Graphical problems with Ten Desires demo (Spoilers for those who haven't played)

[MChabez MK.]

Hello everybody. I have recently registered to this site because I encountered some graphical glitches in the Ten Desires demo, which don't appear to happen anywhere except on my desktop config (as videos uploaded on Youtube are proof; the game works fine my netbook though). My specs:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2200+, 1.8GHz
RAM: 768MB DDR
Video: ATI Radeon 7500, 64MB VRAM. Using the official drivers or the Omega drivers yield the same result.
OS: Windows XP SP3. DirectX 9 June 2010 update.

Well, the first problem is, when you enter Trance mode, a swirly background appears. It should disappear when Trance is over. For me, it persists until the end of the current stage, overriding both the normal and spell card backgrounds, and Sanae's bomb graphics for some reason. It can be avoided by not entering Trance mode at all.



The other problem is with Yuyuko's spell backdrop; the Saigyou Ayakashi's silhouette should be dark, but is white instead.


These problems are a mild annoyance to me, but any ideas for fixing these are welcome. Thank you in advance.

[Momiji]

Video: ATI Radeon 7500, 64MB VRAM. Using the official drivers or the Omega drivers yield the same result.

This is a DirectX 7 part, you need at videocard that fully supports DirectX 9 to play the newer games (MoF and up) properly.  And even so, EoSD through StB require DirectX 8 hardware.  So you definitely want to look into upgrading your hardware at some point.

[MChabez MK.]

Yeah, I was suspecting that too. All the other games I have work perfectly though.
About upgrading, I don't have many choices because my motherboard doesn't have a PCI Express slot for video, only AGP. A bit old but I don't complain

[Momiji]

A bit old but I don't complain

"A bit old" ahahaaa, this hardware is about a decade old now.  =]

Methinks we need a mobo/cpu/ram/videocard set we can post for people that need an upgrade at least for Touhou games, but won't cost an arm and a leg.

[DX7.EP]

Yeah, I was suspecting that too. All the other games I have work perfectly though.
About upgrading, I don't have many choices because my motherboard doesn't have a PCI Express slot for video, only AGP. A bit old but I don't complain

If you'd rather keep your old system there still are some AGP cards around on several sites (I prefer Newegg).
Assuming a standard-size single-slot card:
ATI AMD (5000-series and onwards lack AGP): 1GB DDR3 Radeon HD 4650 (there is also a 4670 but that is a dual-slot card)
NVIDIA (gave up on AGP from 7-series): 512MB GDDR2 GeForce 6200
The AMD card is considerably more recent (~2-3 years newer) than the NVIDIA card, and since it's considered a mid-range card I'd go for that if the cost is not too significantly deterring.

Also, CPU, RAM, and HDD upgrades will help give a little more life out of the system, after which it can be retired conveniently as a file server.

[Momiji]

I would definitely recommend upgrading your CPU and motherboard, since you'll be extremely processor and bandwidth limited with what you have.  Plus you'll be hampering yourself if you don't move to a PCIe videocard.