[PC] Vanilla Skyrim Legendary Edition - Odd HDR like smooth flickering between light and dark while looking slowly. Please help me identify and fix this.

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[EDITED 3rd Oct 2014]

Important Update: This is not a TV problem at all, but a problem with setting up my card/drivers etc. somehow.

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##System Specs

• i5-4460 3.2GHz

• 8GB RAM (G.Skill Ripjaws X DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24)

• Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Motherboard

• Sapphire Dual-X R9 280X

• Windows 8.1 Pro x64

[EDIT 1]

• Monitor: Samsung 41" HDTV (Model: UA46F5500)

##Skyrim Details

• Legendary Edition

• High Resolution DLC installed

• Creation Kit installed but never started.

• Deleted local content and did a fresh download just hours ago.

##Mods

None whatsoever.

##Launcher Settings

• No ini tweaks

• Default selection was Ultra settings.

• Anti-aliasing: 8 samples.

• I changed the resolution from 720p to 1080p.

• I also reduced everything except Grass Fade to about half-value in the Advanced Settings -> View Distance tab. Everything else was at the default settings. I also tried to reproduce the problems with the Ultra defaults and succeeded.

[TV Settings]: Posted as a self comment over here.

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##Play Details

Playing to create a pure vanilla save I can revert to if I hit problems while modding. I got stuck between rocks while escaping from Helgen and had to re-load an auto-save. I don't see how this is relevant, but I've noted it just in case.

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##Problem Description When I started the game, I noticed some minor shadow flickering (usual) during the carriage sequence upon getting off, I noticed that even the slightest movement with my mouse would produce a fast, irritating, but somehow smooth alternation between light and dark almost throughout the screen. It was on the ground, on buildings (pretty sure), even on Ulfric Stormcloak! I saw some similar flicker inside Helgen Keep too. Anyhow, I did notice that longer movements of the mouse, and automatic movements of the camera did nothing. I assumed that this was because the HDR algorithm (the one that makes it seems like our eyes adjust to light) was somehow tied to mouse movement and rest and that was malfunctioning/functioning on steroids. After testing and creating the video below, I'm pretty certain tha t this is not the case, though it does look pretty similar at times. I'm quite confused and irritated that this is occurring on my new high-spec rig! :(

[EDIT 1]

Perhaps my earlier description of the flicker as smooth is just incorrect. Watching the video repeatedly makes me think that the flicker is just as rough as ever, but it's just different. If you can see the phenomenon yourselves, please feel free to decide. As an additional correction, I have to say that the movements producing the flicker are not slow so much as small. Small mouse movements, ones that don't last long are what produce it. I tend to think this is the same as small camera movements...

[EDIT 2]
The effect seems to be most apparent in darker regions and with more details textures (Like mud, rocks and roots, or the ground near the edge of a boulder). In a brightly lit area, with neat (say, pavement textures) I couldn't notice it.

[EDIT 4]
Testing has led me to believe that this invisibility in bright regions might (not absolutely certain folks) be due to the current settings on my TV set.**

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##Videos Showcasing the Problem

These videos are recorded using FRAPS and uploaded to YouTube. The problem isn't visible in these videos:

1. http://youtu.be/4Fz0oiLouFQ

2. [EDIT 2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCiYV3axH2g

[EDIT 4]:
These videos are recorded using my cellphone and the problem shows up on other screens as well:

• Recording from The Witcher 2 as a sample: http://youtu.be/buxLlOdz0hw

• Skyrim - Riverwood (C 60, B 40) {Same scene shown in EDIT 2 video}: http://youtu.be/nIHu3V4zDl8

• Skyrim - Outside Helgen Cave (C 85, B 40): http://youtu.be/iwiTQBSRoAs

• Skyrim Outside Helgen Cave (C 60, B 54): http://youtu.be/rOnss7kA1VM

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##Research and Testing (thus far)

• I could re-produce the ground-flicker that you see in the video even at the Ultra defaults. Framerate is at 60fps, which is really nice.

• I noticed one instance of a shadow flicker/jump in-game that I could not reproduce. This may be the well-known shadow bug (I'm not sure). I'm noting it just in case this is a related symptom.

• Google yields many results for flickering bugs, but none that fit my description. I'm unable to find the right keywords to search. I did try though.

• I checked UESP, The Elder Scrolls wiki, and the sidebar link here to see if the bug fell under any of the common bugs or problems.

• A quick scan as well as find-in-page tells me that the Unofficial Patches do not fix this problem.

[EDIT 1]

• The flicker wasn't visible on an Nexus 5 1080p screen when I watched the youtube video. There was absolutely no flicker, none! 'twas beautiful!

• I went ahead and tried this on a 1366x768 Dell Inspiron N6010 Laptop screen. I tried setting yotuube's resolution to both 720p and 1080p and always watched at fullscreen. No problems at 720p, and at 1080p, I saw some odd flickering different from before. This second one looked like bad anti-aliasing and I put it down to the downscaling factor. If I'm wrong, do let me know.

