Graphics glitch

**General Calculus** · March 23, 2012, 06:10 PM

After much effort, I finally installed this mod and the 2.1a patch on the steam version of RTW. The launcher is unresponsive, so I launch the mod directly through Steam as the Rome campaign. The mod runs fine except for a glitch that sometimes occurs during battles. For lack of better description, stretched out 'spiderwebs' start appearing all over the screen and then disappear if I move the camera a certain way but return seemingly at random. I never had this problem with any other mod (SPQR, EB, etc) or vanilla. Once I figure out how to take a screenshot, I will post it here, but has anyone else had this kind of problem? Thanks.

My specs:
OS: WinXP 32-bit
CPU: E5200 2.5 GHz dual core
GPU: Nvidia 7900 GTX 512 MB texture memory
RAM: 2 GB DDR2
Vanilla version: Steam versions of RTW, BI, and Alexander fully updated through Steam
Mod version: RS 2.1a

Sorry if my description does not make much sense, I could not think of any other way of describing it.

**Paedric** · March 25, 2012, 08:20 AM

Never heard of this before, a screenshot would be helpful.
You can use something like fraps to take one.

But it sounds like a graphic card issue.

**century x** · March 27, 2012, 04:40 PM

Wow this is the first time I have ever heard of this issue. Sounds like your graphics card is not communicating well with the mod. As said before a screen shot of this will help out alot

**GRANTO** · April 25, 2012, 10:34 PM

Originally Posted by General Calculus

After much effort, I finally installed this mod and the 2.1a patch on the steam version of RTW. The launcher is unresponsive, so I launch the mod directly through Steam as the Rome campaign. The mod runs fine except for a glitch that sometimes occurs during battles. For lack of better description, stretched out 'spiderwebs' start appearing all over the screen and then disappear if I move the camera a certain way but return seemingly at random. I never had this problem with any other mod (SPQR, EB, etc) or vanilla. Once I figure out how to take a screenshot, I will post it here, but has anyone else had this kind of problem? Thanks.

My specs:
OS: WinXP 32-bit
CPU: E5200 2.5 GHz dual core
GPU: Nvidia 7900 GTX 512 MB texture memory
RAM: 2 GB DDR2
Vanilla version: Steam versions of RTW, BI, and Alexander fully updated through Steam
Mod version: RS 2.1a

Sorry if my description does not make much sense, I could not think of any other way of describing it.

try changing drivers if it still happens id say either your power adapter/pack is not giving enough juice and may be failing or the graphics card is coming to an end , i had exactly the same problem and it was my power supply that was at fault , it was failing and not getting enough voltage to my machine which was resulting in fractals and spiderwebs especialy when the demand went up {like in a large battle zooming in} bought new power pack it never happened again , good luck

**ur-Lord Tedric** · April 26, 2012, 02:57 AM

I have seen this too, but not for a while now. They are very regular planes of triangular 'net', if that's the same?

I saw these when battles are complex and you are zoomed in some. It's the graphics being stressed (but not a graphics card as RTW doesn't really use it); the best thing to try is to step settings down individual levels until it goes away - starting with Vegetation.

**GRANTO** · April 26, 2012, 08:59 AM

Originally Posted by ur-Lord Tedric

I have seen this too, but not for a while now. They are very regular planes of triangular 'net', if that's the same?

I saw these when battles are complex and you are zoomed in some. It's the graphics being stressed (but not a graphics card as RTW doesn't really use it); the best thing to try is to step settings down individual levels until it goes away - starting with Vegetation.

hmm interesting , what do you feel causes the stress if it is not the gpu? i know stepping back down with the graphics did improve it, some times i remember it seemed to shoot out from dead men on the battlefield

**ur-Lord Tedric** · April 26, 2012, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by GRANTO

hmm interesting , what do you feel causes the stress if it is not the gpu? i know stepping back down with the graphics did improve it, some times i remember it seemed to shoot out from dead men on the battlefield

The main point is that, unlike all modern games (last 5+yrs) RTW doesn't use a graphics card's GPU or memory - because it was written before they existed.

You are relying solely on the speed and power of your CPU and within 1Gb of local memory (which is all RTW can handle).

RSII is just bloomin' wonderful.

, but it has taken RTW to places the original designers never thought of and we are stressing it, rather than our PCs.

If you happen to have an over-clocked, incredibly fast, water-cooled PC then you might just get away with it - but us mere mortals have to be more gentle, hence my settings in the Big Test Thread.

**dvk901** · May 06, 2012, 09:30 AM

A small correction here.....RTW will use the 'memory' of a Video Card, but not the processors built in to them in more modern cards. The processors on the newer cards became necessary as newer games 'pushed the bubble' graphically, almost becoming an entity unto itself that PC's just couldn't support without help. So the more modern versions of DirectX, and video card software, and video routines written into games allows the use of Video processing which is faster and reduces the load on the computer's main processor.

RTW does not know how to use these newer 'routines' (although the shaders that RS2 uses come from M2TW and do allow a 'better' use of some of them), so basically you are stuck with using the main PC processor, the memory on the Video card, and the older backward compatible parts of DirectX and video software. And I'm fairly well convinced that this is exposing, shall we say, the limitations of weaker, cheaper, less well built processors that are essentially 'wigging-out' as RS2 hammers them with a ton of high resolution graphics. The 'artifacts', as they are called, appearing in battles or even on the Strat map are the result of this....it is either a case of 'mis-writing' information, or overheating, or both. The only solution in such cases is to reduce the strain on the PC by setting things lower so as not to tax the system so much.

The real thing of value for playing RS2 is essentially a powerful and very good processor that is well cooled. RTW was originally written for Windows98SE....so that tells you how old it is. And stuff that ran well in Windows98 needed a whopping good, fast processor, a couple Gig of RAM, and a fairly 'decent' video card.