Why Skyrim Should Have Been Delayed: An Argument in Pictures

[blueshark217]

Mines a two year old M11x, and I have no problem. Isolated issues maybe?

 

[distortedreality]

8GB RAM
Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00 GHz, 2001 MHz, 4 Core, 8 Logical Processors
NVIDIA GeForce GT 555MM
Windows 7 64bit

Anything else?

Speed of RAM? Amount doesn't really make a difference with vanilla Skyrim.

What version of the 555MM do you have? There are 4 or 5 different versions of that card.

What graphics driver version are you running?

What are your temps while idle and gaming?

What settings are you running in-game?

Remember kids, all of these 1,000 threads about Skyrim screwing up and ruining gameplay are non-related isolated incidents.

/sarcasm

Have you seen many with these exact problems?

Nobody denies that SKyrim is buggy, it's a Bethesda game.

 

[Eccentric Lich]

I did not know that my problems were isolated cases. My friends who play Skyrim have all reported bugs of various magnitudes so I figured it was a pretty widespread issue.

I still stand by my argument that the game should be delayed because it's riddled with non-graphical bugs as well (the patches have addressed a few of those at least). Anyone who has attempted to play a mage and then switched to a melee character can easily see the balance issues too.

8GB RAM
Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00 GHz, 2001 MHz, 4 Core, 8 Logical Processors
NVIDIA GeForce GT 555MM
Windows 7 64bit

Anything else?

Speed of RAM? Amount doesn't really make a difference with vanilla Skyrim.

What version of the 555MM do you have? There are 4 or 5 different versions of that card.

What graphics driver version are you running?

What are your temps while idle and gaming?

What settings are you running in-game?

No idea
no idea
Whatever was the newest one out on 11/11/11
60 C and 70C respectively
Medium

 

[thiosk]

Most of the bugs and crashes i've seen are due to heat issues inside my filthy computer.

Run 4 year old equipment, deal with problems related to it. Cleaning out the processor and vcard fans and heatsinks eliminated CTD. I have extremely mild texture glitches that are fixed on rebooting.

Bethesda is simply not able to handle every possible combination of equipment, driver, anti-virus software, and secondary software on the planet at release. If you have a frankenmachine, you risk a frankengame.

That I am able to run the game practically flawlessly (aside from the odd glitch here or there) is a testament to the fact that the game is in fact not intrinsically broken and in need of delay (see sword of the stars 2 for a truly broken game). Many problems people are experiencing are not because of "fucking bethesda" but are because they have a new lifeform evolving in the gaps of their heat sinks. THats not to say there are no software related problems (such a statement would be silly), but i've never seen crystal trees, vomit texture, albino dragons, or ripped texture (aside from the time i fell through the floor). There are problems, but good lord, if I don't have them, and you have them, is that purely bethesda's doing? Sometimes yes, usually no.

Also, to add in to other conversation above:
Gaming laptops are a poor choice for intensive gaming. Even on a frigging glacial pad, they are poor at heat dissipation, so the temperature at the chip during intense calculation just goes too high and the result is either crash, or the software cuts corners. Theres no condescension about anyones choice of machine, here, but Skyrim is a hog. Big hot hog. You don't choose a prius for a destruction derby.

 

[GrindBass]

The first two are basically the game getting some normal maps mixed up with colour maps. I had that problem once, but restarting the game fixed it. Thought it was intended before I looked closely cos it happened as soon as I went into an area that I'd never been to before

 

[Denamic]

I've had none of the issues you've had, and I've clocked many, many hours in Skyrim.
I had a dragon missing its texture, being all blue, ONCE, but when the dragon flew out of my view and back again, it had fixed itself.
Your graphics card is likely overheated or a defect if you get glitches like that often.

 

[Laser Priest]

My god! Graphical glitches?! Absolute madness! Recall everything!

No, it's fine. No point holding up the game for months to fix things that at most require you to maybe reload a save from a few minutes ago or even simply stop shitting in your computer.

 

[Ranorak]

Remember kids, all of these 1,000 threads about Skyrim screwing up and ruining gameplay are non-related isolated incidents.

