Skip to content

2 Years since i checked up on BG:EE are the black lines STILL a problem?

Downloaded the latest version from GOG 2.3.6.7.3 and was stunned to see these black lines again around the character sprite boxes.




I remember seeing this same problem right around the launch of SoD. Two years ago. Version 1.3 didn't have this problem.

I tried alternate renderer to no effect. Please tell me that with the passage of two years there is just something i missed some setting that are causing these black line boxes around every npc and pc.

Comments

  • ChroniclerChronicler Member Posts: 1,391
    Might be a problem on your end. Don't think I've ever seen them while playing.
  • DoubledimasDoubledimas Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 1,286

    Downloaded the latest version from GOG 2.3.6.7.3 and was stunned to see these black lines again around the character sprite boxes.




    I remember seeing this same problem right around the launch of SoD. Two years ago. Version 1.3 didn't have this problem.

    I tried alternate renderer to no effect. Please tell me that with the passage of two years there is just something i missed some setting that are causing these black line boxes around every npc and pc.

    It could be that this is fixed in the 2.5 beta but that is only available at Beamdog/Steam so GoG would have to wait for the official release. I’ll fire up the beta and see if I can repro.

  • GloomfrostGloomfrost Member Posts: 261
    edited April 2018
    would appreciate any input. I am on a new graphic card and monitor since last time i saw this issue. Latest nvidia drivers etc. I am zoomed in to maximum in the game. The lines are not constant, they appear and disappear as the character sprite looks around.Like i said it is only with the newer UI well new to me. 1.3 didn't have this issue.
  • CurmudgeonCurmudgeon Member Posts: 57
    edited April 2018
    I've never seen those lines in my installation either.
    Sorry, I made a mistake. Disregard below.

    Open: Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/Baldur.lua

    SetPrivateProfileString('Graphics','Use Sprite Outlines','0')
    [Line 48 in my current installation]

    Should solve your problem.
  • ArunsunArunsun Member Posts: 1,592
    Have you tried the alternate renderers available in the options? Check the resolution in which you're playing the game too, this might be a cause.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    You shouldn't have to use the lua file to disable the sprite outlines, its a menu option.
  • GloomfrostGloomfrost Member Posts: 261
    edited April 2018
    yeah as i said in the original post, i tired the alternate renderers option to no effect. I was running the game originally at 2560 x 1600 on a 560ti card 2 years ago, now i am running it at 1920 x 1080 on a 980 card, both the monitor, monitor cable and graphics card are all new. The only thing that is the same is the MB and memory and of course i am running the GOG versions. Like i said 1.3 didn't have this problem for me. Honestly i hate the new UI the non circular elipses at the pc and npc feet just look so wrong, not to mention the walking speeds are still totally off from BG. I am so used to the classic and ee 1.3 UI's i guess i will just stick to 1.3 from now on :(

    oh i do remember posting about this and others had the same problems, i guess i need to look at my history or posts and get a link over here.

    Yep just as i thought here it is from 2 years ago

    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/737642#Comment_737642

    doesn't appear it was fixed :(
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @Gloomfrost its definitely a problem that some people are having, I see it occasionally with largere (dragon) sprites, but not with anything smaller. So finding the root cause and fixing it would be nice.

    On an unrelated note, you actually LIKE the walking speeds of BG1?! You should post that in the "Unpopuar Opinions" thread.
  • GloomfrostGloomfrost Member Posts: 261
    edited April 2018
    ThacoBell said:

    @Gloomfrost its definitely a problem that some people are having, I see it occasionally with largere (dragon) sprites, but not with anything smaller. So finding the root cause and fixing it would be nice.

    On an unrelated note, you actually LIKE the walking speeds of BG1?! You should post that in the "Unpopuar Opinions" thread.

    ThacoBell! You must have seniority around here now ;)

    Glad to hear this is a legit problem in 2.0 and up UI's. For some reason i saw it immediately in the first CandleKeep exterior map. Just thought in 2 years Beamdog would of fixed the issue with it. :/

    As for the walking speed well that's why they invented the The Paws of the Cheetah B)

    Seriously good to see you still active around here.
    Post edited by Gloomfrost on
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @Gloomfrost "ThacoBell! You must have seniority around here now"
    Now THATS a scary thought :smile:

    I almost wish the issue was more consistent, just so it was more obvious what was wrong. I seeing on only a couple sprites, but others see it constantly, ugh.

    Also, its always nice to know that I don't annoy everybody ;)
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,723
    Thanks for your feedback, everyone. The developers will look whether it's possible to fix this for the 2.5 patch.
  • GloomfrostGloomfrost Member Posts: 261
    Hallelujah! So glad the devs are aware of this now, looking forward to a future fix.
  • ChroniclerChronicler Member Posts: 1,391
    edited April 2018
    Wow that was quick. Was that literally just because this thread brought it to their attention a couple weeks ago?

    Edit: No, reading the bug report more fully it looks like they've been working on that since 2016. The timing is just coincidental.
  • BaptorBaptor Member Posts: 341
    These lines show up everywhere too. I've seen them across bodies of water and in the menus, especially around the spell icons in the spellbooks.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @Baptor What version are you playing on? And on which platform? I'm on the latest patch on pc and see black lines very rarely. (Sometimes they show up on dragpns, but that's about it.)
  • BaptorBaptor Member Posts: 341
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    @Baptor What version are you playing on? And on which platform? I'm on the latest patch on pc and see black lines very rarely. (Sometimes they show up on dragpns, but that's about it.)

    I'm on a live Steam version, so the latest version 2.5 whatever it is now. It automatically updates.

