Regrets Iã¢â‚¬â„¢ve Had a Few But Then Again Too Few to Mention

                How-do-you-do, I’thousand having a graphical problem with VTMB.  I’ve been running Wesp5’s 4.ix unofficial patch, with which I’ve had no issues and I really, really savor.  Anyhow, Bloodlines was running smashing, upwards until I got Vista Service Pack 1 (I’grand running 64-bit Vista Ultimate).  Now, whenever I load upwards the game, everything seems okay, and I tin load my saved games and beginning a new one and everything, but there’s a really terrible graphical problem: all of the textures are blurry, distorted and in general, really bad looking, as if they were running at a lower resolution.  I’chiliad also missing a few textures (regal and blackness checkered ‘missing texture’ texture).  Also, information technology isn’t just 3D models’ that have been affected.  I know immediately that I have a problem even when I start the game.  On the primary menu screen, the title â€Å"Vampireâ€? in the groundwork is also blurry looking, and then is the scrolling â€Å"Bloodlinesâ€? championship in ruby beneath it.  The card (New Game, Load Game, Options, etc.) and its effect seem fine.  The loading screen is blurry and distorted, including the loading bar and the groundwork.  In the game, the crosshair is badly distorted, and I become screwed up or missing textures in the inventory screen.  Font seems okay, as long every bit it is actual font, and not a texture.
    I’yard guessing all this has to practise with Vista SP1 and the inclusion of DirectX ten.ane, because the game was running fine before I installed the service pack.  My other Source games work fine (Half-Life 2, Episodes 1&two, Portal, etc.) and and so do the other games I have installed.   I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game, starting a new game (although, equally I said, I know I’ve withal got a trouble when I see â€Å"Vampireâ€? all distorted and ugly on the championship screen); I’ve also uninstalled and reinstalled my graphics driver.  In addition to this, I’ve tried using the –dxlevel command (which changes the DirectX level) in the Bloodlines shortcut target line.  And also, every bit I mentioned to a higher place, I’ve tried changing the resolution.  Naught has worked.  I wonder if there is some mode I could edit some config file, or maybe use some other command to strength the game to run at a different texture resolution or DirectX level…  I have considered possibly downloading the DirectX 10 redist… I’m really quite lost at this indicate, though.
    And so I’m hoping someone else can help me, and if anyone else is having this trouble, maybe nosotros tin can find a solution together.  I’m hoping Wesp5 can aid, since he really seems to know a lot nearly this game.  I would really like to set up this problem, because I was enjoying Bloodlines again for the first fourth dimension in about a year, and I was really pleased that it worked cracking on my new figurer.  Also, I was nearing the end of the game, and even though I can still technically play it, I detest that it looks like crap, and I don’t really want to finish it similar this…

  Thank you in accelerate.

  A few computer specs if you lot find them helpful:
 Windows Vista Ultimate (6.0, Build 6001), AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ (iii.2Ghz), 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon 3870 512MB graphics carte.  And I now have DirectX x.one from Vista SP1…

  Lamentable for the long post!

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                The problem is indeed Vista SP1.
 It doesn't seem to play nice with certain drivers.
 This has been all over the net since it was released and there'southward so much stuff to wade through, well, I'50 leave that to you.
 Y'all can accept a expect at this small article.

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                Expert thing my other games are unaffected...
    Isn't that article virtually the SP1 release that was available to MSDN subscribers in February?  A few people mentioned their drivers were pretty much erased afterwards they installed SP1.  That didn't happen to me; I decided to uninstall and reinstall my graphics driver only because I idea it might assistance VTMB.
    I have Catalyst 8.two drivers for my video card.  There's a version viii.3 that's been out since the beginning of this month, but I don't really desire to get it, because I'm sure AMD/ATI will release a newer version soon, i that will probably (hopefully) have more support for Vista SP1.
    I wonder if downloading a DirectX redist update might help?  Or maybe it's already fully update at the moment, because of SP1...
    Does anyone know how to utilise the -dxlevel command to force DirectX 9Ex (that'southward the version of DirectX 9 included with Vista)?  I've tried -dxlevel lxxx, 90, 90c, and 90e, but I haven't tried 90ex, because I don't if that's the right fashion to type it.  I'thousand also not sure what to type for DirectX 10.0.  I'm non even sure if that would work anyhow, because it's probably a driver effect due to DirectX 10.1, or SP1.

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                Simply bumping once again to see if anyone else has had a similar problem.  I've been searching around the internet to come across if anyone has, but I've had no luck finding anything almost it, or, more importantly, a solution...

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                I still haven't had any luck fixing this problem, but I did happen to find this post from the forums:
 http://forumplanet.gamespy.com/bloodlines_tech_support/b50391/19644191/r19651626/
 I don't know why I simply at present started having this problem, or how SP1 could take triggered it, if it even did... just the OP'south upshot in the thread I linked is similar to mine, although it was posted earlier SP1 came out. Anyhow, I'm pretty sure now that this is a retention allocation issue, even though, as I said, I didn't take this problem before Vista SP1.

  I've tried changing mat_compressedtextures from 1 to 0 and haven't had any luck.  I haven't tried using msconfig to limit the corporeality of RAM Windows uses yet.  I've used msconfig in the by on XP and I withal utilize it on Vista to set startup programs, but I didn't realized information technology had, on Vista at to the lowest degree, a maximum retentivity setting.  In Vista, use msconfig (either search for it, or go to Run and type msconfig), become to the Kick tab, click Advanced options, check the box that says Maximum memory, and change your maximum memory accordingly, in this instance, information technology will have to be set 3072 (I think..), and then a restart will apply the changes.  You can plow off the max memory limit by only unchecking the Maximum retentiveness box and restarting once again.  But this seems similar a existent pain.

