[ BUG: Visual ] Flickering on some Textures and Lighting

[MicahDS]

Video of the issue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi6TFJrXJ7c

Desktop PC specs:

• Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
  
• Intel i7-4930K @ 3.40Ghz
  
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
  
• 16GB DDR3 1333Mhz

Other info:

• The flickering occurs in all areas of the game, up to the point shown in the video and likely throughout the rest of the game, though I haven't played beyond this point to know for sure.
  
• It's not just the black texture flickers; sometimes lighting flickers in and out in the same way. I could make another video showing some light flickering as well, if necessary.
  
• All Windows and GPU drivers are up to date, and PC has been restarted after updates.
  
• Running DX11 because AFAIK my GPU doesn't support DX12.
  
• I have run with default 3D settings in NVIDIA Control Panel, and I have also tried switching some settings on/off that I thought could help. Of course, I tried all manner of in-game settings as well.

It's possible the culprit is Windows 8.1, but I'm really hoping that's not it. IS ANYONE RUNNING WIN 8.1 AND NOT HAVING THIS ISSUE?
I'm well aware that Windows 10 is the only OS that's shown to be supported, but I didn't think it'd matter, since Borderlands 3 gives me no such issues, and I've run a bunch of games that never listed Win 8.1 as supported either.

BTW, I reported this to 2k support earlier today, but I'm posting the details here as well, with the hope of finding a solution for myself and potentially other players with a similar issue.

I found some related info by Googling, but players usually left out their PC info, or the solution was to switch to DX12. These were also older posts and not related to the Steam version.

[MicahDS]

Well, I tried playing some more and got to a point where I was getting full screen white flashes, like a strobe light on crack, so I had to quit playing indefinitely.

With further research, it seems to me that something with the graphical pipeline is programmed in a way that's no longer friendly with DX11, like Borderlands 3 was.
And I just realized Windows 10 is the earliest OS that supports DX12. From what I can find, my GTX 1080 does support DX12, it's just my OS holding it back.

I can't upgrade my current PC to Win 10 for a couple reasons, so this will have to sit around a few years in my library until I can budget for a new PC. Didn't get to play much, but it was enjoyable, terrorizing flashes aside.

I hope other people have better luck than me.

[DarkCulex]

Its not just you , this garbage bug been happening to everyone was getting it when i first got the game. now it seems not happening anymore for some reason. i thought they fixed it or something. it just randomly stopped happening for some reason.

i'm running on intel-i9 and 3080 TI on windows 11

[Durrrrwin]

Update drivers. Immediately resolved it for me and my girlfriend, with gtx 1660 and rtx 2080 respectively.

[MicahDS]

Originally posted by DarkCulex:

Its not just you , this garbage bug been happening to everyone was getting it when i first got the game. now it seems not happening anymore for some reason. i thought they fixed it or something. it just randomly stopped happening for some reason.

i'm running on intel-i9 and 3080 TI on windows 11

Strange. I'm not sure what happened in your case, maybe some kind of updates in the background fixed it for you? All I know is the flashing and flickering seems to be an issue running DX11, regardless of OS. Windows 8.1 and under cannot run DX12, so there appears to be no fix.

Originally posted by Starvation's Heights:

Update drivers. Immediately resolved it for me and my girlfriend, with gtx 1660 and rtx 2080 respectively.

I assume neither PC is running Windows 8.1 though? Updating my drivers was the first thing I did and it did not help. Thanks anyway though.

[AvatarOfWar]

Gosh, what an unusual bug. It must be just you.

[Sirius]

it happ0ens here as well, then i find out that AMD option caused the issue.
put it off and its fine again

[MicahDS]

Originally posted by AvatarOfWar:

Gosh, what an unusual bug. It must be just you.

I'm pretty sure the black flickering of specific textures, and specific lighting flickering on/off, and the bright white flashes are all related to some kind of shader material/lighting issue. Can't say beyond that. Based on my searches for these issues, a lot of people have had the problems, not just me.

Originally posted by Sirius:

it happens here as well, then i find out that AMD option caused the issue.
put it off and its fine again

That does not help me, but it'll probably help someone else at least.

