Water graphics problem

[tcat92]

I discovered through reinstall of POTC and the Build Mod 14 Beta Full that the Build Mod is the one responsible for causing the problem with the water texture. I went in the game after installing POTC and the water texture was fine, but after I installed the Build Mod, the water texture in the distance was discolored and mis-shaped. It is a graphics problem.

I have a XP SP3, duo core overclocked to 3.0 GHz, with 2 gigs of memory, and Nvidia 8800 GT with a driver from Jan 2009. I do not have the same problem with AoP 1 or 2 with the mods installed.

I tried different resolution and color depth in the configure tool but it didn't effect the problem. I also messed with the control panel for the graphic card and it didn't effect it.

I really don't expect an answer or a solution (I tried Googling my problem but I have not seen one). I just thought I would post it to see if anyone else has had this issue.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Yes. One whole quadrant of the sea is miscolored, and it is usually the one you want to look at the most. Methinks it is related to the lagoon mod. I much prefer the old water but don't know how to fix it.

 

[tcat92]

Yes. One whole quadrant of the sea is miscolored, and it is usually the one you want to look at the most. Methinks it is related to the lagoon mod. I much prefer the old water but don't know how to fix it.

Do I need to revert to Build 13? Am I the only one having this issue with Build 14? Meh, I think I'll just play AoP 2 since the interface is so much better (the mouse wheel works) and I don't have any problems, even with the Combined Mod.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I just started both Build 14 Beta 1 Patch 5 and Build 13 Final and went sailing a bit out of Oxbay/Barbados to check any difference in the water.
However, I was unable to detect any differences between the both versions and it seemed quite fine to me.

It could indeed be that the Lagoon Colour Mod is messing around with the water effects though.
After all, that IS the only thing that influences it but it should only do so near shores.

As for PotC vs. CoAS, I reckon they're both very good games. Personally I prefer PotC but other people feel the other way.
There's a lot in PotC that CoAS doesn't have and it goes the opposite way too.
That's why we've still got a dream here of one day combining the best of all.

But if you've got both, you can just play both, right? No need to choose.
Once you're a bit fed up with the one, you can switch to the other until you're bored with it again, then switch back.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I put together an album on Imageshack, but don't yet know how to get it to show here.

http://img193.imageshack.us/g/build148.jpg/

Well, it didn't work as planned, but it works, sort of.

 

[tcat92]

I put together an album on Imageshack, but don't yet know how to get it to show here.

http://img193.imageshack.us/g/build148.jpg/

Well, it didn't work as planned, but it works, sort of.

Yes, same here, the water in the foreground is fine, it's just the water along the horizon and thereabouts is messed up. The only thing I haven't tried is the video card driver. That may fix it. But not going to do it. Besides, I've already given up on AoP 2. It's too damn hard. And where is a manual anyway. I just found a Russian on this site and some badly translated one. I'm going back to playing Sid Meier's.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

What I have done to make the water not look so bad is, in "options" turn the brightness up. That washes the color out and makes the water look less black and slick and oily.

I have a GTX275 and use the 186.18 drivers for stability. Newer drivers give better fps, but ctd regularly.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I do recall the water occasionally looking like that, but couldn't replicate it yesterday when I tried.
Do you have any comments on the conditions in which it happens or is it just always the case?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Well, one section of the water always looks very dark. It's worse in bright daylight and not so noticeable in cloudy weather and at night. When I was making the pics of all the ships at Speightstown I had to sail well away from land and then turn more than 90 degrees to the port in order to get the dark water out of the background. I guess it is the south-east quadrant.

That oily look is always there to some degree also. Do you know how when there is no wind at all the water gets as smooth as glass? It reminds me of that.

The lagoon mod works better than it used to. Last spring when I first got on the ship, the water would be green, and then after a few seconds it would turn dark blue. Now it is much more consistent and stays green until you sail well away from the island.

Would this be a good thing to put on the wish list?

PS: Could this be mainly an Nvidia thing?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Possible explanation for the water graphics. :b:

I'm on another computer right now giving it updates & stuff. Decided to update PotC too. The water on this puter looks way better than it does on mine. Almost B13 like. Here's the kicker. It's an old P4 3ghz, 2gb ram, nvidia 6600GT, XP machine. :j3 What's up with that?

When I'm done with this I will detune the graphics on mine and see if things get better.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Nope. Comparing the two puters, the old one gives blockier graphics that ends up looking ok, while mine gives much smoother detailed graphics that seems to smooth things out and might make the water look oily. This is pure speculation, but that is what it looks like.

 

[Lorkan]

Well I have the same kind of problem with the water...

But before everything else, I just join the forum (even if I follow build mod from the 12th), and I'm happy to do it
Only refering to the list of things added, I'm already grateful to all of you modders to continue to make this game greater and greater.

