Running psclient on ATI Catalyst 8.5 and later

[Tuxide]

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.

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.

• ATI Radeon 9500 Series
• ATI Radeon 9550 Series
• ATI Radeon 9600 Series
• ATI Radeon 9700 Series
• ATI Radeon 9800 Series
• ATI Radeon X300 Series
• ATI Radeon X550 Series
• ATI Radeon X600 Series
• ATI Radeon X700 Series
• ATI Radeon X800 Series
• ATI Radeon X850 Series
• ATI Radeon X1050 Series
• ATI Radeon X1300 Series
• ATI Radeon X1550 Series
• ATI Radeon X1600 Series
• ATI Radeon X1650 Series
• ATI Radeon X1800 Series
• ATI Radeon X1900 Series
• ATI Radeon Xpress Series
• ATI Radeon X1200 Series
• ATI Radeon X1250 Series
• ATI Radeon X2100 Series

Source

                                                                         

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.

[Elvicat]

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

[Tuxide]

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.

[Tomislav]

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).

[Lorit]

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.

[Arerano]

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)

[Lorit]

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.

[Arerano]

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.

[ThomPhoenix]

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.

[SidArtur]

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.

[ThomPhoenix]

I have some links for this, yes, an IT website. The website is in Dutch though, so it won't help you much likely

[Arerano]

@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.

[SidArtur]

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.

[Tuxide]

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.

[SidArtur]

- 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.