Another graphics question

[Mariam]

I've just installed ToD (including the new version of DX that was required for it), and something seems to be wrong. The graphics, which I saw in the February preview in San Francisco and which were absolutely gorgeous, on my machine are inferior to what they were before ToD. In particular, wherever my character is standing is shown as a low-resolution mottled grey field, in which I can't tell road from sand from grass.

In fact, it reminds me of when I was playing AC on my old laptop which didn't have 3D acceleration.

My husband tells me my graphics card is a G4. My son suggested I tweak some of the graphics sliders to higher settings on the in-game panel, but that hasn't improved anything by more than a few percent. What am I doing wrong? Should I reinstall ToD from scratch; or what should I?

Mariam

[Davidge]

That sounds like AGP Textures might be turned off.

Try this:

From the Start.Run window fire up DXDIAG.

Top tab of DirectX Diagnistic Tool to the Display window.

See if all three of the troubleshooting buttons say "Disable". If so, then do nothing.

If any of them say "Enable", make a note which one was in that state, then click the button to enable that feature, (button will change to say "Disable" ) click Apply then use the TEST feature on that same panel in DX Diag. If all tests pass, click Exit and reboot at this point.

Try the game. If it looks better, you win. If not, then it's something else. If it starts crashing, go back to DXDiag and Disable whatever you enabled.

If they were already in the correct state, let us know . . . :D Will think of something else.

[Mariam]

Okay, I tried that. All three elements were labeled "Enabled." I tried Test Direct Draw and everything passed, and I tried Test Direct 3D and everything passed too, except that I kept getting error messages "You cancelled the test by pressing a key" when I hadn't. *shrug*

What should I try next?

Mariam

[Davidge]

Wondering if the textures you saw in the special event you attended were the ultra-high resolution ones. Scenario posted a while back that they were unable to include those in the July release, but they will be added hopefully in August. If so, what you see might be the normal textures (mid-range) that we all got, but your expectation was set with the ultra-highs which are not yet implemented.

Perhaps you could post a screenshot so we can compare what you see now to what I see now and determine whether they look the same?

[Mariam]

OK, I have taken a screenshot ... how do I attach it? I don't see anything in this "Reply" box that gives any hint.

Mariam

[Davidge]

Host it for free on any number if sites, like photobucket.com and link to it in a post. ;)

Like this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v127/Davidge/Solclaim/eotwsc.jpg

(BTW, thats a screenshot of the "End of the World," before Turbine closed the path to it in the Caul upgrade . . . check out the coords on the compass. That standing corpse had been there for several months because that landblock was so rarely visited, a relic from an old bug Turbine fixed. The graphics corruption you see at the edge is an artifact where no textures were assigned at the edge below the land.)

[Mariam]

Host it for free on any number if sites, like photobucket.com and link to it in a post.

I don't know how to do that. No, really. I don't. I'll have to wait till my husband gets home, which should be eightish PDT.

Thanks for your patience.

Mariam

[Mariam]

*sigh* My husband says "Wait till the weekend and I'll take a look at it."

So I'll post again in a few days.....

Mariam