Odd Water Effects, or "What's Moses doing in Itjtway?"

[Pbartender]

I'll attach an image of the effect when I get a chance, so I'll just describe it for now...

Currently I'm playing Itjtway, and all's going as well as can be expected with the scenario. Just for fun, I had decided to build my entire city on the island in the middle of the river. That's working out better than I'd expected, but that's not really the problem.

The trouble is that large areas of the river's "surface" seem to be missing.

As far as I can tell, the wavy water surface effect is generated from the shorelines (correct me if I'm wrong), and extends out into river. In my game, it looks like the island's shoreline isn't generating the surface effect. It looks like there's a great big hole in the water in the middle of the river!

The problem isn't having any real effect on the gameplay. The only result is that it's a little difficult to determine where the edge of the water is... I have to guess based on the splashes my townspeople make as they wade, where boats are floating (in mid-air!), and where the game will not let me place buildings. I can never tell just exactly how good the inundation is every year.

Has anyone else run across his glitch?

[Pbartender]

No else has seen this yet?

Oh well... here's the snapshots I promised:

The first has an overhead shot of the river, and gives a good overview of the problem I'm seeing. You can see aqua-blue "ripples" coming from the right-hand shore and ending about 1/2 to 2/3 the way across, with no corresponding waves to meet it from the other side. On the right are my barge landings and a few barges floating over the bare riverbed.

The second shot is a close-up of my nobles' yachts next to the shipwright's dock. It may be a little hard to see, but if you look close, you'll notice that they are floating in mid-air (at the level of where the water should be), with nothing but mud five feet below them.

It been like this since the beginning of the scenario. I've tried fiddling with the settings to no avail. I've even tried starting the scenario over from the beginning, but that doesn't help. All the other scenarios are fine, so far, and it has no apparent effect on gameplay.

Anybody got an idea?

[Hans Schroeder]

could you post a screenshot of the graphics tab of the settings screen, and could you post a DxDiag? Thanks.

[Pbartender]

Sure, no problem...

I am working this weekend, so I might not get to it until later tonight though.

[Pbartender]

Never mind... I've got them already.

[TombRaiderBC]

PtBartender, you may want to think about upgrading your graphics card to be able to get the "high" Effects level for water and sky. Makes a tremendous difference in the look of the game. I just picked up an Nvidia 5700LE and the game looks marvelous!

P.S. The game will run more smoothly, too. And it has improved the performance of my other games.

[Pbartender]

Originally Posted by TombRaiderBC

PtBartender, you may want to think about upgrading your graphics card to be able to get the "high" Effects level for water and sky. Makes a tremendous difference in the look of the game. I just picked up an Nvidia 5700LE and the game looks marvelous!

P.S. The game will run more smoothly, too. And it has improved the performance of my other games.

Oh, I know... My current computer is a mish-mash of parts (the oldest of which I bought a little over 10 years ago!), that were slowly upgraded and replaced over time. It's getting to the point where I'm beginning to run across (a very few) games for which my computer barely meets the system requirements.

Anyway, I've got plans for a computer overhaul sometimes this spring or summer, and am putting off any other upgrades until then.

[Pbartender]

No suggestions other than, "Stop being a tight-wad and go by a new graphics card"?

[Hans Schroeder]

Well, to some extent it is your graphics card. A video card with pixel shading will have much prettier water available to it in CotN, but I'm also wondering if your video card driver could be the source of it. Your driver is from 2002, and while you aren't experiencing any problems per se, I don't know if a newer driver wouldn't fix it a bit. We've seen good performance with the 53.04 drivers. Try installing them and see if it makes any difference.

[Pbartender]

Originally Posted by Hans Schroeder

We've seen good performance with the 53.04 drivers. Try installing them and see if it makes any difference.

It worked like a charm...

Thanks.