X-COM UFO Defense graphics problem

[Lord of the Pies]

I downloaded the gold version of X-COM UFO Defense (is this the same as the CE version?) but whenever I play it the graphics appear incorrectly. From what I've read graphical problems are fairly common when running this game on XP until you get one of a variety of programs to fix it, but none of the problems described by other people seem to match mine. When I run the game parts of the screen will appear shifted to the left by about a quarter of the screen's width, whereas the other graphical problems I've read about involve the entire screen being scrambled and unreadable. Unfortunately when I try to get a screenshot the resultant picture is black with a colour-inverted pointer. There's no problem with the sound and no other problems with the graphics.

 

I already have patch.dll, xcom1fix.exe and ldr_XCOM1.exe but none of them solve this problem. I've also tried disabling directdraw acceleration and changing the hardware acceleration but neither of these actions helps with the problem either. If it's important, whenever I try to load xcom1fix using ldr_XCOM1 I get the following error message: 'Couldn't read process memory'. When I load the normal .exe with the loader it runs fine but I still get this problem.

 

Are there any other programs or actions that can fix this?

[Zombie]

System specs please? Desktop, laptop, type of operating system, monitor type, etc, may help to narrow down the options.

 

- Zombie

[Gimli]

It's most likely graphics drivers. If for example you're using the custom Omega drivers for ATi's cards instead of Catalyst then that is very likely the problem. The same would go for custom nVidia drivers.

[Lord of the Pies]

I'm not very good with the technical aspects of computers but I think I have a Radeon 9600 with the latest official driver (and I think I saw 'Catalyst' somewhere when I was changing the hardware acceleration). Actually, is it possible that the problem's caused by having a graphics driver that's too advanced, given that the game's 15 years old?

[Gimli]

Well not really. But latest driver unfortunately doesn't always mean it's the best. While I would normally suggest rolling back to an older version, I doubt it will help here, and even if it does, it's possible it will mess things up for another game. That's the problem with drivers unfortunately.

 

I have no idea what the problem could be right off the bat, but start with the following: take a screenshot of the graphics problem. To do this, simply press the Print Screen key on your keyboard (may appear as Prt Scr or some other shortened name) when you get to the screen. Then exit the game, go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Paint. Once Paint opens, press Ctrl+V. This will paste the screenshot you made into Paint. Save it as a .jpg file and post it here.

 

We'll also need your system specs. The easiest way to get them would be DirectX, so go to Start -> Run and in the dialog type dxdiag. On the System tab note down the Operating System, System Manufacturer, System Model, Processor and Memory. Click on the Display tab and note down the Name of the graphics card. Click on the Sound tab and note down the Name of your sound card.

Post this here and I also suggest saving it somewhere. If you're ever asked for system specs, it will make it easier for others to help you.

[Lord of the Pies]

Well not really. But latest driver unfortunately doesn't always mean it's the best. While I would normally suggest rolling back to an older version, I doubt it will help here, and even if it does, it's possible it will mess things up for another game. That's the problem with drivers unfortunately.

Actually, that did solve the problem, thanks.

 

I have no idea what the problem could be right off the bat, but start with the following: take a screenshot of the graphics problem. To do this, simply press the Print Screen key on your keyboard (may appear as Prt Scr or some other shortened name) when you get to the screen. Then exit the game, go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Paint. Once Paint opens, press Ctrl+V. This will paste the screenshot you made into Paint. Save it as a .jpg file and post it here.

As I said before, I tried that but the picture I got was just a black screen with a colour-inverted pointer (I tried this on the main menu so I guessed that it would be the same for all

 

Unfortunately there's another problem now - I get error messages during the game telling me that the game's 'encountered a problem and needs to close'. This tends to start happening after one or two hours of playing the game (or it might be linked to getting to the middle of March in the game) but if I save a game and come back to it later the problem still occurs. In the saved game I have it happens after a hangar at my second base is built, but if I dismantle the hangar it doesn't happen. Is this a typical error and if so how do you fix this?

[Gimli]

I believe you've run into the crash bugs. The only solution I know of is to use all the save slots. Just switch to another one when you start getting crashes.

[Bomb Bloke]

As I said before, I tried that but the picture I got was just a black screen with a colour-inverted pointer (I tried this on the main menu so I guessed that it would be the same for all

The game uses a palette based display mode that Windows doesn't like capturing. However, there's an inbuilt capture function - Tap F12 and a image file will pop right into your game folder.

 

Unfortunately there's another problem now - I get error messages during the game telling me that the game's 'encountered a problem and needs to close'. This tends to start happening after one or two hours of playing the game (or it might be linked to getting to the middle of March in the game) but if I save a game and come back to it later the problem still occurs. In the saved game I have it happens after a hangar at my second base is built, but if I dismantle the hangar it doesn't happen. Is this a typical error and if so how do you fix this?

Sounds a bit like this bug. Doesn't really look like there's a work around once the problem is in place, but if you don't build anything for a month it might "go away".