    However I should mention that I see the lines mostly on the old Blue UI - I deleted SOD so I could play without the new black UI and the lines are just about everywhere there. They sometimes show up as boxes around character sprites, around the spell icons in the spell books, in bodies of water, and sometimes along spell effects too.

    I recently reinstalled SOD and the black lines are fewer but still extant. One on the spell Invisibility's icon and the ones in the water which never go away. One also in High Hedge that cuts through the big crystal.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    That's strange, I don't get those. Have you tried the alternate renderer in the options?
  • BaptorBaptor Member Posts: 341
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    That's strange, I don't get those. Have you tried the alternate renderer in the options?

    The alternate render seems to help, but creates a new problem that makes the game unplayable for me. If I go to the map (where it zooms out) the game sticks in outdoor areas. I have to ctrl+alt+del out and come back for it to unstick each time.

    I gave up on alternate render after a chapter or two because I couldn't handle it anymore. However - and this is important - the lines and sprite boxes were still there, just not as frequently as before. So it wasn't a true cure.

    What's crazy is that it's not always reproducible. Just tonight I was in the cave after escaping the crypts under Candlekeep. In the battles, every enemy had a black sprite box around it. It was horrible. I got through it, saved, re-loaded a previous save and went in again to get screenshots and guess what? No spriteboxes this time. NO reason for it.

    So the lines just appear and disappear inconsistently.

    I did get a screenshot of some of the spriteboxes or lines around these spiders. You have to enlarge the picture to see them, but they are around the spell graphics.

    y7y81vujxbp6.png
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Is it possible it might be a hardware/software issue? Like, some combination of graphics card and your computer might not be playing nice with BG? When the game first launched, there was an issue with certain graphics cards having fits withh EE.
  • BaptorBaptor Member Posts: 341
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    Is it possible it might be a hardware/software issue? Like, some combination of graphics card and your computer might not be playing nice with BG? When the game first launched, there was an issue with certain graphics cards having fits withh EE.

    Anything is possible. But I never had this issue back in 1.3 and I didn't have any issues up until the Siege of Dragonspear patch, 2.0 I think. I played SOD when it came out with no issues and hadn't returned to the original game since that patch until now - and I'm having issues. I've been playing BG:EE on the same PC with the same hardware since 2014.

    I will mention one thing. I DO alt+tab a lot to check the internet for things - could alt+tabbing be causing the issues? I will try to play my next session without doing it.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Siege was 2.5, I believe. But alt+tab shuldn't do that? I alt tab constantly, as I usually am watching/listening to something online while I play. You might post this again in the troubleshooting section, or ask a mod to move this thread there. More knowledgeable people than me wathc that thread. Maybe post what your comupter specs are as well.
  • BaptorBaptor Member Posts: 341
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    Siege was 2.5, I believe. But alt+tab shuldn't do that? I alt tab constantly, as I usually am watching/listening to something online while I play. You might post this again in the troubleshooting section, or ask a mod to move this thread there. More knowledgeable people than me wathc that thread. Maybe post what your comupter specs are as well.

    I've confirmed that alt+tab is not affecting it. It seems to happen truly randomly, mostly in underground areas for some reason. So far I've learned to live with it.

    I will consider it. This isn't my thread so I won't ask anyone to move it, and usually if I post asking the mods for help they tell me to just post it in Redmine. Considering that the bugs and issues I've put in Redmine have sat there for years with no fix - I'm not inclined to believe in the system anymore.

  • NerfyNerfy Member Posts: 12
    I'd seen this rarely previously on a playthrough years ago. In the bg2 wild magic forest, it seems to happen more regularly around portions of the wild magic river.

    I think it's related to the maths which selects a segment of an image to draw onto the screen, at various resolutions and zooms it maybe rounds slightly wrong and ends up selecting a bit of black border or nothingness which is filled in with black.
  • Dyzmen22Dyzmen22 Member Posts: 9
    Hi. I just stumbled upon this while looking for a solution to my own problem. I thought I was the only one with this problem but it seems there are more people than I thought.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icgVxEBReyI

    So this has been going on since 2016? I will be honest, it's about time it's fixed. It destroys my experience. Every single spell has this bug, can't play like this.

  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Use the alternate renderer.
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,723
    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1127057/#Comment_1127057

    The lines discussed in this thread above are fixed by 2.5. The lines shown during casting are planned to be fixed for 2.6. The bug is not present with the Nearest Neighbor Scaling enabled.
  • Dyzmen22Dyzmen22 Member Posts: 9
    edited April 2020
    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1127057/#Comment_1127057

    The lines discussed in this thread above are fixed by 2.5. The lines shown during casting are planned to be fixed for 2.6. The bug is not present with the Nearest Neighbor Scaling enabled.

    This is a direct quote from the thread you posted:
    Baptor wrote: »
    I'm still seeing this problem as of 2.5 whatever-it-is-now in 2019. Anyone else?

    So how can they be fixed by 2.5, if people in the same thread are still seeing this problem even after 2.5?

    Also, Nearest Neighbor Scaling enabled doesn't mitigate the problem. I had the Nearest Neighbor Scaling enabled when I recorded the video above. Anyway, hope the 2.6 comes soon, because as of today the game is unplayable.

    @ThacoBell thanks for your suggestion. Already tried that, no luck.

    fun fact: I rolled back to the 1.3beta version on Steam and the problem is not present in the 1.3. Unfortunately, the 1.3 version has it's own problems, so it's unplayable either way.
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,723
    It's because people are confusing the lines next to the character model and the lines next to the character model when you cast a spell.
Sign In or Register to comment.