  I'one thousand going to endeavor the 4GB patch from http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php  , which is supposed to patch executables designed for 32-fleck systems.. But the OP in the thread I posted tried this and it didn't work for him, and I incertitude it will work for me either.

  The only other matter I could try would be Noobie9876'due south method in his concluding post in the thread, just he didn't think it would work either.

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                I simply used msconfig to limit my amount of RAM from 4GB to three and information technology worked. I'm non happy with this as a permanent fix, merely temporarily, information technology works: the textures are fine and I'm playing again.

  I'm nevertheless hoping to find a more than permanent set, because I would really like to exist able to apply my other GB of RAM.  I might eventually endeavor using a hex-editor to change vampire.exe and add the LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE line.. only I don't feel similar doing that at the moment.. Then for now, I'm going to limit it when I feel similar playing VTMB, and then resetting it when I'm non playing it.

  Edit: I should have mentioned that I as well tried the 4GB patcher from http://world wide web.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php  and it didn't piece of work.  So far the only thing that's worked is using msconfig to limit the amount of RAM to 3 gigs.

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                hahaha.

  is there any hope for vista64 users then? who has troika games?

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                I constitute somewhat farthermost but efficient solution to this problem. The source of evil is mode of determining texture memory. shaderapidx9.dll (function ComputeTextureMemorySize) does that in rather barbaric fashion by creating imitation textures until the system gorges upwards and so deletes it, summing size of those textures in process. And with big RAM information technology easily outruns boundaries of int blazon.
 Fix is very simple and dangerous - hardcode the DLL to always render 0x7F000000 every bit a upshot. Exist sure to fill-in the file and don't employ information technology on any other organization!

  Here's the hex:

  shaderapidx9.dll
 accost  new old
 000262CC: 90 75
 000262CD: 90 0C
 000262D4: 7F 04

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                I'k having this problem also.  Would love to give this hardcode ready a effort, but how woud I go about doing that?  Never been a coding monkey, and so would actually need either a footstep by pace guide, or at to the lowest degree knowing where I'k meant to exist putting this hex in (just dl'd both a hex editor and Reshack for this, neither want to work in abroad I'd understand. :P)

  Many thank you for any assist with this.

  **EDIT** Don't worry, I managed to DL a decent hex editor (only 30 day trial though unfortunately) that gave accurate hex address'.  Meant even a novice similar me could brand the changes.  And yes! It works! Cheers thank you cheers!

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           You may laugh at me, only it's your time I'm wasting.

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                I too have the same problems but i dont know how to edit the shaderapidx9.dll considering i dont
 seem to detect the correct addresses to correct.So could someone help me with the problem. Either
 elementary instructions and programme or just send the fixed shaderapidx9.dll to my electronic mail Vuohis@gmail.com

  And oh, virtually forgot.Thank you in advance

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                Thank you and then much for the information on shaderapidx9.dll  That worked flawlessly for me...so far. I haven't played much but that msconfig pick was a flake too much for me to deal with.

  So I tin report with 64bit Vista, 1.2 and the latest unofficial patch applied the editing of shaderapidx9 fixes the problem with blurry crap images and appears to force the game to notice effectually 2gigs of memory co-ordinate to map_info.  So no more than negative numbers.

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                Great piece of work! Out of curiosity: where did you make the ComputeTextureMemorySize return? Cos the routine writes to vidcfg.bin at the end, and reads from it at the beginning.

  I don't even have the game anymore, and then I can't check.

  BTW it retrieve that the file isn't the same for all distributions of the game out there, but correct me if I am incorrect.

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                I also run 64bit vista, and have the trouble with everything being very blurred, equally if settings were bottomed out for graphical particular.  I believe the problem is that when the program is requesting the bachelor texture memory from directx, it'south getting not and so much an incorrect result, but a result that information technology cannot handle.  Whether that be because 4gigs or more of retentiveness requires more than a 32bit give-and-take to address, or some other reason, I havn't determined withal.  Commonly the m_TextureMemorySize variable is a positive value, indicating the maximum amount of memory that can be allocated for texture storage.  Well, unless you disable some of your ram on a iv gig system, the result returned is misinterpreted and stored as a negative value.  In my case m_TextureMemorySize = -1670119424.  This is more than likely the reason the engine is then defaulting to the lowest detail settings.  I'm going to look into finding a workaround for this, but I recollect it will require patching of the engine to resolve completely. :\

  To see if this is indeed happening to you, open a panel, and type mat_info.  You'll find the variable listed in that location.

  EDIT:  Anyone know if this happens to people who bought it via Steam equally well, or merely those who have information technology on the original discs?

  Promise the info helps, possibly someone actually smart can figure the patching part out for usa.

  Thanks

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                actually, I've had 4GB of RAM in my vista64 system for a few months now. never had these problems when playing VTMB, using my 256MB Radeon X1950XT. information technology started before this week when I installed my new 512MB Geforce 9600GT. and so I think the culprit is either DX10 or having a 512MB graphics carte du jour. I promise this helps analyze the issue here.

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Marked as best answer by on May 20, 2022, 09:15:00 pm

posted:

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 Proficient thing my other games are unaffected...

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  Let's be honest with ourselves. Compared to Bloodlines, there are no other games.

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