/sarcasm

Dragons flying backwards is a glitch in the script of the dragon's movement code.
As is dead guests at a wedding and faces disappearing while wearing archmages robes and a mask.
The game being unable to load textures on your pc, while doing it fine on others is either a corrupt file, or a less-then-optimal driver.

 

[distortedreality]

My point is this: Regardless of what you thought you were trying to do, you were a dick about it. Stop trying to justify that behind the mask of altruism, because that clearly wasn't your intention.

You missed where I said I know i'm an asshole, but am willing to help regardless.

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

Best bet is something to do with your graphics card, but given that you are running a laptop it's possible that it is also getting too hot whilst playing as well(which would still go back to the graphics card getting too hot).

I've yet to have any graphical glitching with the game, I have had a few surprise crashes to desktop, but usually only right after loading an area. Nothing I'd condemn the game for though.

 

[Eccentric Lich]

If you want specs, here:

8GB RAM
Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00 GHz, 2001 MHz, 4 Core, 8 Logical Processors
NVIDIA GeForce GT 555MM
Windows 7 64bit

Anything else?

Did you overclock the GeForce? Reseting the GeForce to it's standard clock might decrease graphical glitches.

I would not even know how to overclock it, so no.

 

[Taunta]

Fair enough, but then what about NPCs getting to places they don't belong? NPCs in WoW can be kited all over, killed, messed with, etc, and a lot of them do run or patrol on their own, but they hardly get stuck in the ground, get spliced with horses, or decide to fly.

Actually, they do.
Usually mobs get stuck in tries, hills, underground or even stuck on location in evade mode.
But if I were to guess why this is a bigger problem for Skyrim is because of the interactivity.

WoW's NPC's walk a route, from A to B over a pre-set course. Yes, you can pull them off course, and if you did this you would also have noted that if you pull them too far, they race back to their route, while running over houses, up cliffs and through terrain.

Skyrim's NPC's a programmed to seek their own routes.
No matter what you would do to a NPC, it should (if working correctly) find it's own way through the terrain.

WoW, compared to Skyrim is not very interactive and is more or less comparable with Morrowind's NPC's rather then Skyrim.

I play skyrim on ultra settings with no graphical glitches at all. Must be your machine. Check in to updating your gpu drivers. Also, I've never had luck with prebuilt machines. Next time you find yourself in the market for a computer, make some notes, gather some parts, and build it yourself. You'll save a ton of money and you'll be sure of the quality.

Kind of an off-topic question: Why is it that Skyrim has so many bugs? I play WoW quite frequently, also a huge open-world RPG, but these kinds of graphical glitches never happen to me. (I've never seen flying NPCs, quest givers melting into the ground, dragons exploring space,etc) The worst seems to be "oh this mob is evade-bugged", which gets fixed relatively quickly. Is it just a difference in the beta, the developer, or what?

You're comparing WoW to Skyrim? That shows a complete lack of understanding of gaming fundamentals.

WoW is basically a series of static models with colored textures glued overtop of them. Nothing is interactable or moveable.

Skyrim, on the other hand...everything is dynamic and changing and moveable. The memory leak that I've mentioned on here is caused by the fact that every single aspect of the game world is saved as I influence it.

Is that too condescending for you? If so, I'm sorry. =)

Well, I apologize that I don't understand the technical aspect of games. I'm comparing Skyrim to WoW because both are open-world RPGs, and I'm trying to understand what I don't know (Skyrim) by making an analogy to what I do know. (WoW) Thank you for the explanations though.

But even with the difference in engines, I still feel like a lot of things could have been solved with more beta testing, but that's a different topic.

 

[Taunta]

Do you have anything useful to contribute other than being condescending to other people about their choice in computers? I thought not.

I asked for specs so we could help (in my lovable condescending way).

Not my problem if OP doesn't want the help.

Actually, you never once asked for specs. You only complained about how terrible my laptop was.

Actually, I did.

Do you even know what hardware you're running, other than "omg it's alienware"?

Might help us fix the problem, unless of course you want to keep blaming others for your problem.

See, that's where I (and maybe the OP) misunderstood you, because I didn't get the "I want to help" vibe, I got more of a "Your computer is bad and you should feel bad" vibe.

