Author Topic: Graphics and Crash Issues with ATI/AMD Video Card  (Read 2234 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Graphics and Crash Issues with ATI/AMD Video Card
Hi Diaspora folks!

First off, awesome game! What a surprise this morning when I saw the announcement. So far, so fun!

But now, on to the crummier part of this post. I've experienced a couple of problems with Diaspora and what I suspect to be my video card.

I'm running Windows 7 x64, playing at 1680 x 1050 resolution at fullscreen with 32-bit colour depth and Bilinear texture filtering. No other enhancements turned on at the video driver level, and using the default Diaspora settings. I'm running a Radeon HD 4850 video card (yes, yes, it's a little ancient now).

When I was using the Catalyst 12.3 drivers, I got a few graphics glitches:
  • Viper silhouette outline at the bottom right was shining rainbow colours
  • Missile lock reticule will bounce around erratically while obtaining the lock. The reticule would be stable over the hostile target once lock was achieved
  • No target lead indicator

Before posting this to the forum, I thought I'd try to update the drivers first. Catalyst Control Center reported that version 12.8 was out, but installing that did nothing. Going to the AMD website, it pointed me to 12.6 as the latest driver available for my card. So I dutifully installed that. Now, Diaspora crashes once I enter a mission.

Thought I'd report this to see if this is a known issue, and if not whether there's anything I could do to help get to the bottom of this.

I need my Diaspora fix! :)

Let me know if you need more information!

 

Offline Ace

  • Truth of Babel
  • Moderator
  • 212
    • http://www.lordofrigel.com
Re: Graphics and Crash Issues with ATI/AMD Video Card
The missile lock and target lead indicator are design, not bugs.

Check under data/info for the HUD breakdown. Diaspora uses a gunsight not a target lead indicator. The gunsight shows where bullets go, so put the enemy fighter there.

The missile lock indicator jumps around on purpose. It's actually less than it was in an earlier version which mimiced the lock indicator of a Sparrow missile on an F-16.

The crash issue and rainbow issue with the render to texture Viper though are bugs. Can you post system specs?
Ace
Self-plagiarism is style.
-Alfred Hitchcock

 
Re: Graphics and Crash Issues with ATI/AMD Video Card
System Specs:

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Motherboard: Asus P5Q-PRO, BIOS ver 08.00.14
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
Memory: 8192 DDR2 RAM
DirectX: DirectX 11
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB
Video Driver: 8.970.100.3000 (07/03/2012)
DDI Version 10.1
Driver Model WDDM 1.1
Display: 1680 x 1050, 32-bit, 59Hz

Let me know if you need anything more specific.

 
Re: Graphics and Crash Issues with ATI/AMD Video Card
Thought I'd toss in a few more details here:

  • This happens at the tutorial mission where you have to target the drones in order
  • I run a dual monitor set up, and when I turned off extending my desktop to the second monitor, I got maybe 30 seconds farther into the mission before the game hung and crashed
  • With the 12.6 Catalyst drivers, the Viper silhouette at the bottom right of the HUD doesn't even show up anymore (no rainbow texture)
  • Haven't tried running with different resolutions or different detail settings

I tried disabling my second monitor because in dxdiag.exe I noticed that the video memory is split between the two displays in that mode. This is just a stab in the dark but maybe a bug is chewing up video RAM? Having more video RAM for the one single display may explain why I got a little farther into the mission before it crashed? *shrug* Really random thought but thought I'd just put it out there.