Settlers 6 texture quality | Forums

[Kaelon]

Hi there,

Kamamura over at Steam discovered the problem -- it should be a trivial fix by a coder at Ubisoft to release a super-minor patch to the game. Here are the details:

The game has a known problem with video cards featuring more than 2GB of memory - the game forces you to use the lowest res textures, making it look super ugly.

I tried the demo to see if the problem is here too, and I received an error message saying that 70MB minimum of texture memory is needed, while my card only has -347MB.

The cause is obvious - the function that probes the driver for VRAM size uses signed, instead of an unsigned variable type (an unsigned 16bit integer variable can store numbers from 0 - 65535, for example, while signed 16bit integer can store from -32768 to +32768). Signed types use the highest bit to recognize negative numbers, therefore if a large unsigned number (large enough to have the highest bit set) is interpreted as signed, it becomes a negative number.

And that's exactly what happens here, and it should be quite easy to fix, provided one has access to source code. Could us, paying customers, persuade Ubisoft to allocate a trivial amount of programmer's time to fix this otherwise working and enjoyable game?

Any chance anyone from Ubisoft can respond to this?

Thanks!

[Jourei]

A few months short of a year after this thread died, this issue is still real.

I really wish there was either a fix/hack to make the game believe it has the memory it wants or an actual patch from Ubi.

[sings_in_tune]

I think it is unreasonable to think that any company would patch a game that has 2 (or maybe that should be 3) newer versions out. And a newer version in Beta. This is probably a case of an older game not being forward compatible with newer OS's or hardware.

[Premchand]

I think it is unreasonable to think that any company would patch a game that has 2 (or maybe that should be 3) newer versions out. And a newer version in Beta. This is probably a case of an older game not being forward compatible with newer OS's or hardware.

I don't believe its unreasonable considering it is still being sold by that company

[sings_in_tune]

I think if you run it on a system with recommended specs as listed on the package it will work.

I wouldn't expect Ubisoft to patch an old game so that it is compatible with hardware/software that was developed after the game was released. They did release Settlers 2 10th Anniversary, perhaps they will re-release some of the other old gems.

[Premchand]

I sadly didn't expect a patch from ubi But also don't consider it unreasonable either since its being a old game that is still played and sold. So there is a demand for this patch i guess... anyway... i suppose the only way ubi will make this happen is to have a re-release that we all will have to buy again of course

Oh well its still passable with the low textures, but a little frustrating. Now i can run it on everything on max and a build in 'cannot detect ram amount = forced low setting' limiting stupidness(why does this even exist ?) won't allow me! Well its a nice throwback as what it looked like when i used to play it. Still hopeful that a modder might fix it one day.

[Megroj]

Nothing? ... pfffff

[Premchand]

Sooooo apparently the guys over at GOG... FIXED THE ISSUE... just like that... lol ubi