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Build 13 graphics question

C

cwineman

Landlubber
I got nostalgic and reinstalled POTC.

I didn't try playing it right out of the box. I saw all the new builds and I went and got the latest stable popular release. That was version 13 full build. I installed that and there are alot of cool additions. I haven't played this game for several years so things that most of you are used to seemed immediately cool to me.

Anyway, after the tutorial part with Malcom you end up outside on the dock. I noticed that the graphics where not very good. It might be that I am holding this older game to high standards. But I'm pretty sure that the game looked much better originally. From the in-game menu, you can't change any advanced graphics options, only brightness, contrast, etc. Also, there is a "configure" potc option from the menu where you can change the game resolution and some other things. I tried that, but nothing really helped.

I guess the best way to describe the situation is to say that the game lookes like a circa 2000 game instead of 2003+. Are the graphics expected to be worse on these new "build" games"? If not, has anyone else had this problem? How did you fix it?

Thanks for any advice.

-cwineman
 
That's very weird. According to me, the game is still up to TODAY's standards. Not as pretty as some of the games of late, but looking pretty darn good still anyway. Run the Config program and make sure you set the texture quality slider to "high". Please note: High is on the LEFT! If you slide it to the right, the quality will DECREASE! Also: Make sure your graphics card can handle the game properly.

If my above suggestion doesn't work, please run the game, press PrintScreen on the keyboard, start Paint, press Paste (Ctrl+V) and save the screenshot as JPG, then show it to me. That way we can confirm if it does or doesn't look like it is supposed to.
 
I had the problem as well. Use the Config tool to set texture quality to High, and it should fix it. Or at least in my case. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad.gif" />
 
I must have put the slider to the wrong side. I checked again and the graphics look ok now. Thanks.

Now, I'm noticing a different problem. The button to fire my cannons stops working randomly. Sometimes when I'm lined up for a shot in 1st or 3rd person, I hit the button but nothing happens. Sometimes it comes back, sometimes not. The cannons are reloaded (green) when I try to fire. Is this a bug, or is this tied to my cannon skill somehow? Like if my cannon skill (2 right now) is too low, I can't count on my cannons firing or something.
 
you have noticed that the area where you can fire (left, right, up and down) has decreased right?
 
LRUD? I don't follow.

If you mean that the game is more strict as to when it will let fire cannons, ok. That might be the reason. But, when I'm in 3rd person mode, and the "firing cone" shows that an enemy is in range and I hit fire, shouldn't it fire. Even if it takes a few seconds.

I'm not sure I'm explaining that right. When in 1st person, I can see how I might only be able to fire when the target goes to red from yellow. And that is happening less than I am used to due to the motion of the ship. Therefore, maybe I'm thinking that the button isn't working, when in fact I'm missing my opportunity to fire. But does that happen in 3rd person too?

I've only been playing this new build for a few hours, most of it on land. Maybe I'll figure this out on my own.


I have yet another question. Before I loaded up build 13, I saw some posts that seemed to indicate that you have to load builds in a certain order. Like, 12.1 first, then 13AB.13 second, then a13.b34.2 third, next a.13.b33.123.alpha, and so on. I'm being facetious, but I didn't do any of that. I just found one installer and it's worked so far. Should I expect problems soon? Were the posts that I was reading old, and those load order issues are gone now?
 
well, you will need update 3 for build 13, but that's all. it's in pieter's sig.

you may be missing the fact that to fire manually, you need to press V, unless you changed it in the buildsettings. press V every time you want to fire a manual shot.
 
In Build 13 the manual fire key is now defaulted to the V-key. The Spacebar now does the same in 1st person mode as it does in 3rd person mode. However, I noticed this issue myself as well. Sometimes the game just doesn't auto-fire at all. I don't know why. In that case: Go into 1st person mode, aim manually and press the V-key.

The proper installation order for Build 13 is:
- Build 13 Full installer (you already got that)\
- Build 13 Update 3 (link in my signature)

Installing Build 12.1 before that *might* make the game work better, but it is not required. If it works fine so far, don't bother to reinstall with 12.1 first. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/no.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":no" border="0" alt="no.gif" />
 
Ok, I just downloaded build 13 update 3. I haven't installed yet. If I do, will it mess with the key bindings I have now? What does the update improve?

I've been in a few sea battles now and I haven't had the cannon button problem. I have no explanation why.

You guys keep talking about the "V" key. What is that? I might have bound that to something else, so instead of talking about "v", can you tell me what that does?

Thanks for the help so far. Great work on the mods Pieter and all those that have helped.
 
the V key is the fifth key on your keyboard from the left, second row from the bottom. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheeky" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" /> it's as simple as that!

i just remembered that i've had the cannons no fireing as well occasionally. i was somewhat on track on what caused it, but i lost it since my game didn't work anymore.
 
Update 3 fixes some bugs and improves some gameplay issues. A new game is required with the update. I recommend you reset the controls and change them to your liking (again) before starting a new game with Update 3. Just in case. It might not actually be needed, but it can't hurt.
 
The V-key is the manual fire key. Usually in 1st person mode, Space was manual fire. Not anymore. Space is now automatic aim and fire in both 3rd and 1st person mode. To manually fire a shot, you need to press the V-key.
 
I didn't want to lose my current game, but I'm not very far so what the hell.

I'd like to install update 3, but I'm not sure what to do. I downloaded it, I looked at the runme batch file, and it looks like it wants to be somewhere in particular before I run it. Is that true? I couldn't find instruction details.
 
well, the only thing you need to do is simply overwrite the files. you do have to make sure that you do it correctly though.
 
To install Update 3: Just extract the ZIP file to your main PotC folder, overwriting all files it wants to. Then run RunMe.bat and afterwards start a new game. Should work simply enough once you figure it out. I personally like using WinZip for this. Much easier than the Windows built-in ZIP support as far as I'm concerned.
 
Thanks for the help. I got it installed and didn't need to reconfigure my keys. No problems so far, except big ship battles being sluggish on my machine, but this machine is a bit old so it's understandable.

-cwineman
 
Glad to hear everything is working now. I hope you'll enjoy the game! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/doff.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":doff" border="0" alt="doff.gif" />
 
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