Pay for an nVidia fix?

[JMcGuire]

Funny how asking BTS to address the bug is only a waste of time to those of you who don't have the problem, isn't it? Yes I know it's nVidia's bug, but it's BTS's problem.

Well, maybe I have an idea that could help.

Would (could?) the nVidia owners foot part of the cost to develop a work-around?

This is obviously a serious problem. I stopped playing CM almost a year ago because of this bug, and I've been watching the forum on and off ever since that time (which should tell you how much I liked the game). And EVERY time I stop by -- maybe once every two or three weeks at the most -- there is always at least one current message about the nVidia problem. There is often more than one.

I really like what BTS is trying to do -- remain a small, in-touch company that sticks to their original charter. However, I'm forced to ask myself -- what good is supporting an "in-touch" company if they blow off such a serious problem with the age-old "not my problem" excuse? I can only assume that BTS hasn't taken steps to code a work-around because the expense would be too great.

Yes it's an nVidia bug, but realistically BTS is in a better position to deliver a solution than nVidia. Problems in a game that only sold a few thousand copies probably ranks pretty low on the nVidia priority list.

It's a bit radical, I realize, and I don't necessarily like the idea of paying for a fix no matter who is at fault, but I figure it can't hurt to throw the idea on the table and see what people think.

[Madmatt]

That is not an option at all and I can't find any legitimate reason why someone would stop playing CM all together because of any Nvidia issues especially considering there are options available to address them all.

Most of the problems have workarounds that enable full enjoyment of the game which involve the easy steps of either disabling FSAA or updating to the most recent 21.xx drivers or for some users Forcing FSAA.

What problem were you encountering that has made you stop playing all together?

Lastly, we have been working with Nvidia lately to get these issues worked out once and for all. In each instance the problems were indentified to be issues on their end, how and when they will release drivers that cover all the bases is known only to them though.

Madmatt

[ 10-29-2001: Message edited by: Madmatt ]</p>

[JMcGuire]

Perhaps I missed a work-around while I was away?

Presently with the newest drivers the quality of the text degrades rapidly until the text is unreadable. This is using the latest drivers under Win2K SP2 on a Hercules GF2 GTS, with FSAA disabled.

Is there some way to correct this problem?

If so, I apologize -- as I said, I've been away for nearly a year, so hopefully it's easy to see how I could have missed a post regarding a fix or work-around.

Keeping my fingers crossed-- j.

Edit -- my drivers are v21.81 from Hercules.

[ 10-29-2001: Message edited by: JMcGuire ]</p>

[Doug Williams]

Matt,

Let me tell you what happens on my PC.

First my system:

PIII 866 MHz

ASUS CUSL2 motherboard

384 MB of ram

Elsa Gladiac 32 MB video card (this card uses the GeForce 2 GTS chipset.)

Latest nVidia drivers installed (21.83).

Ok first of all, CM runs fine under W98. No problems at all.

After installing XP, when I try to run CM I get a graphical problem that causes all text that is supposed to be white on the 2d screens to become transparent. The problem is to such a degree that I cannot read the mission briefing, and I cannot even select my units in a Quick Battle. ESCing out of CM and then clicking it back up did not fix the problem. I tried many times.

I know what JMcGuire means. The problem was bad enough that I had to either choose to continue using XP and not play CM, or to go back to W98 and still be able to play CM. I chose the latter. A dual boot would have been a third choice, but I didn't want to fool with that.

I'm glad you are talking to nVidia about this, because as soon as they release a driver that resolves this problem, I plan to reinstall XP.

Edit: Oh yes, I forgot to mention this. If I rebooted my computer and ran CM, the problem disappeared for the first scenario I played. If I exited the scenario and tried to play another, the problem was back. I could even exit CM and start it again and the problem was still there. Only a reboot fixed it, and only for the first scenario.

[ 10-30-2001: Message edited by: Doug Williams ]</p>

[Ligur]

Heeey guys, w3rd, I have the exact same problem with the horrid text garbling of doom, and I'm off course using nVidia chipset, Detonator something drivers. Don't remember if they are the newest reference drivers or what, I've had the same problem with all combinations of nVidia chipset cards and drivers on 3 completely different systems. When I had a Matrox g450 none of this stuff was going on. The work-around?

Notice: I USE WINDOW 2000, so maybe XP lovers won't get anything out of this.

Since both win2k and CM are quite stable I alt-tab away, and when I return the screen has "loaded" again and is as it should be. No need to restart the game, just a 5 second alt-tab and your geared for glory again.

Install win2k, its well worth CM

[Swift]

Alt-Tab works fine on XP for me. Sometimes it takes several tries to get it but it always works.

[MajorCyco]

I too have the nVidia problem when I upgraded to Windows XP. Unfortunalety I went to the NTFS and going back to Win98 is no longer an option. As I have absolutely zero faith that nVidia is going to fix this, I am considering buying a new card. Is there anyone who is running Win XP "and" Combat mission with no problem? If so, what video card are you using?

[kverdon]

JM and Jack,

As a NVidia owner (in the laptop) I would support your idea for paying for an update to CMBO to fix this problem as I, like you don't have alot of faith that in NVidia's will to fix it. I mean this is the same company that convinced Microsoft to kill 3dfx support in the final release of XP.

Kevin

[Andrew H.]

The Alt+Tab fix is working very well for me; it seems to work better than using Esc to get to the desktop did, although I don't know if there is a real difference. But I'm pleased,at any rate.

WRT actual fixes, instead of having BTS try and code something to fix the Nvidia problem, could it work to have a modder produce an XP friendly interface that had no white in it -- replacing white with some color that isn't currently used, like, say, light pink.

I'm not much of a computer guru, but if the problem is that white...and only white...turns tranparent, then maybe replacing white would do the trick.

Unless, of course, white is hard coded in some places.

[krbuck]

I tried the demo, excited with what I was reading online, but couldn't get it to work, even with the documented work-arounds.

Its a real shame a driver bug kills a good game like this. Strange that I haven't seen it on any of my other games. --Karl

[JMcGuire]

Ok so a bribe isn't going to work.

The most up-to-date Detonator 4 drivers available for my hardware (still v21.81) don't fix the problem. This hack-around alt-tab (or ESC) thing works for running the game, sort of, sometimes, definitely not always, but it never fixes the map editor, another part of CM I am still waiting to use again (I still have several maps-in-progress awaiting an nVidia fix). After only a few screen changes between the editor and preview, the buttons on critical displays such as the save-map dialog become permanently unreadable.

I can't resist mentioning that I thought it was funny that the new tech support supplement simply glosses over the nVidia problem. I know, it sucks to have to deal with it, but the problem is real, and it's affecting a lot of us...

I'm really not trying to be a thorn in anybody's side, but I feel like once BTS determined it was an nVidia problem, they washed their hands of it. In my 23 years of coding, I've spent plenty of time writing work-arounds to address bugs in other products, it's hardly a new concept. I guess that's why this issue gets on my nerves a little.

Are there simply too few of us having the problem to make a work-around to keep us happy worthwhile?

[rune]

Partial solution with more testing to come. Look here:

http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=8&t=002029

I didn't want to re-type it all. Will let all know what I find.

Rune

[OGSF]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Ligur:

Since both win2k and CM are quite stable I alt-tab away, and when I return the screen has "loaded" again and is as it should be. No need to restart the game, just a 5 second alt-tab and your geared for glory again. <hr></blockquote>

Thanks. I installed XP last evening after ME had crapped out for the umpteenth time. Then discovered the *gasp* nVidia issue. The Alt-Tab seems to work well as a workaround for me until the "fixed" driver appears.

OGSF