MPTable.shadow & pixel shader PSSpecularAlpha Thread - the only one!

[BlueWolf]

getting the same problem

my drivers are all up to date and steam is banned from my pc so that's not the issue

My Issue:

Arma2 CO + Reinforcements runs fine by itself but when I try using spirited machine mod launcher I get failed to initialize 3d engine or Error message: compiling pixel shader PSSpecularAlpha:0

everything worked fine before installing the new 162 patch

<edit> Found the issue it's not the launcher or the patch but the mod patch fix I was using
okt_noBlur_OA_retail_1.60 -disabled it & works fine

guess we will have to wait for a okt_noBlur_OA_retail_1.62 patch now </edit>

[BasileyOne]

1. wait for such appz update for 1.62.
2. temporally[to check/test] disable anything affecting. such as RivaTuner, MSI Afterburner, PowerStrip.
3. get rid of other appz, that can use service-level services or kernel-level drivers[in shady mode].
4. Ensure you get updated DirectX and try re-update it again.
5. update you antivirus and run COMPLETE system scan. preferably in boot-time mode, if you AV support this[also turing on SMM/SMI feats in McAfee AV could help 2].

[kklownboy]

1. wait for such appz update for 1.62.
2. temporally[to check/test] disable anything affecting. such as RivaTuner, MSI Afterburner, PowerStrip.
3. get rid of other appz, that can use service-level services or kernel-level drivers[in shady mode].
4. Ensure you get updated DirectX and try re-update it again.
5. update you antivirus and run COMPLETE system scan. preferably in boot-time mode, if you AV support this[also turing on SMM/SMI feats in McAfee AV could help 2].

Why? why do this for this simple issue?

[SKURTUS]

Up to patch 1.59 I had no problem. I have ARMA2, ARMA2OA, BAF and PMC(No STEAM version). No mods or other addons. But when I updated to 1.60 patch the next Error message appeared: No entry "bin\config.bin/CfgInGameUI/MPTable.shadow"
The Game tried to start, but crashes with the next Error message: Error compiling pixelshader PSSpecularAlpha:0"
The same happend when I'm updated to 1.62 patch. My Video card is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 with the latest Display Driver: 301.42 on Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Home Premium 32 bit.
I tried to run the game as Administrtor with no results!
Can any one Helped me?

[SKURTUS]

Dear Friends,
After I contacted to customer support in BI Studio, Mr Jan Libich offered the folloing solution that worked in my case:
1. Uninstall everything
2. Reboot
3. Install ARMA2
4. Patch ARMA2 to 1.11 version (Two steps: a. patch 1.05, b. patch 1.11)
5. Run ARMA2 Once
6. Install ARMA2 OA
7. Patch ARMA2 OA to 1.60 ver
8. Run ARMA2 OA Once
9. Patch ARMA2 to 1.62 ver
10. Run ARMA2 OA
Now ACR DLC may be added. In my case, I had already BAF and PMC DLCs. I reinstalled them and then I applied again patch 1.60, to pach them to versions
1.03 and 1.02 respectively, and to add the missions of PMC.
Everything worked properly, and I'm now enjoing the new DLC, ACR!
Thumbs up for BI Studio!

[knightRUS]

Ialso have this problem, however I do not have Steam. What I have done;

Reinstalled Arma II and Arma II RFT
Run as Admin (duh).
Ensured my AMD card drivers are up to date. I have a new AMD card so age is not an issue.
Run from directory, not shortcut
Deleted .cfg file
I have not installed any of the beta updates, and all of my troubleshooting has been done sans mods.

However I have done some testing and I can confirm, at least in my case, that it is *ONLY* the 1.62 update which is the problem. Version 1.60 works fine. The only workaround I have at the moment is to NOT install version 1.60. Hotfix anyone?

I have exactly the same problem!

[antipr0duct]

HI there,

I searched through the forum and had no luck finding a solution, so I decided to register. So first of all, HELLO!!!!!!


Issue is of course the " MPTable.shadow & pixel shader PSSpecularAlpha" I am getting and to be quite honest, I am f**king annoyed by this issue and I hope someone can help me here.



