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I usually play PR if I play BF2 at all, but I and my friends decided to play a few rounds of Vanilla just to get some points we need to rank up. I could not join any server because I got the message saying "unmodified content, revert your copy of BF2 to the original, etc, etc." One of my friends said "I have the same problem just start PR, log in, log out, then close the game and it will fix the problem." I of course thought he decided to play a practical joke on me. I was wrong. I did just that and I didn't get the unmodified content error. I'm not sure why this happens and if it's exactly a bug per say (or if anyone else has already found out how to fix this), but if anyone ever has this problem logging in and logging out seems to do the trick!

It's because of PR's custom shaders (suppression effects, bleeding effects, etc.).

PR uses it's own executable, if you haven't noticed. Thats why you have to use the shortcut created when you install PR. It launches from PR.exe, which will launch BF2.exe in some funky way to also incorporate PR's custom shaders. Now, when you exit PR normally, though the "Log Out" button, PR.exe will revert the modified shader files back to the original, like nothing ever happened. When you force quit PR, such as Alt+F4 or from the Task Manager, PR.exe doesn't get the chance to fix everything that it "messed up". Then when you play another mod, Punkbuster will be like "whoa, wtf? Modified shaders? Illegal. I shall kick you."


Devs, feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.

waldo_ii wrote:PR uses it's own executable, if you haven't noticed. Thats why you have to use the shortcut created when you install PR. It launches from PR.exe, which will launch BF2.exe in some funky way to also incorporate PR's custom shaders. Now, when you exit PR normally, though the "Log Out" button, PR.exe will revert the modified shader files back to the original, like nothing ever happened. When you force quit PR, such as Alt+F4 or from the Task Manager, PR.exe doesn't get the chance to fix everything that it "messed up". Then when you play another mod, Punkbuster will be like "whoa, wtf? Modified shaders? Illegal. I shall kick you."


Devs, feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.

Aha! That's interesting. The weird thing is I can Alt+F4 it and still load into a normal BF2 server most of the time.

vanilla servers dont check for shaders.

I've hade the same problem.
I fixed it 5 min ago by just changing "View Distance", that made BF2 fix the shaders by itself

Aye, sometimes you need to delete the shader cache in My Documents\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2


Changing the graphic settings will force the shaders to update as well.

I have that when i try to join a night server on Special Ops(exp. for bf2) and i cant fix it that way?Help?

Deadfast wrote:delete the shader cache in My Documents\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2

Tried that?

There is no such folder in there...

try downloading BF2 Cleaner. It deletes all of the BF2 caches. I use it every month or so and my system performance also improves a little...
Download Battlefield 2 Cleaner 2.0 - Battlefield 2 fight for one of three military superpowers: the United States, China, or the newly formed Middle Coalition. - Softpedia

PlaynCool wrote:I have that when i try to join a night server on Special Ops(exp. for bf2) and i cant fix it that way?Help?

Have you tried doing what I did and logging into PR, logging out, and then clicking Exit? It worked for me