[AvatarOfWar]

Originally posted by MicahDS:

Originally posted by AvatarOfWar:

Gosh, what an unusual bug. It must be just you.

I'm pretty sure the black flickering of specific textures, and specific lighting flickering on/off, and the bright white flashes are all related to some kind of shader material/lighting issue. Can't say beyond that. Based on my searches for these issues, a lot of people have had the problems, not just me.

And "Based on your searches" didn't find the half a dozen threads already about this on this forum, of which I posted in almost all of them?

My post was sarcasm, and I wanted to see if you had done even the slightest searching. You didn't.

[MicahDS]

Originally posted by AvatarOfWar:

And "Based on your searches" didn't find the half a dozen threads already about this on this forum, of which I posted in almost all of them?

My post was sarcasm, and I wanted to see if you had done even the slightest searching. You didn't.

I did in fact do multiple searches on Steam and Google. I have no reason to lie about that, come on. Apparently, I just didn't use the right key words to get hits on those threads. I found related stuff on Google, but not Steam.

Anyway, since you mentioned making posts in other threads related to this, I was able to find the other discussions. The material quality switching solution (which works via other options as well) is something I had already discovered and tried, but when I came to a very early game area that it didn't work on called Queen's Gate, that's where I initially gave up and thought it wasn't enough of a solution to get through the game, or to even really enjoy it.
But maybe I was wrong, because I did try playing again tonight and realized that the first major problem area in Queen's Gate clears up. I just needed to run forward enough to trigger something to clear it up. I have yet to get to Brighthoof, which sounds like it's a terrible time, but maybe this option switching trick is actually enough of a solution to get through the game. I didn't think it could be until now.

Of course, I just had an entirely different issue and got a fatal error, but hey, at least there's some hope that I can perhaps beat the game now.. maybe.

[sAmE_SaMe]

POSSIBLE FIX, there was light flickering across clouds similar to pressing ones face eyeballs against a lit disco ball...
went to options, visuals, and graphics API direct x 11, and SWitched it to Direct X 12.

[Professor Portal]

Originally posted by MicahDS:

Video of the issue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi6TFJrXJ7c

Desktop PC specs:

• Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
  
• Intel i7-4930K @ 3.40Ghz
  
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
  
• 16GB DDR3 1333Mhz

Other info:

• The flickering occurs in all areas of the game, up to the point shown in the video and likely throughout the rest of the game, though I haven't played beyond this point to know for sure.
  
• It's not just the black texture flickers; sometimes lighting flickers in and out in the same way. I could make another video showing some light flickering as well, if necessary.
  
• All Windows and GPU drivers are up to date, and PC has been restarted after updates.
  
• Running DX11 because AFAIK my GPU doesn't support DX12.
  
• I have run with default 3D settings in NVIDIA Control Panel, and I have also tried switching some settings on/off that I thought could help. Of course, I tried all manner of in-game settings as well.

It's possible the culprit is Windows 8.1, but I'm really hoping that's not it. IS ANYONE RUNNING WIN 8.1 AND NOT HAVING THIS ISSUE?
I'm well aware that Windows 10 is the only OS that's shown to be supported, but I didn't think it'd matter, since Borderlands 3 gives me no such issues, and I've run a bunch of games that never listed Win 8.1 as supported either.

BTW, I reported this to 2k support earlier today, but I'm posting the details here as well, with the hope of finding a solution for myself and potentially other players with a similar issue.

I found some related info by Googling, but players usually left out their PC info, or the solution was to switch to DX12. These were also older posts and not related to the Steam version.

The reason for the black flickering artifacts is that you're running a version of Windows older than 10. I recently posted a thread called "Windows 7, anyone?". I'm experiencing the same issue. The game runs fine otherwise. Nvidia stopped making game-ready drivers for our old operating systems in January. Had they continued through March, things may have been different. So until we upgrade to Windows 10 or later, we'll be playing the game with artifacts. I hope this helps.

[✨ LACHY ✨]

Has anyone figured a solution to this?? or is it just not fixable??