Graphics Issue
ARC Raiders
Blob Graphics and Missing Textures in ARC Raiders - Fix Guide
🎯 Quick Answer
Lower the Texture Streaming Pool setting to "Low" or "Medium" to resolve blob graphics and missing textures caused by insufficient GPU VRAM on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB.
SECTION 1: OVERVIEW
The "blob graphics" error in ARC Raiders is a texture streaming failure where environmental assets fail to render at their intended resolution. This error manifests as low-resolution, blurry, or completely missing textures on surfaces, objects, and terrain. The problem is specific to the Windows PC platform. It occurs in the live game version following the Early Access release. This is a common error for systems with graphics cards possessing 4GB of VRAM or less. The severity is game-breaking, as it severely compromises visual fidelity and environmental recognition, impacting gameplay. No specific error code is generated; the failure is purely graphical. The issue is directly tied to the game's texture streaming system overwhelming the available video memory.SECTION 2: SYMPTOMS
The application renders environmental textures at extremely low resolution, appearing as amorphous colored blobs. Geometry such as walls, floors, and terrain meshes may fail to render any surface texture, appearing as flat, low-detail shapes. Textures intermittently flicker between the correct high-resolution asset and the low-resolution blob state during gameplay. The game maintains a stable framerate counter despite the severe graphical corruption. These symptoms persist throughout gameplay sessions across all maps and modes. The rendering engine fails to stream and retain texture data in GPU memory, causing constant texture pop-in and degradation.SECTION 3: COMMON CAUSES
Category: Hardware Limitation Specific technical explanation: GPU VRAM capacity is insufficient for the game's default texture streaming pool. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB meets the minimum specification but lacks the buffer for high-quality textures, causing constant cache thrashing. Why this causes the problem: The texture streaming system attempts to load textures that exceed the available VRAM, resulting in failed loads and fallback to low-resolution mipmaps. Category: Configuration Error Specific technical explanation: In-game "Texture Streaming Pool" setting is configured too high for the available VRAM. Why this causes the problem: This setting pre-allocates a portion of VRAM for textures. An over-allocation forces the system to use system RAM as a slow swap file, causing severe streaming delays and corruption. Category: Software Conflict Specific technical explanation: Outdated or corrupted graphics driver with inefficient memory management for the Unreal Engine 5 Nanite/Virtual Texture system. Why this causes the problem: The driver fails to properly allocate and purge texture data, leading to memory leaks and cache errors that exacerbate VRAM limitations. Category: Game Bug Specific technical explanation: The game's texture streaming logic does not adequately scale down its memory footprint for GPUs with 4GB VRAM or less. Why this causes the problem: The engine defaults to texture budgets designed for higher-VRAM cards, assuming faster asset streaming from storage than is possible on some SSD configurations. Category: Configuration Error Specific technical explanation: Windows Page File is disabled or set too small on the system drive. Why this causes the problem: When VRAM and system RAM are saturated, the texture streaming system requires virtual memory to operate. An insufficient page file causes memory allocation failures.SECTION 4: SOLUTIONS
Solution 1: Reduce Texture Streaming Pool Setting
Difficulty: Easy Time Required: 2 minutes Success Rate: High Prerequisites: None Steps:- Launch ARC Raiders and navigate to the Settings menu.
- Select the Graphics tab.
- Locate the Texture Streaming Pool setting.
- Change the value from "High" or "Ultra" to "Medium".
- If the issue persists, set the value to "Low".
- Apply the changes and restart the game as prompted.
Solution 2: Perform a Clean Graphics Driver Installation
Difficulty: Medium Time Required: 10 minutes Success Rate: Medium Prerequisites: Administrator access, internet connection Steps:- Download the latest NVIDIA Game Ready Driver from the official NVIDIA website.
- Download the Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) utility from www.wagnardsoft.com.
- Restart Windows in Safe Mode. (Open System Configuration
msconfig, go to Boot tab, check "Safe boot"). - Run DDU, select "NVIDIA" from the dropdown, and click "Clean and restart".
