Guild Wars 2

still waiting on something

bump for great justice, I’m still hoping for some sort of reply

So nothing on the issue? no clues? no ideas on what it could be? no interest?

Adding a few more screenshots from 540m videos on youtube. Any video playing GW2 with that card will have the same exact issue.

Just had a small breakthrough, I figured out whats causing the issue – the setting Render Sampling when set to anything below supersampling is causing these artifacts. The thing is I can’t run the game smoothly on anything above Native. What could be causing this? Is it something in my nvidia settings that I have to change?

Another thing I’ve noticed that even if I have Supersampling on Render sampling and reduce the resolution, as soon as I go below my native resolution these artifacts seem to come back.

I’d also like to add that I felt extreme neglect on the part of anet team, as there was little to no interest in the thread whatsoever aside from the “post your dxdiag” post. I’d love for some awareness on this.

I’m adding a link to the old thread I created on this issue, has more screenshots and people trying to help, but nobody is able to narrow it down, especially after showing them the youtube video with the exact same issue! https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Small-1-CM-Squares-On-Terrain-Everywhere/first#post986452

I’m attaching my dxdiag. Before you say it, GW2 is running on my dedicated graphics card.

This issue is especially visible on stairs and sharp edges. It rarely happens on terrain. It usually happens on props and especially any sort of mines. I would also LOVE to know the technicalities behind something like this. Why would this happen only in one game and why is specific to textures at an angle?

Recently came back to playing GW2, and I remember back at the beginning I had an issue with small squares appearing on textures. After all these years I come back and the issue is still here! The thing that puzzles me is that this is not an issue that only I have experienced, I have watched videos on youtube with people using the same spec laptop as I am and they also have this issue. It seems that GW2 software is incompatible with the 540m graphics card?

I have done literally EVERY SINGLE THING to try and fix this issue. This ONLY happens in GW2 and NO OTHER GAME. My graphics card is NOT OVERHEATING either. It is NOT OVERCLOCKED.

Some things which I’ve tried:

- updating graphics drivers with clean installs
- repairing GW2
- playing with Nvidia settings
- playing with the ingame settings
- running the program in compatibility mode, as administrator
- reinstalling GW2

I’ve figured out this is definitely an issue with shadow rendering distance, because as soon as I get close to these spots with medium or higher shadow setting they seem to disappear and become normal shadows. Anything below medium makes these strange blotches and lines appear instead of shadows in the most unnatural places!! Is there any fix for this? Any way to increase shadow rendering distance or maybe remove shadows completely? Setting shadows to None doesn’t remove the blotches and lines.

and here… I also see it all over the place now. Its not just lines, its blotches across the snow under trees etc.

Hi there, I recently came back to playing GW2, and found some odd textures especially on snow and within the bear caves in Hoelbrak. Here are some screens:

I know its NOT my graphics card as I’ve checked both integrated and my nvidia card both have this issue. Its definitely NOT overheating either. I did a repair of the game and reinstalled it too, so I’m not sure what could be cause this. Also tried fiddling with the in-game settings but nothing seems to change this.

Hi Seeker,

I tried the above tips and it didn’t make a difference. I’m really dissapointed by this issue, it completely ruins the experience for me. I use this laptop for gaming and I’ve played quite a few games on it, including Swtor, Aion and a few other MMO’s as well as single player games, and this is the only game I encounter this issue. It’s hard for me to agree that it could be a defective batch of graphics card, as i’d probably have issues in other games too if that was the case.

Anyway, thanks for your input though, wonder if anyone else has any ideas?

So I thought I’d come back to check on this issue, I’ve quit playing GW2, I do log on every now and again to see if issues have been fixed… anyway I wanted to revive this thread. I tried the Nvidia forums a while back, but the tech support is relatively lifeless, I feel rather alone in this issue and it being something that affects all 540m graphics cards is a tad worrying. The fact that there is little to no official feedback is pretty irritating, a simple “we’ll look into it” or “you’re just seeing things” would suffice. So yeah, any new info on the matter?

