Matrix Games Forums

Im afraid that the graphical glitches are holding me back from purchasing as well. Im going to wait and see how this develops. I have no desire to jump thru hoops like in WitPAE to make the UI & graphics work.

That is your choice. There are adjustments in the preferences and then you have to find the sweet spot for your preferences. I do know that there are/were some issues with some chips but there are solutions for those known problems. I am not an expert on those, you would just have to post your computer specifications here or look for known issues with some chips.

Haviel71 wrote: Thu Jan 22, 2026 6:44 pm I'm having a lot of graphics problems with the game. First, it froze on the start menu, so I uninstalled and reinstalled it.

Now, when I look at a ship's profile, the image is static, and there's a line underneath it that moves. And when I try to view an aircraft's profile, a completely black sidebar appears.
I'm not very familiar with forums and I don't know how to add screenshots to show you what's happening.
Thanks

i have the same problem

I have a 'topnotch' gaming laptop with 4K screen. Whick vid settings would you recommend?

francescomolina wrote: Sat Jan 24, 2026 10:31 am

Haviel71 wrote: Thu Jan 22, 2026 6:44 pm I'm having a lot of graphics problems with the game. First, it froze on the start menu, so I uninstalled and reinstalled it.

Now, when I look at a ship's profile, the image is static, and there's a line underneath it that moves. And when I try to view an aircraft's profile, a completely black sidebar appears.
I'm not very familiar with forums and I don't know how to add screenshots to show you what's happening.
Thanks

i have the same problem

Me too

Well, after a lot of messing around I've found that the switch that is responsible for messing up the ship graphics as posted above is the '2xpopup size' switch. Setting it to zero produces the graphics glitch with the ship pictures. The graphics are ok if it's set to 1 or 2. Unfortunately, setting it to 1 does not alter the height of the huge bottom bar at all - it remains the same size as if set to 2. Setting this switch to 0, combined with forcing low res graphics, does dramatically reduce the size of the bottom bar and the buttons at top screen, but at the price of scewing up the ship graphics in pop ups. I post this just in case those who have said they suffer this graphic glitch haven't tried this (Francescomolina and Haviel 71, in this thread....)...

Thank you very much Phoenix100 !!!!.
You've made my day

You can reduce the size of the bottom info bar and upper buttons by using the "Enforce Low Resolution Art" toggle in the preferences menu. This allows you to adjust the pop-up size and keep those areas from taking up so much of your screen.

Yes, but - on my machines, at least, niether settings 1 or 2 do any reductionat all, only setting 0 works to make these areas smaller, and - as I posted above - using this causes a ship art graphic glitch. But thanks.

I managed to solve most issues (thanks to many replies I read on this forum) by forcing the game to use my gpu nvidia, but from what I see now the 'counter art' is outright disappointing if you compare it for instance to wds games who have managed to upgrade their counter art. Also the fact that you have to make adjustments shouldn't be necessary. Again If you see the numerous upgrades wds has given to their games, never I had to change any settings to my laptop. Furthermore, even in all the other games I own (and believe me, that is a lot) I never had to that.
Now, ok, making the changes, it's no so bad, but I expect a game, when it's published, up and ready without turning yourself into a computerexpert. Most gamers just want to play without making changes to vid settings and so on which might cause problems for other programs you use.

I really want to buy this game as well but all the graphic problems are scaring me off. I can't get WitPAE to work and I was really excited to play this one because I thought it would be modernized. These type of games are incredible and I love WitE2 but in 2026 why can't we make them so they just work properly with modern computers?
I will have to hold off for now and see how things develop.

Wild wrote: Sun Jan 25, 2026 11:15 am I really want to buy this game as well but all the graphic problems are scaring me off. I can't get WitPAE to work and I was really excited to play this one because I thought it would be modernized. These type of games are incredible and I love WitE2 but in 2026 why can't we make them so they just work properly with modern computers?
I will have to hold off for now and see how things develop.

There is a WITP:AE to work, there is a thread on the Tech forum with a program to set up the switches.

Hoeist6634 wrote: Sun Jan 25, 2026 10:05 am I managed to solve most issues (thanks to many replies I read on this forum) by forcing the game to use my gpu nvidia, but from what I see now the 'counter art' is outright disappointing if you compare it for instance to wds games who have managed to upgrade their counter art. Also the fact that you have to make adjustments shouldn't be necessary. Again If you see the numerous upgrades wds has given to their games, never I had to change any settings to my laptop. Furthermore, even in all the other games I own (and believe me, that is a lot) I never had to that.
Now, ok, making the changes, it's no so bad, but I expect a game, when it's published, up and ready without turning yourself into a computerexpert. Most gamers just want to play without making changes to vid settings and so on which might cause problems for other programs you use.

