Dodgy graphics... What have I forgotton?

[b6x]

In an attempt to diagnose the problem explained throughout this thread...

http://www.totalbf2.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33527

...I have borrowed a hard drive off a friend and re-installed XP onto it from scratch. Fresh XP install, including SP2 and all available online updates.

Then installed the latest nVidia drivers (81.98) and then BF2 + 2x patches + Special Forces. Launched BF2 and set all video settings to medium (dynamic stuff to low) at 1280x1024.

This is as good as it got:-

http://www.4mo.co.uk/downloads/screen000.jpg
http://www.4mo.co.uk/downloads/screen001.jpg

Now, this is worse than the initial problem I'm trying to solve. Completely unplayable. I've tried different versions of the drivers, including a really old one, and the Xtreme-G latest one - all exactly the same. Even tried setting to 800x600 with everything on low.

Any ideas what I have missed? Surely this stuff should just install straight out of the box?

Regards,
b6x

[ptegan]

Re: Dodgy graphics... What have I forgotton?

Wow....rarely do we get people who have done as much as you to get the game working and still ends up serching for answers....sorry that it isn't working yet....

Have you tried any other games on your system?

I'd like to see another game, possible a demo, that requires as much 'attention' as BF2 just to see if it runs properly.

[b6x]

Re: Dodgy graphics... What have I forgotton?

Good idea. I have a copy of F.E.A.R demo that I will attempt to install tonight.

Thanks.
b6x

[b6x]

Re: Dodgy graphics... What have I forgotton?

Well, I installed F.E.A.R on the second (borrowed HDD) last night and it wasn't happy. It loaded, but strange graphic glitches within the menu system at the start - didn't even get into the game as I couldn't see the menu items properly.

Plugged my HDD back in and rebooted machine and loaded up F.E.A.R. Loaded fine, and played very well indeed with the following settings:-

Effects Detail: Maximum
Model Decals: Maximum
Water Resolution: Medium
Reflections and Displays: Maximum
Volumetric Lights: On
Volumetric Light Density: Medium

Graphics:
FSAA: Off
Light Detail: Maximum
Enable Shadows: On
Shadow Detail: Maximum
Soft Shadows: Off
Texture Filtering: Anisotropic 4x
Texture Resolution: Maximum
Videos: Medium
Pixel Doubling: Off
DX8 Shaders: Off
Screen Resolution: 1024x768
Shaders: Maximum

They seem pretty good?

This is starting to do my head in. No idea whats going on. Got the feeling the card is ok, but there is just something not quite configured correctly, that gets worse by swapping to a different HDD (with everything else exactly the same)

Thanks alot
b6x

[Sir. Shpox]

Re: Dodgy graphics... What have I forgotton?

Try the card on another persons system to see if they get the problem.

You aren't overclocking are you ?

Try turning your card settings down.

I really have no idea and I've only seen this with cards that the OVER overclocked.

[b6x]

Re: Dodgy graphics... What have I forgotton?

I have placed the card in a friends machine, but it was a pretty low spec (a 1.2GHz AMD). I didn't see any "black texture" problems, but BF2 played very poorly so wasn't a great test really. Everyone else is a bit reluctant to let me install my nVidia card into their (ATI based) finely tuned gaming monsters.
Which I guess is fair enough.

I haven't overclocked the card at all... it's been left on the default 350MHz/1.0GHz setting.

Thanks,
b6x

[b6x]

Re: Dodgy graphics... What have I forgotton?

Any ideas what I have missed? Surely this stuff should just install straight out of the box?

For the record, it seems that what I missed was the AGP drivers for the motherboard. Installing v1.17e SiS AGP (GART) drivers sorted the graphics out nicely, but back to the same issue I had on the other hard drive (missing textures replaced with black shapes). So... update to latest v1.21 drivers from SiS.com I thought.
WRONG! They make it complete poor and unplayable again! Back to the 1.17e drivers... not great, but playable at least - and finally maybe something to look into for the other issues I've been having!

[b6x]

Re: Dodgy graphics... What have I forgotton?

(apologies for blatent copy and paste from other thread)

Problem Solved! Texture Issues Are Gone!!! How Happy Am I!!!

The problem:- motherboard (or at least drivers). Changed motherboard to a Asus K8N-E Deluxe (with nVidia chipset) and everything is now superb. PLaying the game with everything set to High (except dynamic shadows/lighting: Medium) at 1280x1024. Lovely.

Old motherboard was a foxconn K8S755A-6EKRS. Great board, tons of features, not bad BIOS, just an awful (in my opinion) SiS755 chipset.

Wouldn't recommend the Asus board though... the AMI BIOS is a complete joke and the bundled software a complete pile of cack.