PlaneShift

Support => Technical Help: Problems BEFORE entering the game => Topic started by: Tuxide on May 30, 2008, 04:55:51 am

Title: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: Tuxide on May 30, 2008, 04:55:51 am
This thread is about a common world loading problem when using certain versions of ATI Catalyst.  If your psclient is crashing on world loading, then try running pssetup and turning off the Vertex Buffer Object (VBO) option.  If it works without crashing on world load after this, then the problem you are having is discussed on this thread.  This is known for all versions of ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later; if you're having the same problem on another card then please post on this thread.  This is also true for all programs that use Crystal Space, including walktest, but only on certain maps that PlaneShift uses.  If you really want VBO turned on, then you'll have to revert to Catalyst 8.4 or earlier.

I had to modify my OP because a lot of people were being referred to this thread and couldn't find how we were getting psclient to work without crashing.

Quote from: Original Post (Tuxide)
Has anyone gotten psclient to work using ATI Catalyst 8.5 drivers?  When I run psclient, it crashes for me on the world loading screen when trying to spawn in either Gugrontid or bdroad1 (but it displays podium just fine).  It behaves just fine when I downgrade to ATI Catalyst 8.4 however, and also other OpenGL programs such as Blender3D runs fine on the newer driver.

Here is my system:
  • Windoze XP Home Edition with SP2
  • AMD Athlon XP 2000+
  • 1 GB RAM
  • ATI All-in-Wonder X800XT (using two monitors)

I'm using my own psclient compiled from SVN with the -fullbright option, and I'm using the version of podium with parallax and specular.

                                                                         

Update (July 2009)

If you are on Windoze and are using a card on this list (including mobile and All-in-Wonder variants) then you must turn VBO off in pssetup, or revert to Catalyst 8.4 or earlier, to play PlaneShift.  I don't know about more recent cards, but the reason I am posting this is that ATI is no longer making drivers for these.  The last driver to support these cards is Catalyst 9.3.


Source (http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/radeonaiw_xp.aspx)

                                                                         

Update (December 2009)

From what I can tell, this problem does not exist in PlaneShift 0.5 and is only specific to PlaneShift versions 0.4.01 to 0.4.03, or the versions that use Crystal Space 1.4.  Unless people are still having this problem, this thread is now obsolete.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Elvicat on May 30, 2008, 08:13:22 am
a suggestion, uninstall the drivers + use a driver cleaner tool like 3dgames driversweeper then install again, this is if you havn't tried this allready tho
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Tuxide on May 30, 2008, 09:20:27 am
That's exactly what I did, I only made this thread to figure out if the Catalyst 8.5 drivers just suck in general.  I am not going back to 8.5 unless I am asked to do so.  There was one other time when ATI made a Catalyst version that didn't work with any OpenGL program.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Tomislav on June 30, 2008, 06:00:25 pm
I had the same problem, and it also hapens with Catalyst 8.6.
Versions 4.0 and the new 4.0.01 of the client are affected.

The only solution so far seems to be downgrading the driver.

Tux and I seem to have similar configurations (except my graphics card is X850 XT and I have 1.5 GB RAM).
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Lorit on June 30, 2008, 10:39:04 pm
I can't get it to run on 7.12 to 8.6.  It always crashes while logging in.  I do not even get to see the world, just the login screen.  Will try turning sound off and another version of CCC to see.  I did not have problems with 4.0 so something that has changed has made my ATI card display it's bugginess.  Couldn't be PS!  ATI X600 on a crappy dell with Windoze.  I should try my linux box but it is too hot upstairs - lol.

