I have a PC that barely meets the system requirements, so I probably shouldn't be complaining. :p

The water graphics in the game are a bit too cool for my video card to process, so they slow down everything a lot. I switched the graphics to low rightaway and restarted the game, so that everything was all nice.

Problem is, I think the textures are all a little dark. At least compared to Civ4, the progress bars and some other bars look duller and darkish. Also, the beaches look dark, as if lacking in gamma. I'll get a screenshot...

Another thing is, the detailed graphics options have gone! I only get one option to pick the "Graphics Level" or something and can switch it to High, Medium or Low. In Civ4, you had settings like Render Quality and World Quality etc.

I tried looking for .ini's but couldn't find one with graphics options. The Readme says that you can hit Ctrl - O or go to graphics options to change the settings one by one. Well for one, Ctrl - O didn't work on my system and the graphics options remained the same.

I have the same problem... Anyone who can solve this????

I have all the system requirements that this game needs.
AMD Sempron 2000Mhz
2Gb RAM
NVidia GeForce FX 5200 (128Mb)

I forced the video card to Pixel Shader 1.1

With this configuration I can play "Colonization" very fast and smoothly but I have the same problems with textures. (there is no reflection in water and the land texture is dark, you can't recognize a tree or a shadow). Even installing the blue marble patch... I use the "low quality graphic options" cause in higher ones the games start to lag.

If I force pixel shader to 2.0 the textures are better, the water reflects, but the game starts to lag again.

If I create a scenario without water the results are the same... so i don´t think the reflection in water make the problem... I'd tried all this configuration and nothing works.

Conclusion:
Pixel Shader 1.1 and Low Graphics: Smoothly, but dark Textures.
Pixel Shader 1.1 and High Graphics: Not smooth, dark Textures.
Pixel Shader 2.0 and Low Graphic: Not Smooth, dark Textures.
Pixel Shader 2.0 and High Graphics: Not smooth, but with bright textures.

What should I do???

Hi,

How do you force the pixel shader to 1.1 so I can get better performance?

I have a ATI 1150 xpress that has pixel shader 2.0, but it has troubles with the game in the later stages (it's an integrated video card).

Thanks.

Hi,

How do you force the pixel shader to 1.1 so I can get better performance?

I have a ATI 1150 xpress that has pixel shader 2.0, but it has troubles with the game in the later stages (it's an integrated video card).

Thanks.

You have to download a software called Rivatuner. There's a lot of info at the web to force the pixel shader to 1.1. Very easy!

Actually I cant help you because I had to format my pc recently and I didn´t re-install this software yet. Sorry!