This is a problem that I've had for a
very long time. It's managed to not bother me for over two years as I've had a very nice laptop during that time, but it recently died of a fried video card. Now that I'm stuck with my much-older computer, this issue has come back to haunt me. From what I've observed, it seems to happen whenever a server's polygon count passes a certain point, usually when its brick count is somewhere in the tens of thousands. Here are just a few screenshots from Badspot's Block Party to give you an idea of what happens.
Look at this stuff. It's so bad, I don't even know what I'm seeing. And no, updating my drivers has
never helped. Turning down draw distance only helps temporarily; once a large enough portion of the server has been explored, it seems to start flipping out based how much has been seen, rather than how much I'm currently seeing. My current computer is about 10 years old (yikes!) and I intend to get a new one as soon as I can, but that probably won't be for quite a while. Is there anything I can do in the meantime?
