Updated Compilation of Vista Issues/Fixes
By
Adar_ICT,
Posted on: 2007-03-12 11:34 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Here is a useful page on Vista services, including descriptions and 'plans' for disabling the ones that are unneccesary.
Speedy Vista
It can be a little tricky to understand the layout, so here's the gist of it.
Services are listed alphabetically. Beside each service, the default setting for each version of Vista (Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, and Business) is listed, as well as classification under each 'plan' ('Safe', Tweaked, and Minimal) offered by the site's author. Each service name is also a link to information about that service.
[u]The Plans[u]
'Safe': Disables unnecessary services. There are services that do not affect the user experience in any way. You should not even notice a difference when using these settings, but it is possible.
Tweaked: Many heavy and most likely unused services have been disabled. This is much lighter than 'Safe'. Aero is disabled, but Themes is left alone.
Minimal: All services that are not necessary to every day use and windows update have been disabled. Themes is disabled, Aero is disabled, firewall is disabled. This assumes you have your OWN firewall/AV software installed!
I highly advise that only experienced Windows users consider shutting off services. If you don't know what you're doing, you probably shouldn't do it. As such I will not provide a step by step guide to doing this.
thanks a lot, this really saved me a buncha time 
Ok, is the cursor fix supposed to fix the in game cursor, or just the pointer? Cause I did your little fix and it said that it was an undefined boundary and could not do it. I still have no cursor in game, maybe I did it wrong, but I did exactly what you said, and still it didn't work. Tried it again, fact I've tried it 3 times, still hasn't fixed the problem. I found that if I unplug my mouse and plug it back in after the log in screen that I get the mouse cursor back, or I can run it in windows mode (still working on figuring out how to do that in Vista) but those are not very good solutions. Would you like a HiJack This or whatever, of my computer? just purchased the laptop yesterday, and CoH works fine, aside from the cursor bug.
I was required to get Vista on my new computer (Windows XP was not an option) and it has ahe Intel 945 Integrated Graphics. I installed the newest Intel drivers and City of Heroes will load but looks 2d. None of my heroes nor the environment are smooth shaded and thus look 2d rather than 3d. Framerate is fine and the game is playable but it looks terrible.
I know NCSoft doesn't yet support Vista yet but do any of you have any tweaks or graphics settings suggestions that would fix my 2d issue with an Intel card?
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I was required to get Vista on my new computer (Windows XP was not an option) and it has ahe Intel 945 Integrated Graphics. I installed the newest Intel drivers and City of Heroes will load but looks 2d.
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It is not really a Vista issue. The problem is you don't have any dedicated 'card' for your graphics. Only the dull, flat Intel chip on the mother board.
The solution then, is to buy and add a true PCI-e, 3D graphics card from either an Nvidia name or ATI name, and choose one that won't suffer in performance. Such as an Nvidia 7600GS or higher on the Nvidia side.. or its equivilent on the ATI side. Then you'll be good to go with the Shinies! 
This is a laptop. Can't upgrade my video card. My friend has an laptop about 6 months older with this exact same video card and running Windows XP. It runs City of Heroes just fine. So this is an Intel Driver or Vista issue.
Ahh, that wasn't mentioned. And no, it is not going to be some magic fix then. It wouldn't matter if its Vista or XP. You still need a true graphics card, Laptop or not. The problem is, you can't add one in to make up for the lack of a dedicate video processing solution ... in this situation. It has to be bought equipped with a true 3D graphics board on the onset, such as one of the 7800 Go cards. The Intel 945s and similar are there to give you basic Windows graphics for regular apps, not high performance RT 3D game-polygon rendering.
If the salesperson tried to tell you, "Bah! You don't need anything more than an Intel Motherboard chip for the video. You can play all your favorite Movies on it!" That is all well and good... considering those movies ARE recorded 2D and flat!
Now there has been recent talks about such laptops running through an outboard 3D graphics 'box' to try and make up for it... but I wouldn't personally put much stock in that as a long-term solution.
First there are several variants of the Intel 945 Video. Some of the lower end ones do not provide hardly any gaming features. They will do Vista Glass fine but for gaming they are problematic because many of the 'features' are emulated through software via the Intel Drivers.
So a couple things could be happening here...
