[NOFIX] Artifacting issue

[SunlitZelkova]

While playing the game, I encountered a severe artifacting issue. It disappeared after several seconds, but then reappeared. The first time it caused the entire game to stutter (not just the simulation, the UI would not respond either) and the second time it brought it to a complete halt.

I tried closing it and restarting it, but this time the artifacting occurred at the start menu, and the entire screen occasionally, momentarily flickered to black.

I am running the latest official release (not any beta). Would it be best to try upgrading to the latest beta release to see if it resolves the issue?

Also, is it possible this is an issue with my system? It only occurs with CMO but I am using a non-gaming laptop (Intel Iris Xe Graphics). I had a few graphical issues before, but my graphics driver was out of date, and after updating it they were resolved. My graphics driver was once again out of date, but updating it has not resolved this particular issue.

Checking the GPU performance, I found 3D rendering was maxed out when the issue was occurring, but I don't know what the performance was before the issue occurred.

Lastly, what further info can I share? I am not sure what kind of files or other information are best to provide, as this isn't an in-simulation issue that can be reproduced in a scen or save file.

[Dimitris]

Does this happen in a specific scenario or any of them ?

[thewood1]

The Intel integrated GPU chipsets are extraordinarily finicky and can be unstable under load of games. I avoid them at all costs. Also make sure you have no overlays like Steam, Nahimic, etc. running.

[Dimitris]

Good point. There is an unfortunate tendency lately for overlays on top of games. The most common culprits are:
* RivaTuner
* Nahimic
* Nvidia Share
* MSI Afterburner
* Discord overlays

[SunlitZelkova]

Does this happen in a specific scenario or any of them ?

I tried to open the game to test this but it couldn't even load a scenario this time. I pressed "enter scenario" from the briefing and it closed, but the game froze before the map adjusted itself to focus on the units, with the blank globe being all that was shown.

I double checked and found that an overlay related to HP Omen was running, but turning it (and HP Omen itself) off yielded basically the same result, only this time the image on the unit info side panel of the auto-selected unit on scenario start up loaded.

The Intel integrated GPU chipsets are extraordinarily finicky and can be unstable under load of games. I avoid them at all costs. Also make sure you have no overlays like Steam, Nahimic, etc. running.

If that is the case I suspect it may simply be an issue with my system. I'm just surprised it would suddenly act out this way. I've run CMO for about a year on it with almost no issues like this.

[thewood1]

"My graphics driver was once again out of date"

Timing seems a little coincidental.

[SunlitZelkova]

Yes, and updating it was the first thing I did before opening a thread here, but it hasn't resolved the issue. Last time the issue went away immediately after updating it. It also wasn't as severe (I was still able to load scenarios and use the game just fine, the map would just take several seconds to load when selecting a new unit or moving the camera around on it).

[Nikel]

Post your last exceptionlog file.

But before, it is more useful if this line is set to true, not false. Open the file "Command.ini" located in the Config folder of the game with a text editor like Notepad. Save after editing.

LogDebugInfoToFile = True

[thewood1]

Yes, and updating it was the first thing I did before opening a thread here, but it hasn't resolved the issue. Last time the issue went away immediately after updating it. It also wasn't as severe (I was still able to load scenarios and use the game just fine, the map would just take several seconds to load when selecting a new unit or moving the camera around on it).

My point isn't that the driver is out of date, but that the updated driver is what changed.

[SunlitZelkova]

My point isn't that the driver is out of date, but that the updated driver is what changed.

The issue before this one that was resolved by the driver update was several months ago. Would the driver be a likely culprit months after having been updated?

The current issue started before the latest (non-resolution) driver update.

Post your last exceptionlog file.

But before, it is more useful if this line is set to true, not false. Open the file "Command.ini" located in the Config folder of the game with a text editor like Notepad. Save after editing.

LogDebugInfoToFile = True

The latest is attached. I opened the game a couple times earlier in the day, but the last entry in the log has the debug info.

Interestingly, when I opened it again just now to get a log with the debug info, this time the game did not completely freeze. The scenario still loaded like I mentioned earlier (scenario seems to load but the map doesn't show the units) but then the entire globe/map disappeared. The rest of the UI remained functional (but slow), unlike the previous instance of this issue, where the entire game froze.

[Nikel]

No error message unfortunately.

I would do the following.

If you can, disable all the map layers, except Borders+coastlines

Upload your Dxdiag file.

