White pixels around EOTN models with AA enabled

Hi all.

I've been having the following problem ever since Eye of the North came out. When I use any anti-aliasing setting I get white flashing pixels around the edges of certain (EOTN) models.

Here is a screenshot I made:




Left side is no AA, right side is 4x AA. Problem shows especialy on the 'spikes' of Jora's armor in this case. It's hard to screenshot, its much more visible when you move around since the pixels that flash white constantly change making it look like a white line along the outside.

I'm using an ATI Radeon X800XT 256MB AGP with the latest drivers (tried older versions, same problem).

I've seen other people posting the exact same problem (with screenshots) a while back but I've never seen anyone offer a solution or an explanation, though maybe I missed it. One person that posted the same problems used a nVidia card so I doubt its a driver issue.

The weird thing is it's only happening with EOTN models/graphics (weapons, armor, NPC's). I tried changing a ton of driver settings (using ATi Tray tools) but no luck. Maybe it's some new shaders that dont get properly supported by 'older' cards?

Anyway it's not a terrible thing but it is a bit annoying, especially since my Hall of Monuments is now full of these 'white flashing pixel' models (ALL destroyer weapons have it, and some armor). Any help would be appreciated, or the assurance it doesn't happen with more modern cards. Maybe its time to upgrade .

turn off AA and play that way....?

then upgrade ASAP :P

turn off AA and play that way....?

then upgrade ASAP :P

Ive had the same problem with eotn, odgens beard seems to do it.

Same problem with almost all EotN armors -

From what I read it is mostly ATI cards. But upgrading will not help - I have the highest non-dx10 ATI card i could find and a very good system but still get the white pixels.

Also, last I heard ANet wasn't even interested in looking into the problem.

Thats peculiar, have you tried updated/reinstalling your video drivers, and reinstalling guild wars? I have low end and high end ati cards on a few machines I play GW on and I dont have this problem.

Thats disappointing to hear. I'm using pretty mainstream components, errors like this shouldn't happen between a game the size of GW and an a somewhat recent (back then high-end) ATi card. At least not 5 months after release.

I tried reinstalling both, problem was still there .

Ive got the same problem here with an Nvidia 8800 GTS 320MB on my new system. Only in GWEN.

I notice it mostly around edges of armor, sometimes buildings, but mostly Ogden's Beard as was mentioned. Turn off AA, goes away, turn on AA there it is. Its definately a GW problem from my experience with these sorts of things. It seems to happen where detail collisions are.

I have this problem with my mask of the mo zing.

I've always had this problem...ONLY with EotN. Around the edges of various EotN stuff. To be honest, I've just put it down to being yet ANOTHER thing Anet just rushed over and bundled into a box. Lazy buggers >.>

I found it was LESS bad for me with maxed-out AA. I run all my graphics settings at max, and I have around 100FPS (between 50 and 150 sometimes) so I doubt it's my setup. Also running with the latest drivers and bla bla bla etc you know the deal >.>

Guess it's not just ATi then, or older GPU's.


I just found this interesting quote from the Gaile/Frog talk page on the official wiki:

"It is very unlikely that clipping and other graphical issues in GW will be addressed - GW2 is a higher priority"

Seems that we are stuck with the current graphical glitches for another 1.5 or so years. So much for supporting your current content.

Just realize that that is a wiki page, and that its a summary. Two zones for error. A sweeping AA problem is probably something "leaking" and might be costing their servers trouble as well. Broad demand and consistent reporting (note, not QQing, which we are doing well on), can lead to change.

Also, since its just edges, it might be AF that is activated in your display panel. Most modern driver display panels have selectable global or application 3d settings, and they can conflict. Since this seems like a lower end problem (not as common), it might be based on this. I will check my old comp and see if it happens.

You're right, sorry about the QQ lol.

I had tried changing AF settings, it doesnt seem to affect it (though unlike AA GW does allow forced AF through display driver settings).

After trying some more I found that the ingame setting Shader Quality (Options->Graphics->Advanced) did affect it. I had it set to high. When I put it to medium the white pixels disappeared from all destroyer weapons but not from the EOTN armor. If I put it to low the problem completely disappears!

To test it out, go to Lions Arch and switch between low and high. For me no change at all as far as I could see. If I change it in the Eye of the North (town) the lighting on the NPC's (who are surrounded by white pixels on the high setting) changes a little but but nothing major. Same thing in HoM, only the lighting on the affected models changes a bit but the white pixels disappear. Again same thing with Ogden and Anton etc. Seems some new shader effects added in EOTN somehow conflict with AA.

Great news, for me anyway. Ill take slightly worse lighting over white pixels.

if it's related to shaders, then i think the white pixels are lighting. perhaps it was a bad use of lighting, but lighting nonetheless.

Good find indeed. I will test it out when I get the chance.

Although this wouldn't effect my video card, what version of shaderdraw does your card support (current shaders are 3.0 and current games with 3.0 with downward compatibility to 2.0 seem to have edge lighting problems). You talking about the shader stuff might help fix all this, although I like my shaders and hopefully the GW staff pays attention .

My card only supports up to pixel shader version 2.0(b).

So far it seems the low setting makes lighting the same as in Proph/Fac/NF so thats not too bad. Destroyer (and possibly other EOTN) weapons loose their animations all together though which is a shame. Would be nice if they could fix it.

Sounds pretty obvious to be a driver issue, something to do with how the card either filters textures or deals with edges.

It's both nVidia and ATi users that have reported the same problem so a driver issue doesn't sound likely imo. Aerian's card is a 8800GTS so lack of (proper) support for the used shaders also sounds unlikely .