So I've just started my first playthrough, and I'm having a problem with displaying weapons. It's happened both with the starting weapon and the two-handed sword. It's easier to show than explain, so I'll post a picture.

update: In fact, it also happens to some blocks of environments.

Using an NVidia card? Common problem. Bigg offers Nvidia driver dll patcher.
http://www.shsforums.net/topic/30840-ie-games-and-nvidia-series-8-video-cards

EDIT: Didn't see if Bigg mentioned it, but you could also try disabling hardware acceleration on your computer while playing the game. You might get nasty lag if your computer is slow.

Thanks for the speedy reply! The computer is actually new, so I don't think I need to worry about lag. I'll try out the patcher, and get back to you if the problem isn't fixed.

update: I've tried to drag the folder into C: -> Program Files (x86) -> GOG.com -> Baldur's Gate, but trying to run "setup-nvidia_fix" just gives me a message that says I need to place it in my Infinity Engine directory, which I can't locate. Any ideas?

Not 100% sure, but I think you need to have your Baldur's Gate directory NOT in the Program Files folder.

I'll try that right now

update: yep, still won't work. Says it can't find "CHITIN.KEY" and reminds me to run it in the Infinity Engine directory.

We should verify that you have an nvidia card before proceeding.

You should see the file chitin.key in the root installation directory, generally, C:\xxx\Baldurs Gate. I don't have one, so I've not tried the fix, but is it possible you should copy the contents of the zip directly to the Baldur's gate directory, and not a folder?

I ran 'dxdiag', and the report's telling me I'm using an NVIDIA GeForce 310M card.

I also verified that the problem was having the files in the Baldur's Gate directory, only they themselves were in a folder. I just took them out and it worked fine.

Of course, now the game won't launch at all. I can get to the launch screen that gives me the option to Play, Uninstall, View Readme, etc. After clicking Play, it closes with no further response.

Run the dll patcher again. You should be prompted to uninstall, and be back to your black boxes.

Are you still tunning this game from with "Program Files"? That may be problematic.

Last bit of advice from my first reply, try disabling hardware acceleration while playing the game. Nvidia seems the culprit. I think disabling HW accel should be plan A, and relying on the patcher plan B.

EDIT: Looked at his patcher. It's just a weidu package (like most mods), so uninstalling should be a snap. Your original dll is in a backup folder in the BG directory waiting to be pulled back in by the exe. You should let the exe handle that.

I disabled the patcher and, while running the game with the files moved to My Documents, I still can't get it to run.

How should I go about disabling Hardware Acceleration on Windows 7?

Can you be a little more detailed:

Do you mean it won't get past the launcher?
What directory did you install the game to?
Did you copy or move the game directory to a different location?
Was the game working from the directory it is currently installed in before running the patcher?

I think you should get back to the "black boxes" in-game before worrying about disabling HW acceleration.

When I say it won't get past the launcher, I mean that when I open the game, the window with a large "Play" button in the middle opens up. Clicking play closes that window, but nothing else happens.

The game was automatically installed to Program Files, but when I was told that I shouldn't have it there, I moved, not copied it to My Documents.

The game only worked when the files were under Program Files.

If necessary, I can reinstall the game and get back to you.

I don't think moving installed directories around is a good idea. I'd copy the contents back to the original location or you might have a hard time actually uninstalling the game.

Anyway, you can keep the copy of the game directory wherever you put it, but I'd guess it's not working because there's an INI file that references game resources, and is currently pointing the launcher to the wrong directory. You could edit the INI file to point to the new directory. I don't know which INI file it is off the top of my head. I'd restore your original folders before dithering it up too much.

All right, I moved the game back to program files, and it worked fine. Then I re-installed the patcher, and the problem is totally fixed now.

But you mentioned that my first plan should be to disable the hardware accelerator. Are there unforseen problems with the patcher that I might run into?

I solved this problem by switching the Colour depth to 16 bit in the options of the game. The black boxes have disappeared. Since the game is quite old there is not a big difference in the graphics :-)

But I don't own the GOG version so it might be different.