[1.08] Win 7 64/ATI 5600 series Graphics Bug unchanged -- STILL UNPLAYABLE

At least one other user has recently reported that polygonal corruption issues were solved by fully removing their video drivers with a cleaner app and reinstalling the latest. Please give that a try if you haven't.

Just a note - I updated to the latest ATI driver (have a 4780 x2 ) and the problem you are describing manifested itself. I had to uninstall and reinstall the older ATI driver (I think it is March 2010 version) and that cleared my problem. To torture myself I repeated the process twice to see if maybe I had made a mistake - but everytime I used the newer driver, Elemental (and also Borderlands) had issues. Reverting back to the older fixed it on both occasions.

Well, I wiped my drivers, and now Catalyst "fails" to install, so I have no video drivers.  Thank you very much, Stardock.  Now, instead of having a game that I paid $50 that doesn't work, I paid $50 to break my computer.  What is wrong with you people that you would release a product in a state like this?!?

ROFL, I don't know that sucks. I have a 4870 ATI card and it works fine...as far as the graphics displaying go. Does anyone else use 5000 series Radeon cards? Might be a problem with 5000 series drivers and this game.

Okay, I'm getting:

"There is no driver selected for the device information set or element."

Whenever I try and install the driver through the device manager.  Catalyst just says the installation "failed".  Your help getting my system working properly again would be greatly appreciated.

I'm sorry you're having problems. But exactly what is it you would have us do? This is pretty obviously an issue with the video driver.  Did you read what xau said? We are doing everything we can to work around a given driver issue as best we can but your anger is misdirected.

I've never installed drivers from the device manager.  I download them from the web page of the company that makes the peripheral, which is usually a stand-alone application that runs a wizard which installs the desired drivers.

Correction: sometimes I do use the device manager for drivers but only when I want the Windows default drivers.

@Frogboy:  "What would you have us do?"  How about giving step-by-step instructions for fixing my rig that's now broken because I FOLLOWED KRYO'S INSTRUCTIONS.

And don't patronize me; "your anger is misdirected"?  Your game doesn't work with one of the most common OS/video card combinations out there AFTER EIGHT PATCHES FROM RETAIL RELEASE and you're blaming it on the driver?!?

I appreciate that you personally are only trying to do your job, and are probably not responsible for releasing this game in such a ludicrously untested state.  But trying to shift blame here is NOT the way to calm me down.

Did you try installing this driver here? Should be the 5000 series ATI drivers. You can just follow the instructions I can't imagine it not working if ti doesn't post here again.

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon-win7-64.aspx (first link download at the top)

I just thought I'd offer my 2 cents. I am running Win 7 64 bit Premium with a Sapphire 5770 ATI graphics card, 8GB ram, 60GB SSD for C: drive and a 320 GB Velociraptor HDD for the games directory. Windows Experience rated at 7.0 (hdd limit). Unless my 100% failure to hit with a bow is due to my graphics drivers, I have no game problems related to the hardware.

I updated to 1.08 with no troubles. I have had intermittent CTD episodes since I first bought the game. Those still happen occasionally. But I can always reload and play past the crash point. I noticed the other night Elemental was using 1.8 gb of ram.

Keep up the good work Stardock. You'll get there eventually and prove it has been worth the patience and the waits.

There is a community made fix for the Bow issue check the mods forums. There was a mispelling in the XML game code that makes archery miss 100% of the time. Folks here identified it and fixed it. Just need to update that one XML file

try this link to fix it (reply #20)

https://forums.elementalgame.com/396954

Except that it does work on most people's system with that combination. If it didn't, the forum would be filled with people with the issue you're reporting.  All we are trying to do is help you.  

@Fearzone, @davidjc_af:  Yeah, I've tried installing from Catalyst "full", and a "manual" install (which still runs Catalyst, really) from the ATI website you linked  to.  It goes through the whole install, then says "Install Failed" for the display driver, with no other explanation.

let me see if I can find out why, I usually can fix stuff like this.

@Frogboy:  First off, I'm NOT the only one with the initial issue, otherwise I wouldn't have read at least a half-dozen posts on the same topic, and Kryo wouldn't have offered up the fix he did.  Second, I don't care if I'm the only person in the history of the universe with this problem, the fact of the matter is that my computer doesn't work and your game is the reason why.

Now, if you're done telling me how wrong I am for feeling upset in these circumstances, I would greatly appreciate it if you could ACTUALLY help me fix the situation.

@davidjc_af:  Thank you.  I appreciate it.

My heart is out to you bro, once in awhile I'll run into crazy stupid stuff like that--at the end of the day look at it this way: you were probably due for a fresh install of Windows anyway. 

The only other things I can think of are: you restarted and tested the card just to make sure the "install failed" message was really valid, and you gave windows permission to make the changes to your computer at the start of the installation?

