No character textures; Fix PS doesn't help

[CrazySopher]

Note: I've read all the stickies, checked the Running Planeshift on Mac guide, so on and so forth, searched the forums, etc. So far, no success.

I just got the new client, after debating whether or not I should try out this whole "Planeshift" thingymabob. I'm a fan of what I've read up on it, so I figured I'd give it a shot. It loads correctly, doesn't crash, and nothing is wrong up until I get to the point of character creation. All of the character models are textureless, completely black. The room in which the character stands loads correctly and completely. I have the very, very unfortunate circumstance of running a Macbook with a GMA950 integrated chipset, so I've had problems with this before, but I could get WoW and City of Heroes to run correctly (and pretty smoothly!) on it, and even Portal works to an extant if I set the graphics settings down as far as they can go. So I think this can be solved.

Hunted around on the forums, and I found the link to Caarrie's handy dandy little Fix PS application. The thread in question said I should try the texture compression fix included therein, and when I click on "fix", Fix PS tells me that the changes have been made and that everything was successful, but the character model still won't load.

Yes, I've checked to see if any software requires updating, drivers and whatnot, and there's nothing. Yes, I have set the graphics down to "Lowest" in the configuration screen. It could simply be that the GMA950 is just so bad that it won't run, but if WoW and CoH worked...

So yeah. It would be really nice if I could have a hand here.

[Caraick]

Hiya, Crazy Sopher, and welcome! Always nice to have a new player around here (especially a Mac user  )

Firstly, thanks for correctly posting a "help-needed" topic in this forum, first time in my recent memory that it's been correctly done.  

So, it sounds like to me, and disclaimer: I could be very mistaken here, but I think that your issue here lies with your graphics chipset.  Since you've gone through the PSlaunch program, and messed around with your texture compression, and graphics settings, I don't think your issue is with the settings on your client...

Here's the Planeshift minimum requirements from the homepage on www.planeshift.it:

Minimum Requirements:
Windows (2000, XP or Vista), Mac OS X 10.4.11, Linux (2.6 kernel, glibc 2.7), FreeBSD or Solaris
Radeon R200 (8500-9250), GeForce 4 Ti/4200Go series, or Intel GMA X3000*
2.4 Ghz Pentium 4 or Athlon XP 2600+
1GB RAM
1 GB free disk space
56k modem Internet connection

I don't know when you bought your Macbook, but seeing as it's loaded with the intel GMA950, it must have been some time ago, unless I'm horribly mistaken... The minimum required chipset that's closest to your GMA950 is the GMA X3000, which was released in mid 2006.  So it seems for this issue, it really is just your chipset that's causing you problems, and also keep in mind: What I quoted above is just the minimum requirements, the "recommended" requirements suggest™ a Radeon R420 (X700-X850) or GeForce FX series chipset... Not that most players around use chips in that range, though some do, that is what the game recommends™.

Hope this helps a bit, and if there's anyone else out there with some other feedback, I'm sure it would be appreciated!

-CD

[LigH]

How many years is Caarrie now away from PlaneShift? - She won't have ever used version 0.5.x. If she ever documented a fix, it won't be up to date anymore. The graphic system of PlaneShift 0.5 (CrystalSpace 3D 1.9) is a whole new generation, compared to the previous one.

[echong]

try actually raising you shaders setting to at least medium in pslaunch. i've had a similar issue to yours with shaders set on low or lowest.

[CrazySopher]

Ugh... alright, thanks. It's a bit annoying, because I gave it a bit of a shot back with 5.4, and it worked. You're sure there's nothing I can do to compensate for my chipset?

[Caraick]

I don't think so :/ Unless perhaps you could try running an older version? Any thoughts on that guys?

[Dracaeon]

I think that you can't run PS without an up-to-date version, although once I have run it without having updated... I think...

[LigH]

From time to time the database or network details change so much that you can't use older clients anymore to play; the server will reject older clients from connecting.

0.5.5 and 0.5.6 are still compatible with the current server, 0.5.4 and older surely not anymore.

[Toltha]

I'm not sure it depends on CrazySopher's graphics chipset... I (Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, PCI, 256 MB - hope I've copied the right line, to compare) have the same issue, and I tried Caarrie's handy dandy little Fix PS application too. Nothing.
Everything was fine with PS 0.5.5.
But, really, I'm not sure this is a Mac OSX specific issue: same thing happened a few days ago to my fiance when he was creating his first char, with PS 0.5.6 on a computer running Windows Vista.

[LigH]

Well, because I don't have a Mac, I can't execute this "Fix PS" tool and check if it does anything useful for PlaneShift Version 0.5.x; well possible that it destroys a version 0.5 where it would have fixed a 0.4 once...

If you can't see textures on models, there are only two reasons I could imagine:

a) the textures changed in a way that your graphic driver doesn't support them anymore {like the "Albino Tefusang" once, which lacked of mipmap levels in their textures}
b) a shader program changed so that textures are not rendered anymore in a compatibler way

I may suggest to delete the file "shadercache" once, and then try different settings of the shader quality option in PSLaunch. If they all fail, we'll have to check further...

[Toltha]

what to me sounds strange is that if you create (even "blind") the new char, then, not just in game, after the log-in, but also every next time it stands in the "log-in room"... well, you can see it clearly, with all its colours. it's just that you can't choose the first time  
and that, as I told, happened with my Mac but also with another computer, running Windows Vista.

uh, I don't think that 'Fix PS' was a problem... nothing changed, and, anyway, it allows you to get back as things were before using it, so, me (and probably CrazySopher too) just tryed it, then went back to things as they were and simply throwed that utility away... 

[Aerostat]

Hello to all from another new player

I can confirm the texture issue has nothing to do with the graphics card, I get the same thing with my 512mb Nvidia 8800GS, after a fresh client install.

Here's a screenshot:

http://i.imgur.com/q68rE.jpg

[weltall]

you need to fetch a 0.5.6.1 client

[Caraick]

Yup, weltall's right

Open up PSlaunch, and look for the "repair" option to get your client up to the current version.

[weltall]

don't repair anything we don't have the servers for that right now