Graphics issue with Age of Empires II: The Conquerors

[Xenochria]

I have been a long time Age of Empires II player, and have once suffered from the classic red grass and purple water graphics issue that a lot of people suffer from. However, using one of the below solutions, it eventually corrected itself. Recently, I installed Windows 7, build 7100 as my main operating system. AoEII (Conquerors exp. too) did not work on the original Windows 7 build, but now does, however, no matter what I do, scouring the internet for solutions and ways to solve the problem the graphics issue of the red grass and purple water stay. Here are the solutions I've read about and tried, all to no avail.


Changing the resolution
Alt tabbing
Opening a folder before the game loads
Unchecking "CPU 1" on the "Set Affinity" box in Task Manager
Updating graphics drivers to most recent
Updating DirectX to most recent
Running the game in compatibility mode for XP, Vista, 98, etc.

None of these solutions work at all, the green grass is still red, and the water is still purple.

Here are my system specs.

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit Build 7100
AMD Athlon 64 6000+ ~3.0GHz
2GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
Direct X 11
Running at 1920x1080

Can anyone recommend any other solution to the graphics problem? Thanks.

Here's a picture of the issue (screenshotting doesn't show the graphics problem)

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/6167/140520091107.jpg

 

[Cesarcsrf]

i have no ideia.. but tell me one thing can u still play that online ?

 

[Xenochria]

Yep, flawlessly.

 

[AeonGamer]

It's AoE:The Mars Expansion
Did you try finding a different Video Driver? or Dumbing down your graphics options outside the game?
Do keep in mind it was a game built for a different Technical Era of computers.
They didn't have things like HD Cards back then they didn't even have DDR Cards far as I recall.
So knock down the graphics a good bit find a video driver maybe a newer one and see if it fixes the Wacky Red Grass Purple Water Mars effect.

 

[kyzawarrior]

http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/2790-age-empires-2-aoc-expansion-4.html

 

[aceivaswe]

Solution to ''Age of Empires 2 Conquerors''!!!

Hello everybody!!!
I have ''Windows 7'' and i'm playing ''Age Of Empires 2 & The Conquerors Expansion''. I had the same graphic issue but i read some forums and i started to test it my own.

After a while i found a solution that is working fine for me!!

Go to your game folder and locate ''age2_x1''.
Right-click, Properties and choose ''Compatibility'' tab.
Then press on ''Choose settings for all users'' button.
Mark the ''Run this program in compatibility mode for:'' and choose
''Windows 98 / Windows me''
Then under settings mark ''Disable visual themes'', ''Disable desktop composition'', ''Disable display scaling on high DPI settings'' and ''Run this program as an administrator'' and click ''ok'' and again ''ok'' and you are done.

Please test if this works and post.

 

[AeonGamer]

No no no and No for me
Matter of fact it made it look worse.

 

[dragon1]

didn't work for me either...
however the fix suggested for starcraft worked for AOE2 but not starcraft:
http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/2981-starcraft-fix-holy-cow.html

i've tried everything i possible could for AOE2 and starcraft but this only seems to work for AOE2 and not starcraft for me...

 

[logicearth]

I downloaded a mod to run AOE2 in a window which solves the graphic problems.

 

[Code Hunter]

Hello, have you tried to adjust your screen's resolution? And if so, what is the lowest resolution you tested? This will sometimes fix the issue.

 

[unwritten]

Hello everybody!!!
I have ''Windows 7'' and i'm playing ''Age Of Empires 2 & The Conquerors Expansion''. I had the same graphic issue but i read some forums and i started to test it my own.

After a while i found a solution that is working fine for me!!

Go to your game folder and locate ''age2_x1''.
Right-click, Properties and choose ''Compatibility'' tab.
Then press on ''Choose settings for all users'' button.
Mark the ''Run this program in compatibility mode for:'' and choose
''Windows 98 / Windows me''
Then under settings mark ''Disable visual themes'', ''Disable desktop composition'', ''Disable display scaling on high DPI settings'' and ''Run this program as an administrator'' and click ''ok'' and again ''ok'' and you are done.

Please test if this works and post.

thank you very much...

I have windows 7 32bit running on Macbook by Bootcamp 3.0

it's work great now... thanks again

 

[Bond007]

I have same problem too...

Any one have better solution..?

 

[SJMX]

A solution i found was:

1) Open the task manager up (right-click on taskbar, and start task manager)
2) Disable "explorer.exe" (yes this will make everything disappear but you can get it back from starting "explorer.exe" again)
3) Start the game by using the task manager (File, New Task (Run))

That seemed to work for me 100% of the time.

Hope you get the same results i did.

Scott

 

[Lord Jon]

You don't have to run in window mode. Explorer is the main problem. You can create a bat script that fixes everything for you. You have to make a txt file into the dir of the exe, which is properly "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\age2_x1". Or on 32 bit systems: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\age2_x1".

Open the txt file and copy/past the following:

taskkill /F /IM Explorer.exe
age2_x1.exe
Start explorer.exe

Now save and close the txt file and rename the text file to "The Conquerors.bat", make sure that it doesn't end with '.txt' but with '.bat'. All without the quotes.

The only thing you have to do now is making a short cut to the bat file to launch the game. And now you are done! Run the bat file as admin and the game should run without any lag or mistaken colours. Have fun!

EDIT: Aah, I see that you were first SJMX! Good to see that more people found this solution!

 

[SJMX]

Heh. I may have been first but you did that with style!

Have fun on Age of Empires 2 which is still number one on my favourite games ever list!

 

[Lord Jon]

Age of Empires II is together with Stronghold Crusader on my number one games list ever!
I'm still playing lan party's with friends on Age of Empires II.
Also a recommend site for you guys: Age of Kings Heaven.

 

[ocadsm]

Searching in the forum I found this simple solution, is for starcraft but worked for me.
http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/2981-starcraft-fix-holy-cow.html

 

[Lord Jon]

Searching in the forum I found this simple solution, is for starcraft but worked for me.
http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/2981-starcraft-fix-holy-cow.html

Mmm, it sounds very simple. Too bad it doesn't work for me. So I stay with the close explorer method.

 

[walt13]

Heavy sigh - I tried all the compatibility items with no luck. I tried the solution posted by SJMX and when I try to run the game file it says to insert the correct disc even though it is in the drive. I tried the batch file posted by Lord Jon - It starts up OK but I end up getting the same disc message and explorer starts back up. The only thing I could not do was run the .bat file as admin - I could not check the box. Any help here is appreciated-thanks.

 

[walt13]

More info - I uninstalled Conquerors and reinstalled it. The batch file worked fine and the colors were great. Then I applied the "c" patch and I am now where I was before - the disc is not recognized. Very strange - hopefully a solution?????