#1 You have a lower end Intel 945 GPU than your friend does.
#2 The Vista Intel drivers may not yet contain any OpenGL support, therefore Vista is running the game with no ICD for OpenGL and everything is software emulated.
Also your friend running under XP, the XP drivers may have the OpenGL and more support 3D functions in the driver. You can try installing the XP Driver on Vista, it should work, but you will lose the Glass interface of Vista, but it may get your CoX game working for now.
Also keep researching and bugging Intel for updated drivers that support OpenGL properly. It may be that Intel just hasn't provided this yet, and may be planning on doing so. Even ATI and NVidia were late in providing proper OpenGL support in their drivers, so cross your fingers than Intel just hasn't gotten the drivers to this point yet and plan on doing so.
Unfortunately the Intel selling points on the 945 chipset is very misleading, as they provide PS 2.0 in hardware so that they look great with Vista Glass, but don't provide ANY hardware Vertex Shaders, etc, making the CPU take the blunt of the performance hit to do the same things true 3D GPU chipset do in hardware.
Good Luck, and at very least give the XP drivers a try until Intel releases new Vista drivers if CoH is important. It might also help you determine if the 945 variation in your laptop will handling gaming.
For anyone else buying a laptop, PAY ATTENTION to the Graphics in the Laptop, most of the low/mid range laptops have no upgrade mechanism for Video, so research the chipset offered on the notebook specifically as this is the most important aspect for anyone wanting to do even casual gaming. Chipsets that are low end but acceptable include ATI 200m/NVidia Go 5600 etc, don't go any lower if you have a choice. Even some of the NVidia 6100xx mobile series are not good for gaming, check the specific one with a look on the MFR site, or a good Google search on the chipset.
Take Care...
Does anyone else find that the compatible cursor option just plain doesn't work?
I'm running windows vista 64, if that makes any difference.
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Does anyone else find that the compatible cursor option just plain doesn't work?
I'm running windows vista 64, if that makes any difference.
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Firstly, we'll need to know what video card and what driver version you're using. Then we should have a better idea of why the flag fix doesn't work for you.
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Does anyone else find that the compatible cursor option just plain doesn't work?
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Works here just fine. But then, I run a 6800 Ultra and only the 32Bit version of Vista.
Please copy and paste exactly what's in your shortcut.
Paragon Wiki: http://www.paragonwiki.com
City Info Terminal: http://cit.cohtitan.com
Mids Hero Designer: http://www.cohplanner.com
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Dispari
I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.
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anyone know why this is happening to me in the hero selection screen and the character creation screen?
http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/710/errorjw4.jpg
It was happening in the actual game but I managed to fix it by adjusting the 3D resolution setting.
I am running Windows Vista Home Premium.
NVIDIA Geforce 7300LE video card.
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If you have installed your game to the default location, you can copy and paste the line above into your target field.
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Unless you are using 64-bit, in which case it's more like
"C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes\CohUpdater.exe" -compatiblecursors 1 -renderthread 1
Tyrannotaur, looks like you are running at a resolution your monitor doesn't support.
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Tyrannotaur, looks like you are running at a resolution your monitor doesn't support.
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Any way to fix that? Sorry if this is the wrong place for this.
It isn't the monitor resolution, or the text and symbols would also be affected, and further, it'd probably look ok in the screenshot, but not the screen.
I would hazard two things at the moment:
Video drivers, of which card I don't know, and...
This needs it's own thread to properly solve, and I move that Tyrannotaur start a new thread so we don't clutter this one up any more with theories.
Now, with that part of the 'on topic' post done, I move to the off topic part:
Ok, I wanna guess at the various characters power sets:
Volcannon: Obvoiusly, a Fire/Fire blaster, male
Dark Sky Angel: I'm guessing Dark/Dark female destined to fly. She could have Electrical secondary, due to the 'sky' part, though.
Terrestria: Earth 'troller, female, with probably Storm secondary?
Chaos Cobra: This male MM would seem to favor using Ninjas with Poison
Manterror: Male Stalker, Dark/Dark, as there's Fear in them there powers.
Flame Frozen: Uh, Fire/Ice (or reverse) Dom. I would guess female, but...
