[Jeff Vader]

You're a confusing person, Matt.

I've never had issues with the adv vps, and I don't think it's gonna start now. I just don't play with full options, and my GPU won't bother with normal maps that it can't run anyway.

It is most obvious that this is an issue with any and all advanced assets. The same thing happens with the planet textures in Cardinal Spear, when played with weak-arse graphics cards.
And why do you bother? If you have to keep the lighting at a minimum, it's not like you can even see any of the benefits provided by MV_Advanced and other HC files.

I've never needed this patch before neither.

If there's a hole in your boat, why not plug it? Just because you haven't sunken yet doesn't mean that you won't eventually.

[MatthTheGeek]

EDIT : the patch didn't fixed it, but removing the bp-adv vps did. Interesting issue, I'm gonna browse the vps and see if I can come up with a personal fix to play with the advanced vp without this bug.

Ninja'd that while you were posting.

EDIT :

And why do you bother? If you have to keep the lighting at a minimum, it's not like you can even see any of the benefits provided by MV_Advanced and other HC files.

That I don't usually play with full settings doesn't mean I never do. In missions with not many of ships (especially fsport-based campaigns), I can easily play full settings without any slowdown. And lightnings settings aren't the only features of the adv vps - I'm thinking, between other things, of shield and flak effects.

[General Battuta]

The issue isn't 'interesting', it's the reason the Advanced VPs were created. Your video card isn't powerful enough to work with the large skybox textures in the Advanced VP.

Also, just for clarity, it's a skybox, not a bitmap.

[MatthTheGeek]

I think it's interesting because I've never had this issue before, and I've played nearly all of the available campaigns here - including Cadinal Spear, with which I haven't experienced any issue with the planet textures.

[General Battuta]

Well, you can rest assured it's a problem with your video card that was anticipated and corrected for, not an issue with Blue Planet assets.

[Jeff Vader]

I think it's interesting because I've never had this issue before, and I've played nearly all of the available campaigns here - including Cadinal Spear, with which I haven't experienced any issue with the planet textures.

What build did you use when playing Cardinal Spear? I got that texture tearing with 3.6.9 (and 3.6.8 MediaVPs), but not with 3.6.10 and newer (with 3.6.10 MediaVPs).

Also, either you're lying or something strange is up. Intel graphics solutions do not run MV_Advanced or any graphics material of that magnitude without whining and causing problems. Unless if you've cranked the in-game graphics quality settigns down. Which again doesn't make sense.

[Fury]

You can discuss about that issue elsewhere, like in FS Support board if you really want to. The problem itself has been fixed, no reason to keep beating dead horse in this topic.

[MatthTheGeek]

Just to quickly end the conversation, if you don't believe me Jeff, just check that. It's with all adv thingies (with the older version of BP though), and it runs totally fine - even if I had to switch to a lower resolution capture the video properly ; I usually run 1440x900 full screen.

[Renegade]

Now there is an easy solution.

I had the same Texture problem and deleted "BP-Adv... vp´s
And now works properly.

Here running an ATI X800Pro Card. I had also the same issue in Cardinal Spear

[Jeff Vader]

Just to quickly end the conversation, if you don't believe me Jeff, just check that. It's with all adv thingies (with the older version of BP though), and it runs totally fine - even if I had to switch to a lower resolution capture the video properly ; I usually run 1440x900 full screen.

Well, even if the graphics are drawn correctly, the framerates are quite horrible in my personal opinion: I'd rather have nice graphics with smooth gameplay instead of excellent graphics in a slideshow. But suit yourself.

Still, a reminder: if you have strange graphical problems, they are because of your graphics card. Really. If something like this occurs again, try removing some of the hardcore assets before claiming that a mod/whatever has a bug.

[MatthTheGeek]

Framerates are 'quite horrible', like you said, because I was playing and capturing the video. You will agree that I don't really have the hardware for this, and given that, I'm still quite happy of the performance of my GPU on this.

I never said the mod had a bug, but I had a bug. I totally agree with you that all of my issues come from my graphic card, but so far, I've always managed to play with really decent framerates. And in the rare missions that make my framerate drop (especially BoE-like missions, or missions involving large asteroid fields), I just don't play with the full options.

Anyway, I don't see why we are even having this discussion : isn't having the opportunity for everyone to customize its FS installation the whole goal of the MediaVPs anyway ?

