Solving the flickering and missing textures issue

A guide to fixing an issue that causes flickering and missing textures in Red Faction Guerrilla.

Note: this issue has been resolved in the Steamworks version of the game.

About the problem

There is an issue where players get flickering and missing textures and random crashes during gameplay, the problem occurs for all Windows 7 (and possibly Vista) users and is caused by a Windows update called KB2670838 that also causes issues with other DX10/11 games and software.

Note: while this issue is different from the coat glitch problem the -nod3d10 command listed below may also solve that.

Solution

There are 2 solutions, either uninstall the update (it's only needed if you use Internet Explorer 10/11) which will roll Internet Explorer back to 9. Or you can run the game in DX9 mode.

To uninstall the update:

Step 1: Open Control Panel

Step 2: Click uninstall a program

Step 3: Click View installed updates

Step 4: Search the list for the KB2670838 update

Step 5: Right click it and click uninstall

To run the game in DX9 mode:

Step 1: Go to Red Faction Guerrilla in your Steam library

Step 2: Right click it and click properties

Step 3: Click set launch options and add -nod3d10 and click ok

Note: this guide will also work for fully updated non-steam versions of the game by putting the -nod3d10 command in the desktop shortcut properties. You you may need to install IE9 manually after doing the update removal method as it doesn't always automatically install. Also removing the KB2670838 update may cause issues with other games.

[salmonn_]

any update on this?, not installing yet (win 11). This was GOAT back in high school

[xXLomyXx]

windows 10 is secretly bugged, they made it so secure that none of games cracked works, the gimic is (sacrificing privace over Security) indeed veri sad

[⎛⎝🖤†Unknowen†⎠⎞]

Yuppers.. Most games I love only work good on the older windows 7.. Sad, but true

[Phrix889]

This issue existed long before Windows 10 came out, and by the way there are plenty of older games that have issues on Windows 10 yet work just fine on Windows 7.

[plumboby]

never had issues with windows 10 pro with a rx560 ran like butter smooth as its why you run newer operating systems fixes these issues.

[Tasty Gravy]

I unisstalled the update and the game worked perfectly, but I then tryed to play cod ww2 and it gave me an error that it needed an updated windowsto play it, so I had to reinstall the update to play it. You might want to put a warning that it could cause problems with other games.

[NULLRAD]

why are people still on XP or Vista? come on! windows 7 best suited for gaming but why people not update to 8 or 8.1 or 10 and maybe even 7?

[Phrix889]

If you have an issue like this in Windows XP it will be caused by something else, this issue only affects the GFWL version of the game on Windows 7 and possibly Windows Vista.

[Slowoke]

Not work on windows xp:(

[KruhlSentru]

I never really said anything, but thanks for this guide. I have to use both of those options to get this game to run right. XD