Models dissapear at certain angles

[Vesuvian]

Hi

When I play Bioshock many of the models will temporarily vanish if I look at them at a specific angle.

I figure this has something to do with my 2048x1152 resolution and the clipping plane?

Has anyone heard of this happening before?

[ctren]

I am having the same issue. Did you ever get it fixed?

[Ubusunagami]

I think I have the same issue. I am using Windows 7 RC 7100 64-bit, and some things disappear depending on where/how I am looking at them. In the first level of the game, after your bathysphere is attacked, the door disappears and reappears as I move closer or further away:

Disappearing:
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/1729/missingdoor.jpg

Reappearing:
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/9683/missingdoor2.jpg

These were both taken before I picked up the radio, before the door opens to let me out. Please forgive the poor resolution as I couldn't alt-tab out of the game without an error and had to alt-enter into windowed mode to get the screenshots to work. I am using the retail version (not steam or anything).

My other specs are:
Intel Core 2 Extreme Q6850
nVidia 285 (Sli Mode)
4 gigs ram

I am using the latest drivers. I can't figure out what is causing the glitches. I run on max settings at 1900x1200 resolution, and everything else runs just fine. Any help would be appreciated.

[ctren]

Ubusunagami

Ok, I am using windows 7 as well, 64 bit. I am also running at 1920 X 1200. I found that if I drop the resolution down to 1680 X 1050 it goes away. I've dropped the resolution to lower and then it comes back again. So in summary, It only seems to work for me at 1680 X 1050.

I have also tried each of the graphics setting one at a time from in the game and it makes no difference. I wonder if it is an SLI thing. I am using a GTX295. I haven't tried running in single GPU mode......

The only info I've been able to find that is similar to what is happening to us is a problem that ATI cards were having which there was a hot fix for.

Also, the game worked fine for me in winXP at any resolutions.

Let me know if you find more info...

[Ubusunagami]

Hello ctren,

Changing the resolution fixed it for me too. I wish I could play it on max, but this works just fine. At least now I know I won't miss anything because I was looking at it funny. Thanks for the tip.

Previously, I tried making BioShock use only one card. It didn't have any impact on the problem. Neither did changing compatibility mode. If this is a similar issue as to what happened with ATI, I hope we get a patch too.

[ctren]

It still looks pretty good at 1680 X 1050. I guess we can live with it until someone figures out a fix. If you do, post it in this thread and I will do the same.

I played through it once already on winxp. If this is your first time playing it, have fun. I really enjoyed it

[Vesuvian]

Thanks for the responses. Good to know I'm not the only person with this issue.

I've played through Bioshock on XP fine, the dissapearing issue only seems to happen for me on Windows 7.

Makes me wonder how Microsoft could mess with something so specific.

[Dryspace]

I don't understand why I'm unable to delete this post. My solution to this problem did not show up at the end of the thread as I expected, so I will try to figure out what I did wrong. I admit I am fairly new to forums.

[Dryspace]

This problem was particularly perplexing for me, as I had played Bioshock all the way through almost a year ago on this very same PC and OS with no graphical corruption at all (unless you count toe-tapping corpses, of course). It just didn't make sense to me--same hardware, same OS. As a matter of fact, I had only two weeks ago reinstalled Vista x64 onto a brand new hard drive, so any kind of conflict, bug, or virus having taken root since I last played the game was out of the question.

After trying various in-game and nVidia driver settings to no avail, it dawned on me that there HAD been a change since the last time I played Bioshock on this very same PC--MY NVIDIA DRIVER VERSION!!! Honestly, as soon as this hit me, I knew it had to be the solution. I checked the nVidia site for a driver that I would have been using around November 2008 when I last played, and settled on 178.24. Driver 'downdated'--problem solved. The official nVidia driver archive is at: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us

Just make sure that 'All' is selected in the 'Recommended/Beta:' box.

I have not done the trial and error to ascertain exactly which driver version broke Bioshock as I am not fond of reinstalling video drivers, but I'm sure someone will pick up where I left off. How could nVidia commit such a gargantuan oversight? A whole 'nother story, I guess.

Pertinent Details:

Problem: Disappearing surfaces on all resolutions except 1680x1050 and one or two very low 4:3 resolutions (such as 640x480).

Summary of Solution: Graphical corruption under driver version 190.38; NO corruption under driver version 178.24 (and possibly some later versions)

System Specifications:

OS: Vista Home Premium x64
CPU: Q9550
MoBo: Asus P5N-D
RAM: Mushkin 2 x 1GB
Video: 2 x GTX 260 (Have only ran Bioshock on single GPU so far)
Audio: X-Fi Xtreme Gamer

[Darcalus]

i'm having this issue as well, is there really no other solution than to use 1680 or downdate the driver? downdating the drivers may have an adverse effect on some of the newer games on my system. thanks to everyone who has posted those solutions though.