graphics glitch

[jaws007]

hey all on the server i play on i zoned into natimbi shores and all i could see was blacked out toons and ground and sky, the huts displayed ok and so did my glowing fist weapons and helm, why would this be. every other zone i have visited is fine. now i do know i did a live patch update once and that happened to all zoned for me and then i re-installed the game to fix it. but on darktides server its only natimbi shores so far.

[CrabClaw]

I have had the same problem here too, but I am on a clean install. If you go underwater the graphics in Natimbi they will be normal. Kinda wierd, maybe it needs a server file? I noticed, from my exploration of all the zones, some of the other GoD zones dont even have collision detection.

[jaws007]

yeah i noticed when going underwater the graphics is ok, it seems like things have been reversed somehow, underwater looking up at the surface of the water it seems to be like being out of water looking down on the water surface. really wierd, thus the toons looking black. i have clean install also btw after having issues running live patcher, will try live patch if that doesnt work will re-install clean once more to see if i can figure it out.

[CrabClaw]

You are not supposed to patch to live, just a vanilla install off of the Titanium disks. But if you find anything sure post an update.

(I also noticed all the sea creatures drop great neck pieces, so shh! Don't fix that. -haha)

[Aramid]

It's not a file on the server as the server just tells the client to load the zone. What controls this is under the folder everquest\rendereffects. There are only 2 folders there called MPL and SPL and no individual files. I had the same problem with a Fresh Titanium Install using an Nvidia 6800 GT card. 2 Others with ATI cards were fine. I just copied the files from one of my other machines and then it was ok. Who knows why, it just was.....

[CrabClaw]

Ah! I never knew that. Thanks for the info, I'll have to mess with it myself and see if I can get it to work.

[tallerin]

this is a GOD zone and this issue has been mentioned before. A fix for it is located here so try this http://www.eqemulator.net/forums/showthread.php?t=21010 post #13.

i'll take the work out of it hehe.

Goto your eqclient.ini and add the line HardwareTNL=False to your eqclient.ini file somewhere under [Defaults]. Save it and go check it should fix the texture problem. It fixed mine and the ones posted in the thread i justed linked to.

[CrabClaw]

Ok thanks! Natimbi is fixed, hmm. The view clip plane is still way to close though. It seems you can only see 100 feet ahead of you. Is there a server/player command to set the clip plane out for the zone? Mine is at max as it is in the UI.

[John Adams]

When I first applied this fix and zoned into Natimbi, my clip plane was at the default (#zstats shows the clip @ 450 - 450). I set mine to #zclip 450 1000 and I could see China. However, I cannot sort out the fog, or "Do not let me see the opposite zoneline" settings. Still working that out, but try #zclip.

Then save your header (#zsave [zonename])

[myrrddyn25]

I had an exceedingly similar issue save your titanium client files the ones eqvercheck.exe ( or whatever the name of that program that checks the version) checks and patch to live then copy in the saved client files fixes the issue...

[CrabClaw]

Originally Posted by myrrddyn25

I had an exceedingly similar issue save your titanium client files the ones eqvercheck.exe ( or whatever the name of that program that checks the version) checks and patch to live then copy in the saved client files fixes the issue...

Lemme make a copy of my EQ install directory and try this one, I am curious. If not I'll go the #ZClip/#ZSave route. Thanks to both of you!

(Gawd, I love big hard drives.)

[CrabClaw]

Sorry, I could not edit my above post.

Ok my interesting findings from my little experiment.

I updated to Live and saved the old files like you said:

eqgame.exe
EQGfx_Dx8.dll
EQGraphicsDX9.dll
eqmain.dll
mss32.dll

I fired up EQEmu and logged in. I could log-in, select character and enter the game normally (yay sexy elf grrl, and no more puppy!), but the graphics were all scrambled like eggs. Regardless of any settings.

Ok, so I copied back all the files in the RenderEffects directory from my old vanilla titanium install. This got me back to square one, but with a live patched EQ. Interesting to me anyways.

Ok off to Natimbi (where I used to take my old guild farming and drunken beach parties. /sigh I miss my famliy guild.)...the same problems all over again. yes turning the HardwareTNL=False worked, but I like the TNL. Setting the #zclip to 1000 3000 and saving it worked nicely for fixing the clipping.

So, being in a sad, defeated, mood, I made it rain (#weather 1)....

Woah, this fixed things instantly! All the monsters re-drew to normal and I was back to my old stomping grounds in all its dreary discordian glory. Alone (/cry), but happy. Now changin' the weather back to clear (#weather 0) reset everything back to its broken state with untextured monsters and borked land textures.

Wierd ain't it? I don't mind making it rain when I enter the zone (I go there infrequently enough), and if I run into trouble with a live patched version I can always fall back to my old install, but maybe there is some RenderEffects files you need to fix the GoD type zones with similar problems? I also noticed in the UI there was a Ground Texture reolution setting I could not set.

[tallerin]

the real issues lies in these files eqmain.dll, eqgraphicsdx9.dll, eaxman.dll, eqclient.ini and they can not be changed for us as they WILL break eqemu for you. This was also a problem on live but removing those files and updating again fixxed the issue. The only way to fix the problem that i have found so far is the HardwareTNL=False for the textures. As for the Zclip now i know why my GOD zones i couldn't see very far compared to other zones. But that may also be an issue with the same files and the changing the zclip might be the only fix for play on eqemu.

[CrabClaw]

Yes that is my conclusion about the TNL settings. But, thanks for the info.

[cbodmer]

I would like to pick this subject up, even though it's older.

The problem appears on newer NVIDIA Graphic cards/drivers only and it has nothing to do with HardwareTNL actually, although that fixes it by eliminating fog. Yes, fog's the issue. All the zones that are exhibiting this behaviour have fog_minclip=fog_maxclip. This isn't working for NVIDIA cards/drivers.

Change fog_maxclip so that it is larger than fog_minclip and it will work, and you can actually keep your 3D accelerator running with HardwareTNL=true.

-Chris