Baldur's Gate graphical downgrade after antivirus update

[Marcus The Saviour Killer of Men]

The issue I have is surely linked to the fact that when I uninstalled the previous antivirus (McAfee) that my PC shipped with, some .dll got lost even though I made sure all that were deleted were entirely related to McAfee, the registry entries associated must have been used by more than the antivirus.

So since then I got a lack of graphical fidelity in Baldur's Gate 3 in either DirectX11 or Vulkan, and in all but that game for some god-forsaken reason, it's very subtle for the untrained eye but it's something like the shaders not rendering properly, the subsurface scattering, the lighting and ambient occlusion. It is very obvious the game is running on a lower graphical capacity from the higher framerate since the issue arrived.

I've tried restoring to a restore point I've made specifically for that purpose before the fact but it failed restoring to an earlier image of the PC, and it may have introduced some more problems unrelated in failing.

So, is anything short of resinstalling all drivers and programs the computer shipped with, if they can even be found, the only recourse. Or, worse, needing to backup the whole system and files on an external drives with lists of what I have installed, to then reset. That shouldn't be the solution but it's doable, since my laptop computer I bought only for Christmas. It shouldn't take more than a day or two to get everything back the way it was, but I must admit I'd rather not do that as I fear to lose something in the process and all the settings I would have to set back on all programs. Yeah I'd take anything that could help if it ever happened to somebody on here.

[Angel]

what laptop is it?

[Marcus The Saviour Killer of Men]

Originally posted by Angel:

what laptop is it?

An ACER NITRO V-15 ANV-15-41-R6F1

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Marcus The Saviour Killer of Men:

Baldur's Gate graphical downgrade after antivirus update
The issue I have is surely linked to the fact that when I uninstalled the previous antivirus (McAfee) that my PC shipped with, some .dll got lost even though I made sure all that were deleted were entirely related to McAfee, the registry entries associated must have been used by more than the antivirus.

So since then I got a lack of graphical fidelity in Baldur's Gate 3 in either DirectX11 or Vulkan, and in all but that game for some god-forsaken reason, it's very subtle for the untrained eye but it's something like the shaders not rendering properly, the subsurface scattering, the lighting and ambient occlusion. It is very obvious the game is running on a lower graphical capacity from the higher framerate since the issue arrived.

I've tried restoring to a restore point I've made specifically for that purpose before the fact but it failed restoring to an earlier image of the PC, and it may have introduced some more problems unrelated in failing.

So, is anything short of resinstalling all drivers and programs the computer shipped with, if they can even be found, the only recourse. Or, worse, needing to backup the whole system and files on an external drives with lists of what I have installed, to then reset. That shouldn't be the solution but it's doable, since my laptop computer I bought only for Christmas. It shouldn't take more than a day or two to get everything back the way it was, but I must admit I'd rather not do that as I fear to lose something in the process and all the settings I would have to set back on all programs. Yeah I'd take anything that could help if it ever happened to somebody on here.

I do not see what is the big deal there.

[Marcus The Saviour Killer of Men]

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Originally posted by Marcus The Saviour Killer of Men:

Baldur's Gate graphical downgrade after antivirus update
The issue I have is surely linked to the fact that when I uninstalled the previous antivirus (McAfee) that my PC shipped with, some .dll got lost even though I made sure all that were deleted were entirely related to McAfee, the registry entries associated must have been used by more than the antivirus.

So since then I got a lack of graphical fidelity in Baldur's Gate 3 in either DirectX11 or Vulkan, and in all but that game for some god-forsaken reason, it's very subtle for the untrained eye but it's something like the shaders not rendering properly, the subsurface scattering, the lighting and ambient occlusion. It is very obvious the game is running on a lower graphical capacity from the higher framerate since the issue arrived.

I've tried restoring to a restore point I've made specifically for that purpose before the fact but it failed restoring to an earlier image of the PC, and it may have introduced some more problems unrelated in failing.

So, is anything short of resinstalling all drivers and programs the computer shipped with, if they can even be found, the only recourse. Or, worse, needing to backup the whole system and files on an external drives with lists of what I have installed, to then reset. That shouldn't be the solution but it's doable, since my laptop computer I bought only for Christmas. It shouldn't take more than a day or two to get everything back the way it was, but I must admit I'd rather not do that as I fear to lose something in the process and all the settings I would have to set back on all programs. Yeah I'd take anything that could help if it ever happened to somebody on here.

I do not see what is the big deal there.

It made for nicer screenshots and video in general, now it looks flat and a worse-looking game, I didn't put that much money into a gaming laptop for it to perform in any way below expectations. You'd be someone who enjoys good graphics you'd know. I like pretty things and that's a big deal to have them taken from you, don't you agree?

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Marcus The Saviour Killer of Men:

Originally posted by アンジェル:

I do not see what is the big deal there.