Ok, downgraded to 8.3, turned off sound and now it is working.  Turned sound back on and it still works.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Arerano on July 01, 2008, 01:11:58 am
I have an Radeon X1800. (Windows XP 32 bit)
I had the ATI Catalyst 8.4 drivers installed and still crashed. (half map-loading bar, once it finished loading (ojaroad1) but crashed less than 5 seconds after)

I searched for some even older drivers in my download location... and.. found "6-11_xp-2k_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_37616.exe"
referring to what I believe is their naming convention, that should be Catalyst 6.11.
With them it doesn't crash at least. (But blender doesn't like them _that_ much)
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Lorit on July 01, 2008, 02:53:23 am
I have an Radeon X1800. (Windows XP 32 bit)
I had the ATI Catalyst 8.4 drivers installed and still crashed. (half map-loading bar, once it finished loading (ojaroad1) but crashed less than 5 seconds after)

I searched for some even older drivers in my download location... and.. found "6-11_xp-2k_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_37616.exe"
referring to what I believe is their naming convention, that should be Catalyst 6.11.
With them it doesn't crash at least. (But blender doesn't like them _that_ much)

On ATI's website at the bottom of download section for 8.6 catalyst is a link to older versions.

I said earlier 8.3 worked for me, but it appears it was because I also turned the "Vertex Buffer Object" to off in PS Setup.  IF I enable it, PS crashes.  If it is off, it works fine.  I will leave it this way for a while before I upgrade my drivers again.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Arerano on July 02, 2008, 12:27:48 am
I guess that this might be the bug report: http://www.hydlaa.com/flyspray_upgrade/index.php?do=details&task_id=1789

@Lorit: Thanks for the link, I must have been blind.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: ThomPhoenix on July 02, 2008, 12:40:49 am
The Ati drivers for Windows have had some OpenGL issues for a few versions now. They can cause full system crashes, game crashes or heavy keyboard input lag. For that reason I haven't played PS on my desktop anymore for a few months now, since I need the newer drivers there for some other new games.

If you want the situation to improve, call Ati and demand a refund since they're prohibiting you from exercising vital pc functions with their drivers.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: SidArtur on July 02, 2008, 03:03:45 pm
ThomPhoenix do you have any links to support this?  I'm running 8.6 and ran some OpenGL tests just fine.  Anyway, I found that turning Vertex Buffer Object to off seems to resolve the issue.  I had it previously set to 'on' when I was running 8.3 - so clearly something changed with the new update.  I'm not saying it's a bug in PS, but I'm not going to be calling up ATI because of one setting especially since all my other games run fine.

Note: I am in no way stating that this is PlaneShift's problem.  I am merely pointing out that something changed between versions and an acceptable solution has been found.  Again I thank the devs who investigated this for taking it seriously and helping resolve the issue.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: ThomPhoenix on July 02, 2008, 05:52:58 pm
I have some links for this, yes, an IT website. The website is in Dutch though, so it won't help you much likely ;)
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Arerano on July 03, 2008, 01:45:59 pm
@SidArtur : So it works with the newest drivers if you turn VBO off?
I had it on "Default" but I don't know _what_ decides if it will be turned on or off then.
However, I am quite sure that PS 0.4.00 worked with VBOs for me.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: SidArtur on July 03, 2008, 04:39:16 pm
Well, it worked but I did crash while moving around in game with one of my characters.  I disabled sound and haven't had a problem since.  Obviously not a good option for anyone who enjoys the sounds/music.  As for Dutch websites, I do believe Google has a translator function.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Tuxide on July 05, 2008, 02:15:43 am
I just attempted to run 0.4.01 on ATI Catalyst 8.4 and again it crashed on loading the world (this time ojaroad2).  Switching Vertex Buffer Object to off does keep it from crashing, but this doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me because I didn't do a damn thing to my drivers and 0.4.00 ran just fine on Catalyst 8.4.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: SidArtur on July 05, 2008, 02:27:30 am
- Switched to Crystal Space 3D Engine version 1.4 which includes many bug fixes, improvements and new features.

Does this help make sense of it?  There's been a change on the PS side of things, so what ran fine before may not run now.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Tuxide on July 05, 2008, 02:44:51 am
I concur, it is definitely ATI's fault because, since Catalyst 8.4 worked with 0.4.00 with VBO turned on, it should definitely work with 0.4.01 with VBO turned on. >_>
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: SidArtur on July 05, 2008, 03:07:43 am
I concur, it is definitely ATI's fault because, since Catalyst 8.4 worked with 0.4.00 with VBO turned on, it should definitely work with 0.4.01 with VBO turned on. >_>

Uh, did you read this:
- Switched to Crystal Space 3D Engine version 1.4 which includes many bug fixes, improvements and new features.

