Trying different computers

[phil180]

I've been trying DropTeam on a range of computers:

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• I've had a server running on a Linux box (within a Debian unstable/sid chroot hosted on Debian stable/sarge) with connections from a WinXP desktop without trouble. Very nice and shiny.</font>
• The graphics, sound and whole gameplay on the WinXP desktop are very nice indeed.</font>
• A work laptop running WinXP just crashes without getting into the lobby: the display changes resolution, then changes back and displays the crash dialog box.
  
  A sticker claims it has an `ATI Mobility Radeon 9700'; Windows' Device Manager thinks it's an `ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 Series' with driver file version 6.14.10.6404. Attempts to pull down updates from ati.com fail: the Catalyst 6.3 release reports that it's unsuitable for that machine. In case it makes any difference, the display is set to 1280x800 at 16 bpp.</font>
• Running the client on the (unstable-in-stable) Debian box is hopeless: the sound is corrupted, as is the minimap. The terrain appears and disappears. I suspect the machine or its software configuration just isn't up to the job:
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• It has 0.5 GB of RAM.</font>
• The video card is a NVIDIA GeForce4 MX440-AGP8 with 128 MB, although the drivers are positively geriatric (1.0.4496).</font>
• Sound driver: ALSA 1.0.9.</font>
• Kernel: 2.4.18.
  So it's fairly old (but very, very stable).</font>

Quiting appears clean, except the console reports `Fatal signal: Segmentation Fault (SDL Parachute Deployed)'.

There's no chance of it running on Debian stable: it's only got glibc 2.3.2, compared with unstable's 2.3.6.

I'm happy to pass further details on system configs, etc., if that would be helpful. (I don't know if I'll ever get round to installing a clean Debian unstable on the work laptop -- enough work to do as it is!)

[weasello]

I have a GeForce 4 MX440 at home and swapped it in just for kicks to see how the game ran. With some of the quality settings understandably reduced, it runs smooth as glass and looks suprisingly good. So I'm thinking that's not your problem there.

I have a laptop at work that crashes any OpenGL application that attempts to change the resolution... Maybe that has to do with your problem? Try reconfiguring the game to run at your desktop rez.

[Type98]

Out of curiousity, is 3d hardware acceleration turn on ? The game requirement has Nvidia driver 8178 listed.

[ClaytoniousRex]

Those are more good data points to have, Phil.

The work laptop's problem is definitely video drivers. Have you tried 0.9.42 on that laptop? Hopefully it will now explicitly tell you that the drivers are bad instead of just crashing.

The problem with the GF4 on Debian looks like drivers, too. Install the latest nvidia drivers and I'll bet that one plays OK, much as Weasel described (you will need to lower some settings).

[phil180]

Originally posted by ClaytoniousRex:

The work laptop's problem is definitely video drivers. Have you tried 0.9.42 on that laptop? Hopefully it will now explicitly tell you that the drivers are bad instead of just crashing.

Ah yes, I forgot to add that 0.9.42 had said something to the effect of 'the drivers are old, do you still want to try?'. I, of course, said yes, given that the ATI drivers didn't seem to want to go on to it.

I get the impression that DropTeam cache's my response to try regardless -- where does it store that (so I can undo it)?

The problem with the GF4 on Debian looks like drivers, too. Install the latest nvidia drivers and I'll bet that one plays OK, much as Weasel described (you will need to lower some settings).

Will do -- I'll try to find a few hours to rebuild the relevant bits of the machine (being both stable and rather complicated with lots of other bits'n'pieces).

Thanks!

[ClaytoniousRex]

It's a file cleverly named "IgnoreDrivers.dat" in the \data directory. Just delete it to get the message back again.

[phil180]

Originally posted by ClaytoniousRex:

The work laptop's problem is definitely video drivers. Have you tried 0.9.42 on that laptop? Hopefully it will now explicitly tell you that the drivers are bad instead of just crashing.

I've had another go at this laptop. DropTeam definitely complains about missing support for OpenGL 1.5.

However, the relevant ATI Catalyst drivers refuse to install, referring to the notebook manufacturer... who doesn't appear to have any updates. (A bit pathetic considering that the machine was only supplied this year!)

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

[ClaytoniousRex]

Of course the clean, safe option is to bug your laptop manufacturer and tell them you need new drivers. All they really do is take the drivers from ATI, bundle them up for their own brand, test them and release them.

If you don't want to wait, you can probably manually install the driver instead of using ATI's setup program (the usual "Have Disk" and point at inf files sort of thing). This works fine on NVidia Go cards, but I have never tried it with ATI. You might want to do some research before embarking on that path...

[phil180]

Originally posted by ClaytoniousRex:

Of course the clean, safe option is to bug your laptop manufacturer and tell them you need new drivers. All they really do is take the drivers from ATI, bundle them up for their own brand, test them and release them.

For reference, the Omega drivers (the most recent Catalyst 6.3 derived version) seem to work fine for that laptop. (The one claiming to be an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700; possibly a 9600 depending on which panels you believe. It's seriously confused the Source engine, though -- it thinks it's is talking to a DX7 card instead of DX9.... )

I think my work productivity might be about to drop....