It made for nicer screenshots and video in general, now it looks flat and a worse-looking game, I didn't put that much money into a gaming laptop for it to perform in any way below expectations. You'd be someone who enjoys good graphics you'd know. I like pretty things and that's a big deal to have them taken from you, don't you agree?

That is not what I mean.
I do not see a big deal in restoring the stuff you think is responsible for the missing dll <-> quality downgrade.

[Marcus The Saviour Killer of Men]

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Originally posted by Marcus The Saviour Killer of Men:

It made for nicer screenshots and video in general, now it looks flat and a worse-looking game, I didn't put that much money into a gaming laptop for it to perform in any way below expectations. You'd be someone who enjoys good graphics you'd know. I like pretty things and that's a big deal to have them taken from you, don't you agree?

That is not what I mean.
I do not see a big deal in restoring the stuff you think is responsible for the missing dll <-> quality downgrade.

Sorry I misjudged you. Sure, that's an option but I'd need to buy a new external drive and once started I won't have everything available to me until I'm done. If I would not have posted here and would have reset already if I didn't know there is a way to fix it as is, I just don't know how, you might direct me to a site that deals with that sort of stuff cause I don't know one, I'll take anything that helps thanks, including your encouragement ;)

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Marcus The Saviour Killer of Men:

Originally posted by アンジェル:

That is not what I mean.
I do not see a big deal in restoring the stuff you think is responsible for the missing dll <-> quality downgrade.

Sorry I misjudged you. Sure, that's an option but I'd need to buy a new external drive and once started I won't have everything available to me until I'm done. If I would not have posted here and would have reset already if I didn't know there is a way to fix it as is, I just don't know how, you might direct me to a site that deals with that sort of stuff cause I don't know one, I'll take anything that helps thanks, including your encouragement ;)

It is past 1am for me and I need to wake up early. I am too annoyed and tired to give encouragements.

To keep things short: I make guides. Like this one.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3027526886

Based on your description: graphics became less good after uninstalling antivirus app, user suspects that the deinstallation removed something affecting graphics

That alone is very unlikely, and even me who is using apps to cleanup registries and do clean unisntalls cannot imagine how that happens. Putting that aside, the tools for repairing graphics cards related software are simple:

1. Download the latest drivers, either directly from AMD/Nvidia or from the manufacturer
on the manufacturer website, easily found via Google you can find a BIOS update related to Nvidia worth checking

https://www.acer.com/us-en/support/product-support/Nitro_ANV15-41
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/details/237760/

2. Download Display Driver Uninstaller

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

3. Use Display Driver Uninstaller - you can check Step 4 in the guide mentioned before

4. Reinstall the graphics driver

5. Go to

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Steamworks Shared\_CommonRedist

and run any installer you can find there

6. Clear the game's cache and verify files etc. etc. pp.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3018203217

If you did all that, then anything game and GPU related should be restored. However, I still cannot imagine how it is related to antivirus, but the steps are easy to be done without formatting and reinstalling the whole PC etc. For good measures hit into the terminal / PowerShell

sfc /scannow

and

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth ; DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

like shown in step 21. That will force your Windows to check its system files.

So why the external drive?

[Marcus The Saviour Killer of Men]

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Originally posted by Marcus The Saviour Killer of Men:

Sorry I misjudged you. Sure, that's an option but I'd need to buy a new external drive and once started I won't have everything available to me until I'm done. If I would not have posted here and would have reset already if I didn't know there is a way to fix it as is, I just don't know how, you might direct me to a site that deals with that sort of stuff cause I don't know one, I'll take anything that helps thanks, including your encouragement ;)

It is past 1am for me and I need to wake up early. I am too annoyed and tired to give encouragements.

To keep things short: I make guides. Like this one.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3027526886

Based on your description: graphics became less good after uninstalling antivirus app, user suspects that the deinstallation removed something affecting graphics

That alone is very unlikely, and even me who is using apps to cleanup registries and do clean unisntalls cannot imagine how that happens. Putting that aside, the tools for repairing graphics cards related software are simple:

1. Download the latest drivers, either directly from AMD/Nvidia or from the manufacturer
on the manufacturer website, easily found via Google you can find a BIOS update related to Nvidia worth checking

https://www.acer.com/us-en/support/product-support/Nitro_ANV15-41
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/details/237760/

2. Download Display Driver Uninstaller

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

3. Use Display Driver Uninstaller - you can check Step 4 in the guide mentioned before

4. Reinstall the graphics driver

5. Go to

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Steamworks Shared\_CommonRedist

and run any installer you can find there

6. Clear the game's cache and verify files etc. etc. pp.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3018203217

If you did all that, then anything game and GPU related should be restored. However, I still cannot imagine how it is related to antivirus, but the steps are easy to be done without formatting and reinstalling the whole PC etc. For good measures hit into the terminal / PowerShell

sfc /scannow

and

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth ; DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

like shown in step 21. That will force your Windows to check its system files.