Ok man this looks like to could be a doozy to fix this was taken from this post http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=130425&STARTPAGE=2&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

Here is his initial problem 

Hello all.

Quick background, I'm a system builder of close to 25 years, and have purchased a 5970 (OEM/system builder) for my personal machine.

Also for history's sake, I have NEVER owned any card but ATI exclusively since the Rage128 came out.  I don't know if that makes my crazy or stupid, but I've always believed in the underdog, and have always supported ATI in every personal upgrade, as well as in every system I've built for others in the last 15 years.

Now, on to the problem:  I'm having an issue installing anything newer than the 10.1 driver sets.  10.1 works great, no problems whatsoever, full fan/overclocking control via CCC, no issues in games (aside from the known bugs that everyone else with a 5970 has), no problems in general at all.

But, when upgrading to 10.2, 10.3a or the official 10.3's, I'm met with a black screen or the end of the 'Windows Loading' screen after a reboot.

Here is his solution

Here guys - I don't know how this thread came back up to the top before the [SOLVED] thread...

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=131447&enterthread=y

---here's the post, but please post your results over in the thread linked above-------------------------------

I stopped just short of tossing it out the window when I finally figured it out.


So, here is a breakdown of what finally worked for me:


1)  Install whatever Catalyst version that you can that you can boot all the way into Windows with

2)  Use the CCC Software tab to determine which ClassID string is used for the 2D driver

(Open CCC, click on Information Center, then Graphics Software)


Here you can see 2D Driver File Path - this is the important part, so drag the slider over to the edge, adjust the stopper at the end of the "Value" line at the top and keep moving the slider until you can see the end of the string.

It will look like this:  2D Driver File Path    /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet002/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0000

The final 4 digits after the forward slash are the important ones, as there will be multiple numbered folders in there, so make note of it.  In the case above, it's /0000, but yours may be /0001, /0002, /0003 or higher...


3)  Boot into Safe Mode (if you need help booting into Safe Mode, you shouldn't be attempting this fix)

Now, we have to enter 1 registry DWORD and change 1 DWORD value in the Windows Registry, so this becomes a Windows Registry hack...

4)  CREATE A RESTORE POINT


**ANY time you work in the Windows Registry, there is a possibility of rendering your operating system useless, so ENSURE you've made a restore point BEFORE proceeding**

(if you need help figuring out how to make a restore point, you probably shouldn't be reading this post and would benefit from taking your card and computer to someone that's comfortable working in the Windows registry)


Ok, now that you've got a restore point to fall back on in the worst-case scenario, let's proceed.


5)  Go to the Start Orb and type REGEDIT, hit enter.  This opens the Windows Registry Editor. (remember, we're still in Safe-Mode!)


6)  Once inside Regedit, navigate to the following area:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000 (or if the last 4 digits in YOUR Software tab in CCC are different, navigate to that folder instead of \0000


This is what it will look like inside Regedit at this specific location.

At the bottom, you can see the exact location you should be at.

At the top right, I've scrolled down a little bit to the first place we need to make a change.



7)  Double-click on EnableULPS and change it's value from it's default of 1 to 0 (zero, not "o") then hit OK.


8)  Then, right-click in an empty area in the far right, and choose NEW > DWORD (32bit Value)

Name it PP_DisableMCDownLoadFeature and give it a value of 1

It will look like this when done correctly:

NOTE that these two tweaks only need to be done in the folder that YOUR Catalyst Software 2D Driver File Path exists in...mine is 0000, but yours can be in any numbered folder inside the main path of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}    ...just remember that BOTH of these tweaks need to be in the folder that's specific to YOUR install.


That's it.

After rebooting, you may install whatever version of Catalyst drivers you like.

I've done some fairly extensive testing, and have concluded that this 'hack' makes the cards that were having issues installing newer driver sets, work just like every other card out there.


SOME cards out there have a different memory controller on them, and for some reason, it polls those 2 specific areas in the Windows Registry for no good reason at all.  The one entry that doesn't exist (the one that we created) is more than likely the one that hangs the driver from loading all the way into Windows, as the card is looking for something that doesn't exist.


Anyway, good luck to all - I know I'm a happy camper after getting this thing running correctly!!!

I do understand that this fix will be incorporated in the 10.5 official drivers, possibly the 10.4 officials if they get it stuck in there in time...


Good luck and don't stress it, I know this works from personal experience!

Psychlone

^ Follow that and you'll be back up and running in just a few minutes.

Good luck.

Psychlone

So try installing and older driver like something before 10.2 that might get you back where you were. Then upgrade when you can. In fact the artifacts you had might have been due to older drivers in the first place. But hopefully you can easily get your system back up with older drivers. And then you can do this elaborate fix if you like.

