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Voodoo 3... AGP or PCI


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I've got both and only the AGP version is giving me problems.

At home: P233, 96mb, Voodoo3 2000 PCI - no problems yet.

At work: P600, 256mb, Voodoo3 3000D AGP(special Dell variant w/out TV-out) - usually get the gradual graphic corruption on large, rainy battles.

Both cards are using the same driver which is the latest approved one I think (1.05 or something)

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I have a Voodoo 3000 AGP video card in a Pentium III 500 system and I experience graphic corruption after a couple of turns. This start turning into blotches of white until finally the whole screen is white. The only way around it is to save the game, exit out, and restart it.

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I did some testing of the white out situation and might have discovered a quick fix to the problem. It's a simple matter of reducing the resolution. I haven't tested this theory extensively yet, but it seemed to work in my case ... at least for the moment. I was fighting a battle at the time and experienced the white out bug about every two turns. I was running the simulation in 1024 x 768 resolution. Just for the heck of it I deleted the Combat Mission Bynd Ovr Prefs file so the program would ask me to specify my preferences again. I then set it to run in 800 X 600 resolution.

After restarting the program and reloading my battle I was able to complete the thing without once having the white out bug bite me again. Although I cannot say for certain this will solve the problem, it certainly is worth trying. The graphics do not suffer from the reduced resolution as far as I'm concerned, and I found it much more enjoyable in any case.

Hope this helps a little.

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This seems to be a problem with AGP and the Voodoo 3 drivers. Since AGP has access to the system memory for texture caching (and PCI doesn't) this seems to be a problem limited to only the AGP cards. There's very little that BTS can do about this. 3dfx needs to patch their drivers to fix the problem with texture caching in system memory. I believe that 3dfx is aware of the problem (a guess), but when the fix for this will be available is unknown.

As Stahl pointed out... by reducing your resolution the problem is minimized. Hopefully 3dfx will fix it soon.

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I had the V3 2000 PCI version and had the whiteout problem. After playing certain scenarios (for ex. All or Nothing) for a couple of turns, the whiteout would start occurring and if I exited the game and looked at system memory allocation, my system would report far more than the game started with. I have 256 meg RAM and if I played until complete whiteout of most tiles, the system memory would be 250+ allocated thus the slowdown since it was starting to access the disk. This is what I never understood since I thought that only AGP would affect my system memory, not PCI.

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Still waiting to hear from someone who represents Combat Mission (i.e. a programer or BTS) to respond with what they know of this situation... I asked for a response from them (as well as from other Voodoo 3 owners) in my original post, but no info yet. (sigh)

You know, the most frustrating thing is, you plug in new drivers and suddenly, older, cherished games don't work any more, so I'm not buying the game until I get info from them.

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back in August BTS said

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>The Voodoo3 engineers have just told me that they were able to reproduce this "white out" problem and it's related to a bug in their driver. They are starting to fix it now.

In the meantime, they said that the problem tends to be worse at higher resolutions and sometimes will not appear at lower ones.

I will keep you apprised!

Charles <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum8/HTML/000466.html

I find it only happens in larger battles. I've had no problems in battles with less than 1500 pts (small scale means less textures I think????)

(EDIT)sorry thought this handled URLs automatically

[This message has been edited by Private Pike (edited 09-27-2000).]

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I saw that post, but it doesn't confirm that the problem is related to all Voodoo 3's or just AGP versions. I've seen people using PCI Voodoo 3 versions post on other reader reviews sites, saying their's works great... but then again, I've read posts of how it takes quite a few games before the white outs start showing up... so... I'd like a little more detailed information before I decide to buy, or not.

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I suggest not using beta drivers, as they may have faults that non-beta drivers don't.

Also, this may be caused by icompatibilities between the motherboard and the graphics card, experienced more usually with AGP vs. PCI. The motherboard doesn't supply the correct voltage to the card and the card exhibits errors. Another cause could be motherboard driver software; this has been shown (most lately by the VIA 4-in-1 drivers) to have a marked impact on system performace and stability.

I suggest making basic changes to your config, one change at a time, to see what makes things better/worse. My old PC had numerous problems with CM. I finally eliminated them after installing DX 7.0 (again, as it was already on my machine but not correct) updating audio, video, and sound drivers, and changing some hard drive arrangements. Worth it.