Does this help make sense of it?  There's been a change on the PS side of things, so what ran fine before may not run now.

How does that make it ATI's fault?!  The 3D Engine changed between the two versions, so I don't understand the basis of why you're saying 'it should definitely work with 0.4.01".  And do we even know what VBO does?  Is it really that critical at this point?
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Caarrie on July 05, 2008, 03:12:13 am
 
- Switched to Crystal Space 3D Engine version 1.4 which includes many bug fixes, improvements and new features.

Does this help make sense of it?  There's been a change on the PS side of things, so what ran fine before may not run now.

yes things have changed in CS but if people that are NOT on windoze and dont have ati cards see no change in this why are we to blame cs? I have an ati card under linux and i dont have any such issues. a bump in cs does not always mean things like this should change.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Tuxide on July 22, 2008, 10:17:15 pm
Thought I would post that ATI Catalyst 8.7 is out now if anyone wants to try it.

EDIT:  I just installed ATI Catalyst 8.7 and psclient now crashes when antialiasing is set to 2, 4, or 8.  Thus, antialiasing must be set to 1 or 0 and VBO must be turned off for it to not crash.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Tomislav on July 23, 2008, 12:23:48 am
Thought I would post that ATI Catalyst 8.7 is out now if anyone wants to try it.

EDIT:  I just installed ATI Catalyst 8.7 and psclient now crashes when antialiasing is set to 2, 4, or 8.  Thus, antialiasing must be set to 1 or 0 and VBO must be turned off for it to not crash.

I was about to give up on 8.7 as well, but it works the way Tuxide described.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Tomislav on July 23, 2008, 12:40:18 am
Reducing Anti-Aliasing to 1 reduces quality a lot. However, I discovered that if you override it using Catalyst, the game will look smoth and won't chrash. I set mine to 6x and it works fine.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Unode on July 27, 2008, 05:39:58 am
All ATI users should have a look at this (http://www.it.usyd.edu.au/~tapted/slow_glselect.html).

There are some serious problems with the latest ATI drivers, both in Windows and Linux (Mac also?).
With the latest ones I couldn't even start PS in window mode and had problems even before entering Yliakum... Login menus and character creation screen were garbled and text was misaligned..

Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Tuxide on July 27, 2008, 08:50:13 am
That has nothing to do with stability; this thread is about psclient crashing on world load under certain conditions.  If you're having problems with your GUI display then it's something completely different than this.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Trahern Einion on July 27, 2008, 09:09:51 pm
Unode, I think you have found something usefull there, if I hadn't read that I might have given up!

I was using Catalyst 8.4 which worked for me up until the last update ((22nd july?) where upon the PClient crashed every time, 75% into loading the world.
I tried: Sound off, Antialias = 0, Fullscreen, VBO off unchecked all pre-loads etc and various combinations to no avail.

I've tried various drivers: 8.7, 8.6, 8.3, 7.12, 7.11, and third party Omega driver 48442, all of which gave me the standard "This program has found a problem and will now close" error.
edit: 7.11 may have worked with the PClient but I could not install them, I'll recheck this at some point.

By turning hardware acceleration off I managed to load (albeit unplayable) so this is obviously a 3D/driver related problem.

Anyway the point is I now have it working using the original Catalyst 4.6 drivers supplied on cd with the card  \\o// so if that's any help to anyone with a similar problem.

edit: and even better, it works with all the fancy options (sound/vbo/AntiA/etc) enabled!

