Morrowind GOTY Graphical Error

ianpwilliams · 05-14-2009

When running Morrowind I notice that every NPC has flickering textures all over their body, and it only seems to happen when they are outside (so maybe something to do with when the sun is shining?). I have run Morrowind on older PC's than this and it has ran fine, although they did have video cards, rather than onboard graphics like this one, which I'm sure will be causing the problem. I have an EMachines E4024 PC with the following specs:

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Service Pack Service Pack 3
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4 516, 2933 MHz (22 x 133)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Grantsdale-G i915GV
System Memory 1525 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
Video Adapter Intel(R) 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family (64 MB)
3D Accelerator Intel GMA 900
Monitor Acer AL1714 [17" LCD] (ETL1809049)
Audio Adapter IC Ensemble M Audio Audiophile

I have updated the drivers and I have the following options for 3D graphics which I could change:

Asynchronous Flip
Triple Buffering
Flipping Policy
Depth Buffer Bit Depth
Force S3TC Texture Compression
Force FXT1 Texture Compression
Driver Memory Footprint
Texture Colour Depth
Anisotropic Filtering

Does anyone know if changing any of these options would likely help at all? I really don't want to buy a video card because I play virtually no games on the PC, it's only because of Morrowind having mods that I want to be able to do it again. I've also tried running the shortcut for the game in Compatibility Mode for Win 98 but that just slowed it right down.

LPChip · 05-14-2009

Hi and welcome back to the PCHelpForum,

Since you have an onboard graphics adapter, I'm fairly confident that this is a memory issue.

If you know how to boot into your BIOS, can you change the VGA aperture size setting? (this is the shared memory of the graphics card. It'll take some ram from your memory and assign it for graphics. 256mb should be enough.

If not, just tell me and I'll look into getting you a description up on how to access the bios and where to find the settings.

ianpwilliams · 05-14-2009

Hi, thanks for the help, but I've checked the aperture setting and it is already set at 256 MB. Not only that but my PC is very slow at operating generally, and takes ages to boot up each time, making me wonder if there is adware or spyware or viruses on there or something. But maybe I should post about that in another forum section. Anyway, has anyone got any other ideas regarding the Morrowind problem?

ianpwilliams · 05-16-2009

Ok I found an old video card (Voodoo3 3000 3DFX), which I've installed. I guessed that the PC would have trouble with both the Voodoo and the onboard at the same time, but I think it has allowed them both to exist using a 2-monitor setup. So when I run Morrowind and select the onboard I have to switch the cable to the other monitor VGA input, but when I run Morrowind and select the Voodoo card it says

Render Creation Error: "Unknown Frame Buffer Mode"

I have a Voodoo3 CD, but I'm having trouble installing it (I think my CD/DVD drive is dying to be honest), so I downloaded the AmigaSport driver from:

3dfxzone.it - 3dfx Channel -> Voodoo3 -> Drivers -> AmigaSport 3.0 XP

I still got the same error, so I let windows connect to find an updated driver automatically, but I've still got the "Unknown Frame Buffer Mode" error. When I had the Voodoo card in an old computer I had some programs available to configure all kinds of stuff. On this PC I try and run "3DFX Tools" and it says

The procedure point (lots of letters and number) could not be located in dynamic link library 3dfxcmn.dll

So basically I can still run Morrowind using the onboard (but not very good) graphics, but if possible I would like to use the Voodoo, unless the card is so old that it's not worth using anyway. Has anyone got any ideas where I can go from here?

ianpwilliams · 05-17-2009

Or could anyone recommend a video card which I could buy which would run the game well with my PC setup, which wouldn't cost a huge amount of money (seeing as the game is really quite old now)?