- After the reboot, install the previously downloaded NVIDIA driver. Select "Custom Installation" and check "Perform a clean installation".
- Complete the installation and restart the system normally.
Solution 3: Adjust Virtual Memory (Page File) Settings
Difficulty: Medium Time Required: 5 minutes Success Rate: Medium Prerequisites: Administrator access Steps:- Press
Windows Key + Pause/Breakto open System settings. - Click Advanced system settings on the left.
- Under the Advanced tab, in the Performance section, click Settings.
- Go to the Advanced tab and click Change... under Virtual memory.
- Uncheck "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives".
- Select your SSD drive (usually C:).
- Select Custom size.
- Set Initial size (MB) to 16384 and Maximum size (MB) to 32768.
- Click Set, then OK, and restart the computer.
Solution 4: Lower Global Texture and View Distance Settings
Difficulty: Easy Time Required: 3 minutes Success Rate: High Prerequisites: None Steps:- In the ARC Raiders Graphics settings, set Texture Quality to Medium or Low.
- Set View Distance to Medium.
- Set Effects Quality and Post Processing Quality to Medium.
- Ensure Resolution Scale is set to 100%.
- Set Anti-Aliasing to Temporal AA (Medium). Avoid TSR High or Ultra.
- Apply settings and restart the game.
Solution 5: Modify Engine Configuration File (Advanced)
Difficulty: Advanced Time Required: 7 minutes Success Rate: Medium Prerequisites: File editing knowledge Steps:- Navigate to the game's configuration folder:
C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\Local\ARC\Saved\Config\WindowsClient\ - Locate and open the file
GameUserSettings.iniin a text editor like Notepad. - Find the line
sg.TextureQuality=. Ensure it is set tosg.TextureQuality=1(Medium) or0(Low). - Find or add the line
r.Streaming.PoolSize=. Set it tor.Streaming.PoolSize=1500for a 1500MB limit. - Add a new line:
r.Streaming.HLODStrategy=0. - Save the file, right-click it, select Properties, and check Read-only to prevent the game from overwriting it.
- Launch the game.
r.Streaming.PoolSize enforces a hard VRAM budget lower than the default, preventing overflow. r.Streaming.HLODStrategy=0 prioritizes loading essential textures first. The Read-only attribute locks these values.
Verification:
The game respects the .ini settings. Texture streaming is more aggressive in downgrading distant object quality to preserve memory for nearby textures.
Solution 6: Disable Fullscreen Optimizations for the Game Executable
Difficulty: Easy Time Required: 2 minutes Success Rate: Low Prerequisites: None Steps:- Navigate to the ARC Raiders installation folder (e.g.,
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ARC Raiders). - Locate the game's main executable file (e.g.,
ARCClient-Win64-Shipping.exe). - Right-click the file and select Properties.
- Go to the Compatibility tab.
- Check the box for "Disable fullscreen optimizations".
- Click Apply, then OK.
SECTION 5: PREVENTION
Maintain graphics drivers updated on a monthly schedule, prioritizing Game Ready Drivers for newly played titles. Regularly monitor GPU VRAM usage with tools like GPU-Z to establish a baseline for stable gameplay. Configure game graphics settings to consistently use 80-90% of available VRAM at most, leaving headroom for streaming operations. Perform a quarterly clean driver installation using DDU to prevent file corruption accumulation. Ensure the Windows page file remains on the fastest SSD and is set to a system-managed size after initial troubleshooting. Validate game file integrity through your distribution platform (Steam/Epic) after every major game patch.SECTION 6: WHEN TO CONTACT SUPPORT
Contact official ARC Raiders support if all configuration-based solutions fail and the issue persists on a different, higher-VRAM GPU in the same system, indicating a deeper software conflict. Provide thedxdiag report and the game's log files located in C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\Local\ARC\Saved\Logs. Include a detailed description of the tested solutions and their outcomes. Official support channels are accessible through the game's official website or the publisher's support portal. Escalation is necessary only after confirming the hardware meets minimum specifications and all software-level troubleshooting is exhausted.