Game is Becoming Unplayable

[draines]

I have had a situation that is getting worse with the game. First, this is a Steam purchase. Second, as best I can tell, the game is up to date.

Problems:
1) The Tilted Mill graphic/video at the beginning is just a blank screen with the sound still available. I have to click a blank screen to move to the main menu.
2) The character names are numbers when they are visitors. The name cards on the left side do not show the visitor name, but rather a number.
3) The portals do not work. I will clear an area and the hand cursor will appear over the portal, but I cannot use it to get back to town. Nor, can I use the portal in town to get back to the cleared area.
4) Trying to sell items from overstock will cause the game to crash. When a town character makes an item and the town inventory is full, the dialog to sell the item appears. Trying to sell the item causes the game to crash.

And finally, this may or may not be a problem. Where are the Steam accomplishments listed. I cannot find them. Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Darrel

[tobing]

Funny (almost)... I can't play Hinterland on my laptop any longer (blue screens), where it worked before. No update in between. Then on Belzi's PC Hinterland doesn't start at all, no idea why. On my PC it just works fine.

Maybe it helps when you verify your downloaded files? There's an option to do this on the properties page... or you remove the game's local files and re-download again (sort of desparate measure).

Good luck!

[draines]

Maybe it helps when you verify your downloaded files? There's an option to do this on the properties page... or you remove the game's local files and re-download again (sort of desparate measure).

Thanks for the suggestion. I did verify the files. They checked out. Then I got desperate and deleted the game from the local computer (Steam option). Then I reloaded the game. I bet you can guess what the outcome was?

I have exactly the same issues.

The bad part is that the portals are essential to the long game. I was able to finish a Difficult/Long/Raiders/Quests/All Resources game. But it took longer. And I had to be very careful about starting back to town whenever the raiders appeared. I don't think I want to suffer through that again.

Darrel

[tobing]

Please post a dxdiag file, maybe that gives some clue then...

[draines]

I have included the DxDiag file.

I would note, however, that the problems don't seem to be related to using the graphics, sound, or input system. The problems seem to be some type of game-related mode or glitch that I cannot reset.

Thanks,
Darrel

PS. Does anyone from Tilted Mill view this forum to help out with problems?

[mouse]

What I see from your DX diag is that the video and sound drivers are older than thos tested with HL. HL was tested with drivers from mid-2008. If it were me I'd update my drivers and make sure to have the latest DX 9.c version. The reason I say that is that I just put a new dual core system into service with the latest drivers for video and sound along with the latest
DX 9.c HL runs just fine on this syetem. Hope that helps.

[Manni]

mouse is dead-right again :)..............old drivers :(

get the latest directX 9 version from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=886acb56-c91a-4a8e-8bb8-9f20f1244a8e

get the latest driver for your NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT from here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_182.08_whql.html

go here: http://support.creative.com/?l=1-1-1 and choose your SB X-Fi Audio card there!

-----------------------------

Do you have 2 nvidia-cards (SLI-mode) running? This might be the cause..............try the game with just one card!
You can lay off one card in nvidia-options but need to reboot afterwards.

Many games will not run with SLI or Crossfire :mad:

[draines]

Thanks for the suggestions folks. I must say that I don't know how a graphics driver could affect game-play with the portals, but it seems to have made a difference. So the game is now playable. However, all is not 100% well.

So, I upgraded my graphics drivers to the current version. I also checked by DirectX 9c installation and found that it is up-to-date. I got the following results:
1) The intro graphics now work. Fixed!
2) The character names still do not appear on visitors. I could almost guarantee that the numbers on their cards correspond to an array number for names. Not fixed!
3) The portals work. Longer games are now playable again. Fixed!
4) I don't know if selling stuff crashes the game any more or not. I am not feeling brave enough to try this one since it seems to have been part of the original problem. Don't know if this is fixed?

Now, here are the steps backward:
5) The anti-aliasing setting will now cause the mini-map radar to have a black background as noticed by other players here in the forums. I turned off the anti-aliasing and the mini-map is right, but the ground has jaggies. Not fixed!
6) The game slows down dramatically at times when the town gets almost full. I have a pretty hefty system and this does not seem right given that I did not have that problem prior to updating the drivers. However, when I turn off the anti-aliasing, the slow-down is not enough to make the game unplayable. It is however, not as pleasant to play as it was previously late in the game. Not fixed!

It would be nice to know if these issues were being addressed since I am not the only one who is experiencing them.

Thanks for the initial help. Does Tilted Mill have a comment to make on the new/continuing problems?

Darrel

[mouse]

Ok we're making progess. Will use your numbers so you can relate my answers :)
2.Is this happening after resuming a crashed game?
4. This issue is usually related to a full storage either on the city or character side. If you keep storage levels low that should be gone as a problem.
5. Anti-aliasing doesn't seem to work with this game but that is more an issue with the video card drivers not being well written. Try defragging after making major changes like drivers that will usually help.
6. That is more of a system problem depending a great deal on what you have running in the background.

Hope this helps you to enjoy the game more now.

TM does comment and help with issues new or on going. If the issues only impact a small number of users the fix may or may not be in the works.

[draines]

Hmm, I am beginning to feel like a chime ringing in the wind. Eight days have passed with no answer from an official Tilted Mill spokesperson. Maybe they are hoping I will solve all my own problems.

Well, I guess that ploy is working to some extent.

2) This item seems to be a design issue. The visitor cards do not show the name of the visitor by design. The visitor name shows up in all other instances at the top of the card. But when they are first visiting, the cost of housing is displayed at the top of the card. This is not clear and is not mentioned in the manual.

4. This issue is usually related to a full storage either on the city or character side. If you keep storage levels low that should be gone as a problem.
5. Anti-aliasing doesn't seem to work with this game but that is more an issue with the video card drivers not being well written. Try defragging after making major changes like drivers that will usually help.
6. That is more of a system problem depending a great deal on what you have running in the background.

4) I am aware that this problem only occurs when the city inventory space is full, but it is still a bug. Keeping city inventory low is not an option for late-game play.
5) Since the game purports to support anti-aliasing and since I don't seem to have similar problems with other games that use anti-aliasing with my graphics card, I am forced to conclude that this problem is due to either Hinterland or the Torque engine. (Just a note: defragging a hard drive is rarely going to help a problem with display graphics.)
6) The slow-down may be worsened by background tasks (though I don't have THAT many), but the real problem seems to be the loading of the game engine or the strain of displaying higher detail graphics (i.e. more town citizens). In either case, much more detailed graphics programs play smoothly on my system (e.g. Lost Planet is goes no lower than 30 FPS with snow and body parts flying everywhere). Again, this seems to be related to anti-aliasing and gets better when I turn off anti-aliasing.

So, in summary, I can play without too much distraction now by turning off anti-aliasing. Updating my graphics driver magically made the portals work (with no obvious explanation in sight).

Oh, and the reason I care so much about all of this: I really get hooked by the underlying game play. Hinterland is a great little time-waster that is definitely sucking up my time for now. It may not keep me busy for months, but it certainly has my attention right now.

Thanks for the community support,
Darrel

[mouse]

Sorry that TM hasn't stopped by but they are in middle of working on the new release of HL once that's out they will be back working the forums. Glad the driver update solved the portal problem.
Glad that I was able to offer some help as the late game inventory I use selling the stuff every time I come into town to add the golds:p