Jump to content
Battlefront is now Slitherine ×

CMBO/BB - Nvidia Drivers/DirectX system security?


Recommended Posts

For the last year, I have been running XP PRO, Nvidia 29.42 drivers, GeForce Ti4600, DirectX 8.1b so that I could play CMBO/BB with FSAA turned on. I didn't upgrade my video drivers as I understood that I would have CMBO/BB problems and everything was working fine.

Now, I understand that there is this buffer overflow security hole in all Windows OS running anything less than DirectX 9.0b. So, what are CMBO/BB players doing? Can you install DirectX 9.0b on top of very old Nvidia drivers? Can you safely remain on DirectX 8.1b?

Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You should be able to upgrade to DirectX 9.0b and still use your current NVidia drivers. The drivers should work with the newer version of DirectX, but I'm not absolutely sure you won't see problems. Generally the driver is responsible for the problems that people have seen with CM and the NVidias (or ATIs for that matter). Some people have claimed new problems have cropped up when they upgraded their DirectX version, but I don't know of the validity of those claims (it turns out that some people upgraded their video drivers at the same time, but blamed the DirectX upgrade for their woes and didn't mention the driver upgrade).

The DirectX security hole that you mentioned involves MIDI files that can be setup to overflow a buffer and then remotely control your computer (though it isn't a simple issue of just having a MIDI file play on your computer - the web page has to be extensively programmed to take advantage of this security flaw). Here's an online warning about the DirectX Remote Buffer Overflow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm one of those who are claiming, (or at least feeling in my heart), that DirectX 9 - in conjunction with the NVidia driver upgrade, messed up my CMBO/BB. My symptoms were not being able to run the program(s), and getting an error msg. about 3D, or maybe 3D Direct, (poor memory, not at home machine), not being implemented. I needed the new drivers in order to use some features of PhotoShop Elements. Showing my priorities, I went back to the earlier drivers (couldn't go back to DirectX8), and both games now run fine, as they did before the upgrades. I'm living without levels and curves in PE. FWIW, I don't believe the current drivers and DirectX 9 are compatable in all machines - as far as CMBO goes. But what it is exactly about my machine, (AMD 2000+, Ti4200), that doesn't work, when most people are OK - I don't know. I noticed just today that Matt has posted a test for some new NVidia drivers (45.23), guess I'll test them out tonight - Caveat Emptor I guess

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...