bobo Posted June 18, 2001 Share Posted June 18, 2001 Greetings, I am happily playing CM on a Compaq Presario Laptop with a 8MB video card, but I don't get transparency effects. My question is has anyone purchased one of the newer laptops with 16MB or 32MB video cards and if so do you get transparency? I was pretty happy with no transparency until I was on vacation and playing CM on an old (pre iMac) Mac laptop and voila there is transparency with at best a 2MB video card. Now I want my transparency. But I need it in a laptop. Thanks, Bobo 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted June 18, 2001 Share Posted June 18, 2001 Sounds like your Compaq Presario Laptop is based on an ATI Rage Mobility series video chip. While I'm familiar with the DirectX drivers from ATI not supporting fog-tables to the extent that CM needs, there's the possibility that transparencies are lacking in this specific line. Whether that's hardware or most likely software, I'm not sure. All ATI cards on the PC have the fog-table problem under DirectX (even the latest Radeons), but the desktop chipsets/drivers don't have the transparency issue. In the Mac line Apple has installed, almost exclusively until recently, ATI video hardware. While their recent laptops probably use the same chip as your Compaq; the particular PowerBook you have may be using something else (Rage LT ?). On the Mac side you may run into few, if any, problems under CM (other than the amount of video memory and using mods). On the PC however this is a different story as you've already seen. So to answer your question, it is actually the video chip and its drivers that will make the biggest difference (compatibility-wise) than the amount of available video memory. ATI was becoming almost the only manufacturer in town with a decent laptop video chip, but now NVidia has the Go chipset which should be compatible (though it doesn't use the same drivers as the rest of the NVidia line, so there's a possibility for incompatibilities that the rest of the line doesn't exhibit). You'll probably find that most laptops have the ATI chipset, while some of the recently manufactured ones are starting to use the NVidia. You may want to check Compaq's website for updated ATI video drivers for your laptop, but since laptops aren't geared for gaming, they'll see less frequent updates and often the updates may not be addressing 3D DirectX issues. [ 06-18-2001: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobo Posted June 22, 2001 Author Share Posted June 22, 2001 Thanks Schrullenhaft for the reply. I went and got the "latest" drivers from Compaq and of course I still have no transparency or fog effects. No big concern there. But.... from what you wrote the NVIDIA chipsets that can be ordered in the new Dell laptops may work better? I guess a follow-up question would be will a 16MB NVIDIA video card show transaprency and/or fog well or will I need a 32MB NVIDIA video card? I will probably by another lap top in the future, but if I do I want to make damn sure that I get transparency and fog. Thanks, Bobo 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted June 22, 2001 Share Posted June 22, 2001 There's a possibility that the new NVidia laptop video chipsets would provide transparency and fog effects. However laptop chipsets are often subsets of the features available on the desktop versions (usually for power saving features and the requirements to drive LCD displays). Transparency effects (among some other things) may get sacraficed. Unfortunately (as you may already be aware) you can't upgrade the video display on a laptop. The video chipset is almost always a part of the main logic board and manufacturer's typically don't offer any sort of upgrade for them (or rarely do). It would require another laptop with the NVidia chip already a part of it. I don't think anyone has offered a 32Mb laptop display as of yet, but again, memory is not the limiting factor (generally speaking) for what you're not seeing in CM. Unfortunately trying to find out the exact feature set of some laptop display chipsets can be real hard. Their not too often extolled by the hardware reviewers (for gaming features at least) and trying to find out if they'll support CM's features (like fog-tables and transparencies) before purchasing can be almost impossible. You'd have to check any gaming forums or hardware support forums to find out if anyone is reporting problems with that specific laptop. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobo Posted June 22, 2001 Author Share Posted June 22, 2001 Schrullenhaft, You paint a depressing picture for transparency on a laptop. For anyone else that may be interested in laptop CMing as I am, Dell offers a 32MB 4X AGP NVIDIA GeForce2 Go video card on the Inspiron 8000 line. Will it give you transparency? I am not sure. If anyone out there buys one or has one for work and can verify transparency on one of those laptops I would be thankful. I probably will buy one of those near the end of the year (assuming I can pay for my wedding and a new laptop). I know, I know, just buy a desktop. Sadly that doesn't fit my needs. Thanks for the help Schullenhaft. Very informative. Bobo 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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