Semi-gamebreaking VFX glitch?

[Spere]

When certain VFX displays on-screen, they expand to form multiple layers of transparent, flashing sheets, generally overlapping to obscure most of what's happening on-screen and lagging the game immensely. This only occurs when those VFX appear, and as soon as they leave the screen everything works as intended.

So far I confirmed three sources: Any items that look like the Defiants' active Magitech Lamps, sometimes when a member of the Storm Legion dies (not always; presumably only a certain enemy type triggers this, but I haven't figured out which one either), and the lighting effect generated by some of Gloamwood's Guardian Waykeepers.

Fortunately, the Storm Legions' visuals vanish shortly after they die, so that causes few problems. The Magitech Lamps are much more common and permanent, though.

It most commonly occurs after killing Shadavarian in the Defiants' Ceremony of Attunement chronicle, as a Magitech Lamp spawns next to a table where the major NPCs stand, but can also be found often in Cape Jule (lots of both magitech lamps and storm legion), various Defiant camps or cities (once again, the lamps), and the Guardian camp directly to the east of the Darkening Deeps dungeon (Waykeeper lights).

[forbiddenlake]

can you post pics / a video? and your graphics card and settings?

[BlazingOctopus]

We'll take a look at this, thanks for the very specific info, that's really helpful. Curious to look into this one as those effects are really old. Magitech lamps, at least, are from launch.

[Lynx3d]

Hm I don't really have a clue what those effects are either, but every now and then I still see some particle effects that look like they have some transparency issues. They were always rather small and short effects though, so I didn't care too much.

However, if I may, I want to mention another issue that drives me nuts in Tok's glass maze (and to a less degree in many other situations). Whenever your camera gets forced into ego perspective and then zooms out again, all friggin spell effects in progress and of all your buffs get replayed.

Now Cabalist has this ability "Dark Passage" that sortof blurs/distorts your screen for a bit, and whenever I touch a wall in the maze, it starts the animation again, and again, and again since I can't friggin see where I'm going until I make sure I don't touch any wall until the effect is done.
Of course the dungeon run is a time challenge, so the last thing you want to do is stop and wait.

Making the camera not go into ego so much would be nice too, of course...

[Arold]

I've noticed this with an AMD Radeon R7 graphics card on an Intel based m'board.
The same card / drivers on an AMD based m'board had no problem.
64 /32 bit made no difference.
Probably just a curious but irrelevant symptom.

[Coldsprite]

I think this may be the vfx glitch you're referring to (and please correct me if I'm wrong )? When I contacted CS about this last year, they thought it was my graphics card (Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000). If there's a way to resolve this, I'd love to know!

https://youtu.be/0XJ24xaMQBI

[Spere]

I think this may be the vfx glitch you're referring to (and please correct me if I'm wrong )? When I contacted CS about this last year, they thought it was my graphics card (Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000). If there's a way to resolve this, I'd love to know!

https://youtu.be/0XJ24xaMQBI

Yeah, that looks about right.

[Spere]

Bump; found a new source.

The lights generated by some of the Guardian Waykeepers in Gloamwood also causes this; only tested in the camp directly to the right of the Darkening Deeps dungeon (Waykeepers Sera and Sharla), but presumably other camps have the same problem as well.

[Altemeus]

I have this glitch, too, and in fact hit a rough spot. Managed to get to Dusken/Brevane, but the Stormbreach rift outside of Necropolis (in Seratos) is pretty hard to stomach. I can't figure out the pattern. I ran around a bunch, initially thought it was an inner glow from the generators, then blamed the wizard-like character, but it lingered after he died, so I am back to thinking it has something to do with the generators, or possibly even the gun-looking structures nearby the wizard for some time. I just can't pinpoint it, it feels it has no center.

Some sunlight effects I believe also have had a similar effect to what is in the video (in a redder tint), and some of the Storm Legion do cause that effect shown, particularly the death animation of the Legion Armatura in Agrippa Rainforest, Cape Jule. That is probably what is in the video. Turning away stops the effect, but they must be looted and the corpse disappear before the flashing stops in that location. The other Legion members do not create this issue.

I have played this off and on for a decent while. I don't recall a time I didn't have this issue in very specific circumstances, such as facing a particular enemy or being in a specific area with unique sunlight effects.

My graphics card is kinda crap, though, so I just lived with it, especially since Google showed nothing quickly. It's one of the HP Graphics 4000 integrated cards, I forget specifics beyond that.

Edit: Got more information as I killed the Stormbreach Rift a couple times. Actually more than I expected. Of the Storm Legion there, there were SL Invaders and Besiegers of different models. In the Invaders, I think there were 2 models, and the dual sword melee would cause the flashing while idled only, whereas the wizard model seemed inconsistent. It usually caused the flashing in idle, let up on aggro, and caused more flashing on death, though one of them appeared to only cause it on death, not idle, possibly due to angle? Of the Besiegers, The sleeker melee with the model of the Cape Jule Armatura copied the Armatura by only flashing on death, and the armored melee one did no flashing whatsoever, nor did the final boss, or the dragons in round 2. Those should be the only sources of the flashing in that rift. I assume other characters that share those models probably have the same issues with the flashing, like the Armatura shares with the sleek Storm Legion Besieger.