So any news on orbital and mex icon fix for old AMD cards?

Discussion in 'Support!' started by zweistein000, May 28, 2014.

  1. zweistein000

    zweistein000 Post Master General

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    Hey, it's been a while since I reported this bug and it is still present. As far as I have been able to figure out anyone with AMD HD 4xxx cards Graphics cards currently doesn't see mex icons, strategic icons in orbital, healthbars and production bars. I know there are at least 2 people with this issue out here (me and @superouman ). It doesn't make the game unplayable, but it does put us at severe disadvantage and makes searching for expansion really difficult. So has it been fixed, or still there? Are you any closer to solving it and is there anything we can do to help you fix it?
  2. perecil

    perecil Active Member

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    AMD HD 4770, here, same bugs.
  3. bgolus

    bgolus Uber Alumni

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    We've not been able to reproduce the issue in house, though I also haven't tracked down where our one working HD 4xxx is. We have a couple of HD 7xxx cards, an R270, and even a A4-3300 APU running the game, along with various Intel integrated systems, and a lot of NVidia (from a 9800GT up to a Titan) in the office running the game, along with a few people with HD 5xxx / HD 6xxx PCs and AMD Macs at home. There is a single HD 4xxx test card in the office but it got reappropriated at some point when someone's video card died and I have no idea where it is now. A number of issues people have reported having with other lower end AMD cards I've been able to reproduce on the APU, but not this one.

    What might be useful is if you could post a log file, by some chance there's a shader compiler error... but it's a long shot if you are seeing any strat icons at all.

    For windows you can find the log files here:
    %LOCALAPPDATA%\Uber Entertainment\Planetary Annihilation\log

    For Mac and Linux I have no idea ...

    Curiously the orbital strat icons aren't any different from those on the land, unless you're talking about celestial strategic icons (ones you see when units are traveling between planets). Stat bars between "near orbital" and below are separate groups, but also rendered the same way.

    I might post a set of modified shaders to try if people want to be adventurous.
    zweistein000 likes this.
  4. bgolus

    bgolus Uber Alumni

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    Modified shaders.
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49665566/particle_icon.zip
    These should go into this folder:
    Planetary Annihilation\stable\media\shaders\
    You may want to make backups of the particle_icon.fs and particle_icon.vs files already in that folder.
    Replacing particle_icon.fs will disable team coloring. This means all unit and structure strategic icons will render as yellow with red outlines, and the metal spots should continue to show up green.
    Replacing particle_icon.vs will disable planet occlusion. This means all icons on a single planet will show up including those on the other side.
    These can be replaced while the game is running and you should see it change in game. If nothing changes, send me those log files!

    If you replace both of these and the metal spots and orbital icons still don't show, I honestly have no idea what the cause could be.
    zweistein000 likes this.
  5. zweistein000

    zweistein000 Post Master General

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    Celestial ones. I'm talking about celestial ones. I'm gonna test the shaders asap, but downloading the PTE now.

    EDIT: I use a lot of mods. Should I generate new logs without mods?

    Attached Files:

  6. bgolus

    bgolus Uber Alumni

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    Yes, you should absolutely disable all mods. I have no way of knowing if the issues you're having are caused by a mod or an existing issue with the game. I already know some mods have broken the health bars.

    However there's nothing obvious in the log files that would tell me there's anything wrong with the shaders, but there's some other errors that make me think you may have some modified or out of date files that could be causing issues.
  7. zweistein000

    zweistein000 Post Master General

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    So I ended up testing this on PTE as I the issue wasn't fixed there anyway. The shaders did nothing. The funny thing is I have an identical copy of my Graphics card lying in my dad's old computer, so I'd send you mine.... If I didn't live in Slovenia which in like in south middle Europe. The import cost would probably be higher than the cost of the card :p
    tefta.png
  8. zweistein000

    zweistein000 Post Master General

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    It's not mod caused at all as you can see in that screenshot (I removed the entire cache, mods and local store folders and the issue is still there).
  9. bgolus

    bgolus Uber Alumni

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    If it's not fixed in the PTE w/ no mods enabled, there's not much you guys can do to help. We will have to reproduce it in the office.
  10. zweistein000

    zweistein000 Post Master General

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    Anyway there are the logs that were generated when I tested it in the PTE. If you guys ever travel through Slovenia, let me know so I can give you that card :p

    EDIT: Thanks for the help anyway.

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: May 28, 2014
  11. zweistein000

    zweistein000 Post Master General

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    So here's something interesting I'd like to report abut my issues: The health bars of orbital units (as in unit in orbit, not stellar) are actually visible and work fine. Since I can't see those on ground units or air units I am assuming that the issue is connected to missing mex icons and if I can see those on orbital tech, then maybe it gives you guys an idea where to look for the problem.
  12. SXX

    SXX Post Master General

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    If you did't tried that yet, can you try to run game with "--software-ui"?
  13. zweistein000

    zweistein000 Post Master General

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    Where do I put that in? The console or do I need to create a shortcut to my PA and add this to the end of target line?
  14. SXX

    SXX Post Master General

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    Both console and shortcut will work.

    If you have PA installed though Steam you can as well test it there:
    Right-click on the PA in Library -> Properties -> "Set launch options..." button.
    I do understand you're not using Steam for playing, but for testing it's should be fine.
  15. zweistein000

    zweistein000 Post Master General

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    I get an error telling me software not defined. What is the correct way to enter this?
  16. SXX

    SXX Post Master General

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    If you using shortcut and path to PA.exe contain white spaces then you need to quote path to EXE before, e.g "Target":
    Code:
    "C:\Test\Planetary Annihilation\PA.exe" --software-ui
  17. zweistein000

    zweistein000 Post Master General

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    Well then it doesn't work. I did that and nothing changed so tried to enter it on the console and then I got the error saying "software not defined".
  18. SXX

    SXX Post Master General

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    Looks like you set something wrong because it's working fine for me on Windows. Can you try to set it though launcher?
    Run launcher -> login -> click on your nickname -> "Build Options..." -> "Additional command-line options."

    PS: Though it's possible just won't help to issue. :(
  19. mjshorty

    mjshorty Well-Known Member

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    i have an ATI Radeon HD 4600 and mods or no mods, i cant see mexes, health/build bars or numbers to spawn locations =(
  20. bgolus

    bgolus Uber Alumni

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    Strategic icons, status bars and any "in world" UI elements are not part of coherent UI. They're rendered in engine similar to particle systems.
    SXX likes this.

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