So, concerning the water problem, I experience it too with the Build14, and since I do a lot of directsail, well... it kind of ruins my game.
-At times the water looks... yes, oily, I mean showing a lot of colors from green to pink, and the horizon is totally fixed, nothing moves (is that why you called it New Horizons? ^^)
-At times (by night for example), one third is nearly black, another third looks brilliant white (from where the moon lights I think)
-And if I choose colored sails (I love to use red ones), well, half of the sea around me looks red. If I were pretentious, I'd say it's because of my enemy blood, but it doesn't sound realistic with my little "Nikky" lugger

If it can help, I also use an 9800GT, which is if I'm not mistaken, a simple evolution of the 8800 but with the same structure.... so could it be a graphic card issue?


Apart from this water problem, the game is still great, even if I'd like to test CoaS, but I think I'll wait a directsail mod to.

PS: please excuse me for my english, it's not my native language.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I wished I knew where this problem comes from; I don't recall seeing it in my game, but then I don't play much due to lack of time.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Only people with nvidia cards are commenting on this issue. It is not random as the sea always looks like that.

 

[Stallion]

Probably the drivers nvidia has been putting out since late 2009 - they're all crap. Someone on the nvidia forum claims to have word from an internal source that not only are the cards made overseas, but the drivers are now too. Supposedly India.

I'm getting the wacky water too thanks to my GTX 285.

 

[Lorkan]

I confirm it's a nVidia problem... I just reinstall the game with Build14 on my old Aspire 3020 (Mobility Radeon X700), the game isn't that smooth than on my game computer, but the water is ok...

I don't have my playing computer at this time with me, only my laptop, but when I'll get it back, are there some lines in an ini file I could try to change in order to get something better?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I'm working on another puter, this time a P4 2.4ghz, ATI 9500/9700 job. Overall, it's similar to the P4 3ghz, nvidia 6600GT rig I worked on before, except that the water is better. Every program is different, and what works for one doesn't work for another. PotC is now an ATI program. I would really like to hear from someone with a modern ATI DX11 card like a 5870.

 

[Nordo]

I'm glad this thread has been started, because I was beginning to think I was going crazy...

I used to have an Nvidia 8800GTX using the 162.18 drivers and things worked perfectly. Next thing I know, nvidia puts out those drivers that fried alot of older boards (mine included), so I was forced to yell at them until they gave me a new card.

My new card is an Nvidia GTS250 and the oldest drivers I can use are the 182.08's. The results being exactly as is experienced by others in this thread, and to be honest - have been responsible for turning me off of this awesome mod/game.

I resigned myself to think that I was stuck with such poor visuals that really took me out of the game. The free-sail mode was where I have the most game-breaking issues: it looks as though my card does not render any detail after ~150 yards away from the ship, so there is a constant "bubble" of detailed textures that turn to crap with every passing frame. The effect was that the water textures would constantly be changing detail levels around me, and this effect draws my attention. This is not the only game where I experience issues like this: the new Nvidia drivers seem to really cut corners for FPS, as the draw distance for every one of my other games have significantly decreased (and there are no setting changes that fix this). I have tried every single compatible driver for my card, and they all have this effect. I suspect older drivers will run this game better than the ones I am forced to use.

Although, I am starting to wonder if this problem is compounded by the graphic alterations from this mod. I recently tried running POTC vanilla, and noticed that the water graphics were nearly perfect. I have included 2 pictures of a similar scenario: the first being the good looking vanilla shot and the second one (with yellow markings) being from build 14 and having the issue.

The graphics modifications from the various POTC build mods were stunning and really brought POTC alive! I remember how it looked from my old graphics card/driver setup. But now it seems that most modern Nvidia users will have an adverse effect from these graphics changes. I suspect that the issue has a lot to do with the wave height increases (no idea when these effects changes were added), as the worst looking problems occur as these crap drivers will not render the waves after a certain point, so there is a border between wavy seas and calm seas within a distance of 1 foot.

I was wondering if it is possible to make an optional mod that 'un-does' all the graphic-effects changes from the various POTC build mods, thereby returning the visuals back to POTC vanilla? This would largely eliminate the adverse effects seen by Nvidia users...

That all said, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the dev-team and all the various supporters for this mod! It is absolutely stunning all-round, and in my opinion is THE definitive age of sail RPG/simulator!

 

[FlayedOne]

I have ATI Radeon 3870 card, but I still experience some of the problems.

Although I've never seen black water, nor the sudden change to 'no details', from time to time I do see green-pinkish water that looks a bit as if it was covered in gasoline. Is this what you call 'oily' water?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

This old screenie shows pretty much all of the problems from dark water to the line between detailed and smooth water to the oil slick. Build 13 was ok.