Possible Bug - Phantom Blocks - I Believe It's a Long-Known Problem

[Marcinkoman]

I have this bug too. I play singleplayer and use Nitrogen. I read in another thread to us the "pois" command to make it go away. It works!! I do not know what that command actually does, when i use it it says pois disabled. But,  I have not noticed anything unusual nor not working as it did before. The pois function exactly as they did before i used the command except no marble blocks everywhere. When you see the phantom blocks, open the console and type pois. Problem gone. I was ready to stop playing and wait for stable and now I can play again, try it.

 

[Laz Man]

It is worth pointing out the blocks that you guys are seeing are part of the distant POI mesh file that is loaded when you see a specific POI off in the distance.  The anomaly is why is it not unloading once you are close enough to the POI.  You can observe the popping out of the mesh when approaching any given POI at a certain distance.  The reason it is probably not fixed yet is because there are no errors and I have yet seen anyone to provide a consistent reproduction step that the programmers can work with.

If any of you have such steps, please submit it along with all of the required information asked.

As a side note, I have NEVER experienced the issue myself in either A18 or A19 but my brother has...So the million dollar question is why some people and not others?

Edit: As a side note, one theory is the more dense the POIs in one area, the more frequent the issue can happen...

 

[Elroniel]

Interesting note on the "pois" console command.  That certainly does work - typed it in and hit enter, boom, fixes the non-rendered blocks and snaps them into the right textures/meshes.  Sadly, it also makes it to where distant POI's don't render any longer.  I presume the actual function of the "pois" command is more related to that, but the fix for now is nice.

Is there another command like "pois" that can snap the meshes back into place -and- leave distant POI's still rendered as they are?  That would be perfect.

 

[Laz Man]

The "pois" command turns off the distant POI mesh for ALL pois.  That is why it fixes the issue as that is what players are seeing up close.

 

[Elroniel]

That makes sense.  Which Video setting controls the range at which the game switches from the distant mesh to the normal one?

 

[sinda]

there are no video settings to set the range of the distance rendering.
 

 

[SylenThunder]

there are no video settings to set the range of the distance rendering.
 

Yes there is. It's called View Distance. This adjusts how many chunks around your person are rendered in your client. Anything outside of that would be handled by distant POI.

 

[luxor5]

I made an account specifically to post this issue! Glad I found the thread. I see the marble blocks all over certain POI's on A19e. Have switched back to 18. For now.

I57400

16gb ram

Gtx 1060

 

[sinda]

Yes there is. It's called View Distance. This adjusts how many chunks around your person are rendered in your client. Anything outside of that would be handled by distant POI.

sounded like he was only referring to distant poi to me, not general chunk loading.

 

[Elroniel]

sounded like he was only referring to distant poi to me, not general chunk loading.

Yep, that's what I'm talking about.  I thinking if the distance was able to be reduced, it could just snap to the close up textures when I got closer to a POI instead of trying to load so many and then failing, leaving us with the distant ones.

A console command to "check" the POI's in my range that should have the close textures and updating them if needed would solve the issue, too.  It seem like once the distant ones "lock in", I can't get them to be change to the close ones unless I either use the pois console command (and lose distant textures entirely) or restarting the game standing next to the POI I want the close textures in.

 

[EpicSpire]

same issue:

Single Player


System Info

Graphics:
 

Video Settings

 

[SylenThunder]

same issue:

Single Player


System Info

Graphics:
 

Video Settings

So you don't even meet minimum specs. This isn't really surprising then, but at least the information gives me something I can test with. I have a laptop with no GPU or dedicated VRAM like yours I can use with those settings.

And just for reference, I set up a desktop that almost exactly met minimum specs last night, and could not replicate this issue in either a18 or a19.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/251570/discussions/0/2570942124844038592/?ctp=6#c4349865446122559433

 

[EpicSpire]

So you don't even meet minimum specs. This isn't really surprising then, but at least the information gives me something I can test with. I have a laptop with no GPU or dedicated VRAM like yours I can use with those settings.

And just for reference, I set up a desktop that almost exactly met minimum specs last night, and could not replicate this issue in either a18 or a19.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/251570/discussions/0/2570942124844038592/?ctp=6#c4349865446122559433

what part of my specs doesn't meet minimum?

 

[SylenThunder]

what part of my specs doesn't meet minimum?

Your GPU. Client requires 2GB dedicated VRAM on minimum specs, and 4GB on recommended. Your pseudo-GPU doesn't have any. It claims 6GB, but that's is shared system RAM, and not dedicated. It's also stealing CPU cycles because it's an inbred chip, and not an actual dedicated GPU chipset.

