need some tech support...keep getting a blinking black screen during combat

[(TLL)GoThiK]

Ok i'm still downloading the MWLL mod and while i'm waiting i started to play a little bit of my new Crysis game since i just got it.

While i was playing, i have noticed that a lot of times during the head of battle, the screen goes black when i take damage.

I looked around the internet for a Crysis tech support forum but haven't found any(at least yet) and since MWLL is a Crysis mod, maby you guys know what's going on here.

I've already updated all my drivers and am running Crysis on DX9 because my PC can't handle DX10. I can't afford to upgrade my PC, so i need to know if i need to dumb down the graphic settings a bit to fix this, or is there another way to deal with this issue?

Any help would be appreciated.

[(TLL)KitLightning]

http://www.crymod.com/portal.php
http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/categories/show/38.page
http://www.incrysis.com/forums/
http://www.incrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=11614
http://www.mycrysis.com/board.php?boardid=5

Delete your Cache folder in My Games/Crysis/Shaders?

Also check your OS if its able to run it decently: http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer?registration_option_id=5407

[(TLL)GoThiK]

Cool, thx for those links! WOOT

I have made a post in the forums of the links you gave me entitled "The black screen of death". Just in case somebody else is reading this thread on this site, i'll go ahead and post here what i have posted on those sites as well just incase somebody here knows what is going on:

Title: The black screen of death

Body:

The "black screen of death" is what i'm officially calling this issue that i have until i find out what is causing it, lol.

Ok, i just purchased Crysis Maximum Edition at a Best Buy last week.

After installing the two games along with Crysis Wars, i started to play Crysis for the first time and i have absolutely no performance issues whatsoever. The game runs fine.

Except for one small problem that's starting to make the game unplayable for me:

When i'm in the heat of combat, the whole screen goes black for a split second. Sometimes it's for two or three seconds and by the time the black screen goes away i'm dead. This black screen of death usually appears when an NPC is shooting at me and the screen goes black for a split second in synch with every time a bullet impacts me and/or something around me. I have played a lot of PC games and have encountered a lot of errors and tech probllems over the years but this "black screen of death" is something i've never seen before and therefore i have no clue on what's going on.

Other than that i am having NO other performance issues or lag.

...In order to help ya'all help me i want to tell you that i did defrag my PC's hardrives and did all the proper PC matenience that one should do before installing a game like this and yes, all my drivers are up to date. Also below are my PC specis incase you all are wondering what my OS and gaming hardware is:

OS- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition Service Pack 2 (build 6002), 32-bit
CPU- Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
RAM-3.0 GB
Video Card: GeForce 8800 GTS 512
DirectX version: 10.0
Sound Card: Realtek High Definition Audio
Hard Drive: I got two hard drives. My C drive is a 500GB hard drive. I have a second hard drive that I have dedicated to holding all my pc games which is a 1TB hard drive(which is where I have Crysis installed along with all my other games)
DVD-ROM: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7173A ATA Device

Accodording to THIS LINK, i pass both the minimum AND recomended specs to play the game: http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/CYRI/intro.aspx

Any help on this issue would be appreciated because the black screen of death is making the game unplayable until it is fixed.

[(TLL)GoThiK]

Delete your Cache folder in My Games/Crysis/Shaders?

Also check your OS if its able to run it decently: http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer?registration_option_id=5407

Thx for that link as well. According to that link i pass both the minimum AND reccomended requirements for the game. I also tried to delete the Cache folder that you're talking about. I actually found two Shader files in "gaming hardrive/Crysis Maximum Edition/Crysis/Game/

The two files are "ShaderCache.pak" and "Shaders.pak". I'm not sure which one you are wanting me to delete, so what i did was this:

1. I made a copy of both files and pasted them on my desktop just incase i needed them again
2. I tried deleting one file, then booting the game but it made things worse. So i used the backup to bring it back into the game folder, then tried the other one and had the same issue.

[Snowball]

Those are the wrong folders, so it's good that you backed them up 

The Shader folder should be in the "C:\Users\yourname\Documents\My Games\Crysis" folder.

[(TLL)GoThiK]

Oh i see, lol

I went ahead and deleted the cach folder i found in Document/games/Crysis

And it didn't affect the black screen of death either way. I also tried backing up the cach folder in a thumb drive so i can delete the cach folder from my PC completely. I even rebooted before testing the game to make sure and the black screen issue is still there...I am getting a slightly better frame rate though but that's the only effect that deleting the cach folder has done to the game.

