Problems with scroll smoothness

[Ebusitanus]

Hi,

I hope someone can help me with my new CMBB Demo.

When playing the CMBO I had never a problem when scrolling around, very smooth and no weird delays when right clicking on a unit and choosing orders for it.

With the Demo I have a horrible time to change perspectives when scrolling with the mouse and big delays when trying to give a unit its orders (Like I have to wait 3 secs for the cursor to move to the choosen order). My PC is state of the art PIV 1,7, 516 Ram, 64 Mgs Graphics card, etc..

Whats wrong? help!!!

[Schrullenhaft]

Which video card and drivers do you have ? What version of Windows are you running ? Do you have FSAA on ?

[Ebusitanus]

I have an ATI Raedon 7000 64MB

Windows XP

What is FSAA?

[Agua]

Schrull,

While my problems aren't as serious, I'm having sluggishness with map scrolling as well that seems sort of out of place given the size of the demo scnenarios with respect to comparably sized CMBO scenarios. There is a slight jerkiness with mouse scrolling that I really only experience with HUGE CMBO scenarios (like, 5000pt assault on large maps). Also, the blue line representing the completion of the calculations taking place, finishes rather slow as compared to CMBO turns of comparably sized scenarios.

I'm aware that folks with Radeons are having a problem with scrolling when a unit is selected, but in my case, selecting the unit really makes no difference. While its certainly playable at this point, I'm concerned whether my machine is going to be able to handle really large battles in CMBB, and I shouldn't have such concerns with the machine that I have.

P4 2.2 (Northwood)

Abit TH7 II R mobo (latest drivers, latest bios)

2 GB PC-800 RDRAM (non-ecc)

GeF4 Visiontek Ti4600 (128DDR)(drivers released immediately prior to the 40.xx detonators)

Audigy Platinum 5.1 (drivers released last week)

2 60 GB Maxator 7200 / 133 ata HD (RAID "0").

Again, the lag is very slight, but it is simply non existent in CMBO scenarios even twice the size of, say, Yelnia Stare.

[edited to include the following] Forgot, I have FSAA enabled at 4x, I'm running XP Pro and directX 8.1.

[ September 05, 2002, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: Agua ]

[Schrullenhaft]

Ebusitanus - Your problem is one that other Radeon users have encountered and someone has already found a solution. It involves downloading a tweaker program to change one of the settings 'Z-Mask'. This thread mentions some of the details and where to download the software.

Agua - I'm not sure what is going on. A number of GeForce 4 owners are complaining about the quality or speed of their cards under CMBB, but they're using different drivers (30.83 or 40.41, which has FSAA problems). I'm not sure if the FSAA is taking an even heavier hit in CMBB than it is in CMBO. Do you have a 'tweaking' program like RivaTuner 2.0 (Videocard utilities > Overclocking and Tweaking) ? You may want to experiment with it (changing filtering and other characteristics) and see if you can find either a culprit or just a better performing setting.

[ September 05, 2002, 03:25 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[Agua]

Originally posted by Schrullenhaft:

Ebusitanus - Your problem is one that other Radeon users have encountered and someone has already found a solution. It involves downloading a tweaker program to change one of the settings 'Z-Mask'. This thread mentions some of the details and where to download the software.

Agua - I'm not sure what is going on. A number of GeForce 4 owners are complaining about the quality or speed of their cards under CMBB, but they're using different drivers (30.83 or 40.41, which has FSAA problems). I'm not sure if the FSAA is taking an even heavier hit in CMBB than it is in CMBO. Do you have a 'tweaking' program like RivaTuner 2.0 (Videocard utilities > Overclocking and Tweaking) ? You may want to experiment with it (changing filtering and other characteristics) and see if you can find either a culprit or just a better performing setting.

Thanks Shrull. I do have a GeF tweaker and I really haven't tried to adjust any settings yet. I had previously installed the 40.41 Dentonators but then removed them when I saw the text problem after firing up CMBO. I did a "dirty" reinstallation of the prior drivers. I guess I'm going to try a clean installation and see if that helps. If not, I'll try screwing around with the tweaker. I'll update you if I find anything out.

[Ebusitanus]

Hi again and thanks..

Have tried to download the drivers for the ATI at its support page. Weird thing is now that I turned the game on, it prompted me to choose again the resolution...weirder even more that it only let me choose (With the skip to next possibility) among 640-480 resolutions with the only variation being the Megaherz for the screen..after going through those possibilities twice (It begins with 120 MHrz to 60) It just CTD with an error msg saying "Unable to set Direct 3D graphics". If I would choose one of the given resolutions, then I get a msg saying that the game only runs on 800-(don´t remember) limit and thus I can´t play.

I have not much knowledge about those tech stuff and begg for anyone to help me out here..Now I can´t even play

[Schrullenhaft]

Your video card isn't being seen as a DirectX hardware renderer. Have you already installed the new drivers ?

To perform a simple test of whether the card is working with DirectX run C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DXDIAG. Go to the Display tab and check the three settings to see if they're enabled or not (they should be with a Radeon). Run the two tests, especially the Direct3D test and see if they pass. If they don't then something is wrong with either DirectX or more likely with your video drivers.

[Fred]

I found a strange behaviour regarding scrolling speed (or lack of it it).

In Citadel, when Shift-N set to FULL, I got around 5-8 FPS.

