A few possible bugs

from Sins Forums
There are a few things I've noticed and i think they are bugs but its possible that they were intentional. unfortunatly i cant figure out how to make the Prnt Scrn work to take a screen shot. anyway

1) Planets are transparent. and very transperant at that. its a little anoying to see the stars and nebula in the background very apparent through my planets. this was there in the last patch as well. so its not new. I like the idea of seeing my ships on the other side of the planet (wich i think may have been the idea) however i think the planet should not be see through but rather make the ship symbols show through the planet with a slightly different color or somthing.

2) i cant scrole on the side of my screen with my mouse with the new patch. i personally dont like using the zoom-to-courser because i like to have my camera tracking specific ships and every time i zoom it kills that. however now that i cant scrole on the side of the screen, zoom-to-courser is the only way to move my camera. is this a bug? or is there an option that i missed in the menu.

3) My sky box (or whatever its called) isnt working right. now i get weird blobs of color randomly in the sky. i wish i could show you a screen shot but i cant get it to work. right now i just have to uncheck both the boxs to turn off the color. i have to say i like the black stary back drop better anyway seeings its more realistic...

4) But when its off i cant see my ships very well when zoomed in because they are all grey and blend in too well with the back drop. This also being a porblem i think should be fixed, maybe by adding some colored decals with your teems symbol or somthing on the hull... i dont think it would take much but it would probobly help alot with making them stand out. Just a thought.
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Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

1) Planets are transparent. and very transperant at that. its a little anoying to see the stars and nebula in the background very apparent through my planets. this was there in the last patch as well. so its not new. I like the idea of seeing my ships on the other side of the planet (wich i think may have been the idea) however i think the planet should not be see through but rather make the ship symbols show through the planet with a slightly different color or somthing.


Thats a weird bug -- never seen it before, myself. My planets are (perfectly) opaque.


2) i cant scrole on the side of my screen with my mouse with the new patch.


Known bug -- delete the keymapping file to get rid of it. (its somewhere in the my documents Sins folder... search the forums, you'll find the exact details easily enough).
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
1) Planets are transparent. and very transperant at that. its a little anoying to see the stars and nebula in the background very apparent through my planets. this was there in the last patch as well. so its not new. I like the idea of seeing my ships on the other side of the planet (wich i think may have been the idea) however i think the planet should not be see through but rather make the ship symbols show through the planet with a slightly different color or somthing.

that effect has to do with your graphics card, same thing occured to me until I upgraded my system.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top


2) i cant scrole on the side of my screen with my mouse with the new patch.


Known bug -- delete the keymapping file to get rid of it. (its somewhere in the my documents Sins folder... search the forums, you'll find the exact details easily enough).

XP: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire
Vista: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\

1 & 3) to me it sounds like you got a total screwed game id suggest you try a reinstall

oh and for screenshots you could use Fraps
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Multi, do you remember the subfolder / exact filename by any chance?
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
yeah, follow the links above and you will find it here:

Setting\uimappings.setting
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
zoom-to-courser is the only way to move my camera. is


on top of the game is the camera controls just click on that and it will allow you to zoom to ship or whatever
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
What video card and driver version do you have? Nos. 1 and 3 definitely sound like a video or driver problem.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Both ATI and Nvidia have put out new drivers today. You may want to give those a run and see if it helps.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
i have a Mobility Radeon 9000. Driver Version 6.14.10.0252 The computer that im having these problems on is a Dell Latitude D600. after re-installing the game the side scroling is fixed and the colored skybox seems to be normal... unless i turn it off but leave the deep space skybox on. then its still slpotchy but different then befor. i really wish i could get a screen shot for you. all im supposed to do is push Prnt Scrn right? if so, where is the file meant to be placed. i cant find it in the my games folder or anywere in the program files/stardock/totalgaming/sins... folder. is there somthing im missing?
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
ok just updated my drivers to Driver Version: 8.20.0.0 and it didnt help any... except now im back to not being able to scrole on the side of the screen... wich is wierd because i didnt think the driver should have an effect on scroling. anyway, any thoughts?
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

Screenshots can be found at:

XP: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire
Vista: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\

It could be that you don't have enough video memory or that the mobility 9000 doesn't support some feature. The scrolling issue is a known bug.

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
1) i have reported the same transparent planet thing happen to me too.
Its reported in the "Technical Feedback" post.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
i may have found a small bug that might be worth checking out.

