Graphic Glitching \ Color Problems In Ce

[Daenen]

I'm experiencing a strange issue in the X-com 1 CE, which it seems (from searching) that others have experienced before.

At random intervals the display colors change from standard to a glitchy fluorescent type view. Alt-tabbing sometimes fixes it, sometimes not.

The game itself plays fine otherwise but its very frustrating to have to this happen every 30 seconds during play obviously, the only guarranteed way to return to normal seems to be to quit the game and reboot. It often comes back withing 5 minutes of play after reboot anyway.

 

XCom Version:

Collectors (Win) edition.

Mok's sound patch for alien screams

Abram's MP3 music patch which also includes graphics fix.

Issue occurs both with and without XcomUtil.

 

PC:

WinXP Pro SP2

DirectX 9.0c

Geforce 6800 GT

 

If I take a screenshot using F12 when the issue occurs then the captured images appear fine. If I use print screen then you can see how the glitch appears to some extent although it only shows certain parts of the screen:

 

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/6209/geoscaperm9.jpg

 

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/5741/tacticalpx0.jpg

 

The most frustrating thing is that I've played this exact same version of X-Com previously without issue including the same patches etc. I've actually got it burnt onto a CD somewhere for when I feel like playing.

 

So... I was wondering if anyone else who has run into this has any fixes or suggestions? I'm tempted to setup a virtual PC XP image and try playing there. I've tried closing running apps before playing but it doesn't seem to make much difference.

[Zombie]

At least for me, graphics problems like this only happen when there are programs running in the background. So close out all apps, then go into the system tray next to the clock and exit from those too. You could try running the game in protected mode as a test too. If it works fine there with a bare-bones setup, then there are one or more programs running in normal mode which you haven't found. In any case, CTRL-ALT-DELETE to make a final check via the task manager.

 

- Zombie

[Daenen]

At least for me, graphics problems like this only happen when there are programs running in the background. So close out all apps, then go into the system tray next to the clock and exit from those too. You could try running the game in protected mode as a test too. If it works fine there with a bare-bones setup, then there are one or more programs running in normal mode which you haven't found. In any case, CTRL-ALT-DELETE to make a final check via the task manager.

 

- Zombie

 

Thanks for the help. No idea what could be causing it, tried closing off all running apps and killing all running processes except the windows ones which made no difference.

Tried running in compatibility mode for Win 95, Win 2000, 256 colors etc, nothing made any difference.

Created a vmware image install of WinXP and tested on that - runs fine, no issues whatsoever. Played for 20+ minutes without issue Only problem with this is that im stuck viewing it as a 640x480 section of my normal 1280x960 res. Stretching the display window causes major lag with VMWare.

 

As a result I figure the game and setup is fine and its something to do with my current windows install, NVidia graphics drivers or god knows what else. I'll test a few more things and see how I go. Too lazy to try a windows reinstall yet