Constant black flickering screen, please help

[『 Ralsei 』]

so one day i loaded sfm to do some stuff, after i loaded the map it was completely black until i moved the camera. If i dont move the camera the screen is totally black, if i move the camera its contant black flickering. Even after reinstalling the issue was still there. i tried to look up a solution but it seems no one has a simular issue like i have. please help

[EmperorFaiz.wav]

Originally posted by Pte Jack:

This "might" be the problem.

Click Windows, goto Engine Window and make sure the Auto Hide Engine Window is checked on.

https://i.imgur.com/oIBooqK.png

Lots of people faced this issue no thanks to latest Windows update.

[『 Ralsei 』]

its already on

[『 Ralsei 』]

tho i think i might know why i have this issue, its just a theory tho. My laptop got a windows update a week ago, since then the flickering is there and sometimes even on tf2. i think the windows update screwed up with something ont he source engine wich would seriously suck cause finding a solution to be so specific is nearly impossible

[Pte Jack]

Yes, everyone has it on already or we wouldn't be able to use SFM.
This is only a suggestion and it may or may not work.
In a session, Turn the auto hide off.
Close sfm
reopen SFM
When the engine window opens, select Windows, QT Port
When SFM open turn the auto hide back on.

I'm wondering if this is a country problem, an hemisphere or a global problem because my machines are all up to date as far as updates to Windows and drivers and I am not infected with this problem (at least not yet.), and I can't replicate on any of my machines with radeon or nvidia cards.

[『 Ralsei 』]

i think its rather a problem of my terrible laptop, its rather new and was expensive but it has so many bugs and issues thats its no wonder to me something like that would happen at some point. i tried out what you suggested but it had no effect on the problem.

[『 Ralsei 』]

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198292251364/home

[Having said that. BURN IN HELL!]

I had this too since the update. It's really annoying and hurting my eyes. I also have it on youtube sometimes when watching a video and moving the cursor?

But it's nice to know I'm not the only one to suffer

Edit: If you just leave the engine window on, it actually does work.

[Pte Jack]

So, Youtube might be affected as well.... SO!!!

BEFORE ANYONE ELSE POSTS HERE about the screen flicker problem. We're doing some trouble shooting.

Microsoft released Windows 10 Version 1803 on the 28th of April in a rolling global update. In other words, everybody's computers will be updated at different times. All my systems are currently running the old version which is 1709 and I do not have the problem, nor can I replicate it on any of my systems. I just check ALL my systems for updates and they are all up to date (for 1709) and 1803 is not being offered to me yet. So I can't test my therory.

If my suspisions are correct, I think we might find that the affected systems are running 1803, and graphic drivers may not be compatible from 1709 to 1803. This "could be" the problem.

IF YOU ARE AFFECTED BY THE PROBLEM...

Help us out in this trouble shoot by posting your System Specs (CPU, GPU, VRam and Ram) and your current Windows version number.

To find the Windows version

Right click the Windows Icon on your taskbar, then select System...

When the Window open, look at the Windows Specifications area and tell us WHAT VERSION your system has installed.

The info were looking for is something like this

OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit - Version 1709
CPU: Intel Core i7 740QM @ 1.73GHz
RAM: 8.00GB
Graphics: AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series (HP) 1024MB (1.00GB)
Not Affected.

[Ronıん]

Computer brand: MSI
OS: Windows 10 64-bit Version 1803
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6300HQ CPU @ 2.30GHz
RAM: 8.00 GB
Graphics: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530, 4163 MB
Affected.

Have reinstalled twice and verified cache twice, nothing.
Though having only one viewport makes the flickering less constant, but it's still awful.
I'm pretty sure all my drivers are updated too.

EDIT: Seems that going into SFM and to Windows>Engine Window>Auto Hide Engine Window and ticking it off removes the flickering, as mentioned earlier.

[Pte Jack]

Lumi, if you have a MSI laptop, then you should have a higher end GPU as well as the Intel HD 530, something like a Nvidia GTx960m or a GTX1000 series GPU. The intel GPUs don't work well with SFM.

If you go into SFM and type "Clear" then "mat_info" in to the console, the top 10 lines in the console will look like this

 mat_info
ShaderAPI: shaderapidx9.dll
Shader API Driver Info:

Driver : aticfx32.dll Version : 656764
Driver Description :  AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series
Chipset version 4098 26785 361762876 0

Display mode : 1920 x 1080 @60Hz (BGRX8888)
Vertex Shader Version : 3.0 Pixel Shader Version : 3.0
 

This will tell you what GPU SFM is using.

Now for the temp fix...

Have you tried the Turn Off the Autohide for the Engine yet. (Sfm - Window - Engine Window - uncheck the autohide)

[Ronıん]

Yup works like a beauty now

[Ronıん]

Checked what GPU SFM is using, and it appears to be NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, so no worries about that

[Pte Jack]

The New version of Windows (1803) may be reading the QT interface in SFM differently than the old version (1709). Meaning the Engine has to be visible for the QT port to act properly. this might mean you'll have to launch the QTport from the engine whenever you launch SFM (I don't know that yet, I'm still not affected because 1803 hasn't been served to me yet and I can't test..)

[Fordy]

OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 17134.81)
CPU: Intel Core i5-3210M
RAM: 8GB
Graphics: GeForce GT635M + Intel Integrated Graphics

Affected when running with nVidia graphics. Engine window trick doesn't work. Problem appeared after the April update.

[『 Ralsei 』]

i have windows 10 64Bit
my CPU is as far as i know intel Core i7 4720HQ
my RAM is 8GB

i hope you can do something with that info cause i really dont know much about such infos from my pc, sorry the respond comes so late i just saw that the discussion is active again