Hi guys, I'm running EQ2 on a Sandy bridge Intel HD 3000 graphics card. It's on the latest drivers, I tried both the intel driver and the drivers of my OEM. The issue persists and can make some zones area's visibility incredibly game breaking. It's on Windows 7 64 bit. Run under administrator. It is easy to replicate in Iceshard keep in Kael Drakkel (almost pure white) and also in wailing caves down in the water part. There are other places in the game that it occurs in, and I avoid them like the plague, but would like to sort out the issue. I have played with the graphics settings a lot, no particles, some particles, ambient light, no ambient light. Extreme Performance, Extreme Quality. Nothing works. I figured it must be something wrong with my video card drivers. If the game runs on OpenGL (although I'm pretty sure it runs on DirectX) can I find out what extensions the above area's are lacking so I can send the info to Intel to fix it? If it relies on other calls, what can I tell them? Can I get some form of debugging info to find out how they can fix it?
You might want to read this review of the HD 3000. http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Intel-HD-Graphics-3000-graphics-solution.43710.0.html Bottom line it performs no better than an entry level graphics card. Personal view, Intel should stick to cpu's and leave graphics cards to those that can do better. Intel's integrated graphics cards have never been overly good or successful. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful or positive.
I don't know if it will help but there is a directx 9c package for this game specifically (sometimes the installer will miss some of the older dx files), I believe it is in the knowledge base; the TSRs here link to it quite a bit A friend of mine uses integrated graphics and we were in kael the other day and he didn't mention any messed up graphics. It is possible your chip is defective, you might want to try contacting intel or the pc's manufacturer if all else fails to see what they say.
If it is a dx9 problem, you can get the installer from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35
I have the full DX installed, as I needed it for other games to play. Thank you for your help. However it is the same. Your reply is not helpful. I can play on Extreme Quality on this game with it in 2 instances of the game comfortably. It is not a performance issue, more a graphic bug with the driver that I need help to isolate the issue. Or find a solution to.
If it is a driver issue, only Intel can fix that. However bear in mind that with EQ2, most of the graphic rendering is done by the CPU, not the graphics card, if you are running two instances of the game, you could be at the limit of your CPU or main memory's capabilities. Do you get the same issue with just a single instance of the game ? If the problem is limited to specific zones, it could be worth moving the .vpk files for those zones into a temp location and re-running the Launchpad - just in case these have become corrupt. If you're using the full, rather than streaming client, they should be in the /paks folder, eg ..../paks/exp07_dun_kael_iceshard_keep-SG.vpk. You'll probably need to post your pc specs, to get more meaningful assistance and maybe someone with a similar setup may be able to help.
I'll try deleting one of the zone files tonight, but it is more than one zone. It is always the mist effect. I usually play one instance of the game unless I am boxxing. I was surprised at how well it run with both instances on extreme quality. PC specs: i7 Quad core Sandybridge i7-2630QM Processor (up to 2.9GHz with Turbo, 4 CPU's, 8 if you include hyperthreading), 8GB RAM, WIndows 7 64 bit. Intel HD 3000 2.5GB shared V Card Mem, 7200rpm SATA HDD. Notebook Computer. I am in contact with Intel at the moment, I'm trying to pinpoint the instruction so that I can get them to have a look at it. I think that EQ2 runs on DirectX, so it might not be an OpenGL issue, but I would like someone to clarify it as Intel GFX generally have issues with OpenGL.
Well EQ2 wont run without DX installed, specifically DX9c. Check out minimum specs at https://www.everquest2.com/news/article?month=012009&id=2046 and note specific reference to DX9 compatible graphic cards. So yeah game is DX, not OpenGL.
Sorry to hear that. It does sound likes a driver issue. Hope you get this fixed and good luck progressing this with Intel. I'd hope they would make some contact with SoE to get to understand the problem.
I'm gonna try CS and see if I can get some help there. Intel are trying to bounce me to the OEM and the game developers now.
Did you ever get this resolved. I'm having the same issue with a MacBook Air boot camped with win 7 64 bit.
