Making Wurm Work

How To Install and Configure Wurm to Get The Game Working

Disclaimer

This page is my stop gap attempt to try to help people resolve some of the initial frustration that can come when you try to run Wurm for the first time.

This page is not an official release by the dev team, though I hope they will add their own, probably more reliable, information as time goes by.

This page probably does duplicate information available elsewhere on the wiki. However, I feel that the need for a clear FAQ style page to help people get up and running is high enough to justify that.

I cannot verify everything initially on this page directly. There are too many system configurations and I only have the one machine.

Tritus 10:07, 5 December 2009 (CST)

Initial Install

The game can take quite some time to download when you run it for the first time, one to two hours or more depending on current internet conditions and your own connection.

It is worth being patient and downloading all the optional packs, since these make a vast difference to how good the game looks and sounds when you play.

After all the downloads are complete you will be asked which directory to install Wurm to.

For most people it will be best to accept the default, since any advice you may receive on the forums will probably refer to that location and will be easier to follow as a result.

Launcher Options

I recommend you have a quick browse through the various pages of the launcher, accessed by the buttons on the right, to familiarise yourself roughly with what is there. Dont change anything yet.

*Welcome: Kinda obvious, just the HTML view of the welcome message
*News: Occasionally displays interesting info about new game features and sometimes unusual server status
*Pack Updates: Mostly just a status dislay. Most players will not want to make any changes here
*Settings: See immediately below
*EULA: The terms and conditions which you play the game under. You should read this
*Credits: Lists the various people who make Wurm work

Settings

After initial install, before altering anything on these panels, you should change the word 'default' to 'mydefault' and then click Save Changes.

Now review each page one by one, ensuring that there are no obvious problems with the default settings.

Generally, if you don't understand what it does, then don't change it. See Client Configuration for more details.

Common Settings Changes

Game

• For some ATI: Older cards definitely worked better with Game Renderer set to 'LWGJL' though that seems not always an important issue any more.

• For most graphics: 'JOGL + AWT' seems to work fine and should only be changed if you find that the in game display updates very very slowly, if you have serious problems with seeing things generally or if you get serious graphical display errors like big lines on the screen or weirdly coloured objects.

Sound

• For everyone: Sound can occasionally have problems. Try setting to 'Software' or to 'None' if you seem to have problems with sound. A sound problem may occasionally be the reason for the game crashing during or shortly after the loading screens. However sound problems can also be cumulative and can take some time to cause problems.

Graphics & Advanced Graphics

If you have general gameplay speed problems or other miscellaneous graphics problems these can often be fixed or partially fixed by changing all graphics option to their minimum settings.

Compatibility

• FBO: Turning this off (Disabled) may help the game run better on some ATI cards or with some ATI driver versions.
• VBO: Turning this off (Disabled) may help the game run better on some INTEL graphics chipsets.

Specific Graphics Cards

Different cards and chipsets can have widely varying problems and solutions. Mostly there is some sort of work around but it is known that some very old graphics hardware and some very low end laptops and extreme budget desktops simply cannot run Wurm.

ATI Problems

Catalyst Control Panel

• Catalyst AI is known to cause problems in some games and can definitely cause problems in Wurm, though apparently only with some cards. For most games you should always play for the first time with this turned off.
• All other options: It seems generally less trouble free if you set all settings to 'Application Preference' if that option is given.

Catalyst Driver Versions

When deciding to try a different driver version, always make sure that you know your current driver version.

Always make sure that you have a back up of your current driver version. At the very least, create a Restore Point on Windows before changing from a working driver to one that you ave not used before.

• Catalyst 6.9: For very old ATI cards, 5-10 years and including Radeon 9600 through X800, this driver version was the most stable for any game using OpenGL (ie not DirectX).
• Catalyst 8.1, 8.3: These drivers seemed to work well with Wurm for ATI cards around 3-5 years old.
• Catalyst 8.9: This driver version may work better than 8.1 & 8.3 for some cards.
• Catalyst 9.8 & 9.9: These driver versions may cause some issues with Wurm for some ATI cards
• Catalyst 9.10 & 9.11: These are known to resolve some issues with 9.8 & 9.9. You may find that 9.10 will not work and that 9.11 will - or vice versa!

Catalyst after May 2011

Catalyst driver version numbering system may have changed somewhere around this point ..

• Full uninstall and subsequent install of the 11th May 2011 drivers may correct the problem with Wurm not exiting properly, ie it keeps its memory allocation and continues to be listed in the task manager. See | http://wurmonline.com/forum/index.php?topic=55575.msg504251#msg504251

NVidia Problems

Overheating

Some NVidia cards are known to have overheating issues under certain circumstances and in many games.

To be safe, on the Wurm Launcher panel, go to Settings and select Advanced Graphics. Click 'Enable Frame Limiter' and drag the slider below down to 30.

You may also be able increase the fan speed on your NVidia graphics card by using the NVidia Control Panel.

Intel Problems

Performance

Most Intel GPUs show a poor performance even with the lowest graphics settings. Sometimes text can further slow rendering down.

Red terrain

Sometimes the terrain will show a kind of red shadow. This can be fixed by installing the newer graphics card drivers from Intel. Version 5248 of the Windows XP driver and version 2291 of the Windows Vista/Windows 7 drivers are known to fix the red terrain.

Some laptop manufacturers do not provide updated drivers so you may have to uninstall the manufacturer supplied driver and install the latest driver from the Intel website.