Hard Light Productions Forums

General FreeSpace => FreeSpace & FreeSpace Open Support => Topic started by: nomadfred on May 30, 2009, 10:18:39 am

Title: normal maps not working
Post by: nomadfred on May 30, 2009, 10:18:39 am
Hello, i've got a problem getting normal maps to work,

i'm using the 3.6.10_RC2 build with launcher 5.5d and have downloaded the latest mediavps seperatly, i'm pretty sure i got all the things i need and setup correctly, my notebook's gpu is a hd 2600 which should be sufficent but it just doesn't work, i have no idea why, drivers are the last omegadrivers form early 2008, i dunno if that might be the problem but i really don't have much of a choice in case of graphics drivers

so is there anything i can try to get the full load of eye-candy?
Title: Re: normal maps not working
Post by: General Battuta on May 30, 2009, 10:24:49 am
Did you turn on 'normal maps' under the graphics tab in the launcher?
Title: Re: normal maps not working
Post by: nomadfred on May 30, 2009, 10:31:34 am
yap, but visually it doesn't make any difference
Title: Re: normal maps not working
Post by: General Battuta on May 30, 2009, 10:34:23 am
Hrm. But you can see the high-poly models and upgraded effects, yes?

Are you sure your card supports Shader Model 3? It looks like it ought to.
Title: Re: normal maps not working
Post by: nomadfred on May 30, 2009, 11:54:40 am
it actually features sm 4.0

effects and models look fine i think
Title: Re: normal maps not working
Post by: Vasudan Admiral on May 30, 2009, 09:00:13 pm
Can you get a screenie of the Ulysses from the techroom? It'd help if we can see what you see. :)
Title: Re: normal maps not working
Post by: Zacam on June 01, 2009, 03:12:57 am
The Herc or Amazon Advanced would show a much easier recognition of Normal Maps working or not.

The Ulysses is a fine ship, but I would not use it as a gauge for if normal maps are working or not.
Title: Re: normal maps not working
Post by: Vasudan Admiral on June 01, 2009, 03:43:57 am
The Uly is the quickest & easiest one to find, but more importantly will give a clear indicator of the MVP version in use.

Not that the ship used matters much. :p
Title: Re: normal maps not working
Post by: Trivial Psychic on June 01, 2009, 08:29:33 am
Would I be correct in assuming that the Radeon 9600XT doesn't support normal mapping?
Title: Re: normal maps not working
Post by: Zacam on June 01, 2009, 10:28:31 am
According to what I can find, it should be SM2.0, which is what normal mapping requires at a minimum. The XT does not suffer any lost part of HyperZ III that the regular or SE have, but that does not mean that you will have stellar performance.

You may encounter the same driver compatability issues that have been gone through in the various Radeon threads though. And while my game play performance was not outstanding, my 9600 XT played DooM 3 pretty well.
Title: Re: normal maps not working
Post by: nomadfred on June 01, 2009, 10:29:27 am
here you go

[attachment deleted by ninja]
Title: Re: normal maps not working
Post by: nomadfred on June 01, 2009, 06:42:46 pm
i've got the problem solved, it's definitely a drivers issue, i used the mobility modder to mod the newest 9.5 catalyst, after installation freespace wouldn't start at all, after some research i found you need an OpenGL registry hack, now it works fine