Visual bug with "other" male ele's

I reformatted several months ago, and since then I've noticed a visual bug on all other male ele's -- everything looks normal when they're wearing armor, but if they take it off, or if it reveals the hands, their forearms/hands and thighs are black... and not as in black skin -- basically it seems the skin texture is not loading for those body parts or is corrupt or something.

Interestingly, my own (male) ele doesn't have this problem... it only happens with other people's ele's. I tested it with another computer, and it's only happening on my computer so I know it is a local issue, but I don't remember it happening before the reformat. Is there a way to redownload the base textures without having to uninstall/reinstall GW? Sorry I don't have screenies on this computer... I can post them later if needed.

It is just the textures not loading, as you suspected. It happens all the time and if you just stay in that zone with somebody, the textures should load eventually. I've never heard of it constantly staying that way with somebody though.

I'll test that.. I have a laptop and a 2nd account so I can leave them up for an extended amount of time. For all the time I play, though, I would think it would've loaded by now. Isn't it all saved in that .dat file -- can I redownload that?

if you have the .dat file mostly loaded on a different computer, you can transfer it using a LAN network. that should do it.

if not, you can always use the -image function to download everything in one go.

How do you do that?

Looking at naked male ellies is bound to cause problems!

Sounds like you need to force an image update, or:

<paste begin>
I don't know how old your Guild Wars install is but:

-You may want to defrag it..

-You may want to "refreshen it" <see below>

This will also "trim" down bloated DAT's

To get a clean Gw.dat do this:
(Make sure you have enough disk space)

1.) Run gw.exe -image to get all files. (If your installation of Guild wars is already up to date, skip this step)


2.) Then copy these folders and files (as indicated) from the GuildWars CD into a NEW folder ("GWINSTALL") on your hard drive:

Setup.exe
\Data
\Data\cdrom.ini
\Data\config.ini
\Data\Gw
\Data\Gw\GwSetup.exe

3.) After the files and folders are copied modify \Data\cdrom.ini to this:

[CDROM]
Program=Guild Wars
Chapter=
Disc=1

4.) Move your Gw.dat file to the "GWINSTALL" \Data\Gw folder

5.) Uninstall Guild Wars from Windows Control Panel

6.) Reinstall Guild Wars from the copied files on your hard drive by running setup.exe
<paste ends>

To do the -image command, you will have to modify your target line when you right click on the shortcut and click properties. It should read:
"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe"

or something like that.

just add an -image to the end of that. It should look like this...

"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -image

After download is finished, remove the -image to play the game.