Hi everyone.

I've just bought and installed Silent Life. While the game starts up and runs just fine, once I get passed the intro and into the actual game, there's an intense flickering phenomenon where polygons appear and disappear very rapidly.

I've tried messing around with the compatibility options but nothing helped. This guy (http://www.dreamlogic.net/archives/how-to-play-microids-games-on-windows-7) and this thread (http://forums.bigfishgames.com/posts/list/54515.page) seem to be discussing my problem, but I can't find any config.ini file in the GOG version to make the fix... Any ideas??

I'm running Windows 7 on an IBM Thinkpad x60s (so the video adapter is Mobile Intel(R) 945 Express Chipset Family).

Shay

I don't have the game so i can't pinpoint the location of the config file but the 3 logical locations to look for it are the game folder itself, the 'My documents' folder and the AppData folder.

The AppData folder is in 'C:\users\<your_username>\' and it's hidden by default, so if you can't find it go to folder options and under the 'View' tab check the option for "Show hidden files, folders, and drives".

Thank Namur, but I've already scanned these locations for a config or config.ini file and haven't found anything. My guess is that the suggestion in those links was for the non-GOG version of the game, while the GOG version is maybe setup differently?

Not likely, the game will need an .ini file regardless, so i'm willing to bet there's one in there somewhere.

The file can also be there but with a different name. Have you looked for a settings.ini instead of config.ini ? How about the subfolders on the game folder, have you looked inside those ?

I'm running the game on Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, but I don't have the problem you mention.

Still, I decided to give it a try and see if I can help you find your problem.

There is a file called "Settings.ini" in the game's install directory under C:\Program files (x86)\GOG.com\Still Life\Launch\

I don't know if this is the right file (it makes references to megarace3 - which I never bought or downloaded!) but there are a few settings you could potentially tweak. (just remember to make a copy of the original before you start messing around in there.)

Lastly, whenever there are video issues with games, my first avenue is always to check for an updated driver on the video card.

Good luck!

@Namur and @desic, thanks for your help...

Yes, I found the settings.ini under the Launch subdirectory. However, it doesn't seem to be the one discussed in the links I posted above - it contains no bFullscreen field or anything remotely similar, and appears to maybe manage the GOG installed? I also have megarace appearing several times in there, although this is Still Life.

My video driver is also up to date... I have played the game a little, and although I can stand the constant flickering, very frequently (but not always) after trying to use an item the mouse cursor no longer appears in the 3D engine (although it does appear in the "options" screen), and the only way to continue is to save and restore!

Very frustrating... It might simply be my weird notebook graphics adapter...

Thanks for your attempts up to now, if you have any other ideas I'd love to hear them.

Shay

I can't seem to be able to reproduce your problem. But then again, I don't have the same hardware as you do.

I have two other options for you:
1. I managed to get the game started using the game.exe file found in: C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG.com\Still Life\
Before you try, right click on the file, check the properties. Under compatibility mode, set the compatibility mode to Windows NT4.0 Service Pack 5. Check the settings: 'Disable visual themes' and 'Disable desktop composition'. Also set the priviledge level to run the program as an administrator.

2. Note - this has nothing to do with the first step.
Set your computer resolution to 800x600 and 16bit colour manually before starting the game. To set the resolution, just right-click anywhere on the desktop and select 'Screen Resolution' Once you select 800x600, click on 'Advanced Settings', select the monitor tab and set the 'Colors' option to 'High Color (16bit)' Honestly, I don't think that this will yield and better results than your other efforts.


I have a strong feeling that this problem is a driver issue - it could very well be that the newer drivers have removed some older options that were used by the game.

Well, I've managed to finish the game despite the graphics artifacts - I might be closer to epilepsy now but at least I've gotten all the way through. Thanks for the help attempts...

Same flickering on my gf's Vista 64 system. We've emailed GOG but they just parrot the instructions in the support area (which we have already done) like run the June update of DirectX, etc. but still the graphics are jumping around on most, but not all, scenes. Very frustrating! GOG is slow to help I'm afraid.

Well, i've bought the game and finished it without issue since my last post in this thread, the game worked flawlessly for me from start to finish. I'm on Win7 64 using a GTX 295.

I can't reproduce the problem so it's hard to say exaclty what's up, it could be a gpu specific issue.

Sorry about posting after so long, but I bought this game today at the promo and I'm having the same flickering. I tried everything and i discovered somehting.
If you run the Game.exe and but only compatibility with Windows NT and disable composition, the problem goes away, but the cursor disappear, making the game unplayable.
If you disable visual theme the cursor reappear but the problem come together with it.

Just sharing
And sorry about the bad english

someone has solved? I have the same problem on a Pentium 4 2.8 GHz and integrated graphics card.
thanks
same graphics card

The same thing is happening here too. HOWEVER.... Sliding the graphics detail all the way to the left and turning off A-A seemed to have helped this game tremendously. Also see attached screenshot here and play around with the options in the intel control panel.