Win XP Home
AMD Athlon XP 1.67 GHz
1 GB RAM
Radeon 9800
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Tomislav on August 22, 2008, 05:54:47 pm
Catalyst 8.8 is out. Looks like they fixed the driver. My client doesn't crash after log in anymore. :thumbup:
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: ThomPhoenix on August 22, 2008, 06:24:44 pm
Hmm, I'll check if I can finally make PS work on my desktop now :)
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Eliseth on August 24, 2008, 10:46:22 am
I deleted Millian's post. Please mind your language on these forums Millian, consider this your first warning, anymore of that and you're out of here.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Tuxide on August 24, 2008, 08:59:13 pm
Catalyst 8.8 is out. Looks like they fixed the driver. My client doesn't crash after log in anymore. :thumbup:
Tomislav:  Do you have VBO turned on?  I installed Catalyst 8.8 and I can get it to work with antialiasing set to 8 in pssetup (and set to Use application settings in Catalyst Control Center), but it still crashes for me like before when I have VBO turned on.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Tomislav on August 29, 2008, 01:15:18 am
Catalyst 8.8 is out. Looks like they fixed the driver. My client doesn't crash after log in anymore. :thumbup:
Tomislav:  Do you have VBO turned on?  I installed Catalyst 8.8 and I can get it to work with antialiasing set to 8 in pssetup (and set to Use application settings in Catalyst Control Center), but it still crashes for me like before when I have VBO turned on.

No, I keep it turned off as that options seems to make everything less stable.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Tuxide on September 24, 2008, 06:28:54 am
Thought I would post that I just tried Catalyst 8.9 and psclient still crashes when VBO is turned on.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Tuxide on November 18, 2008, 05:34:22 am
(Two months later) I just installed Catalyst 8.11 and was successfully able to get into Akk-Central with VBO turned on.  I walked around for some time, but when I tried to leave Akkaio psclient crashed on me, and it wouldn't let me out of the city until I flipped VBO off once again.  Once I did make it to ojapath, I flipped VBO back on and it crashed on world load.  Thus I had to flip VBO back off again just to get back into the game world.

EDIT:  Is there anything unique about Akk-Central that I don't know about?
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Garris Shrike on November 28, 2008, 01:33:34 am
The solution to error # 696EC79F‏ is quite simple. Turn your VBO off and run the first slider up to 8. :flowers:
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Grigori on December 10, 2008, 05:23:54 pm
4.03 doesnt start with my 8.11 driver (WinXP Radeon X1550). Just reboots PC or start process with 99% CPU use.
4.02 worked fine.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Caarrie on December 10, 2008, 06:59:51 pm
4.03 doesnt start with my 8.11 driver (WinXP Radeon X1550). Just reboots PC or start process with 99% CPU use.
4.02 worked fine.

and does your sound card support openal? have you tried to run the game from console to get an output? just because you have had the client work does not mean it always will without tweaking.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: Tuxide on December 11, 2008, 12:00:05 am
Modified OP to make it more clear what this thread is about.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Grigori on December 13, 2008, 11:53:17 am
4.03 doesnt start with my 8.11 driver (WinXP Radeon X1550). Just reboots PC or start process with 99% CPU use.
4.02 worked fine.

and does your sound card support openal? have you tried to run the game from console to get an output? just because you have had the client work does not mean it always will without tweaking.

I disabled sound and it changes nothing. Will try to downgrade ATI driver. How to make PS give me info in console?
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5
Post by: Morla Phlint on December 14, 2008, 04:52:47 am
How to make PS give me info in console?

start menu/run type cmd, go to planeshift dir, type psclient.exe

or

Go to RUN on the start menu, type CMD and hit ENTER,

In the Command Prompt that appears please type: CD\Program Files\PlaneShift Steel Blue

Then type psclient.exe > C:\error.txt

This will run the game and output a bunch of text to the file C:\error.txt, open that file and select all and paste it to the forums inside CODE tags (the button above the smilies with the # picture on it)
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: Grigori on December 14, 2008, 01:00:36 pm
I downgraded to driver 7.12. The same problem.
VBO is off like sound is.

No console output. File error.txt is created but it is empty.