So why the external drive?

Cause my internal drive ain't big enough, it was a once-in-a-lifetime deal but it came with such a small capacity I'll need to open it and install a new SSD in the open slot, something like 6TO is so cheap nowadays it's fine, before that I need a new external drive anyway so you know two birds with one stone. I reinstalled the NVIDIA drivers already as a clean installation and as I posted that I reinstalled the whole game to make sure the whole 160GB (it took three hours on my current connection° we'll see if that fixes it as clearing the game's cache I couldn't find in the somewhat recent change they made to the interface, before you had the opportunity to clean cache for a game on an individual basis, I couldn't find it but maybe I didn't look hard enough.

The program I used was IObit Uninstaller I've already had issues in the past with what it deleted (and I checked thoroughly this time) but nothing that was unfixable.

I will probably revert back to McAfee this week-end as the Bitdefender I've had some trouble with it in the past regarding gaming, it's more invasive than McAfee, maybe safer but I feel like the fact the laptop manufacturer Acer recommended it's gotta count for something seeing how satisfied I was with the model and the tools it shipped with until all this happened.

Could a failed restoration of an older state of Windows have been the cause? It's also ♥♥♥♥♥♥ the animated wallpaper Razer kindly installed for me for plugging a new mouse. Since then I see the old static wallpaper when the PC first starts and hovering over the icons shows the animated paper 'behind' and around it in square.. It's very strange, would you know anything about that?

I'll check your guide if reinstalling doesn't fix it, but no matter what short of changing back to the old antivirus (I hope) that won't fix the wallpaper which admittedly isn't a big deal on this one I'll agree.

Thank you for the answer so late, see you later

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Marcus The Saviour Killer of Men:

Originally posted by アンジェル:

It is past 1am for me and I need to wake up early. I am too annoyed and tired to give encouragements.

To keep things short: I make guides. Like this one.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3027526886

Based on your description: graphics became less good after uninstalling antivirus app, user suspects that the deinstallation removed something affecting graphics

That alone is very unlikely, and even me who is using apps to cleanup registries and do clean unisntalls cannot imagine how that happens. Putting that aside, the tools for repairing graphics cards related software are simple:

1. Download the latest drivers, either directly from AMD/Nvidia or from the manufacturer
on the manufacturer website, easily found via Google you can find a BIOS update related to Nvidia worth checking

https://www.acer.com/us-en/support/product-support/Nitro_ANV15-41
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/details/237760/

2. Download Display Driver Uninstaller

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

3. Use Display Driver Uninstaller - you can check Step 4 in the guide mentioned before

4. Reinstall the graphics driver

5. Go to

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Steamworks Shared\_CommonRedist

and run any installer you can find there

6. Clear the game's cache and verify files etc. etc. pp.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3018203217

If you did all that, then anything game and GPU related should be restored. However, I still cannot imagine how it is related to antivirus, but the steps are easy to be done without formatting and reinstalling the whole PC etc. For good measures hit into the terminal / PowerShell

sfc /scannow

and

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth ; DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

like shown in step 21. That will force your Windows to check its system files.

So why the external drive?

Cause my internal drive ain't big enough, it was a once-in-a-lifetime deal but it came with such a small capacity I'll need to open it and install a new SSD in the open slot, something like 6TO is so cheap nowadays it's fine, before that I need a new external drive anyway so you know two birds with one stone. I reinstalled the NVIDIA drivers already as a clean installation and as I posted that I reinstalled the whole game to make sure the whole 160GB (it took three hours on my current connection° we'll see if that fixes it as clearing the game's cache I couldn't find in the somewhat recent change they made to the interface, before you had the opportunity to clean cache for a game on an individual basis, I couldn't find it but maybe I didn't look hard enough.

The program I used was IObit Uninstaller I've already had issues in the past with what it deleted (and I checked thoroughly this time) but nothing that was unfixable.

I will probably revert back to McAfee this week-end as the Bitdefender I've had some trouble with it in the past regarding gaming, it's more invasive than McAfee, maybe safer but I feel like the fact the laptop manufacturer Acer recommended it's gotta count for something seeing how satisfied I was with the model and the tools it shipped with until all this happened.

Could a failed restoration of an older state of Windows have been the cause? It's also ♥♥♥♥♥♥ the animated wallpaper Razer kindly installed for me for plugging a new mouse. Since then I see the old static wallpaper when the PC first starts and hovering over the icons shows the animated paper 'behind' and around it in square.. It's very strange, would you know anything about that?

I'll check your guide if reinstalling doesn't fix it, but no matter what short of changing back to the old antivirus (I hope) that won't fix the wallpaper which admittedly isn't a big deal on this one I'll agree.

