Pixelated Shadows during Cutscenes?

Now it seems consistent that the game also first loads to a black screen with the main menu audio playing in the background. To first start the game I also need to minimize and the maximize swtor.exe. All issues are still persisting despite reverting to the older driver. This is after doing a clean install in safe mode with the utility you provided and adjusting swtor.exe in NVIDIA Control Panel.

@ObsidianVashti

Sorry to hear 355.98 has been the most stable driver for most , If you want to try again with 347.88 as per here , inbetween time I will look for the other instances of this exact behaviour of having to use minimise and restore to get the game going , I may be mixing the cause ... I have leapt from one to another constantly recently

No problem! I'm just grateful for your suggestions. This is my first gaming build so I'm excited to get up and running. Find it ironic that my four year old laptop ran the game in a more stable fashion than my new gaming build. Although I use the word "stable" loosely. I'm disappointed to see that after returning to SWTOR 8 months later its optmization/game-engine issues still haven't been resolved. I don't think I'll be a subscriber again until they show initiative in that domain. I'm sure a lot of it is buried deep in the game itself and would require a lot of work. But, it's people like you who are helping to keep the core of this game afloat!

@ObsidianVashti

Can never find something when your looking for it , still cant find where I have seen that

Another good thing to do though is install this particular directx 9 redist here

still looking but have to go out soon

If this is just the direct x features for version 9, then I already installed that in light of suggestions for an optimal installation of SWTOR in Windows 10. However, that was one of the few suggestions I followed from a lengthy thread somewhere on here regarding prime SWTOR Windows 10 practices. I haven't really bothered with the extensive administrative priveleges as this appears to be more directly related to graphics card and drivers. Others I have talked to focus on the fact that my graphics card is factory overclocked. However, running the card in debug mode via the NVIDIA Control Panel should have ruled that factor out, yes?

@ObsidianVashti

Never hurts to set the game shortcut as administrator

I would of thought Debug Mode will be sufficient , and yes I can understand about focusing on the overclock with an EVGA card, I have known of an issue with EVGA980s here but not aware 970s are affected the same way.

@ObsidianVashti

This is the closest issue I could see for your card , I don't think its the same thing though

Yes, I had come across that forum thread before. I don't think it's for my exact model card either. Close but not quite. Furthermore, I've never had the game crash. My card's temps are relatively low and it only happens in SWTOR. I may see if I can get anywhere with EVGA or NVIDIA support. Otherwise I'm not sure what else to try. The problem is cosmetic more than impeding my gameplay. My main concern is that it may be indicative of a larger problem that I am unaware of. Other thoughts: Is there any way this is related to my monitor or the use of an HDMI cable for connections? Perhaps a failure of the cable or monitor to readjust resolutions when first starting or changing graphic settings? Just trying to think outside the box.

The main thing that bothers me is the extremely jagged shadows that show on character figures during in-game conversation scenes. Are these problems related or completely separate. The shadow issues seem to align with what others many years ago indicated as a conflict between "High" quality shadows and inefficient resolution. The fault appears to be SWTOR engine related rather than my card. Should I just remove shadows with my setup or is there an optimal way to configure them for my card?

@ObsidianVashti

I have thought about it being HDMI as well , if can try DVI it is something to try

I haven't been worried about shadows more the black screen, for the shadows if you turn off AA is there any change ?

I always use my card as a base as it is a 970 here is my dxdiag attached for comparison, it a month old but gives you an idea

Unfortunately this monitor is HDMI or Display Port only (Dell U2414H). I will play around with the AA settings in just a sec. For now I may also just update to the latest NVIDIA drivers since we know that didn't resolve the problem. I may verify that there's not drivers specific to my monitor or something like that too.