@davidjc_af:  Thank you so much for your help.  After deciding I was not, after all, someone who was comfortable futzing with the registry, I decided to try a system restore; thankfully Windows had updated something or other just this morning.  Seems to have worked; I guess all I lost were a couple of King's Bounty: Crossworlds save games.  Which is what I'm going to go play now.

@Frogboy:  I do appreciate that Stardock has put you in a bad position with this release, and that you're trying to do your best.  A bit of unsolicited customer service advice, though:  instead of telling an irate customer how wrong they are for being upset, try letting them know you empathize, and that you're on their side.  I didn't start really seeing red until you told me I shouldn't be angry; I didn't get mad at you personally until you told me I shouldn't.

I'm going to await my reply from Stardock tech support regarding a refund.  Real, real shame.  I was SO excited about this game; it's been right up there on my "must buy" list for *months*.  Ah, well; Civ V is just around the corner...

I had the same issue with my graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 5650) - followed the instructions from the other forum https://forums.elementalgame.com/391985 and encountered the fail to load driver issue after reinstalling CCC

I then went into the device manager, selected the graphics card & then chose 'update driver' and pointed it to the folder where CCC had unpacked itself for installation. A few seconds later, Windows reported driver successfully installed. After rebooting I have since been playing Elemental with no graphics problems

Sorry about your computer problems, cmcnary, but the driver not working stuff is not really Stardock's responsibility, it's just part of playing PC games, there is always some headache because of all the possible hardware combinations, etc. I actually found Kryo's post above helpful, as I was having all kinds of graphical glitches since 1.07, and I previously just kept installing new drivers over old ones. So, seeing his post, I unsintalled all the drivers on my card, then in safe mode, used Driver Sweeper open source software to remove any leftover driver files, and then installed the latest drivers. This actually took care of the graphical problems, at least so far.

This will probably not get read by dev; however, I did want to add in that not everyone can easily upgrade their video drivers.  Yes, gamers are by nature pretty technical, but there are cases were users just want to jump in.  Some notebooks have video card drivers that have not been updated in ages and laptop2go drivers are hit-and-miss with performance and heat.  Yet, work fine when you use the older manufacture drivers.

For example, I have been having video artifact issues on all three of my systems since the beta.  I have updated drivers, downgraded, etc and they still exist.  I have rebuilt several times and they still exist.  To make things more complicated, I tried this over 4 diff video cards (3 Nvidia (gs7900, 8800 gtx, and like a 5400) and 1 ATI (4890)). 

Then when the first 1.08b patch came out (was playing earlier today) the video was OK since I could see my sover and then the newest 1.08b patch comes out tonight and now his picture is a white cloud like it was during the beta.

It is pretty frustration.   By the way, I never rebooted since the patch was applied.. but OS wise it should not matter.

.. and I realize that the engine is new(er).. but it really is Stardocks responsbility since they chose to designed it - instead of licensing.  I know that there are were pros on cons, and I have been reading the forums since beta, but please don't blame the end-user.   As others have said, the idea of gaming is to game.. not figure out what needs to be done to successfully enjoy the gaming experience.

  I have posted, for other users, that driver clean-ups may solve the issue, but when I have a functioning game (graphically) and then a patch breaks it it does allow me to feel for the poster as I am sitting in the same boat.  I guess I just have to hope it works again in 1.09 or 1.08.038 or at the very least a 1.1.

If I had to guess.. the issue may be related to one of these lines in the debug.err

Debug Message:  CMapViewWindow failed to set DXSAS UI parameter: Threshhold in effect: edgedetect becuase the DXSAS engine was not initialized
DebugMessage:  Player_List setting size 181 x 0

HI ALL,

     I've got video card issues too. I've got ATI 5870 with the latest 10.9 drivers and I've got MS Win7 Home

Premium Edition 64bit. The system has all the latest drivers for lan, video, sound and all the latest MS patches.

I really don't care who's fault it is, I just want to see it get resolved. I don't post in the forums too much, due

to I've hardly seen any major issues with Stardocks games. I hate to say, this is a major show stopper.

    So, I need a fix for this issue and register hacks isn't a fix. Right now, I've DL the latest patch for Elemental

and the game still has graphic issues. Right now, I can't play the game and I've got to wait for a fix.

    I still prefer Stardock games, but this issue did some major damage to the company. Also, Frogboy ...

Relax .. stuff happens ... move on and resolve the issues ... // " Have a few drinks .. and take a few days off

and come back and find solutions to improve the game".

Actually the aug. 26 driver from ati is junk anyway.  I hope stardock isnt trying to make that one work.  When I installed that one I ended up with artifacts in 3 different games and had to rollback to the july driver version. 

I'm using win 7 64 bit   ati 4890