Thank you for the answer so late, see you later

It could be.

But still no reason to fret.

IObit I know. It has been ages since I used it, though. I prefer stuff which gives me more control and use therefore RevoUninstaller which also make clean uninstalls by addressing registry, alongside CCleaner. It asks you for confirmation after letting you check the files it is going to delete.

I need to see that thing about the wallpaper since your description is not sufficient for me to analyse it.

1200 EUD for the laptop with optional cashback is acceptable. The specifications are okay, putting aside it is a cursed AMD CPU. You really should not think too much about the storage, unless you really need it hard.

My recommendation for "going cheap" is to plug in a USB storage drive you probably have spare. And you can use Google Drive for stream-cloud-storage which saves additional space.

It all come down to how fast your internet is, but 1TB is not little. 512GB on my gaming device is.

You can aim for one of these in the future
https://www.amazon.fr/Samsung-MZ-V9P2T0BW-Contr%C3%B4le-Thermique-Intelligent/dp/B0B9C4DKKG

The laptop should have another slot, and if you feel funny you can clone your current drive using a software and something like this
https://www.amazon.fr/UGREEN-Bo%C3%AEtier-Adaptateur-C%C3%A2bles-Supporte/dp/B09T97Z7DM

Though personally I probably would make a fresh install using Windows 11 Pro, if I were, when getting a new storage drive to replace the 1TB as OS drive
https://www.softwarehunter.de/windows-10/11-pro/160?number=
I hate Windows Home versions almost as much as I hate AMD. Always getting permissions denied, running into trouble with apps, and more. 15/20 EUD for an upgrade are worth invested.

Once your issues are sorted out you can consider using the Gamer's Tips or something like this for your PC
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3065050571

Antivirus-wise I recommend ESET for gamers. Normally I use Kaspersky but due to current political security concerns I ended up without an additional security app. So far Windows Defender is holding.

If you are ONLY using antivirus, skip it. Simple as that. You can get free and reliable antivirus, making McAffee look horrible. Bitdefender is usually okay, but is as simpled down as Avira is for me. Then go rather Avast free stuff etc. etc.

But for actual security and good control check ESET. The single PC license cost 40 EUD while the three PCs license cost 50 EUD via amazon https://www.amazon.fr/ESET-Security-Essential-Appareils-s%C3%A9curit%C3%A9/dp/B0CN8DRH8D
I normally always recommend the latter so you can share with family and friends and bring the cost down that way if they contribute. Hm... It used to be much cheaper, though.

[Thomas D.]

1. Yes restoring to restore points, especially when one fails can and usually causes issues. If that's the root cause, literally no one can tell.

2. Would it be possible to provide a screenshot so we can imagine what you get? Because it might be not a system issue, especially if it's related only to Baldurs Gate. It might be just a settings issue, a setting that got changed during restorpoint stuff (which might even be triggered by the AV uninstaller itself). Have you checked the graphics settings in game?

Also do you have still all the previous saves? Not that some other user profile is used one or you ended up using some virtual folder previously or now which basically causes another profile and thus other settings and usually other save games.

In general check in-game settings and settings in the NVidia control panel.

3. Ignore the AMD hate, it's absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that person won't be able to back it up. Right now Intel ♥♥♥♥♥♥ their CPUs in the past for several recent generations multiple times up and you usually end up with more issues or completely broken CPUs when going with Intel right now.

4. Razer? Try to kill / deinstall it. Their software is known to cause trouble, especially with Baldurs Gate and see if anything changes / improves.

5. I absolutely advise not to use any uninstaller / remover / cleaner, because they end up more often than not to brick more than they fix. For example if you uninstall something and files are left there are usually 2 situations:

5.1 The file is not needed / used in that case it will do nothing else than taking up some space (and in most cases some leftover files aren't big).

5.2 It might still be used (maybe indirectly) by something (for example some shared libs) in that Case, other software you would expect using it, will break or start malfunctioning.

6. Did you st lne point had 2 AVs active st the same time? Like McAffe and Bit defender? Even for a short period of time? If soy 2 AVs at the same time can brick each other or your system. In that case I would try to get rid of all of them and see if anything improves.

7. Do the previously mentioned DISM and SFC commands.

8. Do you use any Software adding some Overlays or otherwise tinkering with games? Which might got somehow revealed or bugged? Disable / kill it and see if it improves anything.

But the cleanest would be a fresh installation (with formating the Harddisk, not just installing over the old system). Look for the media creation tool on Microsofts Website, it allows you to download an windows and write it on a disk or stick. Choose the same Edition you use right now (otherwise you will need a new license). During installation skip the serial because the serial on the bottom of your notebook might not work (they are special volume keys). But since your system was already activated (I assume it is right now) your device is already registered and will activate itself after the installation without entering a key once it has some Internet connection.