First, here are my sys specs:


_{Time of this report: 8/17/2012, 19:32:16
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120305-1505)
BIOS: BIOS Date: 08/15/11 09:45:49 Ver: 05.10
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 640 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8190MB RAM
Page File: 2419MB used, 13959MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode
Card name: AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series
Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Chip type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x6739)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6739&SUBSYS_23041787&REV_00
Display Memory: 751 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1008 MB
Shared Memory: 3839 MB
Current Mode: 1600 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)}

So first of all, I DID NOT PURCHASE this software via steam but downloaded it from a retailer including a proper gamekey and everything. That very retail version IS already 1.62. I also own ARMA II black edition which was part of a gamer mag I bought couple of weeks ago.

First of all, I did buy arma2 abnd arma OA to play DayZ, everything worked from day one and since there has been some strange beta update, launchers don't seem to work with that mod no more, so I decided to uninstall everything to have a fresh installation to install the before mentioned mod. Since then, everything has been a mess... and yes the error message is exactly the one dealt with by this very thread.

I first tried to simply uninstall and install the games:
- Arma 2: no issues
- OA: MPTable.shadow & pixel shader PSSpecularAlpha

Ok, no joy there, so what I did was deleting all data that was somehow related to the game including every effing entry with the systems registry AND deleting all data associated with that game in my AppData diretory (that also includes the necessary restarts).

I then proceeded to do the following:

<sub>Originally Posted by SKURTUS
Dear Friends,
After I contacted to customer support in BI Studio, Mr Jan Libich offered the folloing solution that worked in my case:
1. Uninstall everything
2. Reboot
3. Install ARMA2
4. Patch ARMA2 to 1.11 version (Two steps: a. patch 1.05, b. patch 1.11)
5. Run ARMA2 Once
6. Install ARMA2 OA
7. Patch ARMA2 OA to 1.60 ver
8. Run ARMA2 OA Once
9. Patch ARMA2 to 1.62 ver
10. Run ARMA2 OA
Now ACR DLC may be added. In my case, I had already BAF and PMC DLCs. I reinstalled them and then I applied again patch 1.60, to pach them to versions
1.03 and 1.02 respectively, and to add the missions of PMC.
Everything worked properly, and I'm now enjoing the new DLC, ACR!
Thumbs up for BI Studio!</sub>

As the OA version was already at 1.62 I had to obviously skip that part. Everything was done as admin (I also tried not to run it as admin), so this can not be the issue.

I am really puzzled, as everything seemed to work when I used the six launcher for dayZ, but now, I can't even get OA running at all because of these errors. (besides DayZ is currently not installed, also any launcher is no longer installed neither are any registry entries, as they were also MANUALLY deleted)


another approach:

- deinstalled everything i.e. Arma2 and OA and all associated files including registries.
- restart
- installed OA first
- ran it and it WORKED
- installed Arma 2
- F*CKED up again i.e. same error message like before

Edit:

I've found some sort of errorlog in my AppData directory (I was just about to delete it again). Maybe this will shed some light on the issue:

Exe timestamp: 2012/08/17 19:03:26
Current time: 2012/08/17 21:35:20

Version 1.62.95248
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgInGameUI/MPTable.shadow'.
Warning Message: '/' is not a value
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Recruit.recoilCoef'.
Warning Message: '/' is not a value
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Recruit.autoreload'.
Warning Message: '/' is not a value
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Recruit.animSpeedCoef'.
Warning Message: '/' is not a value
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Recruit/Flags.CameraShake'.
Warning Message: []: '/' not an array
Cannot evaluate '' - no file
Warning Message: []: '/' not an array
Cannot evaluate '' - no file
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Regular.recoilCoef'.
Warning Message: '/' is not a value
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Regular.autoreload'.
Warning Message: '/' is not a value
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Regular.animSpeedCoef'.
Warning Message: '/' is not a value
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Regular/Flags.CameraShake'.
Warning Message: []: '/' not an array
Cannot evaluate '' - no file
Warning Message: []: '/' not an array
Cannot evaluate '' - no file
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Veteran.recoilCoef'.
Warning Message: '/' is not a value
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Veteran.autoreload'.
Warning Message: '/' is not a value
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Veteran.animSpeedCoef'.
Warning Message: '/' is not a value
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Veteran/Flags.CameraShake'.
Warning Message: []: '/' not an array
Cannot evaluate '' - no file
Warning Message: []: '/' not an array
Cannot evaluate '' - no file
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Mercenary.recoilCoef'.
Warning Message: '/' is not a value
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Mercenary.autoreload'.
Warning Message: '/' is not a value
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Mercenary.animSpeedCoef'.
Warning Message: '/' is not a value
Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgDifficulties/Mercenary/Flags.CameraShake'.
Warning Message: []: '/' not an array
Cannot evaluate '' - no file
Warning Message: []: '/' not an array
Cannot evaluate '' - no file
Error: 80004005 in D3DXCompileShader while compiling the PSSpecularAlpha:0 pixel shader (w:\c_branch\poseidon\arrowhead\lib\d3d9\ShaderSou rces_3_0\PSBasic.hlsl)
error X3501: 'PSSpecularAlpha': entrypoint not found

ErrorMessage: Error compiling pixel shader PSSpecularAlpha:0





If you do have any idea, please let me know.

