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Could someone help me?

Discussion in 'Server Questions / Issues' started by Y o u, Jul 25, 2013.

  1. Y o u

    Y o u Member

    [​IMG]

    Could someone please help me? Some special characters in a players name doesn't appear as what they should be, most special characters appear as this annoying little bastard ?. Instead of ???_?????l[?²] it's ???_?????l[?²] as you can see from the image up there.

    Things I've tried.

    1.) It's not the server as every server is the same way.
    2.) It's not my addons as I've tried removing them all.
    3.) I've tried verify integrity of game cache in Left 4 Dead 2.
    4.) I've tried uninstalling Left 4 Dead 2 and Steam then installing them back in.
    5.) I've tried using Google.com screw you Google haters Google is #1! LOL...

    How do I fix it?
     
    Y o u, Jul 25, 2013
    #1
  2. TaLi

    TaLi Guest

    have the same exact problem

    been months though so i dont know.. dont even remember what tags look like xD
    i did all that u did too nothing worked
     
    TaLi, Jul 25, 2013
    #2
  3. Burial_Ground

    Burial_Ground Guest

    first make sure you have all the latest updates for windows 7 installed and check your regional and language otions in control panel.

    some folks fixed it by altering, Region and Language, Administrative, and change "current language for non-Unicode programs"

    if this not fixes the problem check if all fonts and especially the "Arial Unicode MS Standard" fonts are installed properly in c:\windows\fonts.


    Arial Unicode MS -> ARIALUNI.TTF

    Tahoma (TrueType) -> tahoma.ttf
    Courier New (TrueType) -> cour.ttf
    Verdana (TrueType) -> verdana.ttf
    Arial (TrueType) -> arial.ttf
    Arial Narrow (TrueType) -> arialn.ttf
    Arial Bold (TrueType) -> arialbd.ttf
    Lucida Console (TrueType) -> lucon.ttf
    Trebuched MS (TrueType) -> trebuc.ttf
    Times New Roman (TrueType) -> times.ttf
    Marlett (TrueType) -> marlett.ttf

    some old non-steam l4d configurations are known for messing up fonts after removal for instance.

    i also read that some l4d2 players tried to change the encoding of the config.cfg in the l4d2 dir
    but i don't think that fixes the problem.


    btw does this problem only occur with l4d2 or also the steam app and main windows applications and browser ?
     
    Burial_Ground, Jul 25, 2013
    #3
  4. marvel

    marvel Head Administrator Staff Member

    I think it's just a limitation of the game. All our systems and databases are set to en_US.UTF-8 and I can see you typing the character on our forum so it's not our systems that don't support it it's just the game.

    So I don't think this can't be fixed. Perhaps you could try running single player mode and see what happens but my guess is it will give you the same result. It could be a sourcemod limitation as well btw.

    Anyway if people start posting problems like this then I guess we're doing a good job :)
     
    marvel, Jul 25, 2013
    #4
  5. Burial_Ground

    Burial_Ground Guest

    i'm sure l4d1 and l4d2 support unicode special characters from the standard unicode font.
    i can see all symbols and characters.
    I've spoken with several gamers in the past who had the same problem and they all had windows 7
    (mostly 64 bit)
    most issues were fixed on the windows side.
     
    Burial_Ground, Jul 25, 2013
    #5
  6. Y o u

    Y o u Member

    UPDATE.

    I have no idea what I did but I went in-game today just to see that the special charters in player's name appear as what they should be. It is now fixed. Ty for the suggestion BTW :).
     
    Y o u, Jul 25, 2013
    #6
  7. TaLi

    TaLi Guest

    i have all these fonts installed properly
    but i see them in control panel and not in c:/windows/fonts
    should i change "current language for non-Unicode programs" to us english? if its set to my language
     
    TaLi, Jul 25, 2013
    #7
  8. erik

    erik MG Donor

    What is your OS?

    Usually you can just find your config file and right-click on it, change ANSI encoding to UTF-8. I think the L4D2-friendly one is "UTF-8 Without BOM." Backup your config file before messing w/ it.
     
    erik, Jul 26, 2013
    #8
  9. Roar

    Roar MG Donor

    Bump with the same problem.. I made sure windows was updated.. it happens almost every games.. maybe 1/20 games, everything is working.

    *Edit* : and to answer jackal's question, I can see the special characters just fine in STEAM but once I enter a game of L4D2 it's just boxes.

    *edit 2*: I didnt do anything but update windows 7 and now APPARENTLY i can see the special characters again.. will update if it goes box again..
     
    Roar, Jul 26, 2013
    #9
  10. erik

    erik MG Donor

    Locate your config file in the cfg folder. It's config.cfg or something like that. Copy & paste the file into a secure area as a backup. Right-click on the config file in its native location. Choose properties. Change the encoding from ANSI to UTF-8. Click apply, then ok.
     
    erik, Jul 26, 2013
    #10
  11. Burial_Ground

    Burial_Ground Guest

    the fonts are ok, its just another way of opening them.
    they are still in the same location c:\windows\fonts
    and yes, you could try that "language unicode" because you can always change it back.

    great, the update probably also installed the language packs.
    These are not in the important list, and this solves the square boxes problem for some players.
     
    Burial_Ground, Jul 26, 2013
    #11
  12. Roar

    Roar MG Donor

    Bump. The boxes are back lol.
     
    Roar, Jul 30, 2013
    #12