Graphics glitch

[Shark7]

OK, first off, this one must be tied to the new drivers for my ATI Radeon 7700 because it only started after I updated. Also I have rolled back to a previous driver which fixes this problem, but reapplying the new drivers reproduces it.

The problem is this, and it is very specific:

1. I only get combat summaries if both sides had aircraft present during a raid.
2. Air to Air combat animations play, but no planes ever show up on screen.
3. Air to Naval combat animations do not play, but I do get combat summaries.

Here are my specs:

Intel Core I7-3770k @ 3.5 Mhz, 16 GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 7700 1 GB VRAM, Running Windows 7

My shortcut switches:

"C:\Matrix Games\War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition\War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" -px1920 -py1080 -cpu2 -SingleCpuOrders -deepColor -altFont

And finally in game settings:



If anyone has any ideas on what settings I might need to change to get my animations and combat summaries working properly again, then I would be grateful. And I think I'm going to have to do it from the Radeon settings, since none of my in game settings have changed.

Rolling back the driver is also an issue, since at some point without my knowledge, MSUpdate decided that it needed to be updated without telling me, causing me to lose my original Radeon configuration utility and be replaced with a generic MS driver. I have since turned off automatic updates to prevent future forced updates.

[BBfanboy]

Maybe add the -dd_sw switch?

[Trugrit]

Run your preference delays up to 2.5

I don't believe .5 seconds is enough time for the graphics to respond.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Trugrit


Run your preference delays up to 2.5

I don't believe .5 seconds is enough time for the graphics to respond.

No, I have used .5 for some settings and the game does flash the animation and messages at a very fast, but readable rate. My computer is about five years old but the graphics card was near to cutting edge at the time.
There is another current thread about graphics issues and it ID'd the problem as DirectX being "updated" by Win10 to a version the game does not understand. Reverting to an older version of DirectX restored the graphics. That could be the case here too.

[BillBrown]

I am not sure about Windows 10, but in windows 7 you could have multiple versions of directx installed with no problem. I have version 9, 10, and 11 installed.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: BillBrown

I am not sure about Windows 10, but in windows 7 you could have multiple versions of directx installed with no problem. I have version 9, 10, and 11 installed.

I thought so too. Maybe the update for Windows 10 pulled the old one out automatically? Should be able to put in back in.

[Shark7]

So try reinstalling the version of DirectX WITP needs might help it?

I'm not running windows 10, but in the whole Get Win10 coercion thing, some things might have been updated without my knowledge to 'get my PC ready' for win10.

So far, this has been the only issue I've come across, and its not a game-breaker, it just forces me to read the entire combat report after the turn instead of being able to see it during the replay. And when playing the AI, you don't really need to read the whole after turn report TBH.

[BillBrown]

If you are still getting windows 10 update messages, use this: https://www.grc.com/never10.htm

Works great.

[Korvar]

I'm the first one to attest to problems with DirectX and WitPAE, but in this case I wouldn't point to it as the most likely culprit this early in the diagnosis.

You observed the differences in WitPAE directly after a video driver upgrade. Typically DirectX is updated separately from video drivers - but there's nothing to prevent a video card manufacturer from including DirectX components in a driver install (as some games have done so in the past with their installations).

The first thing to focus on is the video driver installation. Either there is some change made to the new driver set that is not playing well with WitPAE, or the installation was corrupted somehow. Unfortunately, many driver uninstallers will lead you to assume they do a thorough job in uninstalling the previous driver set before the new installation begins - alas, this is seldom true.

You'll want to use Display Driver Uninstaller to completely clean the old driver set from your computer. Use care when using this utility as it is very powerful and could cause you to have no video display if used incorrectly. Follow the instructions given closely.

Then you'll want to install the new driver set. Get it directly from the manufacturer of your video card or from ATI (now AMD). Many cards have either an AMD or NVidia chipset, but the cards themselves are in fact made by other companies, and those companies can make tweaks to their products which means the generic drivers are not ideal.

Another utilty you can use to help you identify a good driver is Snappy Driver Installer Origin. Make sure it has Origin in the title as the version of this program without it is no longer developed by the original developers and the new owners have made poor choice with regard to the inclusion of adware and such in that version of the software. The SDI Origin is a fork of the original project which has returned it to its original roots of no adware and such.

After a thorough uninstall followed by installation of the latest driver set, you can also install the DirectX 9 libraries if WitPAE is still giving you problems. Download the Jun 2010 DirectX package (the latest for DX9). Every version of Windows more or less has its own corresponding version of DirectX - for instance, you need Windows 10 to use the latest DirectX version, DX12. You can install the Jun 2010 package alongside another version of DirectX without issue - but only do so if you're actually experiencing problems.

I think I've given you enough for now - proceed with this, and then we can reevaluate as needed.

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: BillBrown

If you are still getting windows 10 update messages, use this: https://www.grc.com/never10.htm

Works great.

I'm good there, took care of that problem a long time ago. Basically the first time that stupid nagware popped up on my computer I went online and found out how to get rid of it and keep it from coming back. And from what's been going on, I'm glad I refused that Win10 upgrade. I seriously doubt my older computer would have lasted very long given the latest round of 'imcompatible' hardware issues.

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Korvar

I'm the first one to attest to problems with DirectX and WitPAE, but in this case I wouldn't point to it as the most likely culprit this early in the diagnosis.

You observed the differences in WitPAE directly after a video driver upgrade. Typically DirectX is updated separately from video drivers - but there's nothing to prevent a video card manufacturer from including DirectX components in a driver install (as some games have done so in the past with their installations).

The first thing to focus on is the video driver installation. Either there is some change made to the new driver set that is not playing well with WitPAE, or the installation was corrupted somehow. Unfortunately, many driver uninstallers will lead you to assume they do a thorough job in uninstalling the previous driver set before the new installation begins - alas, this is seldom true.

You'll want to use Display Driver Uninstaller to completely clean the old driver set from your computer. Use care when using this utility as it is very powerful and could cause you to have no video display if used incorrectly. Follow the instructions given closely.

Then you'll want to install the new driver set. Get it directly from the manufacturer of your video card or from ATI (now AMD). Many cards have either an AMD or NVidia chipset, but the cards themselves are in fact made by other companies, and those companies can make tweaks to their products which means the generic drivers are not ideal.

Another utilty you can use to help you identify a good driver is Snappy Driver Installer Origin. Make sure it has Origin in the title as the version of this program without it is no longer developed by the original developers and the new owners have made poor choice with regard to the inclusion of adware and such in that version of the software. The SDI Origin is a fork of the original project which has returned it to its original roots of no adware and such.

After a thorough uninstall followed by installation of the latest driver set, you can also install the DirectX 9 libraries if WitPAE is still giving you problems. Download the Jun 2010 DirectX package (the latest for DX9). Every version of Windows more or less has its own corresponding version of DirectX - for instance, you need Windows 10 to use the latest DirectX version, DX12. You can install the Jun 2010 package alongside another version of DirectX without issue - but only do so if you're actually experiencing problems.

I think I've given you enough for now - proceed with this, and then we can reevaluate as needed.

Thanks, that is a lot of very useful information. I'll have to give it a go tomorrow (too late at night to start it right now) and see if that fixes the issues.

[Shark7]

Well, after months of having no luck fixing this problem, I went in and added the -dd_sw switch to my command line, which I had not previously needed. It's now working fine. Wish I had figured that out 6 months ago when this started. [8|]