no textures

from GalCiv2 Forums
ok erm........as the name suggests I'm having problems with the in games textures on ships, namely there not there at all, but yet the planetary textures are there fine and the anomaly textures are. I just get a flat hull and trim colour, none of the fancy textures that i want to see.
Theres nothing else wrong with the games, it runs really smooth in fact. But the lack of textures in really doing my tree in now.

what have i done to make it go this way on me? bearing in mind that i haven't touched the game mod wise, just installed the updates when there released.

anyhoo thanks if you can shed some light on this.
3,061 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You probably have a GeForce4 MX or other below-spec video card (The DirectX 9 requirement effectively means GeForce 5 and up or Radeon 9500 and up). If this is not the case, open the file named debug.err located at C:\Program Files\Stardock\Totalgaming\GalCiv2 with notepad and post its contents in a reply here.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
damn, its the graphics card..........ive been meaning to buy a new one, but as a student im too skint to afford it atm.

thanks for clearing that up for me.
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Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah... and You're probably going to tell me, that on my GeForce 7600 GS it's the same problem - my stuff don't reach the minimum requirements, yeah??

I don't have any textures, neither ship nor planet.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If this is not the case, open the file named debug.err located at C:\Program Files\Stardock\Totalgaming\GalCiv2 with notepad and post its contents in a reply here.

Elghinn, perhaps you should follow Kryo's advice and post your debug info. It might give a hint as to your problem with the textures.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah, prbly have below spec. Thats my prob. If so, install it on another comp. If that doesnt work after youve used up all your comps, sorry buddy. Yer stuck. Ive found though, if you minimize then maximise the window while looking at a ship, you get your txtrs back until you move or click your mouse.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've experienced some problems with a combination of 7600GT and Win2000. First, GalCiv2 texture bug, when my new 7600GT with newest drivers displayed the same picture as my old GeForce2 (no textures at all, exept for some hulls, which were partly visible with no details). Second, StarCraft 1.14 refused to launch at all! Now I'm running WinXP and everything seems to work fine. Maybe it's a problem of newer nvidia Win2000 drivers?
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Can anyone suggest as cheat (about $100 or less) graphic card that will work and is easy to install? I have the GeForce4 MX 440 and will try to upgrade. Sadly I only have a 250W power supply, so I need a card that will work with that and wont need to be plugged directly into the power supply.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I started playing this game on a FX5500 256MB card it did quite well, considering it's age. I think you can pick them up for about 50$. Check out Newegg.com they have good prices and a good reputation. If you can go up to 100$ you can get something quite a bit better than a 5500 though.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Darn the only FX I see at bestbuy is the 5200.   

Has anyone used any of the other GeForce cards? Which ones work? How about the GeForce 6200 OC 256MB AGP (it's on sale this week for $100)?
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
Holy freakin' hell. Put your rant-hat on kids.

I can play Call of Duty, one and two fine. C&C generals run superb. Far Cry was fun to play.. I guess I don't have to list each and every game that runs fine on my Geforce 4 440 MX. What puzzles me is why the bloody hell did the developers have to use some weird and obscure hardware functions to accomplish a simple task?

I understand that kind of attitude for FPS developers. After all, FPS games have become a sort of digital playground for the programmers using all the newest and fastest toys of Nvidia and ATI. Though this is a strategy game. I don't mind if it looks nice - in fact, it's a step forwards. But for hell's sake, strategy devs really shouldn't ever think they're there to try and take down the next-gen FPS on the ground of graphics. The "I don't care about reverse compatibility, even if it would run completly fine if we'd stop screwing around" attitude isn't really in place here.. strategy fans aren't really the crowd who buys the newest graphics card as soon as it comes out just to run it in quad SLI and cool with water/nitrogen/lamb's blood.

I have also tested it on a 6600GT - same result.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have also tested it on a 6600GT - same result.


If you've got missing textures on a 6600, then you've got some other unrelated issue that is probably fairly simple to resolve. Unlike a GF4MX, a 6000 series card can run the game just fine in all its glory.

strategy fans aren't really the crowd who buys the newest graphics card as soon as it comes out just to run it in quad SLI and cool with water/nitrogen/lamb's blood.


The game doesn't require much beyond a graphics card that was developed within the past five or six years. The Geforce 4 MX series is the lone exception, as it is based on a upclocked Geforce 2 architecture. As such, it is inferior to a low end GF3 (which can run GC2 fine, by the way), despite being called a 4.

You can buy a fully compatible card for less than $30. I personally don't think that's a steep requirement at all.


Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
Indeed, the Geforce 4 MX is a Geforce 2 with some beefed up memory. It has served me well however, and it also overclocks very nicely. ~suprising it hasn't died yet~

But enough of that. My point is that reverse compatibility should always be a goal unless it means unreasonable effort. And in this case, the game runs fine and dandy, apart from that one messy bug. I'm positive that card of mine has enough power to handle the graphics in GC2, should the code allow it. Computing power is growing, but that should never be a reason to get sloppy or stop optimizing. And here, well, the developers took the easy way and solved the (I guess) texture/player color blending problem using a relatively new hardware feature.

As for buying a new card, I'm planning on a 7900GS eventually. No point in buying a slightly better card just to play one game.