1.) sometimes for some reason when i use my up, down, left and right arrow keys to roam the solar system it makes wierd noise like a pong type of noise, something like how a key is disabled.

is there a way to set the arrow keys in default settings to use for all players to strafe left and right or up and down without any problems. nothing majore cause sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

2.) i think the upgrade special effect is over exagerated. i wan't to see battles and hit points on my ships hull, not the whole shabam thing where your battlecruiser turns into a feiry dust all of a sudden.

this might sound rediculous but since my capital ships will always be updated, i don't want to see my ships looking like a feiry dust. maybe a small simple bolt around the ship that indicates experiences levelup.

3.) fighters also move in a 2d plane. i know fighters should have the freedom to exploit 3d enviroment. but some fighters turn as if they have wheels on them on a flat road LoL! not all fighters do this, it looks like a simple fix but make it look like it's in space not on a highway pls.

hehe... thats it for now, excuse me while i go and do a few compstomp.

w000000000t!
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top

1.) sometimes for some reason when i use my up, down, left and right arrow keys to roam the solar system it makes wierd noise like a pong type of noise, something like how a key is disabled.


That noise was put there just to annoy you Actually its been reported and should be fixed for beta 3...

2.) i think the upgrade special effect is over exaggerated. i wan't to see battles and hit points on my ships hull, not the whole shabam thing where your battlecruiser turns into a feiry dust all of a sudden.


That magic PINK SPACE PONY dust (similar to pixie dust) it MUST remain in the game!

3.) fighters also move in a 2d plane. i know fighters should have the freedom to exploit 3d enviroment. but some fighters turn as if they have wheels on them on a flat road LoL! not all fighters do this, it looks like a simple fix but make it look like it's in space not on a highway pls.


I agree, they need Z axis movement...
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top

Screenshots can be found at:


XP: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire
Vista: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\


It could be that you don't have enough video memory or that the mobility 9000 doesn't support some feature. The scrolling issue is a known bug.



i dont have the Application Data folder under C:\Documents and Settings\username\ it would suck if my video card doesnt support screen shots   
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
Hi, I'm a newbie in the Sins forums... and I've been enjoying the Beta 2 of the game pretty much. The one bug I probably want to report is an ocurrence when I played a small galaxy against a single hard AI plus marauder pirates. After a long session, I decided to scout to the marauder home system, and was greeted by around 70+ and 40+ ships of unknown types. Unfortunately, my game hanged and crashed upon me as I began to zoom into that said system. FYI

Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top

i dont have the Application Data folder under C:\Documents and Settings\username\ it would suck if my video card doesnt support screen shots

Yes you do, but it's hidden by Windows by default. Just go into Folder Options and set it to allow you to view hidden files/folders.

Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top
YAY i have screen shots. this first one shows both the transparent planet and the back ground when the color skybox is unchecked but the deepspace skybox is still checked...

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"/>

heres another one that shows the transparencey of planets

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"/>
Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top
ninja folders

ninja planets

ninja ponies?
Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top
does your graphic card support pixel shader 2.0?
Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top
unfortunatly i have to show my sub-par geekyness and admit i dont know what pixel shader 2.0 is... where do i go to find this out?
Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top
I found your graphic card Mobility Radeon 9000 and it says its a 8.1 Directx card, so i guess it doesnt have pixel shader 2.0, and therefor you see it as you do.

Though im not sure, but that would be my guess

Someone official should be able to answer it with certainty
Reply #23 from Sins Forums Top
is DirectX 9.0c going to be a requirement for this game? i cant find the min requirments on the site anywere (though i didnt look to terribly hard). or will it be a DirectX 9 for optimum settings, but blahblah for min? and if so what will those blahblahs be?
Reply #24 from Sins Forums Top
DirectX 9 is pretty much a requirement for most games these days. Just consider the fact that it runs at all a blessing

The engine itself probably isn't going to change to lock you out, however (I doubt they'd do that kind of major overhaul at this point in the games development cycle). The devs *might* place some kind of hardware protection on it (e. g. Oblivion actually checks to see if you have hardware T&L, and crashes if you don't.), but that kind of thing can generally be gotten around (Supreme Commander will throw a warning if you're below spec, but will let you bypass it with a command line argument).

To quote the Pre Order FAQ on the subject of hardware requirements:

" The minimum system requirements for Beta 2 are the following:

- Windows XP SP2 / Vista
- 1.8 GHz Processor
- 512 MB RAM (1 GB RAM for Vista)
- 128 MB 3D DirectX 9 Video Card
- DirectX 9.0c

Final system requirements have not yet been determined."

So, ATM, you're supposed to need a DirectX9 video card. Just consider yourself lucky to be running without one
Reply #25 from Sins Forums Top
DirectX 9.0c is a requirement.  Since your video card doesn't support Pixel Shader 2.0, it should fallback to a compatible mode (which won't look nearly as good). It could be that something's not falling back properly or that you just don't have enough video RAM.  Are you playing with Low quality textures?  If not, try that to see if it helps.