from that album.

If requested, I can give a dxdiag.

My GPU is an AMD 7970, and my CPU is an i5 3570k.

This would be best served over in the Tech Support sub-forum.

Good luck.

Requested your thread be moved to the Tech Support forum so it can be sure to get more help from people who assist with these issues.

As for the issue, I would first run a -repair on your game client to see if it is related to a damaged game file that would then be repaired.

Afterward, if the issue persists, I would do a proper full removal and cleanup of your AMD drivers and CCC software. Then do a reinstall of the latest non-beta drivers.

Those are the first two things I would recommend.

Repair steps if needed:

Check the game for errors and repair it

• Close your game completely.
• Next, make a copy of your Gw2 game shortcut and rename it “GW2 Repair” or to something that you will recognize it for being only for running a repair on your GW2 installation.
• Now, right-click this “Gw2 Repair” shortcut and click on “Properties”.
• On the “Shortcut” tab look in the “Target:” field, you should see:
  “C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2” or wherever you have Guild Wars 2 installed.
• After the closing quotation marks in this line put a single space and then after that space add -repair
  It will look like this but with your GW2 install location:
  “C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2” -repair
• Hit OK after making this change.
• Run this repair shortcut. Your game will run through a repair cycle and fix any damaged files it finds.
• After it runs through, start the game using the normal GW2 game shortcut (not the repair shortcut) and see if the issue persists.

StinVec.3621:

Requested your thread be moved to the Tech Support forum so it can be sure to get more help from people who assist with these issues.

As for the issue, I would first run a -repair on your game client to see if it is related to a damaged game file that would then be repaired.

Afterward, if the issue persists, I would do a proper full removal and cleanup of your AMD drivers and CCC software. Then do a reinstall of the latest non-beta drivers.

Those are the first two things I would recommend.

Repair steps if needed:

Check the game for errors and repair it

• Close your game completely.
• Next, make a copy of your Gw2 game shortcut and rename it “GW2 Repair” or to something that you will recognize it for being only for running a repair on your GW2 installation.
• Now, right-click this “Gw2 Repair” shortcut and click on “Properties”.
• On the “Shortcut” tab look in the “Target:” field, you should see:
  “C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2” or wherever you have Guild Wars 2 installed.
• After the closing quotation marks in this line put a single space and then after that space add -repair
  It will look like this but with your GW2 install location:
  “C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2” -repair
• Hit OK after making this change.
• Run this repair shortcut. Your game will run through a repair cycle and fix any damaged files it finds.
• After it runs through, start the game using the normal GW2 game shortcut (not the repair shortcut) and see if the issue persists.

I’ve been having this problem crop up randomly (Maybe once a day or up to three times a day if I’m really unlucky.) I’ve since uninstalled/Reinstalled GW2 countless times, uninstalled/reinstalled drivers, and tried very hard to find any possible issue with my GPU. Nothing’s wrong as far as I can tell.

I honestly think that it’s a bug that’s been there since launch. That’s the only way I can explain being able to pass stress tests with flying colors, but getting artifacts in the game.

Here’s someone with my EXACT same GPU having the same issues as me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rKL_lSZhNY

Edit:

Here’s someone with my exact same issue again, but they have a 7870
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Strange-Graphical-Artifacts

I get this occasionally too. Maybe once every couple of months?

Usually changing maps or turning the graphics right down to the minimum then back up fixes it.

Very interesting thread you linked. I’ll dig around on the issue some more.

Looking at all that has been tried, and seeing that it is GW2 specific and does not seem related to the game files in the installation folder (as they have been wiped and reinstalled), it may be related to the local.dat game preferences file which does not get removed with a game uninstallation, nor checked/fixed in a game repair scan.

That person mentioned this as having been tried already:
4. Deleted GW2 .dat files.

But they do not list the names of the .dat files that they deleted so I am not sure if they already tried clearing their local.dat preferences file. They may have only deleted the .dat files in the installation directory and not the local.dat file stored elsewhere.

Considering the issues others experienced with the graphics settings after some game updates, I would recommend removing the local.dat file so it can be replaced with a new one.

You could also first try lowering all in-game graphics down to their lowest settings and see if the artifacts persist. Then raise them up one at a time to see if it is linked to a specific setting (as well as settings in your CCC to see if a specific setting there is causing the problem).

If needed:

Delete the local.dat file
Deleting this file will also cause you to lose your saved game settings (graphics, stored login data, etc). If you rely on your stored login info to log in, make sure you can recall what your login info is as the stored login info is also cleared.

The quickest way to do this is to:

• Ensure your game is completely closed.
• Hold your Windows Key and press ‘F’ to open your Windows Search.
• Search for “Local.dat”. 2 files may be found.
• Ignore the “Local.dat” file that is in the game installation folder if one is found there.
• Delete the “Local.dat” file that resides at:
  “C:\Users\YourComputerUserName\AppData\Roaming\Guild Wars 2”
• Load up your game normally and see if the artifacts persist.
• You will notice that your settings are reverted to default. You should reconfigure your game settings once again to your preference.

StinVec.3621:

Very interesting thread you linked. I’ll dig around on the issue some more.

Looking at all that has been tried, and seeing that it is GW2 specific and does not seem related to the game files in the installation folder (as they have been wiped and reinstalled), it may be related to the local.dat game preferences file which does not get removed with a game uninstallation, nor checked/fixed in a game repair scan.

That person mentioned this as having been tried already:
4. Deleted GW2 .dat files.

But they do not list the names of the .dat files that they deleted so I am not sure if they already tried clearing their local.dat preferences file. They may have only deleted the .dat files in the installation directory and not the local.dat file stored elsewhere.

Considering the issues others experienced with the graphics settings after some game updates, I would recommend removing the local.dat file so it can be replaced with a new one.

You could also first try lowering all in-game graphics down to their lowest settings and see if the artifacts persist. Then raise them up one at a time to see if it is linked to a specific setting (as well as settings in your CCC to see if a specific setting there is causing the problem).

If needed:

Delete the local.dat file
Deleting this file will also cause you to lose your saved game settings (graphics, stored login data, etc). If you rely on your stored login info to log in, make sure you can recall what your login info is as the stored login info is also cleared.

The quickest way to do this is to:

• Ensure your game is completely closed.
• Hold your Windows Key and press ‘F’ to open your Windows Search.
• Search for “Local.dat”. 2 files may be found.
• Ignore the “Local.dat” file that is in the game installation folder if one is found there.
• Delete the “Local.dat” file that resides at:
  “C:\Users\YourComputerUserName\AppData\Roaming\Guild Wars 2”
• Load up your game normally and see if the artifacts persist.
• You will notice that your settings are reverted to default. You should reconfigure your game settings once again to your preference.

Just did as you said. I’ll reply again if artifacts begin to pop up again or in a few hours if they do not. (And once those few hours go by, I’ll keep watch on the thread for a few days and reply if they pop up after that.)

Artifacts just came back.