Help with tree textures flickering?

[am_cruiser]

The game is unplayable for me, because the tree textures, when viewed from any reasonable distance, flicker several times per second. In effect, all wooded areas and individual trees appear as a flickering, green mess, except when I zoom in really close - then, the trees look gorgeous. Everything else looks good and the game seems to run reasonably smooth, the problem is just the trees. It does, however, look so horrendous that for me, the game cannot be played and enjoyed.

I have an Acer laptop that does meet all the minimum specs, save for the CPU speed, but that doesn't seem to be the problem as the game runs otherwise smoothly. Graphics card is Geforce GT 330M, with up-to-date drivers. 4Gb of RAM and 1GB of VRAM. OS is Windows 7, 64-bit.

I've tried setting up the game, via Nvidia control panel, to firmly use the dedicated graphics card. Also verified game files via Steam, reinstalled the game, tried the different graphics settings in-game, all to no avail. And, I run no 3rd party software that could mess with the graphics (unless Nvidia control panel does that too?). Now, of course I can play the game, in a strictly mechanical sense, but it really is not what I paid for.

Please help, if I cannot fix this I'll have to get a refund on what otherwise seems like a great game!

[Huperspace]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/446800/discussions/1/1697175413691615583/

is it possible to make a video of it

[am_cruiser]

Probably, since it's very noticeable and would show up in a video clip, but I don't know how I can capture gameplay on a video...?

[Huperspace]

screen recording software. Nvidia Geforce experience has one.
search one

or

make screenshots and add them to a gif or so (if it's possible to capture the flickering)

[am_cruiser]

Here's a GIF of how it looks. Note how the trees really close to viewpoint look all normal, but the ones even a minimal distance away flicker all the time. From a bird's eye view, even at low level, all the trees look like that.

[Edit: Of course, the gif is in slow motion - in-game, the flickering happens several times per second, hence the annoyance]

https://media.giphy.com/media/4ZvzVMI5a3XLRsDSfZ/giphy.gif

[Huperspace]

bad gif but ok. Looks like The LOD is hopping. Are the green big pixel an gif artefact or ingame too?
Have you tried to play with the LOD setting?
Have you tried reinstall GPU driver?

[am_cruiser]

I know the gif's bad - sorry. Best I could come up with.
Yep, thought so too. Green pixels are ingame, if I zoom in they become good-looking trees, like the ones in the foreground.
If by GPU driver you mean the graphics driver, then yes, it's fresh and up-to-date.
That's the thing - I thought I'd play around with the LOD settings or some such, but I cannot for the life of me find out how to do that. Can you help with that? In-game settings seem to have nothing on LOD, and I'm a bit green when it comes to editing .ini files.

[Huperspace]

i didn't find a LOD setting either.
have you cleared the texture cache as of the other threat? (you may have to reboot afterwards to clear the VRAM too) as well as steam cache.
or delete the tree texture files and let steam redownload it.

[am_cruiser]

Smart ideas, but alas, more are needed.
I have cleared the cache, multiple times. Haven't tried deleting tree texture files, but if that was the issue, then I suppose the re-install I did would have solved that already?

[am_cruiser]

I got in touch with the devs via their homepage, they're trying to reproduce the issue. Is there anywhere else I could ask for help on this? This must be something very small and specific, since it's just the trees, but I don't have the know-how to fix it... And it's a shame, since it's a great game otherwise.
If I can't get it working properly soon, I'll have to get a refund - and that has to be done within 14 days of buying the game. Disappointing. (but thanks Huperspace :) )

[Robbedem]

some news:
The devs have been able to reproduce the issue and are working on a fix.

[am_cruiser]

Awesome! :-) So good to know they take an interest in these kinds of reports - not all game developers bother to do so.

[New_York96]

Hi!
Is there any solution for this problem yet?

[Autocoach]

I'm not aware of one . In order to play without flashing trees you can revert to the pre-patch version but other that no.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/446800/discussions/1/1762482479180287768/

[am_cruiser]

No, there isn't, and for me, reverting to the pre-patch version is not an option either - that version of the game looks absolutely horrible, and stutters and lags all the time. So, apparently all we can do is wait for the devs to fix it.

[New_York96]

Thx for the help. I will check the earlier patch and see the outcome.