Fair enough.

But to be fair, I didn't get the "I want help to fix my problem" vibe from the OP, all I got was a "Game is broken, not my fault" vibe.

That's not being fair, that's using the "But he said!" argument. I expected you to be classier than that.

 

[Ranorak]

Well, I apologize that I don't understand the technical aspect of games. I'm comparing Skyrim to WoW because both are open-world RPGs, and I'm trying to understand what I don't know (Skyrim) by making an analogy to what I do know. (WoW)

But even with the difference in engines, I still feel like a lot of things could have been solved with more beta testing, but that's a different topic.

That's just it, 99.9% of the time, it works fine.
Just like WoW's NPC's.
However, unlike WoW's constant online world with GMs that can reset Mobs and NPC's, Skyrim relies on it's own code to solve these problems.

The difference here is WoW is basicly a Hotwheels car on a track, it sometimes falls off, but you can just put it back.
Skyrim is a robot who walks on his own and detects obstacles and moves around them. Getting "off track" is a far bigger issue here.

 

[Taunta]

Well, I apologize that I don't understand the technical aspect of games. I'm comparing Skyrim to WoW because both are open-world RPGs, and I'm trying to understand what I don't know (Skyrim) by making an analogy to what I do know. (WoW)

But even with the difference in engines, I still feel like a lot of things could have been solved with more beta testing, but that's a different topic.

That's just it, 99.9% of the time, it works fine.
Just like WoW's NPC's.
However, unlike WoW's constant online world with GMs that can reset Mobs and NPC's, Skyrim relies on it's own code to solve these problems.

The difference here is WoW is basicly a Hotwheels car on a track, it sometimes falls off, but you can just put it back.
Skyrim is a robot who walks on his own and detects obstacles and moves around them. Getting "off track" is a far bigger issue here.

Ahhh, that explains a lot. Thanks for the explanation, and for being patient with my lack of knowledge.

 

[justnotcricket]

Even so, the frequency at which I encounter these bugs is really absurd for any big name title. Especially one that has been patched twice. I've not encountered this many bugs this frequently in any other game.

Taking what you describe here, my experience with Alienware machines, and the general consensus of Skyrim players, there are a couple of possibilities.

First, and obviously what you think, the developers are at fault and the program simply doesn't work. Considering that your case is most definitely the outlier and not the general experience (seeing as there's relatively little forum posts about huge graphical glitches like these), this is unlikely to be the case.

Second, your graphics hardware is not functioning properly, most likely due to overheating (Alienware cases are really, really bad at proper airflow and cooling). This is possible, but seeing as you claim other games are working fine, it's probably not the cause. If you see similar factoring and graphical glitches in other games, then it most likely is. If this is the problem, your best bet to debug it is to borrow a video card from someone or cannibalize an old machine for its card. Put the new card into your machine and run the game. If this fixes the glitches, then your old card is at fault and should be replaced.

Third (and the most likely) is that you have a driver issue. Skyrim is making calls to the graphics card asking for X and the graphics card driver is going "lolwut?". The easiest way to test this is to find the manufacturer of your card, download the latest drivers, restart your machine and run the game again. That should fix your problem, but if it does not then it's likely #2 that is the cause and you will need to experiment with your video card.

Frankly, if you see any graphical problems like you've described here in other games, it's almost certainly your graphics card that is at fault. I've used Alienware machines before and their not nearly as well put together as they should be. The last time I got a machine from them, the graphics card fried itself from overheating within 6 months. Fortunately you should still be under warranty, so replacing it should be free.

Props to Agayek for giving a well-balanced and polite response, unlike so many of the other, unnecessarily snarky posters here!

I would have put it down to drivers myself, as almost every problem I've ever had with a PC game has been due to that...however I'm not really one to diagnose anything since I hardly ever play PC games (well, my PC is too crappy to play new ones).

I really just felt that Agayek needed a pat on the back for *not* being a dick in a PC help thread - quite an achievement on the internet!

Also, I'm tickled by the idea of a graphics card driver going 'lolwut?' =D That made my afternoon.