We have found a possible solution to the various strange graphical problems being reported by players. If you have an Nvidia video card, please try these steps.

1. Run the Nvidia Control Panel (right click on desktop)
2. Click on Manage 3D Settings
3. Click on Program Settings and add Stronghold Kingdoms to the list (in the folder Program Files (x86)
4. Set the Nvidia GFX Processor as the prefered

My apologies if this is the wrong place, but I am having this issue, and this workaround does not seem possible for me. That part of my Nvidia menu has no options for making the Nvidia GFX processor preferred. I was very hopeful their latest driver release (285.58) would fix it, but no such luck, 275.33 (and possibly earlier, haven't tried) continues to be the latest one that works.

I have made some screenshots of the problem, my NVIDIA control panel screen, and 2 tabs of my DXDIAG. Yes, it is a recent firefox search result being shown in the map screen (strange it chose that particular one lol, and yes, firefox was open at the time of the shot, but minimized and on another page entirely; running the game with firefox closed produces the same error). The grey, "slatted" image is the typical result, and sometimes it will use a shot from a totally different game played recently (Tropico 4 being one example, I can provide screens if needed). Everything else in the game seems to work fine, all other screens but the world map are accessible.

I LOVE this game but it is becoming a real headache having to downgrade the driver just for it, and then reupgrading for other games. Thanks in advance for any help or insight, happy to divulge any further information that may be needed.

Hi Ive been having the same problem. My map was showing up all wierd and I went into the Nvidia Control Panel and changed all my specifications to the same as in Dao Yu's pictures and that brought the picture of the map but it would not load. I cant click on any villages or resource stashes around me but if I click on the village tab, it takes a minute but then my village will come up. And the rest of the game works normally. I know a little about computers, and usually get pretty lucky with figuring stuff out but no matter how I messed with specifications it either didnt help or only made it worse.. Can anyone help me out??

Anau, chances are you are using a driver tha tis not compatiable with the game. You have to downgrade your Nvidia Graphics Driver and see if that fixes the problem.

What kind of graphics driver would you suggest?? I tried a few different ones and none fixed the problem....

I have windows xp 32-bit. btw.

Hi Anau,

Another Moderator gave me this link. It may help but the decision to use it, or not, is yours! Remember to make a restore point just in case, before you run any program. http://www.drivermax.com/

Go to Nvidia.com and try to download one of their later drivers like someone stated earlier. any 270.xx drivers might solve the problem.

After I installed the last Nvidia update (295.73-desktop-winxp-32bit-international-whql.exe) the map and castle wiev started to flash, and I couldn't use any icon on these wievs.

I reinstalled the previous nvidia driver (285.58-desktop-winxp-32bit-international-whql.exe) and it solved the problem.

The news section of Support at this link http://support.strongholdkingdoms.com/i ... /News/List has information regarding the graphics card (driver) issue.