My new PC, w/ an AGP Matrox 400, had some problems, but I THINK I've fixed them with the latest non-beta drivers from Matrox (V6. something)

DjB

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I've found out a way to reproduce the problem every time on my machine with a Voodoo 3 AGP 2000.

My voodoo 3 drivers are version 4.12.01.0533 (English) on the DirectX Diagnostic Tool with DirectX 7.0.

I have mine at 1024X768. If I start to play any map, and leave it alone for more than 2 hours. The entire map will begin to fill in white.

I hope there's a fix for this soon.

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Question, what speed is the AGP port on your MB?

Reason I ask, a lot of my vid problems I've tracked down to the fact I've got a 2X agp port, My Bro-in-law has exact same MB, exact same problems, two weeks ago he upgraded his MB to one with 4X agp, problems are history.

Might not be the whole story, but something to look at. cool.gif

------------------

Pzvg

"Confucious say, it is better to remain silent, and be thought a fool, than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt"

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The Voodoo 3 3000s do not require AGP 4X spec. They only transfer at the 2X spec., so the 4X spec chipsets do not give any further boost or compatibility to the Voodoo 3 AGPs. It's possible that a newer chipset may perform better in other regards (and possibly act more compatible with certain AGP cards in regards to other chipsets), but the 4X spec, in general, should have little to do with reliability of an AGP card.

[This message has been edited by Schrullenhaft (edited 10-10-2000).]

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Hello?

No forum people's response, and no game makers response after checking this post for a week now, often two times or more a day. I find it hard to believe that none of them will answer this one, after so many responses to so many other questions that I've seen in the past, thus I am now suspicious....

I would really like to have an answer as your game looks fantastic, but with no return policy, for something that could easily end up as coaster material if it doesn't work, at it's price, it's an expensive gamble for potential coaster material.

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Guest Madmatt

Ok, I thought others covered the question rather well.

Some issues with the Voodoo cards is specific to the drivers. 3Dfx has said they know of problems with their drivers and have newer versions coming out. Not everyone with a Voodoo card has problems though so there is obviously something else going on.

As to specifics of AGP or PCI causing problems, I don't know. Seems like you have heard from people in both camps in this thread.

All we know is 3Dfx admits to a bug being in their drivers.

Some have problems, some don't...

Madmatt

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Well It seems I'm not the only one with this white out problem. I'm running a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP with the latest 3dfx drivers and directX 7. I'm running it on a PIII 800 with 192 MB RAM. I only seem to get the white outs in 1024 X 768 res. My screen starts out fine for about a minute or two then little white areas start showing up and with in a minute my entire window for the 3D battle field goes white. At 800X600 the game seems to run just fine. I hope this problem is fixed soon. Whether it be by Battlefront or 3Dfx. I enjoy playing the game at the higher res. Ya gotta hate playing the waiting game. Combat mission is hands down the best WWII combat game yet created (In my opinion anyway). To see it made better by eliminating all the bugs we can come up with is all we can hope for.

Till next time, see ya on the front lines.

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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>

Well It seems I'm not the only one with this white out problem. I'm running a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP with the latest 3dfx drivers and directX 7. I'm running it on a PIII 800 with 192 MB RAM. I only seem to get the white outs in 1024 X 768 res. My screen starts out fine for about a minute or two then little white areas start showing up and with in a minute my entire window for the 3D battle field goes white. At 800X600 the game seems to run just fine. I hope this problem is fixed soon. Whether it be by Battlefront or 3Dfx. I enjoy playing the game at the higher res. Ya gotta hate playing the waiting game. Combat mission is hands down the best WWII combat game yet created (In my opinion anyway). To see it made better by eliminating all the bugs we can come up with is all we can hope for.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yup, this is exactly what happens on my machine, exactly. I was thinking of trying to use some older drivers to test it out...

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I too am using a Voodoo 3 AGP card but I don't get the white out, the game just freezes up, sometimes instantly, sometimes after a couple turns, such a disappointment.

UPDATE: Did what the manual says and ditched my Logitech Trackman, now I can play, but alas the dreaded whiteout!

[This message has been edited by Sybaris Angst (edited 10-20-2000).]

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