Reverendo Posted August 29, 2000 Share Posted August 29, 2000 I just launched Combat Mission (full) for the first time today. After a pair of turns playing I realized there was something odd about the graphics: the texture quality was EXTREMELY low! I thought 'hey, I have an iMac with one of those crappy ATI cards, I can't ask for more'. But then I remembered the textures in both Beta and Gold demos looked a lot better. The soldiers' faces are blurred, the tanks' camo's full of RAVE-blurred blocks and (by far the worst thing!) I can't tell the German cross in Sdkfz halftracks from a cream and coffee stain in the thing's armour. American stars are also far worse than in the demo. I have tried all colour depths and resolutions, and even doubled the amount of RAM allocated to CM, with no luck. What can I do? I have an iMac 233 with 160 Mb of RAM and the built-in ATI Rage PRO (which, I add, worked well with the demos) Ye Bloody Scotsman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted August 29, 2000 Share Posted August 29, 2000 Have the same problem with a 6500/250 and a V2. The Beta Demo was amazing looking. The Gold and final sucked. All the textures are blurred. It also affect game play. I can't read the sign on mine fields so i don't know if they're infantry or AT mines. Also I can't read the exit things! Everything is blurred. It's really annoying! ------------------ And if we abandon any platform, I can assure you it will not be the Macintosh. -Steve My website! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Aitken Posted August 29, 2000 Share Posted August 29, 2000 If the demo was okay, and the problem exists on both RAVE and Voodoo, it doesn't sound like a driver problem. Have you guys done a full install onto your hard disc, or are you running from the CD? David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverendo Posted August 30, 2000 Author Share Posted August 30, 2000 Full install, a few times. It doesn't seem an install problem either, since mods seem to have the same problem. In most games there's a fancy "Preferences" screen to mess up with so you can make your iMac crash instantly. And that's something I miss in CM. I don't like games to handle video settings for me... The minefield sign thing is really annoying. You can only tell Daisy Chain mines from the rest, since they appear on the map without having to step on them and blow up (something not recommended) I hope Steve, Fionn, Matt or any of the "big guys" here makes a patch to force high-res texture loading. I don't care about FPS, I just want to be able to read signs and watch vehicle insignias... Ye Bloody Scotsman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted August 30, 2000 Share Posted August 30, 2000 I know the Voodoos have a "post processor filter" that can make some images blurry (you can't turn it off, unfortunately). I don't know what on ATIs for the Mac could have that would cause this though. Some of the textures in the BETA Demo were lower resolution than the Gold Demo and Final. So the blurriness sounds like a video setting in either your driver/RAVE extension or CM. I'm not familiar with RAVE, but is there a control panel that would allow you to change any display options (mip-mapping, detail level, etc.) ? Although you probably have this driver or something newer, this is the latest Voodoo2 driver I found for the Mac (OS 8.x): http://www.voodooextreme.com/hw/Binaries/drivers.html For the ATI Rage PRO on the iMac, here's ATI's latest Universal Installer: Universal Installer 4.2: http://support.atitech.ca/drivers/xclaim.html Note that OpenGL 1.01 or higher is required: http://support.atitech.ca/infobase/3109.html Instructions for using Universal Installer for ATI built-in video chipsets: http://support.atitech.ca/infobase/3085.html If you're running OS 9.0.x then the latest ATI driver/extension comes with it (supposedly). [This message has been edited by Schrullenhaft (edited 08-29-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Michael emrys Posted August 30, 2000 Share Posted August 30, 2000 I've got a 604e 200MHz machine running a (now-ancient) VooDoo 1 card from Tech Works with only 4MB VRAM. Vehicles look okay (but not great) but everything else is mediocre to crappy. Trees look blocky (pixilated) when you get near them, houses lack the kind of detail I see in screenshots from others, etc. Also, I have the same inability to read minefield and exit signs you are reporting. I have assumed that all this is due to my video card and will go away when I finally get around to upgrading my entire system (fingers crossed). Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckeye Posted August 30, 2000 Share Posted August 30, 2000 I'm not sure why your graphics are so poor. I have an iMac DV SE w/192 megs RAM and the standard 8 meg ATI card, and everything looks very good. I get some slowing when there's lots of smoke, and can't see some of the high-res mods (e.g., grid terrain), but otherwise it's all there. Could be the old ATI card is the problem. ------------------ "Don't lie to me, Gustav! You're a stinkin' Mac user!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted August 30, 2000 Share Posted August 30, 2000 I don't know, but it sounds like another reason to dump those weird Macs and get PCs with non-integrated video and audio cards. ------------------ All that sleeps, awakens... All that awakens, hungers... All that hungers, feeds... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Michael emrys Posted August 30, 2000 Share Posted August 30, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Maximus: I don't know, but it sounds like another reason to dump those weird Macs and get PCs with non-integrated video and audio cards. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Sure, why not? I've always wanted to spend the last days of my life re-installing the OS every week or so, and all the time in between renaming files and moving them around. