Why are some things invisible

graphics cardthe-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim

I've been playing Skyrim since it was released, and I've had a problem where certain graphical features are invisible to me. As far as I can tell, its a certain type of shader or particle effect that must be faulty, as its not whole entities that are hidden.

Example missing effects:

The sky-ward light beams at Winterhold College
Fire/Ice streaming magic
- Fireplaces – all I see is a shimmer (like what happens on a hot day IRL)
- Streaming fire magic ("Flames" spell), all I see is some of the flicks of flame off my hands and the resulting burn-mark on the target, but no actual flames
- From dragons; the breath of both fire and ice breathing dragons is invisible to me – makes fights difficult
Portals (like what summoned creatures come out of) are just a shimmer or extra light, otherwise invisible
Augur of Dunlain is completely invisible (the final straw)

My hardware:

AMD Phenom X4 2.4GHz
8GB DDR2-800 RAM
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 (built-in dual-GPU CrossFire)
2x Samsung 2443bw 24" LCD monitors @ 1920×1200 (disabling one hasn't changed anything in Skyrim)

I'm thinking its something that my dual-GPU card is doing wrong, as Skyrim has been CrossFire disabled by ATI in their driver set (except for HD 5000, 6000 and 7000 series cards)… However I've tried every tweak possible in RadeonPRO to no avail (I've otherwise never used RadeonPRO).

My friends have experienced it temporarily when Alt-Tabbing, but Alt-Tabbing again usually fixes it – no solution for me.

Has anyone experienced something similar and been able to fix it?

Best Answer

It's a problem on systems using ATI graphics cards. Fallout: New Vegas had the same problem.

A community fix for this, and the framerate problems of ATI cards can be found here: http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=48

Note that this changes your card to be recognized as an NVidia card, which is intentional.

Related Solutions

Why have I become invisible

Edit: None of these seemed to work for the OP, but I'll leave them here as suggestions for those experiencing similar issues.

For the why, well, I have no idea (aside from "oh, Bethesda"). But I had a similar issue with a spell effect being permanently attached to my feet. It generated smoke, so my sneaky little thief looked something like Smoke from Mortal Kombat. I gamboled about until it finally resolved, I believe due to transformation into a werewolf. Your problem is due to either opacity (most likely) being set to 0 or your character model being non-existent (unlikely IMO).

There are several solutions I'll suggest:

Become Ethereal:
The Become Ethereal shout should fix any opacity issues when it ends. Here's a YouTube video from a user with a similar issue. Although it ends with the person just reloading a save and exacting revenge, the user claims that the suggestion to use Become Ethereal repaired the problem.

Become Ethereal's Words can be found in Lost Valley Redoubt, Ironbind Barrow and Ustengrav. If you can handle Hagravens and a few Forsworn, Lost Valley Redoubt's Word Wall is outside and probably the quickest.

There are also unique potions that let you become ethereal, called Philters of the Phantom. You can find them in a quest in Shroud Hearth Barrow, near Ivarstead. It's possible that an invisibility spell or potion will have the same effect, but I haven't tried that or seen it done.

Console (PC only):
Open the console (~ or whatever's above tab and left of 1) and type

player.setactoralpha 100

If that doesn't work, there's

sexchange
sexchange

It should force your character model to, uh, rebuild.

Werewolf:
Transforming to a Werewolf and back will also force rebuilding.

Why are some UI elements cut off along the edges of the TV

The issue you're experiencing is called overscan: where parts of the image that your television displays appears to be "cut off" on each side, or bleed outside of the visible area of your TV screen. The behavior is extremely common on CRT televisions, but some newer flat-panel TVs/HDTVs perform overscan by default as well, for a few different reasons. However, many modern television models include a menu option somewhere allow you to reduce or eliminate the overscan effect, though it's not uncommon for that setting to be buried fairly deep if it does exist.

One bit of good news is that even if your television doesn't allow you to adjust the overscan, many games include a "Screen Adjustment" or similarly-titled option in their own settings menus. This will allow you to tell the game what the visible area of your TV screen actually is, so that it will make sure to draw all text and UI elements within the screen area that you can actually see. Not all games include this sort of feature, though.

You can read more about overscan and why it exists here.

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