Azjenco.9425:

Sonvil.3670:

I love Orr, and the only reason people don’t is because heart-zones are pretty much faceroll. It’s the first time in my whole GW2 experience where I had to group, fight, and was challenged on every corner. Going back to heart-zones after Orr feels like playing the game on Easy. In Orr, its War and you feel it, thats why they are brilliant zones. I do hope there are more zones like this in the future to cater to those who like difficulty. Mobs are meant to stop you from running past them, every inch you move in Orr is a success.

For me the difference between annoying and difficult are slim, at least in this case. I don’t find the zone annoying at all, just accept you can’t run past Risen.

Sorry for singling this post out, but this is a prime example of the “counter argument”.

One group says, “Orr is easy, annoying and bland”, while the next group (as observed above) says “Go back to easy mode, or L2P”. It feels as if two different conversations are being mashed together.

And I love it how some can say “you need to group to survive” and say “L2P or move on” in the same post, and yet I can do Orr quite easily on my own. I’ve downed giants all by myself and can handle four to five risen at the same time.

Sonvil, like everyone, is entitled to his opinion. If the enemies were truly hard though, then you wouldn’t actually be able to run past them at all. But risen are so easy. They aren’t even a threat, I mean, they just stand all over the place and getting by them isn’t hard, it’s a chore. I’ve even mined ori while two or three of them are bashing away at me.

I’ve mentioned in another post that there are far better ways to actually make the risen a threat in Orr. Affecting your movement doesn’t make them difficult or threatening, more like insects hindering you, that’s why they are annoying. They are easy, they spawn quickly, they’re all over the place, and make traveling a pain.

I’m not exactly saying that Orr is a perfect zone, believe me I see what people are saying, but I think they are bashing it a bit too hard. The concept of a zone with increased “difficulty” is great in my opinion, and anything that moves away from the heart-grinding is very much embraced on my part. It could be perhaps my bitterness towards the previous zones, and the fact that this is the only area that actually stands out, and in which I have really good memories is the reason I am biased toward loving it.

I see a lot more communication between players in these zones, a lot more intensity, I’ve joined groups to do Skill Points and Vistas, its all just been a breath of fresh air, It finally feels like I’m in an MMO. I never said people need to l2p, and I’ll say it again, Orr is not perfect however I just have a feeling people are way too used to rushing through things, and not taking their time and working toward goals, honestly it seems to be a modern MMO gamers mentality.

I only wish they expand on this idea, not scrap it all together like many people seem to want.

Female OOC running animation and overall shape of their bodies.

I love Orr, and the only reason people don’t is because heart-zones are pretty much faceroll. It’s the first time in my whole GW2 experience where I had to group, fight, and was challenged on every corner. Going back to heart-zones after Orr feels like playing the game on Easy. In Orr, its War and you feel it, thats why they are brilliant zones. I do hope there are more zones like this in the future to cater to those who like difficulty. Mobs are meant to stop you from running past them, every inch you move in Orr is a success.

For me the difference between annoying and difficult are slim, at least in this case. I don’t find the zone annoying at all, just accept you can’t run past Risen.

Inquest, bandits, nightmare court

i5-2430m 2,4GHz
6GB Ram
Nvidia GeForce 540m
750GB HDD
1366×768 resolution

Runs at around 50-60 FPS most of the time, except in heavy situations where it dips to 30-40. No Vsync, you could say medium to low settings, with some graphical issues like artifacting (Its NOT overheating) and this —-> https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Small-1-CM-Squares-On-Terrain-Everywhere/first#post425899

Much better than my actual character voice, thats for sure.

Deathwing.

It’s like fantasy games nowadays have 2 types of Villains, undead kings and dragons. I do hope they conjure something a bit more interesting next time.

I dislike them. I find their “cuteness” is a bit forced and childish, maybe its just not my thing. I find Ettins a lot funnier, but thats just me.

Can we please get a fix on the frame limiter? the frames limit to 25, instead of 30 – which is the minimum FPS for a playable game. Why is it so constricted? WoW and Lotro had a frame limiter between 5 and 100 FPS, as a slider, extremely useful for finding that optimum FPS on an average gaming rig. Its very irritating to have to play at 25 frames when you know you can go higher, but 50 is too high no matter the graphics settings (should be 60 anyway).

