[Dazza8082]

Ok, ATIs 7.2 drivers are out and once again there is a huge leap in OpenGL performance and quality on Doom 3 and UT2004, most of the serious graphic glitches are fixed and theres quite a nice speed boost too

Firstly my main components are,  a X800XL and a Intel 630 CPU running at around 3.5 GHz, vista x64 and 2GB of ram.

Im running the latest final build of SCP under OpenGL at a res of 1280*1024 with all the graphics turned on (DX works fine but looks terrible)

Flags are

C:\Games\FreeSpace2\fs2_open_3_6_9.exe -mod mediavps -spec -glow -env -jpgtga -mipmap -2d_poof -missile_lighting -dualscanlines -targetinfo -rearm_timer -ballistic_gauge -ship_choice_3d -3dwarp -warp_flash -fps

Under XP i was getting playable frame rates with exactly the same settings (with the previous final build) now im getting ingame rates of about 3fps, in the tech room the smaller craft work fine in their perfect glory, the larger craft again look perfect but the FPS drops to 4-5fsp

ok, to sum up....before ati 7.1 i had much the same issue except it looked crap as well in both doom 3 and FS2,
7.1 came and doom 3 was playable but had serious glitches, FS2 looked perfect but was unplayable,
7.2 came doom 3 looks very good and plays better, FS2 hasnt gotten any faster or more pretty ( not that its possible to look any better!)

So is there any chance that openGL isnt coded right in FS2?
is it possible that like direct X, ATI has screwed their drivers for us, so it doesnt work right any more?

i realise nvidia has crap drivers out there right now, but are you guys getting anything similar?

again, please dont bash vista, if there is an issue its best to get to the bottom of it, if its some driver querk that has screwed ATI users once again, then is there a work around, if its definatly 100% nothing to do with how openGL works on FS2 then least i can rule that out.

[taylor]

If OGL was coded wrong it wouldn't work anywhere.

The init code could be better, and will be better, but there isn't anything wrong with the current code.  Doom3 makes heavy use of shaders, which FSO doesn't (yet), so driver development work is probably going in that area to help newer and higher profile games.  There isn't anything we can do about that either way though, you'll simply have to wait for better drivers.

[neoterran]

Freespace works at the same frame rate as it did in XP, maybe a little better for me, but I'm using nvidia drivers - the 97.xx branch, the 100.xx series sucks ATM.

My frame rates are between 25 and 80 on a Geforce FX 5600Ultra Revision 2. (!!)

I think ATI has much more severe problems, sorry to hear.

[Taristin]

I dont know why, but I cant get OGL to work at all with my card. The screen freezes, pixels around things randomly blink red and green, and then the system reboots itself. :/ I dont know what that means, it works fine under XP.

[Dazza8082]

If OGL was coded wrong it wouldn't work anywhere.

The init code could be better, and will be better, but there isn't anything wrong with the current code.  Doom3 makes heavy use of shaders, which FSO doesn't (yet), so driver development work is probably going in that area to help newer and higher profile games.  There isn't anything we can do about that either way though, you'll simply have to wait for better drivers.

Thanks Taylor, that actually makes perfect sence, although im still slightly concerened about neoterrans comments about nvidia working, just hope ATI doesnt stab everyone in the back again!

Guess time will tell

Cheers again

[Dazza8082]

I dont know why, but I cant get OGL to work at all with my card. The screen freezes, pixels around things randomly blink red and green, and then the system reboots itself. :/ I dont know what that means, it works fine under XP.

Are you OCing your system? mine was doing that, had to scale back 200MHz for things to get sorted, but to be honest i think that my motherboard that sucks.
what card you using?

[neoterran]

I don't have any performance problems on Vista with the nvidia drivers that Nvidia dropped support for the FX series with . 97.46.

[FlareBaffled]

I am not surprised to see issues like this with Vista... it's one of the reasons I am holding off upgrading ( apart from the extra stress it puts on my PC that could probably do with an upgrade!!)

It's a brand new OS, and driver support will take time to catch up. Give it a few months, and the driver software will begine to get things under control. That's when I plan to 'Vistarise' myself ... that and the actual release of affordable DX10 compatable Gfx cards....

[Taristin]

I dont know why, but I cant get OGL to work at all with my card. The screen freezes, pixels around things randomly blink red and green, and then the system reboots itself. :/ I dont know what that means, it works fine under XP.

Are you OCing your system? mine was doing that, had to scale back 200MHz for things to get sorted, but to be honest i think that my motherboard that sucks.
what card you using?

Im not OCing, but I think the card is OC'd from the factory. It's a HIS x1950xt. Perhaps HIS has drivers, but I doubt it.

# Powered by ATI Radeon X1950XT - 625MHz
# 256MB-256bit 8 channel GDDR3 memory - 1.8GHz

[Taristin]

yep... looks like HIS overclocked the memory since its higher than other cards, and that seems to not work properly with the ATi Drivers. HIS only has winxp drivers on their website. :{ Im going to have to be contacting them about this.

[neoterran]

well, once you go to vista, you won't want to go back to xp, so if you are holding off, stay holding off until all the driver issues are resolved.

[Taristin]

Um, I *own* Vista Ultimate 64-bit. And I have both OS's installed. But I haaaate using XP.