Excessively bright graphics, black floors

[Nakkida]

Alright so I uninstalled my old version and installed the new release .5 of Planeshift and for a long time I couldn't get it to run the game- I would get the errors and my screen would close. Integrity checks failed when I tried to repair it, but then it told me that a file wasn't right called the art/materials folder. It asked if I wished to download the correct files and so I did and sat through a long download again. Planeshift worked after that aside from a few crashes and errors, but I noticed that it was excessively bright in the game, brighter than it should have been.

I was in Hydlaa when I first logged on and I decided to have a look around. I went down the path leading to Levrus's Magic shop and then to the path with open fields. The graphics got worse at this point. The floors that were supposed to be grass and path turned completely pitch black and I could hardly find my way.
I don't know if its because my graphics card is out of date or something but if it is, I would really be glad for some help finding the download I need for an updated version.

Here are some screenshots of my game screen:
http://i46.tinypic.com/20iuhrk.jpg
http://i46.tinypic.com/66ezh4.jpg
http://i49.tinypic.com/2pre595.jpg

Sorry for being wordy, if I left anything out please tell and I'll see if I can add it.

[Ironstark]

Images dont work for me but i get what you mean, characters are very bright in Kada El's to me.

[LigH]

There are already a dozen threads related to Bugtracker task 3453.

It is always useful to report details about your hardware when complaining about hardware related issues. Which graphic card do you have?

[Nakkida]

I'm on windows XP with a RADEON X300 series. I'm still having issues, and I'm pretty sure my graphics card isn't up to date but I don't know which updates I should download or even what I should be looking for.

When I log onto my Kran my game screen freezes and goes black but I'm still able to use the chat, I try moving around but if I go too far I walk off an edge that I can't see and die. The death realm works alright, but the same thing is repeated when I load the world over again. I'm still on the lowest graphic settings possible.

[Shoraal]

I have the "black floor" problem the very same way Nakkida describes - precisely, in the actual wilderness. the blackness starts at Hydlaa Canyon, and stops just before other locations (as Oja, or BD) again. Gug is a weird mix, I see roads, but some black inbetween.

about the sprite graphics - occasionally, I see parts of the characters flashing white... irregularly.

System: Win XP, Radeon 9200

...will this get solved?

[LigH]

This will get solved as soon as the CrystalSpace developers are able to test and develop shaders on such kind of "outdated" graphic cards; unfortunately, they all seem to have only modern GeForce cards only, and the simulation configurations might not reveal the same effects.

[Khaki]

Since you're using a Radeon card, can you try disabling VBO in the graphics options in the launcher and let us know if that makes any difference.

I have the "black floor" problem the very same way Nakkida describes - precisely, in the actual wilderness. the blackness starts at Hydlaa Canyon, and stops just before other locations (as Oja, or BD) again. Gug is a weird mix, I see roads, but some black inbetween.

about the sprite graphics - occasionally, I see parts of the characters flashing white... irregularly.

System: Win XP, Radeon 9200

...will this get solved?

[LigH]

The Radeon 9200 (I have a 9250 available too) supports only Pixel Shader version 1.4; a GeForce 4 Ti supports version 1.3.

But with version 1.4, CrystalSpace (and so PlaneShift with version 0.5) switched to a GLSL programmable shading model (in contrast to the earlier "classic" polygon/vertex based shading of OpenGL up to version 1.3, I believe).

And it seems that the CrystalSpace team only owns graphic cards which support at least Shader Level 2.0 (GeForce FX 5xxx +, or ATI Radeon 9500 +), so the few developers who are able to program shaders, are not able to test if the fallback render paths for cards with a lower shader level are working correctly.
__

Vertex Buffer Objects are quite unrelated to Pixel Shaders, they are independent of the shading model. Changing this option won't fix the lighting for older GPUs with Pixel Shader < 2.0.

[-stf-]

I have ATi Radeon Mobility X300 card and it runs fine in linux with proprietary fglrx driver (unfortunately not installable in XOrg 7.4+).
Try find the latest driver for your card here: http://support.amd.com/us/psearch/Pages/psearch.aspx

[Khaki]

Actually we can test the fallback paths and versions easily. Just run with a config/emulate_...cfg file. This can reproduce a good number of the problems. The problem is noone has the time to write the fallback shaders.

The Radeon 9200 (I have a 9250 available too) supports only Pixel Shader version 1.4; a GeForce 4 Ti supports version 1.3.

But with version 1.4, CrystalSpace (and so PlaneShift with version 0.5) switched to a GLSL programmable shading model (in contrast to the earlier "classic" polygon/vertex based shading of OpenGL up to version 1.3, I believe).

And it seems that the CrystalSpace team only owns graphic cards which support at least Shader Level 2.0 (GeForce FX 5xxx +, or ATI Radeon 9500 +), so the few developers who are able to program shaders, are not able to test if the fallback render paths for cards with a lower shader level are working correctly.
__

Vertex Buffer Objects are quite unrelated to Pixel Shaders, they are independent of the shading model. Changing this option won't fix the lighting for older GPUs with Pixel Shader < 2.0.

[Shoraal]

I don't know if that will help the devs a bit, but I certainly hope so:

The black floor phenomenon does not apply to all the "outside places" - the BD area is completely okay, although it is just as much wilderness. Also, the floor in Oja or Gug Canyon is okay (not in Hydlaa canyon though).
The weirdest place is Gug - I see the paths leading to left and right of the drwabridge, but around those there is black floor...
worst parts are of course BD Road and Oja Road - although I do see the "load zone tunnel" completely.
otherwise, my orientation relies alone on trees, golden rock formations and the occasional body of water (and possibly NPCs)

[LigH]

The whole Bronze Doors area is modelled with polygons. The sandstone and jade passages to Bronze Doors, Gugrontid or Ojaveda too. And the whole towns anyway. Including the roads in Gugrontid above the grid-based heightfield map.

[Shoraal]

so this tells us exactly what...?
That I can only see polygons?

[LigH]

Yes... polygons are basically textured, but fullbright and with static lights added, and not shaded darker; heightfield grids instead are not textured at all, therefore black on some graphic cards, invisible on others.

It seems that there is a basic level of texturing and lighting which works reliably (for polygon objects), but then there is an advanced level of shading and texturing (shadow maps on polygons, "splatting" on heightfields) which requires more advanced graphic chips, in the current development of shading programs.

[Mouli]

http://i49.tinypic.com/2pre595.jpg

I have the same problem with MY laptop and Intel Video Card....