What's that on the ground?

I've been noticing -- I think since the last update -- a small grid-like multicolored object on the ground here and there. It is apparently neither an Andy Warhol painting nor a discarded copy of the old Stones album "Some Girls," though at first glance it resembles both.




My friend seen in photo 1 did not see it, but in the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that she's holding a Dr. Pepper and I'm holding a martini. I keep my ground detail option (whatever it's called) on the middle setting ("some"?). When I set it to "high" the object vanished, and returned when I set it back to "some."

The second photo is as clear as it gets -- it never becomes any less blurry than that.

Looks exactly like artifacting from bad video memory. Do they show up immediately, or just when you've been playing a long time?

"It's a glitch in the Matrix. It usually means they changed something..."

RUN!!!!!!!!

Sorry, I've never seen these but would be interested to learn why it happens.

MM

Send it to the CSI labs. They have software that can "Zoom in on that" and "OK, now enhance it" so that we can see what it is (my money says a subversive, political cartoon). Their software can even show you the murderer's face reflected in the minutes hand of the victim's watch, as recorder by the vhs secutiry camera.
I saw it on TV - so it must be true.

Oh really? I haven't actually noticed when it shows up.

Pay attention to when you start seeing them. Because you are seeing them ON things, it's likely the problem may lie with your texture memory, not your frame buffer. So spend some time in malls and other areas with tons of textures.

If the problem crops up immediately when you start playing, then likely your memory is just bad. If the problem doens't occur until after you play for a while, then it may just be a heating issue. You may not have adequate airflow in your case. You cna test this by pulling the side off your case when you play; you can even aim a fan at the side to keep the air moving. If the problem under entended playing stops occuring, then it's merely an airflow problem.

Thanks for the info, Ketra (and everyone). I played for 2-3 hours last night without the problem cropping up, so it may just be the heating/airflow problem you suggest. I'll keep an eye on it over the next several days and make sure my fans are working properly. It's a new video card, so I could return it easily if it turns out to be video memory.

That happens to me all the time, but only on the ground and some walls. But there can sometimes be upwards of 6 of these things in one room.

I assumed it was normal. I even made a joke about it that got pretty popular, saying it was the Lindens watching me.

I haven't seen it again in several days of play, so perhaps it was just a fluke. At least I have some idea of the diagnosis and treatment now.

Yes, using their uber-proprietary algorithms coded by a 19 year old computer genius. Glad to see other people are annoyed by this as well

About the artifact... that's really weird, have you tried clearing your cache?

Pretty weird.

I've seen artifacts on the landscape, but they usually affect YUGE swathes of terrain, not such a fine area. One time, a buncha eyeballs appeared and freaked me out... clear cache did the trick alright, but I was traumatized from that moment on (tee hee).

Can you select it as an object? Just immediatly reminded me of this is all..

I should read threads all the way through first, but hey, it DOES look similar..

Definitely could not select it. I tried several times. And it was on my land, so I checked for unknown users' objects. It hasn't recurred, but I'll try clearing the cache next time it does.