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View Full Version : Planescape Torment: Graphics Problems!

deepruntramp
07-31-2007, 04:40 PM
I was hoping someone else had run into this problem and found a solution to it. I'm trying to play Torment on my Dual-Core, WinXP SP2, GeForce 7800 GTX machine. I've got the newest drivers for everything.

If I leave hardware acceleration on full, all the spell graphics are screwed up (specifically, they're replaced by black boxes the size of the sprites). No amount of playing with the in-game graphical options fixes that.

I can turn down the hardware acceleration in the control panel three notches and spell graphics will start to work. However, then the mouse cursor begins leaving artifact trails on any static part of the screen - like, say, dialog. Or the inventory.

Has anyone figured out a way to play this game on a modern machine (with an nVidia card) and avoid both issues?
noun
07-31-2007, 04:48 PM
Nope. That is an unavoidable conflict with XP.
Jasper
07-31-2007, 04:53 PM
Really? I could swear I got it to work at least passably towards the end of last year... I'm on a different machine now though, and so can't check my settings. :-/
deepruntramp
07-31-2007, 05:07 PM
Nope. That is an unavoidable conflict with XP.
Super.

Wish I had known this in advance, I would have stayed a Fighter.
Kunikos
07-31-2007, 05:40 PM
I think it may be a dual core issue not an XP issue: http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/planescape-torment-19/weird-graphical-glitch-black-squares-87734.html
nixon66
07-31-2007, 05:44 PM
I had a similar problem with System Shock 2, playing it on a dual core system, I learned that if I set the exe to only run on one core it ran perfectly. Two? Crashed before I even began the training routine.
deepruntramp
07-31-2007, 06:00 PM
It couldn't be a dual-core issue because:

-It's already set to use only one core by default.
-Graphical acceleration changes fix the problem (but introduce another one).
Jason McCullough
07-31-2007, 06:58 PM
There's some graphics-related compatibility switches buried way down in the game options submenus. Try those.
deepruntramp
07-31-2007, 07:32 PM
There's some graphics-related compatibility switches buried way down in the game options submenus. Try those.
I tried, they didn't seem to have any effect, aside from the one that made the game unplayably slow, but then, everything seemed to work too!
Becoming
07-31-2007, 07:40 PM
I had it working fine last year on that same exact video card, but I don't recall what I did to it (was on a single core cpu though, athlon64 4000+).

Too bad I'm in the middle of assembling new pc parts or I'd dig the discs up and test it out. Once I get my stuff put together I'll see what happens (I'm sure I'll run across the discs while I'm packing stuff to move here).

This gives me an excuse to play it again at least, not that I really needed one. :)
Robert Sharp
07-31-2007, 08:30 PM
I played it in XP and had no problems...seems like I fixed something though...where's Charles? I think he's the one who told me what to do. It was in the graphics settings. Turn off 3d acceleration maybe?
worm
07-31-2007, 08:46 PM
Have you tried turning the acceleration to none?
deepruntramp
08-01-2007, 08:03 AM
Have you tried turning the acceleration to none?
Yeah. The game (and pretty much anything else) refuses to load thanks to some nVidia cockblock focus-stealing warning about acceleration being off (despite the fact that I turned it off).
Kunikos
08-01-2007, 12:44 PM
Turn hardware mouse cursor off instead?
deepruntramp
08-01-2007, 01:04 PM
Turn hardware mouse cursor off instead?
I don't see that option in the control panel... and Torment doesn't have an option like that (unless it's a command line switch?)
worm
08-01-2007, 01:10 PM
Yeah. The game (and pretty much anything else) refuses to load thanks to some nVidia cockblock focus-stealing warning about acceleration being off (despite the fact that I turned it off).
Just kill the process.
Kunikos
08-01-2007, 02:16 PM
I don't see that option in the control panel... and Torment doesn't have an option like that (unless it's a command line switch?)

Check the INI file?
deepruntramp
08-01-2007, 05:28 PM
Check the INI file?
Nope, nothing there, unless I'm really missing it.

I mean, have you done this fix before or are you just giving suggestions? I'm confused.
Kunikos
08-01-2007, 05:35 PM
Nope, nothing there, unless I'm really missing it.

I mean, have you done this fix before or are you just giving suggestions? I'm confused.

I'm just giving a general suggestion since it sounds like a hardware cursor issue. The cursor is buffered in video memory and it sounds like the layer below it isn't being repainted properly.

Have you tried using the Compatibility tab and setting it to Windows 95/98 ?
Dave Long
08-01-2007, 05:35 PM
This game is on GameTap. Has anyone tried it on there? Does it work right?
Jasper
08-01-2007, 05:36 PM
I vaguely recall this coming up in a thread here previously; pity that the search function is broken.
Kunikos
08-01-2007, 05:38 PM
Totally, utterly broken. Bethesda and Bioware's forums suffer from the same issue.

In fact you'd have better luck searching Google with site:http://www.quartertothree.com in the search keywords. LAWL.
KaoFloppy
08-02-2007, 12:06 PM
Is this the one?
Maybe this one?
Andrew Mayer
08-02-2007, 12:41 PM
Totally, utterly broken. Bethesda and Bioware's forums suffer from the same issue.

In fact you'd have better luck searching Google with site:http://www.quartertothree.com in the search keywords. LAWL.

If you want to search qt3 you can do a site limited search on google.

Just add "site:www.quartertothree.com" to your search terms and you'll find that it's pretty easy to find what you're looking for.
Jazar
08-02-2007, 01:36 PM
This game is on GameTap. Has anyone tried it on there? Does it work right?

I played it on GameTap with my Dual 2 Core XP machine and it played great.
deepruntramp
08-02-2007, 02:17 PM
I'm just giving a general suggestion since it sounds like a hardware cursor issue. The cursor is buffered in video memory and it sounds like the layer below it isn't being repainted properly.

Have you tried using the Compatibility tab and setting it to Windows 95/98 ?Ah, gotcha. Well, there is no cursor option in-game or in the .ini, and if there's a driver option for it, it's hidden.

I did try compatibility modes. No fix and the movies stuttered hard.
deepruntramp
08-02-2007, 02:51 PM
Well. After some digging the only solutions for nVidia cards on XP seem to be:

-Run the game in a window. But then you get no movies.
-Downgrade your drivers. Not going to happen.
-Get an ATI card. Not going to happen.

So thanks anyway, I guess. I might just backup my savegame and reinstall on my old-but-has-an-ATI-card machine.
Robert Sharp
08-02-2007, 02:54 PM
This game is on GameTap. Has anyone tried it on there? Does it work right?

With rare exceptions, all the games on GameTap run just fine. However, with the infinity engine games I get the odd criss-cross pattern (like I'm playing one of those old puzzle games where you shift things around while one slot stays open). That's fixable in the graphics settings, but I can't find the setup file for the Gametap games. Still...it's quite bearable.