Strange phaser flashes around Wileys Sovereigns

[Lord Tribble]

So I've just started messing with BC again after a long hiatus and have finally gotten around to properly trying Wileys FC and Nemesis Enterprise-E's. Whenever I use the phasers, the little point lights and sprites that are usually positioned where the beam starts on the hull instead flash all around the ships at random places. Even being some distance away from the model a lot of the time, sometimes right at the edge of the screen. The actual beam is fine, but theses little flashing circles and light sources are going haywire. It's less prominent of the FC version than the Nem version, but is still very apparent. Has anyone run into this before or know of a cure?

[Bones]

a gfx glitch ? I remember BC had such glitches especially with pulse weapons... sometimes nanoFX flashes appeared in the right spot but sometimes they were completely off smae goes with pulse weapons sometimes they were fired from right coordinates and sometimes they went nuts and fired from random spot on the screen ... this happened usually under heavy stress (lots of ships firing at the same time)

[Lord Tribble]

I don't use those effects from nanofx, just explosions and warp. None the less, I tried disabling it. There may have been a slight improvement but not by much. I've tested some other ships aswell. The same thing happens every now and again, but no where near as frequently or as apparent as wileys sovs. I was testing on asteroids so there was only one ship firing. I'm wondering if the phasers may be trying to fire off too quickly for the game to keep up

[Bones]

Back then I noticed it happened on poly+textures heavy models ... might be the issue (it's worth noticing I had problems with older games since I got that damn HP laptop with switchable graphics ... may he rust in peace ... it had Ati HD 6770 and tons of gfx glitches in BC)

[Lord Tribble]

Just tried dropping the texture size by 50%, no improvement. I might try altering the speed of the phasers to see if that helps at all

[Lord Tribble]

Nope; no joy. Gave them the same charge/discharge values etc as some other sovs I've got, Had no effect other than making them slower. I even tried dumping the whole hardpoint for the cg sov in there. Interestingly, the weapons still seemed to fire from the correct place even though it was an entirely different HP (but still with the weird flashes).

I'm wondering if there may be some sort of mismatch between the models and the HP for the phaser arcs, but I know nothing of how these things are set up.

Not sure what else I can try

[Lord Tribble]

Tried a completely fresh install with the latest version KM today, still getting the same problem there.

[Nighthawk]

Whenever I use the phasers, the little point lights and sprites that are usually positioned where the beam starts on the hull instead flash all around the ships at random places.

it happens....

I got that problem with CG's galaxy back in the day... I guess you can track down the problem to the size of the firing arc.
if it's too big, and the actual beam fires too fast, the effect tends to lag up or not refresh correctly.

that, and it can also be a matter of graphic load, and texture processing speed.

try using the KM sovereign with blind firing and do a random sweep in a map such as Beol 4 or Vesuvi dust cloud, and repeat the process in an empty map such as Void or Riha.
if you still got the bug, it's a matter of graphics... if not, it's a matter of hardpoints.

[Lord Tribble]

Still have it everywhere, It's particularly worse when the ship is moving.

I've even shrunk the textures to all 512x512, so that the model folder for the ship is 9.46MB total.

The nif file is smaller than other ships I can run without problem (I get the occasional random flash with some other ships, but nowhere near the disco mayhem these produce).

Tried Dropping my resolution as well, that made no difference.

I really don't understand how it could be a graphics issue

[Lord Tribble]

Ok, I'm pretty certain it's a hardpoint issue; I gave it a hardpoint that I use for my CG sovs and everything was fine (except for things firing from the wrong places). Still no idea what bit in the hardpoint is causing it though

I've also got a couple of vids showing what's going on:

Full stop:
http://youtu.be/C_N7PjQUtrc

Full impulse:
http://youtu.be/a03Xib13F0g

I recorded these with blind fire in a fresh KM install, but it happens when targeting a hostile as well.

[captain_obvious]

That reminds me a lot of something that was scripted to happen in Ep 3 Mission 1 of the single player campaign when testing the phasers..
Perhaps it has something to do with that? A script in there somewhere that shouldn't be where it is?

[Lord Tribble]

That reminds me a lot of something that was scripted to happen in Ep 3 Mission 1 of the single player campaign when testing the phasers..
Perhaps it has something to do with that? A script in there somewhere that shouldn't be where it is?

If your referring to the way the phasers are shooting in random directions, that's just the blind fire function in KM. It's the little circles and light sources flashing all over the screen that are causing me grief.

[captain_obvious]

If your referring to the way the phasers are shooting in random directions, that's just the blind fire function in KM. It's the little circles and light sources flashing all over the screen that are causing me grief.

No, I'm referring to something that was scripted to happen in the campaign mission I mentioned.  It behaves differently to what I remember of the blind fire function. 
:/

[Lord Tribble]

No, I'm referring to something that was scripted to happen in the campaign mission I mentioned.  It behaves differently to what I remember of the blind fire function.  
:/

Hmm, I don't remember anything like this and it happens on a fresh install of KM so I don't think it can be a script thing.


Further Update:

I've un-installed from program files and re-installed BC to C:/Games based on some other threads (never had problems with the default location like they described but I though it would be worth a go). No Improvement, but I have noticed that it's happening on more ships than I thought, not just Wileys Sovs. But I definitely don't remember seeing it on them before.

[King Class Scout]

Thing is, I seem to remember it's a Game Engine problem.  i get the off-kilter flashes with warping more than anything.

[Lord Tribble]

Thing is, I seem to remember it's a Game Engine problem.  i get the off-kilter flashes with warping more than anything.

I think you may be right, I just restored the un modded vanilla install and saw the same effect. Damn. 

But I still don't understand why it's started happening when it was fine before. Perhaps a graphics driver update broke it.

Do those little points use an image file? Maybe it can be replaced with something that isn't visible

[hobbs]

i may be being stupid here but is it not a hp problem ie the size of the phaser circle is too large

[King Class Scout]

I think you may be right, I just restored the un modded vanilla install and saw the same effect. Damn. 

But I still don't understand why it's started happening when it was fine before. Perhaps a graphics driver update broke it.

Do those little points use an image file? Maybe it can be replaced with something that isn't visible

I believe the weapon flashes do use a texture.  but it's probably a little 32 pixel job.

Hobbs: nah, you'd notice a phaser goof like that.  I fixed a couple badly positioned phaser strips on early mods.

[Lord Tribble]

Found it!
Bridge Commander\data\Textures\Tactical\PhaserLights.tga

Blacked out the alpha in that and it seems to have helped. The hull still gets briefly lit up from the randomly placed light sources but at least I don't have the little circles flashing all over the place.

I'm guessing the light sources themselves are nothing I can edit?

[King Class Scout]

you mean in the sets themselves?  yeah, that's editable.  but I'd have to see what you mean, myself.