Barron Meltdown: This one's tough. Could be a Fire/Cold or Ice/Therm, even Rads could possibly be in here... I'm goin with male Corruptor, with Ice/Therm... but it's just a guess at this point... I'm thinkin' the heals would be attractive after the others...
Taurock: Endolith. Which is my stone/stone brute, the funnest.
Brave Jaguar: Obviously a claws/regen scrapper, with the possiblility of the SR secondary.
So, Ty, how'd I do? 
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012
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It isn't the monitor resolution, or the text and symbols would also be affected, and further, it'd probably look ok in the screenshot, but not the screen.
I would hazard two things at the moment:
Video drivers, of which card I don't know, and...
This needs it's own thread to properly solve, and I move that Tyrannotaur start a new thread so we don't clutter this one up any more with theories.
Now, with that part of the 'on topic' post done, I move to the off topic part:
Ok, I wanna guess at the various characters power sets:
Volcannon: Obvoiusly, a Fire/Fire blaster, male
Dark Sky Angel: I'm guessing Dark/Dark female destined to fly. She could have Electrical secondary, due to the 'sky' part, though.
Terrestria: Earth 'troller, female, with probably Storm secondary?
Chaos Cobra: This male MM would seem to favor using Ninjas with Poison
Manterror: Male Stalker, Dark/Dark, as there's Fear in them there powers.
Flame Frozen: Uh, Fire/Ice (or reverse) Dom. I would guess female, but...
Barron Meltdown: This one's tough. Could be a Fire/Cold or Ice/Therm, even Rads could possibly be in here... I'm goin with male Corruptor, with Ice/Therm... but it's just a guess at this point... I'm thinkin' the heals would be attractive after the others...
Taurock: Endolith. Which is my stone/stone brute, the funnest.
Brave Jaguar: Obviously a claws/regen scrapper, with the possiblility of the SR secondary.
So, Ty, how'd I do?
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Will do.
As for you guesses..
Volcannon- Right on the money
Dark Sky Angel- She's actually based on Jessica Alba. She has Force Feild powers like Sue Storm. Along with Radiation Blast..for no real reason..
Terreastria- Earth 'troller with Healing secondary I think.. I haven't played her in a long time.
Chaos Cobra- Robots and Force Feilds.
Manterror- Claws/ Dark ...close..
Flame Frozen- Got it in one. Yes she is female.. Russian spy backstory.
Baron Meltdown- Radioactive blast/ forgot his secondary.. heh
Brave Jaguar- Got it.
Nice Job
Now I'm off to make a new thread. thanks for your help.
Attention all GeForce 7 Series users!
Just got a Vista compatible BFG GeForce 7950 GT OC 256 MB card and plunked it into my new HP with Vista...
and it stunk up the room with poor grafix!
So, after a few hours of pulling my hair out trying to fix it, I found the latest patch for graphics on the Nvidia site.
For this fix, you'll want to download Forceware 100 (it's actually ver. 100.65), which fixed my shader problems immediately. It takes a little bit of finding, but it worked like a charm.
This download will replace your current driver and smooth over the probs.
Seems like we can be expecting most of these legacy games to be fixed by Nvidia as they find problems.
I'm having a problem that does not appear to be shown in the little guide. The game runs just fine, however the graphics are very strange in that light sources are blinding bright. Its so bad it gives me a headache after a while and I have to turn it off. I have a X800 Pro ATI video card with the most recent drivers for the 64 bit version of vista I have. Anyone come across this problem yet?
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you'll want to download Forceware 100 (it's actually ver. 100.65), which fixed my shader problems immediately. It takes a little bit of finding, but it worked like a charm.
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Actually, It is Forceware 101.41 now...
...who knows what it will be next week. 
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I'm having a problem that does not appear to be shown in the little guide. The game runs just fine, however the graphics are very strange in that light sources are blinding bright. Its so bad it gives me a headache after a while and I have to turn it off. I have a X800 Pro ATI video card with the most recent drivers for the 64 bit version of vista I have. Anyone come across this problem yet?
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If I'm not mistaken this is a known issue with the ATI drivers.
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I'm having a problem that does not appear to be shown in the little guide. The game runs just fine, however the graphics are very strange in that light sources are blinding bright. Its so bad it gives me a headache after a while and I have to turn it off. I have a X800 Pro ATI video card with the most recent drivers for the 64 bit version of vista I have. Anyone come across this problem yet?
