I have Windows 7 and recently downloaded The Settlers 3 Ultimate collection. It loads fast, and runs fine, but when I go to actually play (tutorial or campaign) the screen does something funny. I tried to screenshot it but it doesn't come up on a screen shot (it appears normal). Basically, part of the screen freezes, but part in the middle moves around the map as normal.

I've tried running it with all of the compatibility options and it doesn't fix the problem. It won't even open/run with it set to Win95 or 98. I've also tried changing the resolution up and down but that doesn't fix it.
It's making the game in-playable and if I can't fix it I'll just have to get a refund. Any help?

Hi,

This problem has been reported by some people before. it has something to do with graphics configurations on some Nvidia cards. Try this:

Open your settlers folder and locate a file called SetupS3.exe. Run it. Try one of the following:

_"Wait for for vertical blank" OFF (unchecked) and Transparent Shadows.

If that doesn't work try the other configuration:

_"Wait for for vertical blank" ON (checked) and Dithered Shadows and Standard Fading

These are 2 configurations that have been reported to work, so maybe one of them will work for you.

The second solution worked, thank you so much!

Cool, happy it worked. If you have time and will you might want to play around and see what gives you best visual effects. It could be that "Wait for for vertical blank" is the only thing that has to be set, and you can put the Fading back to smooth.

Hi there,
i had the same problem and i could fix it too. But after i switched the shadow, a new problem appeared. The whole screen is flickering and i got no idea how to fix this, because if i change the shadows again, the fist problem appears...

my laptop i an acer aspire 5750 G
NVIDIA GEFORCE GT540M
i5 intel core

it would be great if you can help me:)
best wishes!

Hi guys

I know the Thread is a bit old but maybe someone still can help me!

I had the same problem,

part of the screen freezes, part moves normally
settings were: Transparent shadows; "Wait for vertical Blank" ON (switching it to OFF didn't make a difference)

As soon as i change my Settings to
Dithered Shadows, Standard Fading and "Wait for vertical Blank" ON,
the problem disappears but the game starts flickering as hell.

If i turn "Wait for vertical Blank" OFF and keep Dithered Shadows and try all different Fading Options a new problem occurs, the golden Loading Screen with the 3 Helmets won't disappear. I can hear the ingame music and everthing but nothing changes on my Screen.

I run the Game on a Asus Notebook
GPU: NVIDIA GT540M
OS: Win 7 Home Premium 64Bit
CPU: Intel Core i7-2670QM

Any suggestions? I also read a lot of Foraumthreads ( in gog forum and others) but couldn't find a solution yet

Thanks in advance


EDIT: Sorry got confused with all those solutions i tried
"Wait for vertical Blank" OFF, Transparent Shadow -> Golden Loading Screen with 3 Helmets
"Wait for vertical Blank" ON, Transparent Shadow -> part freezing, part moving
"Wait for vertical Blank" ON, Dithered Shadow -> Screen Flickers
"Wait for vertical Blank" OFF, Dithered Shadow -> Screen Flickers

I guess you all in this topic are running with the INTEL graphics card as main card in this OPTIMUS configuration (this is the default setting). You should either turn off the INTEL graphics card in the BIOS or try to force the use of only the NVIDIA card for Settlers 3 (you can set this up somewhere in the NVIDIA settings), since Settlers 3 can't handle the OPTIMUS switches between INTEL and NVDIA - and hence the flicker and/or freezing.

Almost forgot about my post!
Thanks for the response.

I was able to fix it by doing the opposite. I tried to run it with my NVIDIA card all the time and had those different glitches/bugs.

Then i tried running it with the INTEL HD Graphics. Boom, runs perfectly! No Matter what Settings I use.
Still don't understand why, but who cares it works! :D

Maybe this will help someone else too.

Again thanks for the response!

actually i already detailed these instructions here about a year ago:

http://www.gog.com/forum/the_settlers_series/settlers_iv_3d_initialisation_error/post30

hast wohl nicht genug threads durchforstet :>

Your post was about Settlers 4, not Settlers 3... ;)

I saw a lot of posts about Settlers 4,
but most times i left without reading or only reading the first 5 posts
because i thought it wouldn't help me anyway ^^' :D

I'm using the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator and still getting the above issue in Settlers 3, Settlers 4 runs fine.

Does anyone have any ideas??

THANKS, WORKS !!