If you get the other error, open the new Exceptionlog file, perhaps this time something is printed .

And of course try the last beta, you have nothing to lose.

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=414039

[SunlitZelkova]

Here are those two files. Interestingly, this time the scenario did properly load, although the artificating was still occurring. The artifacting stopped for about half a minute during which I was able to move around on smoothly. Then it returned, and the units and exclusion zones in the scenario disappeared, while the map itself froze and most layers disappeared—but the BMNG layer remained, but pixeled and jagged. I tried disabling all layers at that point, but turning all but coastlines/borders off did nothing, the broken BMNG layer remained.

Meanwhile, throughout the entire time the UI worked perfectly fine. It wasn't slow at all, and I could even open the DB viewer, scoring window, and mission editor without any issue. I was also able to minimize and expand the message log without any issues.

[Nikel]

There are LiveKernelEvent errors in the dxdiag file.

And they are related with a file, igdkmdn64.sys, that is part of the drivers for the Iris Xe graphic card.

Probably is the cause of your problem, even though I do not see Command.exe anywhere.

You are using the latest. Was it also happening with the previous version of the drivers?


https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... ndows.html

[SunlitZelkova]

There are LiveKernelEvent errors in the dxdiag file.

And they are related with a file, igdkmdn64.sys, that is part of the drivers for the Iris Xe graphic card.

Probably is the cause of your problem, even though I do not see Command.exe anywhere.

You are using the latest. Was it also happening with the previous version of the drivers?


https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... ndows.html

Well, prior to the issue occurring, I was supposed to be using the latest version. However, when I opened the device manager and checked the driver date, it dated back to 2024. I had previously used the Intel Driver and Support Assistant, and it according to it I was supposed to be using the latest version. So this time I manually downloaded the latest driver and updated it that way. The device manager now displays that I am using the latest version (32.0.101.7080) but oddly, the device manager says it was released on November 3rd while the website for manual download and Driver and Support Assistant say it was released on November 7th.

I'm not sure what to do here.

[Nikel]

There are options.

Try the last version of CMO.

In the device manager, roll back to a previous version of the driver.

If it is dated 2024 and still happening, you may download another version in the link above, tick the version, 7076 dated september.

If still happens with several combinations of CMO and drivers, perhaps is the hardware what is failing.

Is it happening with other games?

If you play CMO through steam try the legacy 32 bits version.

[SunlitZelkova]

There are options.

Try the last version of CMO.

In the device manager, roll back to a previous version of the driver.

If it is dated 2024 and still happening, you may download another version in the link above, tick the version, 7076 dated september.

If still happens with several combinations of CMO and drivers, perhaps is the hardware what is failing.

Is it happening with other games?

If you play CMO through steam try the legacy 32 bits version.

I downloaded the latest beta and the issue actually became worse. At this point I'm fairly certain the computer is the problem.

The only game I play on this computer is CMO so I don't have anything to compare it to. I recall that CMO's graphical requirements have risen over time so it's not too surprising that this computer wouldn't be able to handle it one day (I only took into account the CPU when originally choosing to play CMO on it). I will need to upgrade.

[Nikel]

The last build is slower in the benchmark, but that is a CPU test, not GPU.

Besides the nVidia, my laptop has an Intel UHD graphics card, and can play CMO without issues with it, because only use the Borders+coastlines layer to play.

If layers are added, then CMO is slow (when near 100% use of the GPU).


RegenerationItawa posted some tests comparing CMO versions and layers and the impact on the GPU. He also had only an Intel GPU like in your case.

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopi ... 0#p5123500


The higher GPU requirements started with the 64bits/Dx11 version.

What is strange is that you did not notice it before, so something else is happening, drivers or the graphic card itself.

[thewood1]

Because the Intel GPU is integrated with the CPU completely, graphics performance can be impacted by CPU load as well. So any comparison has to be done with the exact same CPU load. I tested this out years ago in CMNAO and found graphics performance suffered under large scenario loads with Intel and not with AMD and nVidia.

[Dimitris]

SunlitZelkova < Were you able to resolve the issue by any action ?

[SunlitZelkova]

SunlitZelkova < Were you able to resolve the issue by any action ?

I was not able to. Unfortunately I was unable to test Nikel's suggestion of using no map layers except for borders-coastlines as turning off range rings did not work (the BMNG layer would get "stuck").

The flashing has since appeared when I am doing things on that computer besides playing CMO so I am quite certain the issue is with my driver or GPU and not CMO.