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If I'm not mistaken this is a known issue with the ATI drivers.
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So no workaround until a new driver fixes this issue?
that help me with controls but im dtill getting 2d graphics and a double screen. I bought brand new gateways with amd dual prossessors. Do i need to get graphics cards?
I installed City of Villains and can't see my mouse cursor. I've tried the solutions here, but none of them work... I tried them several times.
I have INVIDIA Geforce 6150 LE running.
I'm not sure if this will help, but I'm also running AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3500+ CPU.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Hi again everyone! I've cleaned up the thread and fixed a few minor mistakes. Here's hoping for some sticky.
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MISSING POINTERS
In some instances, loading the game client on Vista will result in your cursors/pointers not showing up. This is an easy fix.
1-Right click your desktop shortcut for the City updater.
2-Select 'Properties'. Make sure you are in the 'Shotcut' tab.
3-Select the 'Target' field. It should look something like this: "C:\Program Files\CoH Test\CohTest\CohUpdater.exe"
4-Add -compatiblecursors 1 to the end of the target, so that it looks like this:
"C:\Program Files\City of Heroes\CohUpdater.exe" -compatiblecursors 1
If you have installed your game to the default location, you can copy and paste the line above into your target field.
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COH NOT USING DUAL CPUs
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CoH is supposed to detect the dual processors automatically but that code is currently buggy. May as well put it in yourself and force the issue. Even hyperthreading processors can take advantage of renderthread!-Zloth
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1-Right click your desktop shortcut for the City updater.
2-Select 'Properties'. Make sure you are in the 'Shotcut' tab.
3-Select the 'Target' field. It should look something like this: "C:\Program Files\CoH Test\CohTest\CohUpdater.exe"
4-Add -renderthread 1 to the end of the target, so that it looks like this:
"C:\Program Files\City of Heroes\CohUpdater.exe" -renderthread 1
If you have installed your game to the default location, you can copy and paste the line above into your target field.
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Now, I know some of you are saying, "But Moiread, I already have a flag on my shortcut."
No problem! You can use multiple flags on the same shortcut.
My personal shortcuts actually look like this:
LIVE: "C:\Program Files\City of Heroes\CohUpdater.exe" -compatiblecursors 1 -renderthread 1
TEST: "C:\Program Files\City of Heroes\CohUpdater.exe" -test -compatiblecursors 1 -renderthread 1
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LOW FRAMERATES
This is a neat little tweak that was posted by Barata. You can see the explanation why this works HERE. Many thanks!
1-Right click your City desktop shortcut.
2-Select 'Properties'.
3-Select the 'Compatibility' tab.
4-Click the box beside 'Disable desktop composition'. ***You may need to select a system build (IE: Windows XP (Service Pack 2).***
This works equally well on the shortcut or the CoHUpdater.exe file. I have the settings changed on both.
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NVIDIA PERFORMANCE TWEAK
This little gem of information was gleaned from the multi-page Vista Users thread. Thanks muchly!
I have tested this with my Nvidia Go 7600 and I did notice an increase in performance. Your mileage may vary. Doing this may also help non-Vista users.
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With NVidia, another setting if you use FSAA, is to NOT use the FSAA setting in the game. It works ok, but does not give the same performance if you set this setting in the driver. Open the NVidia Control Panel and turn Anti-Aliasing to 2x,2xQx,4x, etc, whatever setting you normally like to use, then in the game turn off FSAA. This setting can make an impact on some video cards by a factor of doubling the speed and keeping the anti-aliased screen.
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1-Open your NVIDIA Control Panel. (I open mine through the computer's Control Panel which can be accessed via the Start Menu.)
2-Select 3D Settings.
3-Click "Adjust Image Settings With Preview".
4-Click the radio button beside 'Use The Advanced 3D Image Settings' and click the 'Take me there' link.
5-Find the Antialiasing Setting and select your desired setting.
6-Disable FSAA in the advanced graphics settings in game.
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It has also been noted that there are FPS hits when using Bloom and Depth of Field with Nvidia cards. Disabling these effects may increase your performance.
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