Does anybody have simular problem?
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: Tuxide on December 31, 2008, 11:17:23 pm
I just installed Catalyst 8.12 and I am still getting the same problem I mentioned in my OP.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: Elvicat on January 02, 2009, 03:05:10 am
something to try http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=34258.0 (http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=34258.0) i know this is for the sound problem BUT for some this has even let them start the game
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: Caarrie on January 02, 2009, 03:35:31 am
something to try http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=34258.0 (http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=34258.0) i know this is for the sound problem BUT for some this has even let them start the game

but the ati issue started BEFORE this issue with sound so i dont think that would help any ati user.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: Elvicat on January 03, 2009, 02:48:21 am
maybe, but it dosn't hurt to try as i also said, on some system ps dosn't even start when it's set to openal
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: Grigori on February 01, 2009, 06:35:28 am
something to try http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=34258.0 (http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=34258.0) i know this is for the sound problem BUT for some this has even let them start the game
Thanks. It helpred. So the problem is sound. Even if sound is disabled...
Intresting fact is I have the same trouble will all OpenAl games.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: bjkallies@hotmail.com on March 22, 2009, 08:20:24 pm
there is now a newer version of catalyst and it is working fine for me.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: enderandrew on March 23, 2009, 12:15:52 am
If you're running Vista or Windows 7, I recommend the new Catalyst 9.3 beta as it uses the new windows driver model.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: Tuxide on March 24, 2009, 03:07:45 am
there is now a newer version of catalyst and it is working fine for me.

How?  I just installed Catalyst 9.3 and it still crashes on me with VBO turned on.  Turned off VBO and it works fine.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: the_phet on April 02, 2009, 05:23:24 pm
Hello, I have ATI 9600 PRO and the last driver from ati, 9.3, it crashed when I try to launch the game or open the setup (I cannot setup anything)
I also have an AMD XP 2000, 1.25G RAM, windows xp sp3
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: Tuxide on July 29, 2009, 05:32:50 am
Thought I would say that the card I have (ATI All-in-Wonder X800XT) is now considered a legacy product (http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/radeonaiw_xp.aspx) by ATI, meaning that Catalyst 9.3.x will most likely be the last driver to support it.  So until I build myself a better computer, I'm not going to know if it works with later versions of Catalyst (unless it works with later versions of Crystal Space).

EDIT:  Appended to OP to reflect this.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: Tuxide on September 22, 2009, 08:09:30 am
Finally built myself a new machine so that I can try later versions of Catalyst.  For the purpose of this thread, here is my new setup:

Using Catalyst 9.9, psclient 0.4.03 still crashes with VBO turned on.

Is there anyone with 0.5 built (or least walktest in CS trunk) that can confirm whether VBO still crashes?  I was looking through CS's source code recently and I thought I saw that a workaround was implemented for this.

EDIT:  Switched from Windoze XP to Windoze 7.

EDIT2:  There is no SP2 for Windoze 7, what was I thinking?
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: Tuxide on December 21, 2009, 09:27:38 am
As far as I can tell, this problem does not exist in 0.5.  So unless anything resurfaces, this thread is now obsolete.

EDIT:  Modified the OP to say this.
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: Lanarel on January 20, 2010, 11:34:04 pm
I am seeing many crashes in the ATI open gl driver with version 0.5.1 (which automatically sends crashs dumps). Is the problem back? Previously, almost 100% of dmp files sent to me were crashes in the ATI driver, and all of those were solved by pointing to this thread. Since now about 30% of all crashes is in this driver, it would be nice to know if this thread still has the answer :)
Title: Re: Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later
Post by: Tuxide on February 10, 2010, 03:59:03 am
I don't know why, but I only get this problem now when I build the client myself.  The distro client works just fine for me with VBO.  I'm using the Windoze 64-bit distro, but I build my client as Win32.

EDIT:  Just built myself a 64-bit Windoze client (against the cs-winlibs-x64-1.9_004 libs), fired up VBO and it works just fine for some blasted reason.  So I get this problem with VBO turned on only with 32-bit Windoze clients but not with 64-bit Windoze clients.