Add that to the extremely poor performing 8400, and the only thing that really performs above min spec is the RAM and maybe the hard drive.

Even using specs that meet requirements like the OP has, I have been unable to replicate this issue. I'm going to be pulling out that old craptop I have in a minute to test though. Like yours it has a weak CPU and inbred GPU stealing the RAM.

 

[SylenThunder]

ok, so I ran the test, and was unable to replicate the issue.

Distant POI



Close POI





The gas station 



So after playing a bit and not getting anything, I turned on creative mode and started teleporting around. Then I just put it in fly mode and went cruising around a city at high speed. Definitely exceeded what this laptop is capable of by a large margin.

And only then did I start to see it.







So then I went back to my Min Spec PC and tried to replicate it.

No dice.

So I went back to the laptop, and logged back in without cheats.  Low and behold everything was fine.



Went back to the Sonic replica the normal way without cheating, and it's showing up fine too.

 

[EpicSpire]

Your GPU. Client requires 2GB dedicated VRAM on minimum specs, and 4GB on recommended. Your pseudo-GPU doesn't have any. It claims 6GB, but that's is shared system RAM, and not dedicated. It's also stealing CPU cycles because it's an inbred chip, and not an actual dedicated GPU chipset.

Add that to the extremely poor performing 8400, and the only thing that really performs above min spec is the RAM and maybe the hard drive.

Even using specs that meet requirements like the OP has, I have been unable to replicate this issue. I'm going to be pulling out that old craptop I have in a minute to test though. Like yours it has a weak CPU and inbred GPU stealing the RAM.

ok, thanks. but now im pissed because the s**t head at best buy lied to me. i just bought this PC 6 weeks ago and he told me the graphics card was intel, but that it was rated similar to gforce 1080. i'm about to go (redacted)

 

[Laz Man]

ok, thanks. but now im pissed because the s**t head at best buy lied to me. i just bought this PC 6 weeks ago and he told me the graphics card was intel, but that it was rated similar to gforce 1080. i'm about to go (redacted)

Hopefully they let u return.  I bought a Lenovo legion laptop at the beginning of the year that is running the game at medium/hight settings.  It was on sale under $1k at costco.

 16gb ram, ssd, gtx 1660ti 6gb vram.

 

[ggoblin]

ok, so I ran the test, and was unable to replicate the issue.

Distant POI

View attachment 12276

Close POI

View attachment 12277

View attachment 12278

The gas station 

View attachment 12279

So after playing a bit and not getting anything, I turned on creative mode and started teleporting around. Then I just put it in fly mode and went cruising around a city at high speed. Definitely exceeded what this laptop is capable of by a large margin.

And only then did I start to see it.

View attachment 12280

View attachment 12281

View attachment 12282

So then I went back to my Min Spec PC and tried to replicate it.

No dice.

So I went back to the laptop, and logged back in without cheats.  Low and behold everything was fine.

View attachment 12283

Went back to the Sonic replica the normal way without cheating, and it's showing up fine too.

View attachment 12284

View attachment 12285

Well, I've been experimenting a bit as well and have these bits to add:

1. It's not certain. Sometimes I can play all evening and never see it, sometimes I have to restart twice during 3-hour session

2. It has happened to me while I was still in "gee, I finally have a bicycle" phase, so nothing extremely fast. I can't handle gyro so I never fly it

3. I've never seen problem fix itself - when a POI was "blocked", it was blocked even if I returned later. I do my missions solo even in multiplayer and am quite sure the chunk had time to unload.

4. There is an angle from which the textures disappear. It is very small angle but it exists, at least for some POIs.

My PC has a bit over the recommended specs and same stuff happens on a brand new and rightfully expensive pc a friend has bought several months ago.

Hope it helps.

 

[Xtrakicking]

Hello. This issue is still persistent in A19 B173. I just took a look at the spreadsheet of known A19 problems and can't seem to find this bug anywhere in that list, even though it's been present since A18.

 

[KalashniFox]

Ive got this issue as well, and ive made similar observations. Sometimes i can play four hours and not see it once, sometimes its 10 mins.  Ive noticed that restarting the game sometimes helps, but theres some pois that seem to permanently be stuck in this state. I always figured it was something with the lod's but idk much about it. I only started experiencing it after the move to a19, but now even if i revert back to a18 it has started there as well. Really hope its fixed as it just removes any desire to play.