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

[Jivix]

I spent hours and hours trying to fix my Arma II install (to play DayZ). Arma II would run fine, but Operation Arrowhead would throw all sorts of bizarre and seemingly random errors. Unfortunately, I needed to play OA to have Steam set the CD key in the registry, but without OA working I could not play. I've finally come across a (rather obvious) fix that worked for me:

Just run steam as admin!

Haha, I bet that scared you for a moment! No, my solution goes further than this.

Assuming your Arma II install works but your OA doesn't launch (like my problem):
1. Uninstall Battleye from Arma II and Arma II:OA.
2. In your Arma II Operation Arrowhead folder, delete Arma2OA.exe.
3. Remove your @DayZ folder and anything else you may have added to your OA folder.
4. Remove any launch options from steam or shortcuts you use.
5. Make sure you have the correct *beta* version of Arma2OA.exe in your /expansion/beta/ folder. You may need to try reinstalling whatever version you are currently using and make sure that the date modified gets updated.
6. Now, if you are using Steam like me you need to do a verify game data on Arma II:OA. If your situation is like mine you should get 2 files, and you should see Arma2OA.exe appear back in your OA folder.
7. Restart steam in Admin mode and launch Arma II and it should prompt you to reinstall Battleye. Do so and pick something in the Armory to make sure it's working alright.
8. Still in Admin mode on steam, launch Arma II:OA and it should prompt you to install Battleye as well. Hopefully this will bring you the main screen with no issues. If you do have issues, either you missed a step or you have a corrupt install and may need to redownload (unless you already tried that, in which case: good luck with that).
9. If your Armory works then you can proceed with trying Combined Ops, if that works then you should be good to go and can put @DayZ back in and try running the beta again. I use the following wall of text as my launch target:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\arma2oa.exe" "-beta=Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion" "-mod=C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2;Expansion;ca;@dayz" -nosplash -skipIntro -world=empty

This was recommended in the DayZ wiki and it seems to work great for me now. If you don't like the weird menu background then remove the "-world=empty"

[Dwarden]

kittenssteam.jpg

this is my motto poster of year

[farmeunit]

We get at least 10-20 support tickets every single day about these two errors, why people don't use a google search and find the answer in 3 seconds is beyond me!

It's always due to not running steam as admin, sometimes it requires a complete fresh install of the games once Steam has been set to run as admin:
(obviously disabling AV when install also helps).

I can appreciate most of the posts in this thread, but no other games requires this that I have run into. Just wondering why the REAL problem can't be fixed instead of putting a BandAid on it, which is what running as Administrator is.

[[FRL]Myke]

Just wondering why the REAL problem can't be fixed instead of putting a BandAid on it, which is what running as Administrator is.

So i guess you do know what the real problem is, or better said, why A2 needs admin rights, do you? No? So my first question would be "why does it need admin rights" and not moaning "why isn't it fixed". Chances are that it isn't fixable since it is not really a bug. And before you throw in something about "other games", first i would like to know what your game programming skills are that qualifies you to judge about it.

[BigBadHenz]

Since I've purchased both of "Arma 2" and "Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead", I've managed to successfully install "Arma 2" and without a doubt, when I tried to install "Arma 2 : Operation Arrowhead" two errors display "No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgInGameUI/MPTable.shadow'." and "Error compiling pixel shader PSSpecularAlpha:0"
I've been searching everywhere for a solution for this, but none of them seem to work, and this video on the solution to fix the error seem to be my last resort "Arma 2 Combined Operations Steam WORKING FIX" on youtube.
But it didn't work. So would you be able to help me out here?

Here is a small list of my laptop specifications:
Processor: Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz 2.00GHz
RAML: 8gb
System Type: 64 bit
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon 6770M 1 gb

Very sorry about my post placement, feel free to move it to where it belongs.

[ProfTournesol]

Since I've purchased both of "Arma 2" and "Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead", I've managed to successfully install "Arma 2" and without a doubt, when I tried to install "Arma 2 : Operation Arrowhead" two errors display "No entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgInGameUI/MPTable.shadow'." and "Error compiling pixel shader PSSpecularAlpha:0"
I've been searching everywhere for a solution for this, but none of them seem to work, and this video on the solution to fix the error seem to be my last resort "Arma 2 Combined Operations Steam WORKING FIX" on youtube.
But it didn't work. So would you be able to help me out here?

Here is a small list of my laptop specifications:
Processor: Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz 2.00GHz
RAML: 8gb
System Type: 64 bit
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon 6770M 1 gb

Very sorry about my post placement, feel free to move it to where it belongs.

Could you elaborate on what you have done sofar ?

[BigBadHenz]

Could you elaborate on what you have done sofar ?

What I've done so far is, I've obviously purchased both Arma 2 and Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead, and I have installed Arma 2 successfully but whenever I try to install Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead it displays these errors: nevermind.. Strangely, a message popped up saying Steam is running in Windows Compatibility mode and seems to run Operation Arrowhead now. Although I'll run through everything again just to make sure it's fixed, thanks for your help. I'll keep you updated when it's fully fixed.

[Placebo]

You need to run Steam as administrator, have you tried that? You'll find that answer in lots of threads on here

[EDcase]

You probably need a sticky with the title, "RUN STEAM AS ADMIN"

[GarvenDreis]

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?