Running AvP2 + PH On Windows 8.1

[KingKenny]

Hey,

So I tried to play AvP2 and PH and I had thought they worked before but now that I look closer I realize a lot of stuff is screwed up.

First of all each game was overstretched and zoomed in with my custom resolution. I found out that disabling "Display scaling on high DPI Settings" in compatibility settings fixed that. So I have my custom resolutions working perfect.

Now I have 2 problems:

1. The 3rd predator vision and alien night vision modes are pitch black (although the hud still shows). It looks exactly like what this guy has: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jax5-QNdyZs

2. During gameplay as I walk around or if ai shoot guns, I see random textures of either the world or the sfx of the weapons popping up all over my screen. Check out the attached pictures to see what I mean.

I tried lowering all of AvP2's settings to default and lowest details/res/graphics and I still get those problems. I also tried using the default autoexec.cfg (unmodded) and tried the game with the display scaling left on and I get that crap still. I also tried disabling a bunch of settings in my nvidia card (like anti-aliasing, running through multiple cores, turning off shaders, etc) and I still get that crap. Oh, and I tried forcing my intel video chip to handle AvP2 but it too gets the same errors.

I even tried running the game in compatibility mode of windows xp, vista, and 7 but the game then crashes with the "client MFC has stopped working" error. However, the game does work when I run it under windows 98, but I still get the two problems popping up.

I also tried running both AvP2.exe and lithtech.exe as admin AND with the scaling both on and off. Windowed AvP2 doesn't help solve the problem either.

I have absolutely no idea how to fix this and it makes the game almost unplayable on certain maps.

Any ideas? I'm looking to return to modding this game and would greatly appreciate any help I can get for solving this issue.

I'm wondering if it's a windows 8.1 issue or is it just the video card not being fully compatible with older games, especially the lithttech ones.



My specs are:
CPU: I7 - 4702MQ CPU @ 2.2GHz
Ram: 16GB
64-Bit OS
GPU: NVIDIA Geforce GT 750M + Integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000
Res: 1920x1080

My video card drivers are up to date and AvP2 is fully patched before anyone asks.

[Xhan]

It is entirely a windows driver abstraction layer issue, and runs the gamut on win 8/8.1

when installing make sure you're in 4:3 before you save your cfg in menu

add "windowed" "1"

to your autoexec.

Make sure you have vsync enabled and ANY Anti-Aliasing turned off, make sure you're not running Crossfire or SLI.

And yes you want to disable scaling of any kind, it makes everything blurry as shit and causes smearing.

uninstall

and then reinstall in a 4:3 video mode, like 640x480

restart after installing everything BEFORE CHANGING ANYTHING

change to whatever video mode you want AFTER adding "windowed" "1" to your autoexec, then change your settings.

[KingKenny]

Hey, I tried what you said and it didn't change anything.

I uninstalled, set my res to 4:3, reinstalled, installed patches, added the window setting, started the game and same problems occur.

[Canon_Barbarian]

Pitch black visions (PredTech and Alien vision) are known issues for Intel Integrated GPUs. These visions use InvertHack which renders world in inverted colors. Looks like Intel GPU or Intel drivers doesn't support this hack. Try to run AVP2 on your GeForce, maybe it will solve the problem.

[KingKenny]

I tried running the game on both GeForce and the Intel. The vision modes are black on each.

[Xhan]

Contact ManuelG on the guru3d forms, and describe your problem exactly and show him your screenshots.

[KingKenny]

I don't think windows 8.1 is the problem. I think it's my video card. I'll ask around nvidia.

If anyone else has any possible solutions still feel free to share and thanks for the help guys.

[x-M-x]

Hang in there brother! 

[KingKenny]

So I just confirmed that I get these errors on other lithtech talon games.

I'm going to just try rolling back drivers and hopefully something works.

[Le Celticant]

Have you tried to uninstall DirectX 11 & 10 and run on a lower version of DX9?

[Xhan]

I don't think windows 8.1 is the problem. I think it's my video card. I'll ask around nvidia.

If anyone else has any possible solutions still feel free to share and thanks for the help guys.

Windows 8 is exactly the problem, and it's the same type of driver versus OS issue that vista had.

[x-M-x]

I don't think windows 8.1 is the problem. I think it's my video card. I'll ask around nvidia.

If anyone else has any possible solutions still feel free to share and thanks for the help guys.

Windows 8 is exactly the problem, and it's the same type of driver versus OS issue that vista had.

God help us on Windows 10 then......

It was bound to happen sooner or later.. a windows OS will be released and avp2 won't like it... Christ! we're lucky avp2 works fine up to windows 7 or windows 8? (sort of)

Hopefully this is a 'one time deal' and AVP2 might work beautifully on the upcoming Windows 10 OS (2015)

[KarateKa]

Same problem occurs in Windows XP. I don't think it's OS related. It's video card.

[KingKenny]

A friend of mine has AvP2 working fine on their windows 8 computer. Since it's not affecting everyone, it leads me to believe it is my video card.

Windows XP and windows 7 worked fine for me but I had an ATI card back then.

Btw, I rolled back the drivers to over a year ago and that didn't help at all. Fortunately the game is still playable for me, just with occasional graphical glitches. The only thing that is entirely broken is the alien night vision and predtech vision. However, someone posted on another thread that they can be fixed via a mod of the attributes. I may do that just for singleplayer.

[Xhan]

It's not your card, it's the interaction between 8 and your drivers, and the fact that the custom literally slapped together version of dx8 Monolith used is 100% unsupported by win8, which causes legacy fallbacks to be used, and there is no fallback for directdraw or anything older than DX9.1L. If they used 100% vanilla dx8 like most folks did, you could just install an ENB with compatibility libraries and be done with it.

You can remove the inverted modes and simply go additive, and Crucible of Darwin also does away with all inverted modes as well, as colorblind people have a f**kload of trouble with them, and they never looked that good to begin with.