Graphic anomaly.

I've been playing Guild Wars Prophecies for about a week now. Everything has been working great except there are two areas, so far that I've encountered, where everything is blindingly bright. The ground looks almost pure white in some sections and in other places bright yellow as if I were standing on the sun.

The two areas I have this problem are in the Diessa Lowlands and Nolani Academy. That's as far as I've gone. Everywhere else I have no problem at all, but playing in these two areas I seem to have issues. I've tried entering these areas by clicking on the map as well as walking into them directly, but that has no effect. I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to look so bright because for about one minute everything looked just fine, then it went back to white/yellow. Here are some pictures of what this looks like as well as pictures of other places that have no problems.

- Diessa Lowlands - Nolani Academy

- The Breach - Piken Square

I just did a clean install of Windows about a month ago and I have all the updated drivers for my hardware. I also uninstalled/re-installed Guild Wars twice (once with the install CD and once with an online client download) but I still can't seem to fix this.

My system specs are:

Athlon XP 1800+
1 GB Ram
ATI Radeon All In Wonder 8500 with 64 MB Ram
Most current Catalyst display drivers from ATI
Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2 and DirectX 9.0c

I really do hope someone can help me with this. I tried playing through this area but after passing Diessa Lowlands into Nolani Academy and seeing the same situation, I fear that this problem may continue afterwards as well. I can't even notice dropped items or really see what's happening. Don't think it's a heat issue because even after starting the game the day after and beginning straight in Nolani Academy everything is still bright. If I teleport anywhere else it's back to normal. Sorry for the long post and I thank anyone for any advice.

Wait till you get to the Shiverpeaks. The snow blindness will surely burn your eyes!

But I don't remember it like that in Nolani Academy, later in the game in the snow areas it can be too bright for me, but how bright it is in your screenshots is ridiculous, like your graphics card is overdoing it. You could try turning off post-processing effects in advanced options, that could be responsible for the glow that GW adds, not sure though

I hope you are using good sunscreen.

Try downgrading your video card driver, or reinstall the game, maybe a streamed package got corrupted. Other than that I hear the all in wonder cards are not that great, they seem to do all in subpar.

Try messing with the gamma settings when in those areas. It may not fix the problem, but it will make it easier to bear (remember to re-set them when you leave).

That worked perfectly! I can see the ground again! I've tried everything from uninstalling my drivers using Driver Cleaner and reinstalling them using current and old ATI display drivers; to disabling all graphics options in Windows and lowering all in game effects. Didn't think to click on the post-processing effects check box because I had no idea what it was for, but I wish I had. Would've saved so much time and my eyes would have been better off for it. Thanks. How'd you figure that might be the problem?

Hehe, believe me Imp, when I tried to explain to the party I was with when this happened they said the same thing about sunscreen and to hurry along. One suggested sunglasses. Probably should've worn them seeing how annoyingly bright everything was.

Cybergasm, yeah, tried that and I even went as far as changing my monitor's brightness and contrast settings to get it to be bearable enough to play; but it made the game look so bad that I just gave up.

Thanks again for the help.

Turn off the post processing effects in the advanced options. I hate the effect it adds. Some areas, as mentioned, are TOO bright.