JohnH Posted May 11, 2000 Share Posted May 11, 2000 Hi, I've been playing on a laptop under Win2K. The first time I ran CM it told me I had an "ATI Rage Mobilty P". I can't seem to get transparent smoke, buildings or explosions. Is this a driver problem? Or is the 3D card just too crappy to handle transparency? Great game, by the way. A joy to play. Any help is appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eridani Posted May 11, 2000 Share Posted May 11, 2000 I've got the same problem on my Dell with the mobility... Are you only able to run in 800x600? I'm still running into a variation of the bug thats drove me crazy about the beta demo... Fortunately if I run native in 1024 and set CM to play in 800 it works fine and has decent image quality... I'm right now badgering dell to offer an upgrade to the Mobility 128 or Mobile Virge... I hate the mobile-P Piece of ****... -EridanMan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnH Posted May 11, 2000 Author Share Posted May 11, 2000 Hi, I can run in 1024x768, but if I try and run it in 1280x1024, I don't get any textures. I've been running at 800x600 to get a reasonable frame rate. I'm using a Dell Inspiron 7500. Can the graphics chip be upgraded on this lap top? It sure would be nice to have a better 3D chip ... I'm hoping the transparency problem is "just" a driver issue and not a hardware limitation. I checked the ATI web site and it said the drivers on the Win2K CD were the latest available - rats. Looks like I'll have to buy a desk top system after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted May 11, 2000 Share Posted May 11, 2000 ATI has more chipsets than we care to count Generally the older ones, or those in laptops, are stripped down to some extent. Transparancy is one thing that is either stripped out or in some way hobbled. But of course there is always the possibility of a driver issue. Why these companies can't get it right for their own hardware we will never understand. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eridani Posted May 14, 2000 Share Posted May 14, 2000 Wow, had to go way back to find this thread... JohnH, about the upgrade... from what I understand, upgrading to the new mobile 128 or Mobile s3 is physically possible with both the inspiron 5k and 7.5k... there are two questions though- When will dell get off its ass and release them for the inspiron line Will dell allow upgrades/sell the upgrade cards... If the answer to the second one is no, many people at dell are going to get a long and unpleasant piece of my mind about this.. I paid well over 2000 dollars for this toy... the only flaw in my mind is this damn video card... I will be rather pissed if I can't fix it -EridanMan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbg2112 Posted May 26, 2000 Share Posted May 26, 2000 Is anyone using an ATI Rage Pro video card and is able to see the transparent smoke? I'm at the latest DirectX level, but I think my video drivers are a little dated; however, before I mess with an otherwise good CM system I wanna know if it's gonna be worth it. If it does work for you, please post the level of drivers you're using. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neutral Party Posted May 26, 2000 Share Posted May 26, 2000 I have had no transparency effects with ati rage pro turbo 4MB on desktop (Sony PCV E205 PII 333MHz) or ati rage mobility 8 MB on laptop (Presario 1800 PIII 600MHz). In the preferences setup on laptop I can see the 1024 x 768 panel but can't click OK because the cursor is inoperative. Have to use 800 x 600. Don't know about you guys but the idea of swapping a graphics chip on a laptop fills me with dread and, much as I love CM, ain't worth it for transparency effects which I can live without. For the desktop I just bought a voodoo3 2000 PCI 16MB and now get transparency @ 1024 x 768. I would recommend this route for older machines that have integrated agp graphics on the motherboard but no swappable card. Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baevans Posted May 26, 2000 Share Posted May 26, 2000 I have a Dell Latitude with Rage Mobility, etc. Had a great deal of trouble with the beta demo (no cursor, etc) but am running gold demo at 1000 something x 700 something (top resolution for my display) with no trouble. Smoke: "Transparent" smoke looks exactly the same as "Fast and compatible" smoke, except bigger. Buildings: In default setup, there is no transparency. If I toggle hot key to "transparency off" then the walls disappear on the occupied floor. So I guess, no building wall transparency. Not cool overall, but definitely playable and all things considered, I'm happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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