The most frustrating thing is that no -30 command line or FPS cap through NvidiaInspector overrides the frame limiter, so not only are you stuck with crappy 25 frames, but there is no work around. It’s terrible! Every time theres an update I just hope to see it fixed, but no. Now theres a whole load of content introduced and still this hasn’t been fixed, you’d think it was slightly more pressing than more fluff.

/rage signing out

This may seem offtopic, but I assure you your experience is due to the current state of the genre.

MMO’s nowadays promote solo play over group play to cater to a wider audience, people who do not have time or do not want to invest into a game that requires people to play together, for people who thought it was “nerdy” or “not cool” to play a game for so many hours.

Have a look at the recent MMO’s that have been released, the most successful ones being the ones where you can do quite a lot with out interacting with a single soul. The essence of MMO’s now has been shattered because of games like WoW, that introduced the concept of solo-friendly content to MMO’s (don’t quote me on this, but WoW is the most popular MMO because of its accessibility). MMO’s have followed this rule, because frankly gaming is a business, and the wider the audience, the more money it makes.

You could play through the whole game with out adding a single person to your friends list, the same goes for WoW and many other popular MMO’s. When the dungeoun finder was introduced, things like MANNERS and SERVER REPUTATION went out the window, same goes for games like GW2, where its not necessary to build up a good reputation to do anything worthy in the game, just you and your guild.

Unfortunately you are a minority, and I am on the same boat as you. I started playing MMO’s to play with others, and I loved to be forced to group up to do content, but MMO’s nowadays have veered off from that mentality, to achieve a wider demographic. It used to be “You must work together to achieve something great” now “You can work together to achieve something great, but you don’t have to”

Its unfortunate, but I think the days of the “true” MMO are gone. Games like Final Fantasy XI are a thing of the past, people don’t want that, people want a quick fix, because its not about the journey anymore, its about the prize and how fast you can get it. Endgame is the whole game, remember?

I do hope there will be MMO’s developed for those who love to explore a world with others, as it was meant, and work hard to achieve almost impossible goals.

I am an embittered MMO gamer, who has loved the genre for many, many years, and GW2 was my last hope. To see such success in such a solo friend MMO makes me quite sad, and I honestly, truly hope that something in the future breaks this pattern.

I’ll just remind everyone that MMORPG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game.

Thanks a lot, appreciate all the help.

I’m guessing there isn’t much you guys can do about this, since it seems to be a compatibility issue with the 540m graphics card and GW2 program. Thanks for the replies and I do hope Anet will look into this issue.

It sure does…

Hello again,

So for me good animations add a lot to a game. I hate to look at my character twisting and turning in odd positions like a charmed snake when I use a spell or melee with a weapon, which is something I see VERY often in this game. In terms of animations, my opinion has always been that less is more.

Lets take the Mesmer sword number 1 skill. Sure, it looks cool when you’re standing still, but as soon as you move around, or you’re up close, its as if your top half and bottom half were going two different ways, especially at close range or killing rabbits, not to mention the animation unfortunately blends with other skills. All I’m asking is to SIMPLIFY it. Take the generic 2-handed melee animation swipes, add a few bolts of purple lightning and lasers if you love them so much and you’ve got yourself a stable, sexy animation. I for one would like to swing that sword, rather than have it float awkwardly in front of me, shooting laser beams.

Now for the elementalist fire attunement number 1 skill. Similar issue here. When you’re standing still, the animation looks fine, but running around pointing your wand upwards, while enemies infront of you are getting set on fire just strikes me as odd. Again, simplify the animation so that it does not conflict with the rest of the characters movements.

Thats just a couple of examples, just sharing my view I guess. I’ll give TERA online as an example, the animations are brilliant in that game, in my opinion anyway, and I do wish that Western companies gave as much attention to detail as asian companies do. I also consider FFXI as a game with brilliant running and combat animations, and that games pretty old.

Female Sylvari have a unique and distinct out of combat running animation which is sleek and balanced. Whenever you have a weapon such as a 1-handed Sword equipped, or a staff, they switch to the horrendous human female running animation. The suggestion is as follows – keep the out of combat running animation for all their weapons, bar the weapons which have specific running animations, for example the 2-handed sword. Thats it.