05-14-2009	#1
ianpwilliams Silver Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: UK Posts: 145 PC Experience: Some Experience	Morrowind GOTY Graphical Error When running Morrowind I notice that every NPC has flickering textures all over their body, and it only seems to happen when they are outside (so maybe something to do with when the sun is shining?). I have run Morrowind on older PC's than this and it has ran fine, although they did have video cards, rather than onboard graphics like this one, which I'm sure will be causing the problem. I have an EMachines E4024 PC with the following specs: Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition OS Service Pack Service Pack 3 DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c) CPU Type Intel Pentium 4 516, 2933 MHz (22 x 133) Motherboard Chipset Intel Grantsdale-G i915GV System Memory 1525 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM) Video Adapter Intel(R) 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family (64 MB) 3D Accelerator Intel GMA 900 Monitor Acer AL1714 [17" LCD] (ETL1809049) Audio Adapter IC Ensemble M Audio Audiophile I have updated the drivers and I have the following options for 3D graphics which I could change: Asynchronous Flip Triple Buffering Flipping Policy Depth Buffer Bit Depth Force S3TC Texture Compression Force FXT1 Texture Compression Driver Memory Footprint Texture Colour Depth Anisotropic Filtering Does anyone know if changing any of these options would likely help at all? I really don't want to buy a video card because I play virtually no games on the PC, it's only because of Morrowind having mods that I want to be able to do it again. I've also tried running the shortcut for the game in Compatibility Mode for Win 98 but that just slowed it right down.

05-14-2009	#2
LPChip Tech Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 195 PC Experience: PC Guru	Re: Morrowind GOTY Graphical Error Hi and welcome back to the PCHelpForum, Since you have an onboard graphics adapter, I'm fairly confident that this is a memory issue. If you know how to boot into your BIOS, can you change the VGA aperture size setting? (this is the shared memory of the graphics card. It'll take some ram from your memory and assign it for graphics. 256mb should be enough. If not, just tell me and I'll look into getting you a description up on how to access the bios and where to find the settings. __________________ Specialised in programming(PHP, VBA, mySQL, HTML, CSS, BAT) and windows XP and earlier Do you possibly have spyware? Try doing some prework

05-14-2009	#3
ianpwilliams Silver Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: UK Posts: 145 PC Experience: Some Experience	Re: Morrowind GOTY Graphical Error Hi, thanks for the help, but I've checked the aperture setting and it is already set at 256 MB. Not only that but my PC is very slow at operating generally, and takes ages to boot up each time, making me wonder if there is adware or spyware or viruses on there or something. But maybe I should post about that in another forum section. Anyway, has anyone got any other ideas regarding the Morrowind problem?

05-16-2009	#4
ianpwilliams Silver Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: UK Posts: 145 PC Experience: Some Experience	Re: Morrowind GOTY Graphical Error Ok I found an old video card (Voodoo3 3000 3DFX), which I've installed. I guessed that the PC would have trouble with both the Voodoo and the onboard at the same time, but I think it has allowed them both to exist using a 2-monitor setup. So when I run Morrowind and select the onboard I have to switch the cable to the other monitor VGA input, but when I run Morrowind and select the Voodoo card it says Render Creation Error: "Unknown Frame Buffer Mode" I have a Voodoo3 CD, but I'm having trouble installing it (I think my CD/DVD drive is dying to be honest), so I downloaded the AmigaSport driver from: 3dfxzone.it - 3dfx Channel -> Voodoo3 -> Drivers -> AmigaSport 3.0 XP I still got the same error, so I let windows connect to find an updated driver automatically, but I've still got the "Unknown Frame Buffer Mode" error. When I had the Voodoo card in an old computer I had some programs available to configure all kinds of stuff. On this PC I try and run "3DFX Tools" and it says The procedure point (lots of letters and number) could not be located in dynamic link library 3dfxcmn.dll So basically I can still run Morrowind using the onboard (but not very good) graphics, but if possible I would like to use the Voodoo, unless the card is so old that it's not worth using anyway. Has anyone got any ideas where I can go from here?

05-17-2009	#5
ianpwilliams Silver Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: UK Posts: 145 PC Experience: Some Experience	Re: Morrowind GOTY Graphical Error Or could anyone recommend a video card which I could buy which would run the game well with my PC setup, which wouldn't cost a huge amount of money (seeing as the game is really quite old now)?

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