W2k with NVidia GeForce 2

[SiliconGhost]

Ok, if I understand the previous topics, Windows 2000, NVidia, and Combat Mission do NOT get along :confused:. I'm getting the "white text is transparent" problem plus the indepth scenario overview is just a black area with a control panel on the right.

I disabled the FSAA with no change in my problem. I'm using Detonator 3 (R12) drivers released from my board manufacturer (Elsa).

Machine Specs:

P3 800 Mhz

256 MB RAM

GeForce 2 GTS 32MB (Elsa brand)

Windows 2000 SR1

Detonator 3 (Release 12) Video Drivers

DirectX 8.0

I'm going to go get the absolute latest and greatest drivers for my board but I have little hope based on other comments.

So, where does that leave me as a recent purchaser of CM? Does BigTime/Battlefront have any intentions of coming up with a workaround? I realize that Win2000 is only a reasonably popular gaming platform because of its much superior stability over W98. I also realise that NVidia is now the LARGEST manufacture of add-in 3D chipsets in the world.

Has anyone else on this forum put 2 and 2 together. Top-dog graphics card (by sales) and a (at least according to their website) supported operating system should mean that I should of seen at least one comment from the developers saying something to the effect: "Hey, we hear you and we are working on it." I don't care if I have to sacrifice some performance for a usable game.

Any thoughts?

[dima]

Get Detonator 7.94 drivers and ENABLE FSAA, even the lowest level, but make sure you FORCE it. You'll have no problems then

[SiliconGhost]

Update on W2k/NVidia problem:

I downloaded and installed the latest drivers from Elsa (my board maker). The Elsa version # is 5.13.01.1240. If I remember correctly, that would make it equivalent to NVidia's 13.xx drivers and build 1240 for Elsa.

I can now see most text. I get a couple of flickering text locations at the bottom of the screen but the text is readable so I'm happy. The debriefing screen is black on black but I can alt-tab away and come back in to get black on white text (again a livable solution).

To all who are using 7.xx to get usable W2k support, try moving to the latest 13.xx drivers from your board maker or NVidia.

I've seen plenty of people complaining about NVidia drivers but this is the first game that has given me any trouble (and definitely video related) since I bought my GF2 over one year ago.

Silicon Ghost

[Skoonj]

My problems are similare to yours. I use W2K with a GeForce2V7700 from ASUS. I'm now using nVidia's 1.2.4.0 driver. I can play the game though the type on unit IDs and status is poor, and so is the type on the move/place/rotate device. Like you I get a black on black results board. My solution to that was to go back to the MAP, and I was able to read it there.

Unfortunately, once I exit the scenario after a battle, the text on selection screens is so bad that it's not worth playing another scenario.

I would like to know if BTS is working this problem. My last communication from them indicated they thought it was driver related. I don't think it is. Unless they want to specify a driver that will work, so I can locate it and check myself, I think the problem lies elsewhere.

What is surprising is that nVidia graphics cards are the biggest selling cards on the market now. Other games don't seem to present the problem CMBO does. Yesterday I downloaded some upgrades and fixes for W2K from Microsoft, and now my Falcon 4 can work again. No such luck with CMBO. Still the same problems.

[Schrullenhaft]

SiliconGhost - The Elsa drivers you have are based on the NVidia 12.40's (which are among the latest). NVidia has now declared the 12.41 as an OFFICIAL Release. I'm not sure of the differences between 12.40 and 12.41, but some people have had problems with both under CM.

You may also want to download NVMAX and play around with some of the settings. This thread mentions a workable solution (with links) for FSAA text corruption in CM (though it may only be avaliable in build 2093 of NVMAX).

http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=8&t=001644

Skoonj - The problem IS driver related. The text problem happens exclusively to the NVidia line under Win2K as far as I know (though there are occasional text problems with other cards under other OS's). I've tried other chipsets under Win2K (SP2, DirectX 8.0a) and have NOT had the text problem (though they lack in other regards for feature support).

Because NVidia has one of the more prolific driver developer teams around, there are lots of BETAs available. There are three things going on with driver development. 1) Fix bugs from previous drivers, whether it is hardware or software related 2) Support the latest incarnation of the mfg's chipsets 3) Add performance. Numbers 1 & 3 conflict with each other. Performance tuning often means cutting corners in processes and therefore speeding up the pipeline so-to-speak. The developer has to balance feature support for speed. A lot of 3D code works a bit faster with the way that NVidia has "optimized" their drivers, but occasionally there are problems with the 'short cuts'. The text issue in CM is one of those problems. Apparently one of the earliest Win2K drivers from NVidia didn't have the text problem. However this driver is unusuable for some of the latest chipsets since they aren't explicitly supported in the driver.

The DirectX calls that CM uses for text in CM may not be used in many other 3D games out there. Therefore NVidia has tuned certain settings in their latest driver (to enhance performance) that conflicts with the way CM needs certain DirectX calls handled. I'm not sure of the DirectX differences between Win9x/ME and Win2K, but they are quite possibly contributing to the problem also (since Win2K has a different driver model than the Win9x/ME series).

Therefore there is no perfect solution for BTS. They could possibly patch the code to detect NVidia chipsets under Win2K and then force certain calls to be made or make changes to the registry (if that will actually fix the problem) to force the drivers to perform certain calls. But that is a painful method of attempting to fix the problem (and it may cause possible compatibility/performance problems with other chipsets/drivers).

As Madmatt has posted in other threads, BTS is in contact with NVidia about the problem. Whether it actually gets addressed or not is up to NVidia.

[Skoonj]

OK to all that. To your knowledge, is there ANY driver that allows CM to work right under WsK, DX8, with an nVidia chipset?

[Schrullenhaft]

The 3.78 Reference Detonator for Win2K supposedly doesn't have the text problem in CM (according to a user who had a Dell OEM driver based on it for their GeForce). However I'm not sure if it will work with a GeForce2 (I think it should) and later (GeForce3's need 10.xx+ drivers). Going to a driver that old will lose a lot of the optimizations NVidia has put into the Detonator3 family (6.xx +) for the GeForce series (and they're not written to support DirectX 8's feature set - though they should work with it). It's possible that anything before 6.xx may help with the text (but lack FSAA options or something else). Of course back-tracking to older drivers means that other games may not have the fixes that are necessary and/or preferable for them.

Gamer's Ammo NVidia Win2K drivers:

http://www.gamers-ammo.com/nVw2k.html

I'm not sure how valid the issue is, but I've heard from some people using the ASUS brand GeForces that those cards are more particular about the drivers used with them. I'm not sure why that would be the case, but a couple of users had problems with the Reference drivers and had to go back to the ASUS releases (it most likely could have been the effects of previous installs or registry settings).

[ 06-18-2001: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]