Oblivion and Skyrim flickering issue (partially resolved)

[Alesayr]

I just started up Oblivion for the first time and it appears to be having some problems. All screens (including the title screen and all in-game visuals, whether in pause menu or playing) flicker uncontrollably. Does anyone have any pointers? I'm not playing with any mods installed, this is vanilla.

Edit: For future reference
Both Skyrim and Oblivion had serious flickering problems when opened. Other games did not have this problem.

Solution 1) Both Skyrim and Oblivion work fine in Windowed mode. Sadly, this solution is not ideal because it's windowed mode and windowed mode sucks :D

Solution 2) Oblivion will work fine in fullscreen after turning anti-aliasing on (I believe I changed to 2 samples.) Sadly, this solution did not work for Skyrim :(

At present (5/8/14) Skyrim only works without flickering in windowed mode

[UIY]

Vsync helps control some of the screen tearing if its enabled but other than that with no mods I wouldn't expect anything but Vsync being able to help in that regard.

[Manager of Fat Girls Utd]

I had the same problem and usually, V-sync doesn't really assist in the issue. I actually had the same problem that for every frame I got a quick occuring black flashing on my screen, but this was more down to software complications than anything. Could you tell me what OS and GPU you're running first?

[Alesayr]

Windows 8.1.
I'm not 100% sure what my graphics card is.
I think it might be an Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000? Or is that something else entirely. Somewhat confusingly, the sticker on my laptop says "Radeon Graphics" which would imply something else again?

[Lip_Gloss]

In some other game (arma2?) the HDR setting could make the screen flicker on modern hardware. Try disabling HDR and set v-sync ON.

[Alesayr]

I did as you suggested Lip-gloss. Sadly the problem continues.

[Lip_Gloss]

Sorry to hear... :(
Well... laptops and win8 aren't the best for gaming... also integrated graphics (Graphics 4000) is not good for gaming either so you might want to think about getting better hardware. :-/

[Alesayr]

I kind of need a laptop, I don't have the option to ditch it for a desktop sadly. If this computer died today I'd be getting another laptop (portability is key).

The problem doesn't happen on any of my other games. I wonder why only this one :/

[Clever Monkey]

Originally posted by Alesayr:

I kind of need a laptop, I don't have the option to ditch it for a desktop sadly. If this computer died today I'd be getting another laptop (portability is key).

The problem doesn't happen on any of my other games. I wonder why only this one :/

I've said it before and I'll say it again here, Install the patches. then try setting your graphics down then up, change the screen res both in game and your monitor.

[Alesayr]

Ok, so I fiddled with some stuff.
Set my graphics card to actually use the Radeon 7600 I have installed (figured it out yay :D )
Twiddled with vsync etc. None of it helped.

Since then I tried Skyrim in windows mode. Success! Haven't tried Oblivion Windowed yet but hopefully that will likewise be effective. I'm guessing this means it's a screen resolution or framerate problem? But not really sure

Smile. where can I find the patches for Skyrim and Oblivion?

[Alesayr]

Update: Oblivion also works fine when windowed. Success!

Obviously it would be wonderful if we could figure out a way to play the games without resorting to windowed mode, but at least we have a temporary solution.


Does anyone have any ideas why it would flicker in fullscreen but not windowed?

[Alesayr]

Update: turning on anti-aliasing resulted in Oblivion working fine. Skyrim still flickering when in fullscreen

[Troglodyte]

any news on this?

[Alesayr]

Sadly no. The issue is resolved for oblivion (see edit on original post)
Skyrim the best solution is to have it windowed but make the window as big as possible so it fills the whole screen. Not ideal, but it's the best we've managed to resolve.