What in blue blazes is going on in game?!

[Eloricth]

Originally Posted by YeahFP

Wait, it's broke again. I exited, then came back in and it did the same thing.

What fixed it the first time -- the driver update, or you changing your graphic settings?

If it was from the graphic settings, there is a chance that the settings weren't saved when you exited the game. Check your settings again, lower them, and see if it corrects itself.

-Elo

[Sarah]

I was having major graphics issues myself. On the official Pirates web site, there is a list of supported drivers (sorry, can't remember exactly where, but it's something like tech support, or known issues....i'll check)

Anyhow, turns out my graphoics driver was not on their "officially supported list" (ATI Radeon xpress 1100, also a vista os). I sent a question to customer support about the driver, and if it would be added to the supported list, and they sent back a fix. Works perfectly now!

Go see if your driver is supported, and if not email them. I got the fix sent back in less than a day, and for the POTCO team, that's like warp speed

This was the fix they sent me, I have no idea if this will work on your computer though, so check it out before you try this:

"The issue you reported may be due to an incompatibility with OpenGL and your video card driver. Enabling Pirates Online to use DirectX 9 should resolve the problem.

To specify Pirates Online to use DirectX9 you will need to edit the "game_options.txt" file located in the PiratesOnline directory if you have ever saced 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_option.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"

That's word for word what they sent me, and it works like a charm

[Eloricth]

I think it's interesting that it defaults the 3D library for Panda3D to openGL...I'm going to have to check this when I get home. If my config is set to the default of openGL, I'm DEFINITELY going to switch it to DX.

I'll edit this post with my findings at home.

Edit:

Switched the API to pandadx9 and the game worked fine. Didn't really notice a change. Chances are that they set the default API to be openGL so that the game will install and run on non-windows-based machines.

-Elo

[WDWTigger72]

Originally Posted by Sarah

"The issue you reported may be due to an incompatibility with OpenGL and your video card driver. Enabling Pirates Online to use DirectX 9 should resolve the problem.

To specify Pirates Online to use DirectX9 you will need to edit the "game_options.txt" file located in the PiratesOnline directory if you have ever saced 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_option.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"

Thanks for this information, I know I am about one month late or so replying, but it resolved my issue also. The game, specifically when battling with my cutlass, would literally skip like a record player. It became really annoying and I remember this issue during the beta version also. I was going through my own technical support issues from beta but couldn't find the solution. When reading the above steps it rang a bell and figured it would resolve the problem like it did during beta. Well, I am off to potentially be some sort of pirate again...Thanks!

EDIT 04/10/2008 10:55PM
One other thing I noticed regarding this file, if you never click on "Options|Graphics" and save the information this game_option.txt file is never created. By default, There is another file very similar called Last_Working_Options.txt that actually is your default graphics setting and when this was updated pirates online worked fine. If you updated the Last_Working_Options.txt then you should be ok, but if you decide to customize your graphics you will have to update the game_options.txt file which is not installed by default you physically have to customize your options.