• Next, I tried casting the same video to my TV screen from the laptop, just for the heck of it and could not spot much, if any flicker. I tried playing it through the Smart TV Youtube App, and almost no flicker. Just a reminder; these are under the default settings for movie mode on my PC where sharpness is way down. I'm not sure if that mode setting applies to the Youtube App - pretty sure only a part of the settings apply or something...Looks like something about the HDMI input and settings are causing the problem. I don't know, and I'm quite annoyed.

• I tried turning off various image processing features, turning on and off game mode, turning the TV back to defaults, but none of those really changed how the video looked on my screen. I did not test in game at all for this part.

• Turning the Sharpness down to zero (from 80 - reduced in steps) drastically decreased the visibility of the problem, but even so, I could see a flicker.

• After the previous step, I tried dropping the contrast in stages. It took till Contrast - 40 to see it vanish, but at this point, the image was terrible and I think that the contrast was simply too low to see the flicker.

• I'm working on HDTV calibration and setup right now so I can have a somewhat standard setting as a baseline. I'll test both the video and the game (youtube, original recording, previous game settings) and see if it remains after that. The problem still remains a thorn in my side. :|

[EDIT 2]

• Important Note: Fiddling around with my TV settings let me almost eliminate the problem in the video playback. However, the problem is very visible and very annoying in the game.

• I've done a little calibration for white levels and black levels using the Lagom images. I even tried eyeballing it in bright and dark areas of a game, but ended up using the lagom images instead.

• I've tried the game at different resolutions.

• I've renamed my HDMI input to PC making my Samsung TV recognize that and turn off a bunch of options and fit the image to screen without selecting Picture Size = Screen Fit besides. The overall effect is good.

• I've further ensured that all post-processing options that I know of have been turned off.

• I can't use Game Mode when the HDMI input is called PC. However, Game Mode didn't help going by my earlier tests.

• I set Colour Temp to Warm 1 instead of standard, picture mode is standard Brightness and Contrast at 40, Sharpness at 5, and Backlight at 12/20. That's what really reduced the effect or eliminated it in my youtube videos.

• My 1366x768 laptop screen and 1080p Nexus 5 screen don't show the effect when I play the video from youtube.

• The problem is also visible in The Witcher 2 (same, dark regions, ground). This almost certainly makes it a setup problem. I have no idea where to go from here, sadly. NOTE: The problem is almost certainly a TV/PC setup issue rather than a Skyrim issue. I'm still a little bit uncertain, but the more things proceed, the more I'm convinced of it.

[EDIT 3] Before Crashing

• Similar Problem: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-2543519.html

• No solution through settings for The Witcher 2. Drastic reduction through settings Colour Temp: Warm 2 Sharpness: 0 Contrast: 85 Brightness: 54 for Skyrim. Some of these numbers are from calibration with Lagom and/or AVS HD and some from just fiddling and going away from defaults.

• Updated firmware - this may have failed though it seemed to complete normally. I no longer have the Software update option on my TV. This is something to investigate later. All in all, this didn't bring any solutions.

• Tried turning on digital noise filters to no effect.

• Tried renaming HDMI input to Game instead of PC - no effect.

• TODO:

  • Try recording the TV with an external camera to highlight the issue. Add annotations to point it out. Maybe ask around on r/killyourconsole and r/techsupport even more? No annotations added. Asking around now.

  • Switch to the HDMI/DVI input on the TV I tried switching to HDMI 3 also called HDMI/DVI. This is the port indicated for use in the TV's e-manual. I could try switching to HDMI 1, but I believe that would be a waste of time.

  • Consider the very unlikely theory that two rendering engines have similar limitations. I'm going to see if I can't get a monitor here and use it to test. I may not be able to get a full hd one though. Still, I think it's worth a go. [EDIT 4] Will keep this in mind.

[EDIT 4]

• Tested switching the input to HDMI 3 which is also called the HDMI/DVI port because it is the one meant to handle DVI-HDMI cables as well as HDMI cables. After going over the TV's e-manual, I'd wager this is the port meant for PCs. I could try switching to HDMI 1 - some labour required - but I don't believe that will do any good. Long story short, this switchover did nothing to solve my problem.

• Here are people with similar problems to mine, though there hasn't been any solution found:

  • https://www.avforums.com/threads/is-this-flickering-flashing-normal-sony-bravia-video-of-issue-included.1373976/ --> This one has [an example] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQyoC8pzoKA) with a flickering fence. That one turned up in The Witcher 2. I've not been to Riften yet in Skyrim, or Solitude, or I could try to reproduce it there. I'll see if I can't get a good example video up. Better link to the same place: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2543519

  • http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-2543519.html --> There's a nice video on the page here, and I'm almost certain I have the same problem.

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##Final Request/Questions

Please help me:

1. Identify if this is a problem. [EDIT 4] It is a problem. :/

2. Help me solve the problem.

3. Understand what the problem is, what it's called and what causes it. [EDIT 4] The closest name I coul find is texture flashing. The cause is almost certainly the HDTV.

Thank you for your time and assistance.