How to fix City of Heroes issues with OpenGL on Intel video cards (GPUs)

Please note this procedure has been updated as of 16 May 2019 to reflect the change in Homecoming's file name. Further updates have been made to update more GPUs.

This process was created by the SCOTS team in order to allows you to create what is known as a driver shim. This is basically a way to force the Intel driver (which is the root of this issue, not City of Heroes at all) to work in compatibility mode for an older version of Windows. Usually this sort of thing is handled by the folks who made the driver or by a game's developers. Since we lack the latter here & Intel doesn't seem to care about OpenGL support, we're forced to do this ourselves instead. It may be worth attempting to run CoX in compatibility mode (Win7/8/8.1) first. That's not a universal solution but some report it does the trick and is much simpler. Ask how in one of the support channels on the Discords if you're unsure!

Please note as well this will not likely improve performance for folks who can already get into the game. This is generally intended for allowing those with the affected GPUs to launch the game at all or who experience crashes almost immediately to play. This is somewhat of a work in progress as to specific GPUs and such. Please bear with us. If you have feedback for this process, please be sure to let me (Nilt) or another SCOTS volunteer know.

List of Intel GPUs confirmed to operate well with this process:

• Intel HD 3000
• Intel HD 620
• Intel HD 630 (may not actually require this to play the game)

Please let a member of SCOTS know if more GPUs are confirmed to work with this. I will be happy to update this as we go.

Anything I ask you to type will be enclosed in quotes. DO NOT include the quotes, they're just to make clear what you need to type. Any bold text below is either a button label that you need to click or the name of the window or list where we are.

Let's figure out which version of Windows 10 you're on:

1. Right click the Start menu in the lower left of your screen and choose System.
2. Scroll down to Windows specifications and look for the Version. It should be 1607, 1703, 1709, 1803, 1809, or 1903.
3. Go to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/get-started/adk-install & download the Windows ADK for your version of Windows.

Now to install the program:

1. Run ADKsetup.exe when it is downloaded.
2. Leave the top option selected & click Next.
3. Choose whether to send Microsoft some usage data & click Next.
4. Click Accept after reading the agreement (ha!).
5. Uncheck everything in the list of features & click to check Application Compatibility Toolkit.
6. Click Install & choose Yes when asked if you wish to allow it to make changes to your computer.
7. Click Close and restart the computer if prompted.

Now we need to run the "Compatibility Administrator(32 bit)" program:

1. Click your Start Menu (usually in the lower left of the screen).
2. The application should be at the top. If not, start typing the name above though there's no obvious box to type in.
3. Click it when it shows up.
4. Click Yes again to allow it to make changes to your computer (it needs to be run as an administrator).
5. Select New Database(1) [Untitled_1] under Custom Databases from the list on the left.
6. If Custom Databases is not present, click the New button above. Otherwise, skip to the next step.
7. Click the Fix above.

Now we're in the "Create new Application Fix" window:

1. Type "City of Heroes" in the first box.
2. Type anything you wish in the middle Name of the vendor for this program box.
3. Click the Browse button & locate the game's folder.
   • If you do not know where your folder is, ask whoever you got these steps from or seek assistance in the Discord's tech help channel.
4. Click one time to select homecoming.exe then click the Open button.
   • This may only say score depending on your system's settings. If so, select the one with the City of Heroes icon, not a folder icon.
5. Click the Next button to proceed.
6. Click Next to skip the Compatibility Mode options.
7. Scroll down the Compatibility Fixes list to Win81RTMVersionLie & click the box to the left of it.
   • You may press the W key on your keyboard to jump most of the way but don't check any other boxes accidentally if you do so.
8. Click the Parameters button above the list.

Now we are in the "Options for Win81RTMVersionLie" window:

1. Leave the Command line box completely blank. (If you are unable to do so, you've likely selected the wrong option. Cancel out of that and choose very carefully in the last set of steps.)
2. Type "ig4icd32.dll" in the Module Name box. (This may vary based on the specific Intel GPU. We're working on obtaining a definitive list files for specific GPUs.)
3. Click the Add button to the right then click the OK button below.
4. This brings you to the Create new Application fix window. Click the Next button.

We're now in the "Matching Information" list:

1. Click the Unselect All button to the bottom of the left.
2. Click the checkbox for ORIGINAL_FILENAME=CityOfHeroes.exe.
3. Click the checkbox for INTERNAL_NAME=CityOfHeroes.
4. Click the Finish button below.

We're now back in the main view of the Compatibility Administrator:

1. Click the Save button at the top of the window.
2. Type "CoH OpenGL" in the Database Name box then click the OK button.
3. A new Save Database window opens. Type "CoHOpenGLShim" in the File name box at the bottom.
4. Click the Save button to the bottom near the right side.
5. Note: Stay in the same program for this step. Right click CoH OpenGL [C:\Games\City of Heroes\CoHOpenGLShim.sdb] and choose Install.
   • Note that the C:\Games\City of Heroes part varies. Your path, if different, will show there instead. Also, the part in brackets is often cut off depending on the size of the window.
6. Click OK to the prompt when it's installed.

Try running the game. Hopefully it'll work but if not, please be certain to let someone in the Discord tech assistance channels know!
You may have a slightly different Intel driver file or something which we can help you identify.

Inspired by videos at https://pal1000.github.io/shared/tutorials/legacy-igpu-ogl-fix-win10.mov and the same video on YouTube. We're uncertain which is the original source.