A new bug in Apex Legends is resulting in black textures and missing graphical assets. This is a visual bug that seems to display black boxes or backgrounds on maps, sometimes over individual characters. While this problem first appeared shortly after launch, it seems to have come back after the recent Apex Legends System Override update. If you’ve got erroneous black textures in Apex Legends, here’s what you can do to get rid of them.
How to fix the Apex Legends black textures bug
There are two known causes of the Apex Legends black textures visual bug: Missing game assets and incorrect GPU settings. Either one of these can result in black backgrounds, black textures, black boxes around maps, or pieces missing from various character models.
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While this black texture bug appears serious, it’s actually quite common. Reports on this bug go back months, and most players are able to fix the problem with one of two solutions. The first involves repairing the game through the Origin launcher, while the second requires adjusting a GPU setting to force the game to run in High Performance mode.
Repair the Apex Legends software
Assuming your GPU software and drivers are up-to-date, your first step should be to try to repair Apex Legends through the Origin launcher. Here’s how that process works:
- Open the Origin Launcher and find the Apex Legends listing
- Right click on Apex Legends, then select repair
- Wait for the software to finish verifying, downloading, and installing the necessary files
This repair shouldn’t take very long. However, some users report that repairing Apex Legends results in the download of up to 10 gigabytes of data. If that happens, you can rest easy — that much missing data was almost certainly the cause of the black textures bug.
Run Apex Legends in High Performance mode
If you’re lucky, repairing the Apex Legends game files will solve the black textures problem. However, if black boxes or backgrounds still appear, it may be worth looking into your GPU settings. One popular fix involves selecting the High Performance option in the Windows 10 settings menu. The idea here is that changing the option will force your GPU to recognize the game as power-hungry.
While this method may seem a little advanced, it’s not particularly complicated. It does require changing Windows 10 software settings, so it may not be for everyone. With that said, this fix seems to help in the cases where software repairs fail.
- Close both Apex Legends and the Origin launcher
- From the Windows 10 start menu, type in Graphics settings to find the option in the Systems settings menu
- Within Graphics settings, under the option to “Choose an app to set preference,” select Classic app, then click Browse
- Navigate to the Apex Legends installation folder (the default directory is C:Program FilesOrigin GamesApex), select the game’s executable file (*.exe), then click Add
- With Apex Legends added to the list, click the Options button
- In the pop-up menu, select High performance, then click Save
With any luck, setting your machine to run Apex Legends in High Performance mode will stop black textures from appearing. It’s also worth trying to run the game as an administrator (right click > Run as administrator), particularly if you’re launching the game from anything other than your computer’s default administrative account.
The Apex Legends black texture bug is annoying, but it’s not permanent. A simple software repair through the Origin launcher ought to be enough to fix the black texture bug for most users. If not, changing your settings to run the game in High Performance mode should solve the problem. Of course, it’s possible that something else may be amiss, especially considering the bug appeared after the game’s recent System Override update. If you’re still affected, it’s worth reaching out to Electronic Arts’ support page.
