character selection screen empty?

[problems_daoc]

Hi,

Wondering if anyone has seen this problem before. I've just upgraded my video card to Geforce Ti4200, since this upgrade i have been unable to play the game.

I load fine, until the character selection screen. This screen has Play, Options, Quit, Delete Character buttons - infact everything except my characters, or even a 'Create Character' slot. Where these should be it's just blank.

This is the same on every server i try, even on those which i do not have characters - no 'Create Character' button.

I've reinstalled DAOC, the latest Nvidia Geforce drivers, updated my Via chipset, reinstalled DirectX. All to no avail.

If anyone has seen this issue, or has any suggestions i'd appreciate the help.

Thanks.

 

[old.dittytwo]

Originally posted by problems_daoc
Hi,

Wondering if anyone has seen this problem before. I've just upgraded my video card to Geforce Ti4200, since this upgrade i have been unable to play the game.

I load fine, until the character selection screen. This screen has Play, Options, Quit, Delete Character buttons - infact everything except my characters, or even a 'Create Character' slot. Where these should be it's just blank.

This is the same on every server i try, even on those which i do not have characters - no 'Create Character' button.

I've reinstalled DAOC, the latest Nvidia Geforce drivers, updated my Via chipset, reinstalled DirectX. All to no avail.

If anyone has seen this issue, or has any suggestions i'd appreciate the help.

Thanks.

have you tried rolling back the nvida drivers back to 30.89?? that might help

other than that you might want to try re-installing DAoC

 

[VidX]

Yip, try another re-install, from fresh (delete folder).

I found some graphical errors when I swapped my GFX card around recently.

Also experienced some errors when I copied my flatmates install onto my PC to save having to download the patch again, and he has a different type of card from me.

Does the screen show your avatar? It shouldn't I think going by what I think is wrong. As to how to fix it, I haven't the foggiest idea apart froma re-install

 

[thorwyntf]

Got the same problem since last patch. Reinstal doesn´t work!
I tried serveral different gfx drivers (I´m playing with an Asus6800) and latest DriectX version as well, but I still can´t see my avatars on mainscreen.
Contacted RightNow yesterday and I`m waiting for their reply. I`m gonna post the results here as soon as I got them.

Thorwyn
GM
<Blade&Quill>

 

[problems_daoc]

Yes, i tried a reinstall again, it didnt work. I've also tried several older versions of Nvidia and Detonator drivers, no success yet. I'm hoping on rightnow too .. eeek.


Edit, got a response from Rightnow:

-------------------------------------------
Hello,

If you upgraded from a 3Dfx card (Voodoo or others), please perform the following:

Do a search for 3dfx*.* files.

2. Delete all files that are found.

3. Delete file GLIDE2X.dll and/or glide2x.dll.

Also, please make sure you installed the nVidia detonator drivers, and not the card manufacturer's drivers (you can find them here : www.nvidia.com).

---------------------------------------------
European Dark Age of Camelot Customer Support
-------------------------------------------


Sadly i didnt upgrade from a 3dfx card, so the above isn't very useful. I'll post any more info i get here.

 

[Psy|:m00:]

Disable the Z-buffer in the D3D options (or is it openGL, i forget).

Anyway, i had the same problem, just disable that and all should be spinky

 

[problems_daoc]

Thanks for the reply.

Try as i might i can't find a zbuffer option in either D3D or OpenGL options.

Which card are you using, and which drivers? Maybe the drivers i'm running don't support disabling it, or maybe the card i have hasn't a zbuffer ..

Thanks.

Edit:

I found this searching The Herald, it's a US RightNow question/answer:

------------------------------------------------
<->On the character selection I don't see my character. I have a Radeon 8500.<->

Answer
*-*

This is caused by having the "W-buffer support" feature turned on as well as using the 3286 video drivers that support "Smoothvision". To turn this feature off, please perform the following:

Right click on the Windows desktop and select properties. Click on settings and then click on Advanced. Next click on the Direct3D Tab and under D3D settings uncheck "W-buffer support".

------------------------------------------------

Although a different video card, it seems to be the same problem. The Zbuffer on a Geforce = Wbuffer on a Radeon.

The problem is, there is no 'disable Zbuffer support' under d3d/OpenGL tabs, i've had a good hunt - and tried several driver versions.

Anyone have more info?

 

[Psy|:m00:]

I did mean to say w-buffer, and, ehm, heh, wrong card as it happens...be back from college later will look then

 

[problems_daoc]

update ...

I did some more fiddling and found that if i throttle hardware graphics acceleration ('performance' tab) down to the next to lowest setting, 'basic accelerator functions', my characters appear and i can log in the game! The problem is, at this setting it's completely unplayable, like 1 FPS

I increase acceleration, even up 1 setting, and the characters no longer appear.

Does this ring any bells with anyone? Anymore Z/Wbuffer info?

Thanks for reading.

 

[thorwyntf]

I´m still talking to RightNow and their latest suggestion was to flash my BIOS / update my mainboard driver. :/
I dunno if that´s gonna help because the game was running w/o any problems before the latest patch came out. However.. I`m gonna try this and post the results here. Stay tuned.
As for the z-buffer... there must be tweak utilities available somewhere!

 

[problems_daoc]

Hi,

I have flashed my bios, updated it, updated MB drivers 4in1 etc .. save yourself the job, it didnt solve the problem.

As for the zbuffer .. there is a geforce tweak utility. I downloaded this, it only supports older driver versions - so i downloaded those and installed. This had a tab for both Zbuffer and Wbuffer on/off, i tried this but it didn't solve the daoc problem. Didnt seem to do anything much really .. i was completely confident in the utility.

 

[thorwyntf]

Solved!

Installing the latest Via 4in1 driver solved the problem for me!!!

Apparently, there are more than one possible resons for this problem. So at least give it a try and update your 4in1 driver.

 

[problems_daoc]

Good news nice one!

I did update 4in1, and the bios itself, didnt solve it for me.

However, since i managed to get in game with 3d acceleration swicthed off I had a quick-launch profile for my character.

I tried this quicklaunch on normal 3d settings (therefore bypassing the character selection screen) and what do you know ... i got in game. It plays fine, however, if i quit game again theres no characters in the selection screen.

With this discovery the game is completely functional, even if a pain in the arse. I can create new characters etc with 3d acceleration disabled, then exit game, re-enable and use the quick-launch.

Still - any info would still be appreciated, i'd like to get to the bottom of this one even tho i have a workaround.