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverendo Posted August 30, 2000 Author Share Posted August 30, 2000 Aye, and do not forget the excitement you would find in supporting one of the largest criminal operations in the world... By the way. Since both demos look alright (I remember being slack-jawed at the Beta demo's graphics) and there's absolutely no ATI control panel whatsoever (it will not open if it doesn't detect a card, and built-in cards are not software detectable) I am pretty sure the problem here is that Combat Mission, in some way, forces some graphical settings depending on your system's performance. Weird thing the smoke, fire and explosions, as well as 3D fog and heavy fog, look astonishing, while trees are blocky, signs are impossible to read, and the vehicles I thought to be weathered are actually normal vehicles with crappy texture resolution. I would only change my iMac for a G4. I'm seriously thinking of selling my soul to Satan (and my sister's, just to solve yet another problem) in order to get a fancy new Mac with an ATI Radeon. Ye Bloody Scotsman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dittohead Posted August 30, 2000 Share Posted August 30, 2000 I think you might have the wrong color IMAC. You have to have the Camo one for CM to work properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted August 30, 2000 Share Posted August 30, 2000 Reverendo - try installing the OpenGL 1.1.2 and see if it helps. It may update your QuickDraw and ATI extensions (depending on how old they are). Apple's OpenGL 1.1.2: http://asu.info.apple.com/swupdates.nsf/artnum/n11545 If you're running OS 9.0.x then use your Software Update control panel. If you don't want to use ATI's software (and you haven't installed it yet), there's Apple's update to the ATI drivers. If you're using 9.0.x then you already have the latest and don't want to install these: http://asu.info.apple.com/swupdates.nsf/artnum/n11475 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pford Posted August 30, 2000 Share Posted August 30, 2000 Also try deleting the preference file and increasing the resolution. If that doesn't work try decreasing the resolution. Set col or to millions, then try thousands. There is a usual set of voodoo, not the graphic card, that I perform when having problems with a Mac. Deleting the Pref file. If there are important setings like with Conflict Catcher, it can screw things up, so you may just want to copy it to an empty folder. Do this only when the application is not running. Rebuilding the desktop. Who knows why this would work? Running a disk repair utility. Disk First Aid, Disk Warrior, etc. Turning off unneed extensions. On an original iMac I have, I have a CM set in the extension manager because the defalut has something in it that kills it. (Don't ask me what is left other than ATI, I don't recall) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverendo Posted August 31, 2000 Author Share Posted August 31, 2000 Since this exciting, wonderful topic is being buried under pages and pages PBEM challenges, flame wars and threads about hamsters, it is my duty to post again and keep it up. So some of us iMac users still have problems with textures, don't we? Problems we didn't have with any of the demos... I love CM as is right now, and there are few things I dislike more than people saying 'CM's graphics should be better'. Am I a grognard? Well, kind of. Sue me. But this is not about horsepower... I have seen my Mac handle it. I played Chance Encounter with the demo (which was kind of a big battle) and there it was, showing lots of fancy high resolution textures with no slowdowns (apart from those I have even with low resolution textures, when some hundreds of smoke shells fall over one of my mighty Stuarts or Cromwells and the battlefield starts looking like an anti smoking ban riot in Scotland Yard). If there is no solution for the problem, then what the hell, I keep playing with low quality textures, I'm not going to die for it. But if I can do something to get the great looking ones I had in the demo, then I would like to know... Hey Steve, we're trying to draw some attention here... Malory, hand me one of those smoke grenades! No, I don't care about FPS slowdowns, I just want to draw Steve's attention! Ye Bloody Scotsman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aikidorat Posted September 1, 2000 Share Posted September 1, 2000 Can you guys post a screen shot so the rest of us can see what you are putting up with? just curious - be interesting to see the vehicle textures, say. just a thought. I dont have any others. dave ------------------ The only reason for time is so everything doesn't happen at once Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted September 1, 2000 Share Posted September 1, 2000 I have the newest V2 drivers from 3dfx. Beta demo looked great and the other demos looked like crap. I'll get a screenshot up soon. ------------------ And if we abandon any platform, I can assure you it will not be the Macintosh. -Steve My website! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Aitken Posted September 1, 2000 Share Posted September 1, 2000 Maximus wrote: > I don't know, but it sounds like another reason to dump those weird Macs and get PCs with non-integrated video and audio cards. You wouldn't catch me dead with an iMac. They do make real Macs as well, you know. For the rest of you, I think CM automatically chooses low-res textures if you don't have enough RAM (VRAM or otherwise). I suggest you post in the tech forum (after doing a search, of course), and Charles might look into it. David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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