Here is my last set of screenshots, I’m just trying to give scale to this issue, its definitely bigger than just me.

EDIT: It might look harmless, and in essence it is, but it’s extremely distracting and bothersome.

Teknobug.3782:

- Mesmer phase retreat sometimes teleports you underground.

This one bugs me the most, oddly enough casting it again pushes me back out but the rest of the time I have to teleport to the nearest WP (going to HoM and back doesn’t always work). On the bright side, I managed to swim down under the map and find one of the skillpoint NPCs that fell under the map as well and kill him.

Yeah, theres a lot of interesting stuff to be found under the world, I saw some strange textures that resembled a dragon, think its the boss that spawns in the swamp in Queensdale.

Here are my power options
Power4Gear High performance
Require password on wakeup
- Yes
Hard disk, turn off hard disk after
- 20 min
Desktop background settings, slide show
- Available
Asus p4g power settings
Hide gadget
- On
Battery saving desktop
- Disabled
Hide desktop icon
- Disabled
Presentation mode
- Disabled
Intel DPST control
- Turn off intel DPST control
Wireless adapter, power saving mode
- Maximum performance
Sleep
- All disabled
USB selectinve suspend setting
- enabled
Intel GP
- Max performance
Power buttons
- Hibernate/sleep
Link state power managemenet
- off
Processor power management (minimum state)
- 100%
System Cooling policy
- Active
Maximum processor state
- 100%
Multimedia settings, sharing media
- prevent idling to sleep
When playing video
- Optimize video quality

P.S. I’ll try that Illutian, I’ll be back with more info.

EDIT: I’ve tried your suggestions Illutian, but the blue squares of death are still there. Everything runs smooth except for this issue, its as if there is a compatibilty issue with the 540m GPU and GW2 when it comes to rendering terrain and props.

I’d say I’m pretty sure its not only on my end, prepare to be blown away :P

Instead of writing it up I’ll give a few screenshots of my nvidia settings, I’ve played around with these a bit, but I installed my new driver recently and its completely fresh, so I only changed the single display perfomance and the adjust image settings to perfomance.

I’m definitely playing less due to the issues. I find myself taking screen shots and writing down bugs and trying to figure out my own issues and resolutions to these issues rather than actually playing and enjoying the game. It’s sad, I really like this game, but I’m focusing too much on the problems to be able to enjoy it fully at the moment.

Just to name a few:
- Frame Limiter not capping at 30 frames, instead capping at 25.
- Unnecessarily over the top particle effects.
- Mesmer phase retreat sometimes teleports you underground.
- Artifacting of props, small blue squares on terrain surfaces (the worst one).

All stuff that directly affects how I perceive the world. It just feels like I’m back in Q/A testing a game.

So this may be an issue with the two graphics cards conflicting with each other? I don’t understand, since the Intel graphics card doesn’t have this issue, but the nvidia one does, wouldn’t this happen on both cards if that was the case?

I’m 100% sure its the Nvidia GPU thats having this issue. When I force GW2 to run with the integrated graphics card, the issue disappears but I get terrible perfomance. I then switch back to the nvidia card and get good perfomance, but the issue persists. Is my GPU faulty? I’ve never had any problems with any other games beside GW2, and I’ve played AoC and Swtor with out any issues like this. Even TERA, which is a visually stunning game never game me any graphical issues.

Adding more screenshots, this issue is relatively easy to capture on staircases for some reason, theres loads of them there.

Also agree here, particle effects are way too over the top, especially trebuchet and grenade explosions. It’s really not necessary, and I’d definitely embrace an option to turn them down, I really couldn’t care less about the flashy explosions, rather, where I place it and how I react to it – which is impossible if it fills my screen or covers the enemy.

tbh, I’d prefer if they kept their out of combat running animation for their combat running animation. Imho, its the best running animation this games females have to offer.

Heres a screenshot with my nvidia information

Sorry, and no I don’t overclock my laptop. Here’s the DXDIAG, should have attached it before, my apologies.

