Weird graphics bug, please help!
 

Ok, so I logged in to play today and was hit with the weirdest of bugs. I didn't hear anyone chatting about it online, and I don't see any other posts about it, so I'm wondering if it might just be me.

It looks like the top layer of all the graphics is missing and they haven't been fully rendered. Everything's white, the grass is gone, the trees are all blocky (Cuba is particularly annoying!), and the houses are just plain blocks.

What's weird is that it only happens on the islands. Not at sea, until I get closer to the islands and then they suddenly turn white. (It looks like I'm sailing around icebergs!) When in any of the caves, everything is fine, as is the inside of buildings. It only happens on the islands.

I'm attaching a screenshot to show exactly what's going on.

Has anyone else seen this? Is it just on my end, or is there a glitch out there?

Thanks!!!
Attachment 940

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I would hope a simple reboot would help you to resolve this problem.

Its a matter of your system not loading some of the game textures.

This is usually referred to as the snow glitch, as it appears to be snowy all over. :)

Yep - and here a few others who have had the 'Snow Bug'...

http://www.piratesonlineforums.com/f...highlight=snow

http://www.piratesonlineforums.com/f...highlight=snow

http://www.piratesonlineforums.com/f...highlight=snow

Yes this snow bug seems very common although i have never gotten it :(

It hasn't gone away yet...it's getting really annoying! POTCO told me to upgrade my graphics card, but I can' find a firmware update for mine. (Radeon X1600).

This happened when I first downloaded the game. I was told to buy a new graphics card, like Lissbirds. We got a NVIDIA GForce 4.

POTC makes changes all the time and you will need to update your graphics driver or upgrade the video card to improve graphics quality.

In the last month or so my Nvidia driver make buildings sometimes go light and dark like a mirror affect and will not go away unless I roll back my drivers about 5 versions which slow down privateering so I will live with it until POTC makes another update.

Every update Disney tinkers with the graphics and causes more harm then good so you might fix it today with a new driver only to have it massed up in a day or so when Disney updates again.

My laptop runs the game excellently on an old driver. (havent had any problems with any updates since prior to Ship vs Ship). Matter of fact if I put the new driver on it causes problems. Gotta go with the old standby of, if its not broke, dont fix it... but if it is broke, and driver updates are available, id say go for it. This original post was a known issue, and had nothing to do with drivers. It's a resource issue. However I suppose some driver issue could mimic it.

Here's an old graphics fix, may or may not be worth a shot...the big D sent this to me a year ago, haven't had a problem since.

To specify Pirates Online to use DirectX 9 you will need to edit the "game_options.txt" file located in the PiratesOnline directory if you have ever saved settings in the Options Panel.

1) Go to Start | Programs | Accessories | Windows Explorer.
2) Navigate to C:\Program Files\Disney\Disney Online\PiratesOnline.
3) Double click on game_options.txt.
4) Make sure "state" has "working" on the line directly below it. If you see "attempted_working" change it to "working."
5) Under "api", please change the text from "default" to "pandadx9".
6) Save the file then launch the game.

If you don't have this file on your computer, you will need to create one in the PiratesOnline directory.

1) Go to Start | Run.
2) Type "Notepad" in the Open input box then click OK.
3) Add the following text precisely as you see it below:
state
working
api
pandadx9
4) Click File | Save As
5) Name the file "game_options.txt"
6) Save the file to C:\Program Files\Disney\Disney Online\PiratesOnline then launch the game.

These settings changes will instruct Pirates Online to only use DirectX 9 as the graphic API.


Worked for me ;)