Graphic Glitches

[Loneboy 0]

 Hello, I just installed CXL, on my PC :

AMD Athlon X2 II 245 ~ 3,1 Ghz

2GB RAM

ATI HD 4200 512 MB

etc

I am experiencing strange problems, firstly, I can't force game to use hish textures, all cars are grey boxes which is annoyin me a lot. I changed graphic settings from very low to high and nothin, still gettin splashy textures

What to do?

[kingBosko15 1]

du u have your graphic driver up to date? or directx 9 10

[Loneboy 0]

Updated everything ...

Nothin again :/

[Xidillon 0]

I get a similar problem when im reaching my available memory limit just before the game crashes. Does this happen mostly after your game had been playing a while?

[YannickSHE 0]

Originally posted by: Xidillon

I get a similar problem when im reaching my available memory limit just before the game crashes. Does this happen mostly after your game had been playing a while?quote>

My computer and CitiesXL have always been playing top-notch since I got the game. I have strongest comp with the latest of everything. And you are right. Whenever you play for a long time, a couple of hours, I will get the same glitch and blurry image as we saw on the pic. When I restart the comp and the reload the game, everything is fine.

Same goes with snapshots. If I've been playing for too long, everytime I want to take a snapshot, the game crashes.

[joshphillips999 0]

I'm sorry, it is your graphics card. A 4200 HD is an extremely slow card. Although it has the up-to-date features and such, even a 4350 would be about 2x faster than a 4200, and a 4350 is seemingly about as fast as a midrange card from 2004. And in the 4200, which you have would be a lot slower than that. Yep, in other words, your card barely (and may not even meet) meets the requirements to play this game, and you would only be able to on very low. Graphics will look like this a lot on very low, and the sky is a bug which happens with some graphics cards.

This link is showing the 4350 HD in comparison to a 6600GT (the minimum requirement to run this game). As you can tell, they are very similar in speed. Remember, the 4200 (your card) will be much slower than the 4350, so in other words, your computer does not really meet the minimum requirements for this game. http://www.gpureview.com/Radeon-HD-4350-card-585.html

However, the rest of your computer is fairly fast, so you could support a 4600HD series or above if you were to upgrade, and this would allow you to play at medium graphics or higher. If you bought a HD 5800 series card, you would easily be able to play this game, and create large cities and still play the game with max settings (6x AA and high graphics) without lag.

[Xidillon 0]

Im gonna chime in right now on this. THE 5800 ATI cards are not capable of playing this game after a certain point. my 5850 AND my replaced 5850 both had troubles playing big cities without throwing textures and lines and even shapes all over the screen. A good budget card that will run this game simply fine at 1024x768 high settings with little aa would be an 8800gs, gt, gtx of nvidia's. Once I find out if the new GTX cards are supported Ill get a couple of those myself. My 285s are the best that I know that work with this game. The 8800's are usually a good $60 usd.

[mentarman 14]

Originally posted by: Xidillon

Im gonna chime in right now on this. THE 5800 ATI cards are not capable of playing this game after a certain point. my 5850 AND my replaced 5850 both had troubles playing big cities without throwing textures and lines and even shapes all over the screen. A good budget card that will run this game simply fine at 1024x768 high settings with little aa would be an 8800gs, gt, gtx of nvidia's. Once I find out if the new GTX cards are supported Ill get a couple of those myself. My 285s are the best that I know that work with this game. The 8800's are usually a good $60 usd.quote>

I have an ATI Radeon HD 5700 and I think I have this same problem? Basically after a certain point (it seems tied to the number of zones placed on the map) placing any more zones leads to crazy graphical glitches, shapes all over the map, etc. and the game becomes unplayable.

I basically got a new machine timed for when I could get CXL and I got what I thought was a good card... now I think maybe this card and the game don't see eye to eye...

Maybe I need to get a new card?

[Xidillon 0]

If you really enjoy this game it would be a good idea to buy something else. However cxl2011 may have added support for ati's newer chip. I built my computer for CXL also and when the 5850, that I thought would help conquer this game (w/xfire), shat itself with too many buildings to display, I was extremely mad. Most people never had the problem because either they didnt have the newer cards yet or always rushed into using HD buildings and got bored resulting in many city restarts...lol. Im growing into an nvidia fanboy anyhow.

[mentarman 14]

Originally posted by: Xidillon

If you really enjoy this game it would be a good idea to buy something else. However cxl2011 may have added support for ati's newer chip. I built my computer for CXL also and when the 5850, that I thought would help conquer this game (w/xfire), shat itself with too many buildings to display, I was extremely mad. Most people never had the problem because either they didnt have the newer cards yet or always rushed into using HD buildings and got bored resulting in many city restarts...lol. Im growing into an nvidia fanboy anyhow.quote>

Well, yeah, I do really enjoy the game, so I guess I need to go out and buy a lesser card. Sucks. I thought I was setting myself up with the best machine I could for this game, turns out I got ahead of the curve a bit.

So my problem does sound like yours? Basically mine is fine mostly until I get bigger cities. I run into two problems:

1, I get a weird issue with a tree graphic going crazy in the middle of my city if I am on the furthest out zoom:

2, I seem to reach a hard limit later where placing one more zone makes the city go crazy graphically to the point that it is completely unplayable. There's just weird colors and shapes and polys all over and there's no going forward. But if I delete a zone, it goes back to relative normality.

I've sent two tickets on this and not heard back (though I understand MC are busy at this point and a lot is up in the air.)

Honestly if I knew a different card would do it, I'd have no problem dropping $60 on one, I really do enjoy the game and just want to be able to expand my cities.

Then maybe I can go back to my HD 5700 series card when CXL2011 comes out. If it comes out. And if it works with the card by then.

[Xidillon 0]

LOL, YOU got the TREE too?! I used the 8800gs until I traded my returned 5850 in for my first gtx285. The 8800 didnt do all too bad.

[mentarman 14]

Well, on the bright side, we're each not crazy. Your pictures in the other thread confirm that we have the same problem.

So what's your recommendation for a different card? I know you've mentioned a few.

[Xidillon 0]

You have the 5770? Id guess a 4890/gtx260-216 would be ~equal in price and higher in performance, except with dx11 I suppose.

[mentarman 14]

I can't remember and I'm not at home. I know my dxdiag says 5700 series but can't remember the exact number.

Got a response from MC Support, they're looking into it, but I'm guessing they'll end up just saying "Sorry, Charlie" if it is a lack of support of the card.

Here's a vid of the bug:

http://www.youtube.com/user/bluemondaycxl#p/a/u/0/qrXQtSo7eLI

[Xidillon 0]

Yup, I do not miss that. GL

[mentarman 14]

All right, I was able to try my system out with this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125294

Installing that card and doing nothing else has resolved the crazy polygon situation and the tree too I guess.

So it comes down to a problem with the ATI card or compatibility between CXL and the ATI card.

[Xidillon 0]

Do you feel its an overall improvement over your 5770? in other games also? Im giving you the thumb*

[mentarman 14]

Overall the quality is about the same to me. But I'm not a big gamer so maybe there's a big difference and I'm not the best person to gauge. I don't really play many other games so I haven't tried it on anything else yet. And the games I tend to play aren't graphics intensive FPS games or whatever.