NOTE: I’m not sure why it doesn’t mention in the DXDIAG that I actually have an Nvidia geforce 540m on this laptop, which I use for running games. I’m pretty sure GW2 is running on the Nvidia 540m, since the intel one can’t handle the game at all.
I have the latest WHQL nvidia driver installed (306.97) i’ve tried rolling back to older drivers but the issue with the blue squares persists.

Added a few screenshots, difficult as hell to get, but I managed it.

Hello again,

I’ve searched the forums but I haven’t found exactly what I’m looking for in terms of graphical corruption.

The issue is as follows, anywhere around the world, at no specific time, with almost no way to certainly reproduce except just run around, I see tiny, maybe 1 centimeter long blue squares on any kind of surface (except characters and props, so for example mountains, fields, any kind of terrain) that flash for a short period of time, very quickly, then stop. It’s almost impossible to catch in a screenshot, however, I do notice that A LOT of these graphical corruptions are found on stairs.

My graphics card is updated with its latest drivers (306.23 nvidia 540m) I haven’t overclocked my laptop, I haven’t touched ANYTHING. My settings are all at medium except for shaders, my nvidia control panel is set to perfomance, basically ambient occlusion and all that jazz is set to off. Changing resolutions doesn’t fix it.

Now, I’m just wondering, is it a problem on my end? Or is anyone else having this issue as well? I stress, this is DEFINITELY not my graphics card overheating, since this only happens with guild wars 2, and the temperatures are fine too. Any other issue that could be causing this? Thanks for the replies.

Here are some screenshots of the issue, extremely hard to get, but I managed it. Two different scenarios with a screenshot with and with out the blue squares.

I really, really, REALLY feel your pain with the frame limiter. My laptop isn’t exactly a beast, and 30 frames has always been enjoyable for me to play at, but 25 is way too low and anything above 30 is unstable (unless its 40). Definitely think the FPS limiter is an excellent idea, but very poorly implemented, D3 and LOTRO did it brilliantly, as well as SC2 allowing the edit of .ini files.

The problem isn’t with the frame limiter unable to cap, but that it just OVERRIDES any sort of command, wether through the nvidia inspector or the -fps command line. I’m not sure whats wrong with it, but it sure is irritating.

I read somewhere about unparking my CPU’s through the registry so that they are all running regardless, is that safe?

I see, well thanks a lot for the info – SolarNova I’ve made sure to have my laptop power management on high perfomance and it helps a tad, still no luck with the massive frame drops I guess Ill have to live with it. I’ve also double checked now that nvidia is running GW2 at best perfomane rather than quality. So you wouldn’t advise OCing? I guess it is pretty risky, but if I watch my temps I should be ok right?

I think at a certain graphic setting my GPU starts to fail, in certain areas with shaders on high, it drops to a sluggish pace unless I put it at medium so I’ll keep it at that, that seems to be the most stable. In other areas such as WvW it is definitely a CPU issue, as no matter what graphics setting I put it at, I’ll still be getting 15-20 frames in massive battles, which I suppose isn’t all that bad.

I do wish there was some way to reduce the particle effects in this game, they really aren’t all that necessary for me. Thanks a lot for the answers again.

I get between 40-55% GPU usage and 60-70% CPU usage, when I do the grenade thing it’s about the same. Not sure if that helps.

Yeah I purposefully set it to 30, since it’s the only stable framerate for me.

I’m downloading a GPU monitor right now I’ll give you the numbers in a bit.

Hello,

I posted this as a bug and as a seperate issue, but now I’m thinking there is something wrong on my end. Here is what I have: 31 FPS during most of my gameplay bar WvW, 10ish FPS during any close-quarters combat with explosions from grenades, mesmer AoE – you name it. Lowering my settings makes NO difference. I’m attaching some screens as proof.

Here are my computer speccs:
Nvidia GeForce 540m CUDA* 2GB
Intel HD graphics 3000 (not my main GPU, but thought I’d add that)
intel core i5-2430m, 2.4GHz (2.9GHz with boost technology)
Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium
6GB RAM
HDD 750GB
Realtek High Definition Speakers

Just to clarify: I am definitely running the game on my GeForce 540m and not my integrated intel card. Latest driver 306.23 WHQL cleanly installed. Computer up-to-date. GW2 client repaired.

Below you can see my screenshots of the issue as well as my in-game settings: