Flickering on some wallpapers

[Aki]

I got flickering scenes on different wallpapers lately. Sometimes for a microsecond wallpaper becomes black, except effects on this scene (leaves, stars etc.).
Latest Nvidia drivers, win 11pro updates, .net, C++ restrubutive installed. Tried returning to old NVIDIA drivers, like from May, nothing helps.
PC specs: ryzen 5500, rtx 2060super, 16gb ram.
For example, this wallpaper: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2891342044
And screenshots of what's happening:
https://imgur.com/D0QsbKq
https://imgur.com/QIYnXMX

[Tim]

It's unusual that it only happens temporarily, usually this type of issue happens when some app files are damaged. Have you tried validating the app files via Steam? Turn Wallpaper Engine off, then run the validation and then restart it via Steam:

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/0C48-FCBD-DA71-93EB

[Aki]

Unfortunately, validation of Wallpaper Engine didn't help.
Silimar problem appears in Rainbow Six Siege. As you can see on this thread: https://r6fix.ubi.com/projects/RAINBOW6-SIEGE-LIVE/issues/LIVE-46307 (you can see few videos attached to this ticket for more details) skybox, and sometimes shadows are flickering in the same way. The problem there can be fixed by returning to the old NVIDIA driver or playing on Vulkan. The third method is disabling 'Accelerated GPU Scheduling' in Windows Preferences.
But unlike R6, Wallpaper Engine is not being fixed by using the old driver or disabling 'Accelerated GPU Scheduling', and it uses only DirectX.
The problem really terrified me and my wife, since we just recently bought a new GPU. We think it is related to some problems with directX and the latest stable Windows version (as the problem appeared 1-2 moths ago), but we are not sure of anything.
Hope you have some thoughts on this

[Tim]

Usually if there is a driver issue like that, we quickly start seeing a lot of posts come up with the same issue, but so far you are the only one reporting this problem. You are also saying the problem started appearing 1 - 2 months ago which was long before the driver release, so I doubt it's related. Going through my head I cannot come up with any explanation for this pretty unusual behavior, could you maybe run our analysis tool and share the log file it creates as explained here:

https://help.wallpaperengine.io/en/debug/scantool.html

I will take a look and see if your app / system logs include anything useful.

[Aki]

Originally posted by Tim:

Usually if there is a driver issue like that, we quickly start seeing a lot of posts come up with the same issue, but so far you are the only one reporting this problem. You are also saying the problem started appearing 1 - 2 months ago which was long before the driver release, so I doubt it's related. Going through my head I cannot come up with any explanation for this pretty unusual behavior, could you maybe run our analysis tool and share the log file it creates as explained here:

https://help.wallpaperengine.io/en/debug/scantool.html

I will take a look and see if your app / system logs include anything useful.

We've created a log and sent it to your contact email from FAQ. Thank you.

[Tim]

I am afraid the log file did not really include anything useful. There are some crashes logged in the Nvidia drivers of the stress test tool you ran, but these aren't directly related to Wallpaper Engine, though they could indicate a driver issue.

From the perspective of Wallpaper Engine, everything is fine I am afraid. You can try and do a full clean reinstallation of the app, just in case some files are damaged and not being repaired by the Steam validation (it happens a lot). See the "Fully Uninstalling Wallpaper Engine" section here:

https://help.wallpaperengine.io/debug/reset.html

[Aki]

Thank you for verifying logs! Crashes in Nvidia drivers during the stress test are unexpectedly for us, as we didn't have any notifications about it in stress test tool.

We asked another person with RTX GPU (3060) to check the same wallpaper with the same settings. and the result was the same.

As it happens for one month, exactly after the Windows 22h2 update, with every Nvidia driver. And it affects only RTX GPUs (we tested 1060 as well, no flickering here), while it uses DirectX (Wallpaper Engine on Scene wallpapers, Rainbow Six Siege on DirectX11 mode, Discord), we think Microsoft made some errors in their latest update, that cause these flickering under these circumstances. Flickerings are fully random, and in Wallpaper Engine they appear only on some Scene wallpapers. To make screenshots of it we needed to record the moment of flickering, slow down the video and find that frame.

We will reinstall Windows instead of reinstalling only Wallpaper Engine, and check for any changes.

One more question we want to confim: does the Scene wallpaper use DirectX, and which version?

Thank you for helping us!

[Tim]

That is very unusual that you found someone with the same issue. The wallpaper you linked is pretty popular right now but I don't see any complaints about it, I am also unable to reproduce this problem on our RTX 3000 / 4000 systems. Wallpaper Engine runs on DirectX 11 indeed. Be sure to update me on this, I am curious if reinstalling Windows will fix this.

[奏]

I have the same problem with this wallpaper ;(

[Tea Garden]

Originally posted by Viola:

I have the same problem with this wallpaper ;(

You are not alone! What GPU do you have? And also 22H2 Windows update?

[Tim]

I am going to ask the creator of the wallpaper for the original project files and see if there is anything odd with the wallpaper. If this issue occurs for multiple people, then that's a bit odd and there might be something wrong with the project files themselves. I have tried using the wallpaper with different app settings but it never breaks like that for me unfortunately, so it must be a real special edge-case of some sorts.

[Aki]

I don't think there's gonna be something special about this wallpaper that initiates flickering. The same problem appeared on several wallpapers from different authors.

We described why we think the problem is in the latest windows update and DirectX but appears not for all GPUs. My wife says that in this update's description, Microsoft mentioned that they made some changes to DirectX (different versions) for some sort of optimization. As we can see, they failed.

Tonight after work I will provide you with an example video of the problem.

Also, my wife's going to reinstall Windows later today or tomorrow, so we will notify you of the results.

[Tim]

The creator did send me the wallpaper and as you said, there is nothing special about that wallpaper and it should just work. I also think this must be some very new and unusual driver problem that only affects a small number of users.

If the issue does not go away for you, try using some older Windows 11 drivers from Nvidia first. If that fixes the problem, then it is definitely a new bug in the Nvidia drivers that would need to be reported to them. From our experience, Nvidia really does listen to bug reports and you can file this issue here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSewHJk1xP-C5elLBRCDLTLpNQZ9eiefrdZmUGP9hMCN6gKssA/viewform

I would test older drivers first though, just to be sure. If it is a Windows issue, it would make sense to contact Microsoft instead. Unfortunately since I cannot reproduce this issue, I cannot help that much for now, it would be best if you could test this and let us know. Really sorry for the hassle!

[KanEyl_Slow]

I have the same problem with this wallpaper ;(
My specs :
Windows 10 22H2
11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 with Xe Geaphics
16GB
I got flickering scenes on different wallpapers lately.
I try to change every wallpaper Engine setting but fail.
It flickering scenes about 8 ~15 second a once.
Hoping for solve it as quickly as possible!

[Aki]

Little update: reinstalling of Windows didn't help, as expected.
We also tried different NVIDIA drivers, from May drivers to the latest. The problem is in DirectX, so Microsoft should fix it.
We contacted Ubisoft support[discussions.ubisoft.com] for the same problem in R6:Siege few weeks ago, and they contacted NVIDIA support as well, so NVIDIA is aware of this problem too.

As I promised, the video[drive.google.com] of flickering, captured on the computer with 3060. To see that frame, you should slow down the video.

[Tea Garden]

Still not fixed...
The flickering issue appeared after the 22h2 update. It's sad that this issue with Directx 11 goes unnoticed. Rainbow 6 Siege has an issue with a flickering skybox and some shadows that also only reproductive via Directx 11 API, Vulkan API is working fine. I'm not sure if it's the same issue, but it's very similar by structure.

I JUST WANT TO USE THIS WALLPAPER WITHOUT ANY PROBLEM