[sleepysheep]

Oh i see, lol

I went ahead and deleted the cach folder i found in Document/games/Crysis

And it didn't affect the black screen of death either way. I also tried backing up the cach folder in a thumb drive so i can delete the cach folder from my PC completely. I even rebooted before testing the game to make sure and the black screen issue is still there...I am getting a slightly better frame rate though but that's the only effect that deleting the cach folder has done to the game.

I can't remember if motion blur is in DX9, but make sure thats completly disabled.

[Snowball]

A few questions:

Have you tried disabling motion blur?
dammit sleepysheep =)

What settings are you playing at (Low, Medium, High, Custom)?

What's the fps you get with those settings?

What's the temp of your gpu/cpu in-game?

Was your comp a prebuilt? If not, what's it power supply rated at?

[(TLL)GoThiK]

A few questions:

Have you tried disabling motion blur?-----------No, but i disabled it to see if it helps and still have the same problem
dammit sleepysheep =)

What settings are you playing at (Low, Medium, High, Custom)? --------I got the settings on high

What's the fps you get with those settings?------Not sure. How do i find that out?(other than the black screen of death i don't notice any lag, if that's what you're asking)

What's the temp of your gpu/cpu in-game?-----Not sure. How do i find that out?

Was your comp a prebuilt? If not, what's it power supply rated at?------I basically purchased every component seperately, then paid Geek Squad to put it together for me since i don't know how to do it. I got an 800 watt power supply if that help answer the question.

[sleepysheep]

Have you tried lowering all the graphical settings to medium and low, just to see if you still get the blackscreens? Just incase.

There is a built in FPS monitor in crysis but I can't remember what you type in console, or you can download FRAPS that will show your FPS in any game while its running in background.

[Snowball]

the fps monitor is issued in the command console with "r_displayinfo".  It can be turned on and off with "0" or "1" respectively:

1) "r_displayinfo 1" is on

2) "r_displayinfo 0" is off

you can access the command console with the "~" key.

I'd recommend lowering your settings as sleepysheep suggests to see if that helps.  PSU isn't the problem (800 watts is overkill for that setup).

As for temps, try downloading Speedfan.  Once you've installed and opened it, go to the "Charts" tab and set it to monitor every temp but one; there should be this unusual temp that reads in the -100 C range, ignore that on the chart.  Run the game and play for a bit, then close it and look at the charts.  You should be able to determine your temp in-game with that.

[(TLL)GoThiK]

I fixed it! WOOT WOOT

Ok, what i did is this:

I run the game on DX9(I run all my games on that cuz DX10 sucks for some reason)
I origionally had ALL my graphics settings on High

...All i did was disable the motion blur completly and turn the AA from 16xQ(highest AA setting) down to 8x and the black screen of death is not there anymore.

I'm not sure what the 16xQ means, since the 8x setting didn't affect how things looked at all(or so i've noticed)

Well, thx for the help all.

Out of curiosity, the next time i can afford to upgrade my PC, other than upgrading from Vista 32bit to Windows7 64 bit, is there anything hardware wise i should upgrade so i can play games like this on completly maxed out setting without any performance issues like the black screen of death? Just curious cuz this is the first time since i got my PC(two years ago) that I was not able to play a game with all the graphic settings maxed out.

[Snowball]

Glad you got it working, but:

GeForce 8800 GTS 512
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz

Crysis on High with 16xQ AA.  Changes to 8xAA.

How in Gods name are you getting that with playable fps? Unless your resolution is tiny?

In regards to the upgrade, the easiest thing to do would be getting a new GPU.  I'd suggest a GTX 260 ~$150-$200, or maybe a GTX 275.  Upgrading your processor might be good, but may require you to swap out Motherboards to get a compatible socket, which may require new RAM and all the other stuff that entails.

[sleepysheep]

You had AA set that high, holy F***. Turn the AA to 2x, max the graphical settings. Test the FPS, should be alot better.

AA just smooths edges on the picture and seriously impacts performance. You don't need it that high!

[MagicSquirrel07]

No one runs Crysis on that AA setting... Unless of course they are purposefully trying to explode their PC 

I'm guessing you have a 19" monitor?  I'm running a faster setup than yours and it can only just manage high with no aa... Oh well it looks pretty on my 24" screen still :D:D