ATI Support

[Aerig]

When I downloaded PS, I checked the GL version at first and was astounded when it was so slow. Think ing that I maybe had something wrong in the config or something, I came here and searched on ATI Radeon to see if there was any info on the problem.

What I did find was that this seems to be a recognised issue and that there seems to be no particular intention to do anything about it.

Running PS in software rendered mode is not too bad. Its useable in the current version anyway. But I can foresee software rendering being horrendously slow when CB comes out and the interface becomes that much more complicated in its visual display.

Lol, imagining walking along a treelined avenue does not really bear thinking about. So could we please have a fix for this issue, whether that is a fix in CS, the config files or a pointer to a driver that correctly initiates GL for ATI cards.

While I was looking for a way to solve this problem myself, I came across line like the following in the file ./data/config/opengl.cfg ...

Video.OpenGL.Config.nvGeforce.GL_RENDERER = *GeForce*
Video.OpenGL.Config.nvGeforce.config = glnvgf.cfg

It occurred to me that the problem might be caused by a missing line of the same sort for ATI cards? (I think it unlikey that anything so simple would have been overlooked by the PS dev team, but you never know)

ps From the screenshots the interface looks really good and I am looking forward to seeing iit in action whether I get forced to use software rendering or not

[Seytra]

Let me first state this: ATI boards are crap. I have the Rage Fury MAXX and paid big $$$ for it by the time it was new, but it didn\'t work properly even once. The most recent drivers are, what, thee yoears old and still an old 16 MB Voodoo Banshee borad delivers better performance.

Anyway, everything in MB is outdated, and will not be fixed. CB uses a new CS version and there may be better support for ATI boards, or for everything else.

Note, however, that neither CS nor CEL are supported by the PS team, so if you have issues with these you need to talk to the maintainers of these.

Furthermore, if it is a driver or CS / CEL problem then the PS team would be unable to fix it anyway. If your drivers don\'t work properly, you need to compalin to ATI. In fact, the manufacturers need to ensure best compatibility for their boards themselves, and I see it as bad practise to not have 100% standards-compliant drivers out with at least the second public release. Furthermore, they really need to make all programming information available and usable for Linux developers (in fact I will base the decision on which board I will buy for my new computer almost entirely on this), but that is a completely different issue.

Anyway, MB is no longer any measure of how CB will work, and therefore rightfully isn\'t supported anymore.

[acraig]

Originally posted by Aerig

What I did find was that this seems to be a recognised issue and that there seems to be no particular intention to do anything about it.

Running PS in software rendered mode is not too bad. Its useable in the current version anyway. But I can foresee software rendering being horrendously slow when CB comes out and the interface becomes that much more complicated in its visual display.

We use the Crystal Space engine for rendering.  They\'ve spent the last year totally re-writting their rendering engine to be updated with the latest OpenGL technology.  I think we provide a good test bed for them since we push the engine to the limits and they continue to work on it to make it better.   They are soon preparing to totally remove the old renderer and go to Crystal Space v1.0.  

Lol, imagining walking along a treelined avenue does not really bear thinking about. So could we please have a fix for this issue, whether that is a fix in CS, the config files or a pointer to a driver that correctly initiates GL for ATI cards.

Unfortunantly, it\'s never as easy as this .  I am hoping that the new renderer willl provide a much better system and it\'s always improving.  So in this way both projects ( Crystal Space and PlaneShift ) both get better.

While I was looking for a way to solve this problem myself, I came across line like the following in the file ./data/config/opengl.cfg ...

Video.OpenGL.Config.nvGeforce.GL_RENDERER = *GeForce*
Video.OpenGL.Config.nvGeforce.config = glnvgf.cfg

It occurred to me that the problem might be caused by a missing line of the same sort for ATI cards? (I think it unlikey that anything so simple would have been overlooked by the PS dev team, but you never know)

I\'d have to ask Jorrit ( from Crystal Space ) about this. I use an ATi card myself and it preforms pretty good. We also have options to use adaptive distances to try to keep a constant frame rate.  There are also a lot more improvements that can be done to increase frame rate. Things like imposters, level of details on meshes.

[Aerig]

Okay first let me apologise for being a clutz.

Last time I updated the drivers was a couple months ago and it seems like the latest driver, Catalyst 4.11, fixed an issue with Open GL and PS now runs just great in Open GL mode, barring a few annoying artifacts, and with a noticeable improvement in frame rate and, of course, graphics quality.

As for ATI cards, mine is a Radeon 8500 SE, ie no onboard memory, and it has served pretty well for the last 3 years.

I do admit that the games that I have had problems with are probably Open GL based and that the problems in some cases have made them completely unplayable and that that doesnt say much for the quality of ATI\'s Open GL support.

Finally, my request for wish fulfillment was based on the assumption, from reading other posts on the issue, that there was no fix as yet and was not intended as criticism of PS, which I am very impressed with, so much so that I actually decided to pull my finger out for once and sent an email off asking if they wanted help on the quest design front.

I think the graphics quality, software rendered or not, is very high and I got a feeling of real atmosphere in every part of Hydlaa (probably spelled that wrong).

The town is consistent in feel but clearly has pockets of local colour that I think will bring the game to life when it is populated and each little bit of the town begins to attract its own type of loiterer.

I can already imagine fighter types hanging about in and outside the pub and bookish types congregating in the garden behind the library.

I\'m guessing that the dungeon is going to be a sort of noob hunting ground, though I am hoping that it might end up more of a puzzle maze, since the lonely atmosphere down there and catching the occasional sight of a shadow slipping off between pillars or across a hallway is already atmospheric.

It would probably also be well suited to be the home of shady underworld characters like Zak.

Mostly, I just like the feel of the graphic design. It would be unfair to games like EQ to say that their general design is worse, but there is an immediacy to the way the PS designers have brought the Hydlaa area to life that makes other games feel a bit cardboard in comparison.

Anyway, enough waffle, this porobably the wrong thread in the wrong forum I\'ll post my real ideas in the right place.