[Herra Tohtori]

I'm having an issue with the earth bipmap :

Spoiler:

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/1593/earthbug.png

The log is attached

Code: [Select]

Initializing OpenGL graphics device at 1440x900 with 32-bit color...
  Initializing WGL...
  Requested WGL Video values = R: 8, G: 8, B: 8, depth: 32, double-buffer: 1
  Actual WGL Video values    = R: 8, G: 8, B: 8, depth: 32, double-buffer: 1
  OpenGL Vendor     : Intel
  OpenGL Renderer   : Intel 965/963 Graphics Media Accelerator
  OpenGL Version    : 1.5.0 - Build 7.14.10.4964

  Using extension "GL_EXT_fog_coord".
  Using extension "GL_ARB_multitexture".
  Using extension "GL_ARB_texture_env_add".
  Using extension "GL_ARB_texture_compression".
  Using extension "GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc".
  Using extension "GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic".
  Using extension "GL_ARB_texture_env_combine".
  Using extension "GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array".
  Using extension "GL_EXT_draw_range_elements".
  Unable to find extension "GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat".
  Unable to find extension "GL_ARB_texture_non_power_of_two".
  Using extension "GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object".
  Unable to find extension "GL_EXT_pixel_buffer_object".
  Using extension "GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap".
  Unable to find extension "GL_EXT_framebuffer_object".
  Using extension "GL_ARB_texture_rectangle".
  Using extension "GL_EXT_bgra".
  Using extension "GL_ARB_texture_cube_map".
  Using extension "GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias".
  Unable to find extension "NV_point_sprite".
  Unable to find extension "GL_ARB_shading_language_100".
  Unable to find extension "GL_ARB_shader_objects".
  Unable to find extension "GL_ARB_vertex_shader".
  Unable to find extension "GL_ARB_fragment_shader".
  Unable to find extension "GL_ATI_shader_texture_lod".
  Found special extension function "wglSwapIntervalEXT".

  Max texture units: 8 (8)
  Max elements vertices: 1024
  Max elements indices: 1024
  Max texture size: 2048x2048
  Can use compressed textures: YES
  Texture compression available: YES
  Using trilinear texture filter.
... OpenGL init is complete!
This is happening because the skybox textures in Advanced are 4096^2 in resolution, while your GPU supports textures only up to 2048^2. If you look closely, your starfield is messed up as well (the effect shows up as a subtle duplication of the stars there).

MediaVP's have slightly different design philosophy than BluePlanet; even in Advanced MediaVP's, the biggest textures you'll find are only 2048^2 which means they will work - not perhaps very fast or well but they will work on cards that only support that size of textures. And frankly, there is no real need for higher resolution there either - (mainly because there hasn't been any content made up to that quality so far...). However, in this case additional resolution for the starfields actually benefits users whose GPU's support that texture size. The reason for this is that when I used 4096^2 resolution, I was able to use dxt1 compression for the textures, while in 2048^2 I had to use uncompressed formats (u555 for starfields only, u888 for textures that contained planets) which means the higher resolution, compressed textures are actually more memory efficient as a whole.

Also, the sharpness of the stars is slightly better at higher resolution and allows users to use narrower field of view settings without "blurring" effect on the starfield. But if your GPU is limited to 2048^2, it's going to cause problems like that.


In retrospect, the release post probably should have mentioned that this would happen on old GPU's limited to 2048^2 texture dimensions, instead of simply saying that they are advanced and should be used if MV_Advanced works ok.

[Mongoose]

Just to quickly end the conversation, if you don't believe me Jeff, just check that. It's with all adv thingies (with the older version of BP though), and it runs totally fine - even if I had to switch to a lower resolution capture the video properly ; I usually run 1440x900 full screen.

Well, even if the graphics are drawn correctly, the framerates are quite horrible in my personal opinion: I'd rather have nice graphics with smooth gameplay instead of excellent graphics in a slideshow. But suit yourself.

Crap...that qualifies as a "horrible" framerate?  That doesn't look much below what I consider to be "good," and I don't even run Advanced.

[MatthTheGeek]

@Herra Tohtori : These are the conclusions I've made on my end too. I confirm my GPU can't handle anything larger than 2048², and the fact no textures larger than that are used in the advanced MVPs explains why I never experienced this issue in FSO before. As I said before, removing the high-res skyboxes from the BP advanced VP fixed my issue.

EDIT : @Mongoose : Yeah, there are people that can't play a game with less than 50 FPS. Shame on them, I play most of my games between 10 and 30 FPS and I'm fine with it (and I even consider myself a good player )