Flickering startup screen/crash

[Hektor]

There isn't a software section so I figured I'd stick this here. I'm a long time MMO veteran (EQ1 launch day) and have recently come across Istaria (never got into horizons at launch) and would love to get into the world and give it a go on the order server.

To clarify, I am running windows 32 bit Vista but I had no problems installing the game and creating an account (seems to be a slew of issues with vista posted on these forums). The issue I am having is that when the game finishes patching and goes to launch the client my monitor starts flickering between the istaria client, a black screen and my desktop. There is no error message, but inevitably the client crashes out and back to my desktop after a few minutes of the flickering patterns.

I am using a dual monitor setup and my primary monitor is a 42" HD 1080p westinghouse. I suspect it may be the 1900x1280 resolution I am running as the culprit of my problem. I will test a few different resolutions tonight after I get off work, but I wanted to post a general inquiry to see if any other istaria veterans might have had this issue or heard of someone else having it.

I look forward to meeting some of you in game and giving Istaria a try.

~Hektor

[StalePopcorn]

That's a strange launch error... the Vista problems posted on the forum were generally for the previous version of Istaria that did not support 32-bit Vista and typically crashed on startup. The current version supports Vista and Windows 7, but there are still lots of forum postings about the old issues and possible work-arounds.

The typical issue with Istaria startup problems are usually video-driver related, do you have the latest versions installed? You might also try to turn on the debug logs to find out any additional information, there are directions on how to do this on the Troubleshooting section.

HTH

[Steelclaw]

I experienced this once or twice on a dual-monitor setup running in horizontal/vertical span mode. I'm not sure what causes it. The problem, however, only occurs in full-screen mode.

As a workaround, disable the second display, create your character, log in, then switch to windowed mode. Once you're in windowed mode, log off and re-enable the second display.

The game window may be freely dragged between the displays, maximized, or even enlarged to span both of them with no problem. You may experience some performance degredation when /any/ part of the game window appears on both displays at once.

[StalePopcorn]

Steel - is there a manual method to enable windows mode? The OP says they can't start the game, so they won't be able to change to windows mode via in-game options.

[jerk-o]

Ok, to change fullscreen mode without being in the game, go to your istaria folder, go into the prefs folder, open the ClientPrefs_Graphic.def file in notepad and change the line that says "bool fullscreen = true" to "bool fullscreen = false" then close notepad, and yes, you want to save the file.

[Steelclaw]

Steel - is there a manual method to enable windows mode? The OP says they can't start the game, so they won't be able to change to windows mode via in-game options.

The flickering screen problem shouldn't be a problem if there is only one display active.

[LOVWYRM]

I hope you get this prob solved, Hektor.

We would love to greet you welcome on Order