Well, maybe everyone should go back to using a basic generic computer. Maybe something like a Commodore 64 would be to your liking?

If there is a problem with your chip, then it is difficult for the game to get around that unless it is very intrusive. Or do you want to game to turn off certain features of your system for you? That could be a solution. I don't have an issue with making changes so my games will run properly.

RangerJoe wrote: Sun Jan 25, 2026 12:08 pm Well, maybe everyone should go back to using a basic generic computer. Maybe something like a Commodore 64 would be to your liking?

If there is a problem with your chip, then it is difficult for the game to get around that unless it is very intrusive. Or do you want to game to turn off certain features of your system for you? That could be a solution. I don't have an issue with making changes so my games will run properly.

So your best analysis is that all people posting about similar issues all have defect graphic cards?

No game should have as a solution to a problem to switch GPU. A game should also be tetsted before a release against most common resolutions people will be using.

I get that you want to defend the developers out of passion for the project; but being rude and uninformed helps no one here. It just make you look bad.

Yes RangerJoe, stop your sarcastic replies. It doesn't help the game, which is technically 30 years behind (except for the map, which is quite good). It's 2026, and the game could have used a little more work on the interface/visual presentation.

For those who are curious, the game in 4K (and I have a 9070XT). So images are in very low resolution, some windows a big, some windows are very small (LCU List). There is no consistency between the different elements.

I hope that the sacrifices made on the interface have benefited the gameplay.

I don't have to adjust anything for my computer. I am playing on a laptop with no customization nor a large screen. So your choices of computer equipment may be part of the problem and there are known issues with certain chips. I believe that the maker of the chips has been notified so they may make an update to their drivers, that should not be up to the one programmer of this game. There was another programmer doing some of the windows but there are different preferences for the different windows. So unlike many older games which had the same look on all of the computer equipment, you can choose how you like your game showing up on the monitors.

The programmer decided on the UI, it was his choice to use this one. But there are no scripts running except for certain scenarios, it is truly an AI. So the AI will adjust to your play each time depending upon what you do differently plus the random chance of the random number generator.

For WITP:AE, someone wrote a program to help install switches for the game which were needed because the game itself was written for a much older operating system with much more limited capabilities.

Personally for me, the looks of the game are not the most important thing. To me, the most important thing about the game is how much I enjoy playing the game.

I also have a large monitor. 5120 x 2160 with 150% scale. Game unplayable simply due to inability to navigate.

Are there recommended graphic settings that I should try? Let me know what I can send or test to help.

In another post mentioned that I saw a video that mentioned this is still 32 bit code.

Went to chat gpt and asked if this would be an issue with modern 64 bit os and hardware.

Response was for the most part shouldn’t be a problem. When I asked about modern high end graphics cards it said that is more nuisances and issues may arise.

Lobben wrote: Sun Jan 25, 2026 1:09 pm

RangerJoe wrote: Sun Jan 25, 2026 12:08 pm Well, maybe everyone should go back to using a basic generic computer. Maybe something like a Commodore 64 would be to your liking?

If there is a problem with your chip, then it is difficult for the game to get around that unless it is very intrusive. Or do you want to game to turn off certain features of your system for you? That could be a solution. I don't have an issue with making changes so my games will run properly.

So your best analysis is that all people posting about similar issues all have defect graphic cards?

No game should have as a solution to a problem to switch GPU. A game should also be tetsted before a release against most common resolutions people will be using.

I get that you want to defend the developers out of passion for the project; but being rude and uninformed helps no one here. It just make you look bad.

RJ did not claim that people have defect graphic cards. He was referring to a problem that only occurs on notebooks that have certain graphics cards from Intel (Iris Xe, to be specific, not sure if any others are affected) installed.

If you paid more attention to the comments posted here about this issue, you could have noticed that the problem was identified by testing the game before its release and that a solution for the problem is provided with the game and since the first released version of the game.

However, the solution provided by the development team cannot solve the root cause of the problem (only provide means to circumvent it on the notebooks that are affected) because the problem is not caused by the game but by the Intel graphics card. If you can provide a better solution please feel free to tell the development team. This would be much appreciated!

Anyway, I hope that this helps to understand the issue!

Groomy wrote: Sun Jan 25, 2026 1:36 pm Yes RangerJoe, stop your sarcastic replies. It doesn't help the game, which is technically 30 years behind (except for the map, which is quite good). It's 2026, and the game could have used a little more work on the interface/visual presentation.

For those who are curious, the game in 4K (and I have a 9070XT). So images are in very low resolution, some windows a big, some windows are very small (LCU List). There is no consistency between the different elements.

I hope that the sacrifices made on the interface have benefited the gameplay.

yes its a shame, there is no consistence in window style