Return of Reckoning

I seem to be having a problem that many people seem to have:
Logging in goes perfectly. Then when I pick the server and end up in the character creation screen I just see the two faction boxes, the title 'choose a race' and below I see a button with 'servers'.

The background is pitchblack. Leaving the screen alone for a while doesn't work. It's been on for a good hour and the models haven't appeared yet.

Tried re-installing and it doesn't work.

I did everything I could find on this forum:
- Remove the read-only from my files.
- Window mode/ full screen

Nothing works. I cannot even try and install direct x 9.0c, because it won't allow me to install on a Windows 8.1 pc. (that's the message I get).

This is what I'm getting: http://imgur.com/nFMIGVS

I also tried all 3 ways of downloading: through mega, torrent and the 10-part download. Same result every time.

Installed a redistributable version of direct x 9.0c, which you can install on windows 8.1 :

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downloa ... px?id=8109

Yet again, no difference.

Edit: Just upgraded freely to Windows 10, of course no difference. I hope you guys find an answer to this problem. Every single question regarding this problem has been unsolved.