Can't get past the start screen [Windows 8]

[Badman]

I just bought the game during the sale on steam and I've tried everything on the troubleshooting FAQ and about everything I can think of to get the game to run. The game boots up to the start screen and plays the music properly but the graphics in the background get blocky and its like the framerate drops to nothing. I've tried running the game in admin mode, I've updated c++ and my .net framework and video card drivers, , the only thing I haven't tried is going into the config file. I saw a post somewhere else about doing that and I cant find it, I just really want to play the game, if anyone can help i'd appreciate it.

speccy txt attached

[seth]

edit:
I noticed something in the FAQ ( http://hammerwatch.com/forum/index.php?topic=1688.0 )
You could turning on hardware acceleration before reading on.

original:

I am kind of unfit to respond, because I bought the game from GoG instead of Steam. In my version that config.xml is right in the directory, the game installed to.. (...\GOG Games\Hammerwatch\config.xml) but I suppose you looked there already..

But: since nobody else responded here yet, I have a suggestion:

It is a (very) wild guess, but maybe the game only creates the config.xml file after you input your name. Sooo.. you could try copying the one I attached to this post into your game folder. I guess (!) it cant hurt, since you can just erase it again, if it doesnt work, so it should be worth a try at least. As you can probably see when you open it, the config says that it should load in 800x600 windowed mode (to determine if the file is even read by the game) and has all graphics options turned down / switched off (to see if any graphics options cause the game to die upon entering the title screen)

I am not that optimistic about this actually working, but.. as I said, worth a try?^^

best wishes
seth

[Hipshot]

What happens if you turn off all settings or set them to the lowest posstible, does the game work then? This graphics card, it's really old right?

[Badman]

I've tried running at lowest resolution and lowest settings, still yields same result.

My graphics card isnt super old, its a radeon 4600 1gb but it aparantly doesn't support hardware acceleration. I've looked multiple times for the option for it, and it's not there. Would hardware acceleration be preventing me from running the game?

[bigdaddyseany]

I'm in a similar situation.  This game used to run fine when I bought it near the launch, but now I'm getting blocky graphics and other glitches as well as a horrible framerate.  I checked the troubleshooting FAQ and tried everything, but I am using an old GPU, and I'm not sure how to turn on hardware acceleration under Windows 8.1 (or if it would actually solve the problem).  I get the feeling that switching to the onboard Intel Graphics might solve this problem, but I'd hope for a better solution.

Speccy specs--

Operating System
   Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
CPU
   Intel Core i5 3570K @ 3.40GHz   49 °C
   Ivy Bridge 22nm Technology
RAM
   8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 802MHz (11-11-11-30)
Motherboard
   ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. MAXIMUS V GENE (LGA1155)   33 °C
Graphics
   HP 22bw (1920x1080@59Hz)
   ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM v1.1) (XFX Pine Group)
Storage
   119GB Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series (SSD)   38 °C
Optical Drives
   No optical disk drives detected
Audio
   AMD High Definition Audio Device

[FFSnipe]

i looked over your config.xml file you posted and i see that your GLARE setting is missing.

your graphics section should have all of the following:
  <Graphics>
    <AmbientOcclusion>false</AmbientOcclusion>
    <Glow>false</Glow>
    <Lighting>false</Lighting>
    <Glare>false</Glare>
    <ShadowQuality>0</ShadowQuality>
    <TileBorders>false</TileBorders>
    <VSync>false</VSync>
    <ShaderSupport>false</ShaderSupport>
    <FBOSupport>false</FBOSupport>
    <TextureCombining>false</TextureCombining>
    <Resolution>
      <Width>800</Width>
      <Height>600</Height>
      <Fullscreen>false</Fullscreen>
      <LetterBox>false</LetterBox>
    </Resolution>
    <PostProcess>
      <Phosphor>false</Phosphor>
      <Curvature>false</Curvature>
      <CurvatureAmount>0.3</CurvatureAmount>
      <Bloom>false</Bloom>
    </PostProcess>
  </Graphics>

yours doesnt have the glare setting. it is missing from the one you posted. hipshot, could this be causing problems?