ATI HD Problem: Beta hotfix available - UPDATED 11/6

**bugmenot** · 07-18-2009, 11:45 AM

OS: Windows 7 RC1 (Build:7100) x64
V-Card: ATI Radeon 4850HD Duel-head
Issues: Some textures were missing in Overture, but most issues were fixed with the latest update...

I finally beat Overture, and now I NEED to play BP, I can't get past the first level because almost all textures are missing, although the walls, and foundations act properly... The coke machine looks like some form of new laser graffiti... lol

The boxes were missing before I tried the debug EXE, which seemed to fix a few issues, but not all... The game is still unplayable... I know I only paid $5 from steam, but I simply must play this game... Please advise...

If I have to, I'll go buy a dang n-vidia from Wal-mart and return it once I beat the game... Dodgy

Edit: I narrowed the issue down to shader quality... On LOW it works as expected, but takes away the game's key aspect... Lighting... Everything is bright, and glowsticks/flashlights are not needed...

UPDATE: add this to sticky... Big Grin

DISABLE 'AERO' BEFORE GAME PLAY!!

I was tinkering around with some stuff, and ended up crashing Aero by accident... Opening and closing the game many time's quickly, apparently ran my v-Card out of available memory (Might have had more than 1 copy open) so on Windows 7 DWM was shut-down due to this memory usage (or so the message said) Wink

I have successfully restarted the program with Aero enabled, yes I know you don't have to restart, but I wanted to give it a fresh go.

Tests with Aero = FAIL

Tests without Aero = SUCCESS

Also take note I tested using your 'HotFix'... Wink

**jens** · 07-18-2009, 12:25 PM

Have you done all the steps as asked in the first post in this thread?

**bugmenot** · 07-18-2009, 03:33 PM

(07-18-2009, 12:25 PM)jens Wrote: Have you done all the steps as asked in the first post in this thread?

Sure did... Wink

Turns out Aero is the big bad bug... I'm willing to bet this works on a few more PC's than my own... Wink

Check last post, I edited.

**FiXXXeR** · 07-19-2009, 12:16 AM

(07-18-2009, 03:33 PM)bugmenot Wrote: Turns out Aero is the big bad bug... I'm willing to bet this works on a few more PC's than my own...

That's it!!!!

I'm actually running this on Linux, and it didn't occur to me to disable compositing/desktop effects first before playing it. Sure enough, once disabled the game runs fine on a Radeon HD 2400 - with no beta hotfix applied and plenty of in-game effects turned on! Smile

:

**miltazar** · 07-19-2009, 09:09 AM

(07-18-2009, 03:33 PM)bugmenot Wrote:
(07-18-2009, 12:25 PM)jens Wrote: Have you done all the steps as asked in the first post in this thread?

Sure did...

Turns out Aero is the big bad bug... I'm willing to bet this works on a few more PC's than my own...

Check last post, I edited.

Confirmed. I had this same problem with a Radeon HD 2900, and disabling Aero fixes this perfectly.

Alternatively you can right click the shortcut to the game, go to compatability and click "disable theme visuals" and "disable desktop composition". This way you can keep Aero on and it will disable it only while running one of the Penumbra games.

**jens** · 07-19-2009, 09:42 AM

Excellent news, great find!

**Wyrd** · 07-21-2009, 06:47 AM

What about people experiencing the problems on XP? XP doesn't have a hardware desktop composition mode to turn off.

**jens** · 07-21-2009, 11:42 AM

Use the hotfix and do all the steps in the first post.

**blacksheep242** · 07-26-2009, 06:06 PM

I've done everything listed but still have invisible walls and long out of place "spikes" textures. I am using an ATI 3850AGP with the latest drivers. I downloaded the game from Direct2Drive.

I had the problem earlier, came to this page and followed the directions and the problem went away...temporarily. Fired the game up again and it was messed up again. Re-loaded the last save and it was fixed again! Now, it is just permanently messed up.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Oh yeah:
P4 @ 3.6GHZ
AGP ATI 3850 (512MB)
2GB DDR
Windows XP Pro (SP3)
All non-essential background processes killed prior to gaming.

**bugmenot** · 08-05-2009, 01:18 AM

blacksheep242 >> dude try switching off the Shaders to lower level. Like from High to Medium.
This has helped me with one (textures lighting) problem that was previously redeemed only by reloading a savegame. Now the problem is gone alltogether, although I suspect the game doesn't look as nice as before a bit.