[Sky] Graphics of Skyrim won't entirely load

[Penguinchao]

So earlier today my Skyrim decided to stop loading all of the game's graphics. The wilderness is a mess, rain causes the screen to go solid black, and interior lighting is occasionally a "negative light" that causes things to be unseen.

Any advice is much appreciated!

Here's a couple screenies:

[WindmillTilter]

Do you play any other games that would challenge your video card? If so can you fire one up and see if it works OK. My first thoughts would be either you card is overheating (possibly due to dust build up), or corrupted drivers. Do you get the anomalies as soon as you launch the game or only after you've played for a while?

WT

[DsoS]

I had this issue with my old video card. it was only 512MB and after a few hours of game play, it would start doing the same thing.

Might want to check for Driver Updates from the MFR's website and do a driver update, that can sometimes help

[Penguinchao]

Thanks

I just tested it on Deus Ex: Human Revolutions and it worked fine, so I think it's an issue with Skyrim :/

The problems seem to arise with weather and light. I have the "Deadly Dragons" mod, and whenever a Zealot Dragon comes along and makes it rain, the screen goes black (the game is still playing, but the world goes black, because I can still open up my inventory, a very fuzzy form of the map, etc.). Parts of the ground outside are also randomly solid black. The problem areas tend to be snowy areas and areas with any non-sunny weather.

[WindmillTilter]

First thing to try of course as DSOS suggested is a driver update. If that doesn't do it try disabling the Deadly Dragons mod and see if that's causing it, or just rain in Skyrim. Still curious if it happens right away or only after you've been playing for a while.

WT

[TripleSixes]

It's a long-shot, but perhaps one of the mods you've installed added textures (intentionally or unintentionally) to the terrain. If there are more than 6 terrain types in a cell, it could cause terrain to turn black. Seeing as the terrain was fine until it started raining makes me think that it's something else :/

PS: ALWAYS LOOK FOR NEW DRIVERS FOR YOUR GPU

[Penguinchao]

Ok, so I found out that some of my drivers were out of date, so I updated them, but it's still acting up

It's really strange. When I'm outiside of the "infected area" my character looks fine, but when I step inside, I become a black mess too

Outside Darkness

A few feet forward

Ragged Flagon

Edited November 23, 2012 by Penguinchao

[DsoS]

is skyrim updated to the latest patch?

it might be that your graphics card is not up to the job.

What type of graphics card do you have?

Manufacturer?

Model Number?

[Penguinchao]

So funny thing. I checked my drivers and now I'm only missing the "SM Bus Controller" driver. My model is the HP Laptop dv7 I believe.

What's interesting is that everything points to a driver issue, but I uninstalled several mods and deleted some BSA files, and everything returned to normal (I also started a new game). It works now

I'm pretty sure my issues were with one of the following:

• Race Compatability.esm
  
• Snow Elves.esp
  
• Deadly Dragons.esp (But I'm pretty sure if it had to do with this mod, it was compatibility related).
  

To sum up the advice given and the solutions used for anybody else who gets this issue in the future:

1. Delete any unnecessary (especially recently installed) mods and anything else that appears problematic.
   
2. Update your drivers (do the stock driver updates that come with your computer if you have HP; I tried a 3rd party and almost killed my system).
   
3. Remember to back everything up
   

Thank you all so much for the advice! The issue has been resolved and I really appreciate the time you guys took to help solve this

Also: If anyone else has this problem, feel free to PM me or respond here, and I'll do my best to walk you through the procedure I used (I know my above listings were pretty vague).