Thx
anti


edit: BTW, the display driver has also been updated to the latest version
edit 2: oh yes, I also deleted the config files, as suggested by some people in this forum, no joy either


-----------------------------------------------

Yet another approach:

1. deinstalled everything (all Arma files, including Arma 2 and OA and deleting all registries manually)
2. restarted the system (win7)
3. installed Directx9 (as admin)
4. restarted the system
5. installed OA in a custom directory I created earlier on (I named it C:/Arma OA) as the admin user (to make sure, no files of prior installations are still located at the same place, I am not sure if this can happen, but as it is windows, I play it safe)
6. started the game, NO ERRORS this far. Version is 1.62.95248
7. restarted sytem and ran OA, again, no errors
8. ran beta patch 96061, a new error occured: No entry ".profilePathDefault'.. As this thread suggests, I deleted the .cfg file which did not help. The game still starts but the game menu (in which one can chose single player, multiplayer, options, etc) is all messed up and does not contain any readable characters. However, the game runs fine using the "old" arma2oa.exe in the games root directory.
9. issues with new beta patch persistent
10. installed arma 2 in a entirely different directory, Arma 2 was not yet started
11. starting Arma OA, Works on Version 1.62.95248
12. starting Arma 2 in a custom directory (C:/Arma 2) now, working, no issues so far
13. starting OA once again... JOY!
14. I may have found a solution to this. Arma 2 and ARMA OA are now working without any flaws, HOWEVER, the beta patch issue is still persistent, it seems I am stuck at 95248 for now and I will address this is another thread.

*to search for registry entries associated with both games, run the "regedit" command (START ---> type "regedit" in the "search programs and files" field and hit ENTER). You now have the option to search the hole "computer" for those little bastards. To do this, click on "computer" and proceed to click on the "edit" tab followed by the "FIND" option and type something like "bohemia" in the search field. The programm should now show the first match, check carefully whether its a registry associated to the game, this should be easy if the path to the game. If the path is pointing to the download directory, its most likely downloaded content which should no be deleted. TO FIND THE next registry entry, hit F3 and proceed deleting any registry you may find, proceed until the program can no longer find any records.

REBOOT!

So maybe this method (the one printed in green) will solve the problems other people are having with this.

LAST EDIT (i hope)

I also fixed the issue in which the beta patch launcher "f**ked" things up. I simply renamed the original "arma2OA.exe" to "arma2OA BAK.exe" (rename it to whatever suits you) and copied the beta patch launcher (96061) to the root directory of the armaOA directory. Its the one called "arma2oa.exe" (note the lower case characters used by the beta patch launcher). Ran the 96061 client and HOOOOOORAY, that thing worked.


So finally, I do hope, this documentation may be helpful to others. I've invested quite some time to solve this, but it in the end, it appears to be working. Now I am going to try and install the dayZ mod manually, but that is another story.

Oh and BTW, if this is helpful in any way, would someone please be kind enough to put this in a decent format?

[Placebo]

So first of all, I DID NOT PURCHASE this software via steam but downloaded it from a retailer including a proper gamekey and everything. That very retail version IS already 1.62. I also own ARMA II black edition which was part of a gamer mag I bought couple of weeks ago.

Which retailer?

The key is irrelevant in the sense that the installer is the important part.

[antipr0duct]

Which retailer?

The key is irrelevant in the sense that the installer is the important part.

Well, it was bought at "gamesload.de". File version is: 2.0.2.0

[Placebo]

I've never heard of that retailer or know what installer they're using I'm afraid, I'd suggest you open a support ticket pasting all the information you included above by emailing and also include:

Details of where you purchased the game from
The installation method included with this purchase (DVD/Digital etc)
Photo or screenshot of the key (if applicable)
Photo or screenshot of the receipt
IP address from www.whatismyip.com