I thought, well, all the Hi-Res Graphics...

Later, after a break, I reloaded the game, and suddenly, with all the same settings(!) I got around 20 FPS!

What I do now is, when the game starts out slow, I save and reload, and usually scrolling performance goes up a considerable amount.

Windows 98, DX 8.1, GeForce 2 GTS 32 MB, 128 MB system RAM.

Is this performance bug already known?

Fred

[Schrullenhaft]

What view level are you at when you're measuring the FPS ? Which Detonator version do you have installed for your video card ? I wouldn't call what you're running into a bug necessarily. Many of the beta testers ran with GeForces and I don't think this particular problem was an issue.

[Fred]

Originally posted by Schrullenhaft:

What view level are you at when you're measuring the FPS ? Which Detonator version do you have installed for your video card ? I wouldn't call what you're running into a bug necessarily. Many of the beta testers ran with GeForces and I don't think this particular problem was an issue.

View level 2 and 1 (at higer levels most doodats (sp?) are not visible).

Just a reload of the same save-game often makes the framerate return to reasonable numbers.

I am using the german demo version (with this strange CDV "Starter" Program...maybe that influences it?).

I use the latest drivers from Asus for my GTS2 (V.6.31c).

Never had any problems in CMBO or other 3-D games with this driver/card.

Fred

[Ebusitanus]

Arghhh.... :mad:

Nothing seems to work...I have the Raedon tweaker downloaded and disabled the Z-Mask.

I went to the ATI website and got the latest drivers for the Raedon 7000 with Win XP.

But nothing works..I still get prompted once I get to erase the old preferences to choose from only 640-480 with the whole variety of Mhrz. When choosing one I get the msg that it works only with 800-600. The weird part is that before I did all this stuff I could play...bad and slow but I was able to play..now I can´t even get the game to start.

Help again pls!

[Schrullenhaft]

Go to Start Menu > Run > type in C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DXDIAG. This will launch the DirectX Diagnostic, which should be v. 8.1 under Windows XP (built in).

Go to the Display tab and under here will be three settings on the left hand side. Check to see that they are enabled. If any of them are greyed out, then there is something definitely wrong with your system. All three should be set to enabled with your Radeon. Now run the tests listed on the right hand side. The DirectDraw test should be pretty simple. The Direct3D test may be a bit harder. If either of them doesn't pass, you could have a problem. If this happens, then I suggest that you uninstall all of your video drivers and set your display to SVGA only. After rebooting in that configuration, then install the latest video drivers and run the DirectX Diagnostic.

[Ebusitanus]

I´m sorry I forgot to say it before, I did all that already and everything comes up as enabled and all three tests came out fine. I am still at a complete loss and feel utterly foolish.

[Schrullenhaft]

What resolution are you running at, color depth and what is your monitor profile ? The resolution selection process should start at your current resolution, but at the highest refresh rate available. I suspect that your resolutions are saying 'Software Mode' in them, which suggests that CM isn't seeing your card as 3D capable in DirectX.

Do you have more than one video chip in your computer, such as 'built in' video ?

[Ebusitanus]

I guess it must be useless with me...I have this great big PC with all the perks but I´m not able to play a stupid demo...Is the actual game also going to be so conflictive? Why was everything so fine with CMBO and now I have to endure this?

The resolution is at my Philips 107E monitor is 1024-768 by 32 bits but then I have this weird second screen I can use in the background and I moved that up to 1024-768 but still nothing...

The main thing is that I´m no near of knowing too much about this and will get lost...I need a "dummy´s guide" for this....

[Schrullenhaft]

Can you play CMBO right now on that computer ? I'm under the impression that you won't be able to.

[Ebusitanus]

When I first downloaded the game I could play with the "smoothness" problem of my first post. Now, after all the tweaking and drivers I can´t no more..lol...funny, eh?

Regarding the CMBO..I had no problems at all, everything great (One of my big reasons to upgrade this computer was that on my previous one I couln´t play)..then I dowload this CMBB and I get this crap.

Question...Is Battlefront going to address this issue on the market release game? Are they going to set up a patch? I can´t imagine that this problem will be up to the buyer to fix. If not fixed by programing the game correctly or a patch, they should war Raedon users of this problem. I´m not so good with computers as to have been able to fix it myself yet I do consider myself the norm in game buyers...You can´t expect us to fix it by ourselves if we happen to be the unlucky owners of Raedon graphic cards.

[ September 08, 2002, 03:42 AM: Message edited by: Ebusitanus ]

[Schrullenhaft]

OK, I need to understand where you at and what you've done.

Initially you had problem with scroll speed within CMBB, however CMBO was fine. Next you downloaded the drivers and tweakers for the Radeon. Which version did you download ? Did you install the new drivers over the old ones or did you uninstall the old ones first ?

Now you are no longer able to run CMBB Demo. It only offers you 640x480 resolutions (which are only 'Software Mode' I guess). However CMBO plays fine right now on this computer in the current configuration. The DirectX tests have pssed since you updated the drivers and changed the settings with the tweaker. Is all of this correct ?

I'd suggest uninstalling all of your Radeon drivers and see if you can get to a generic VGA (XP will probably identify the Radeon though). Uninstall the tweaker for now too. After rebooting install the updated drivers and test them with the DirectX Diagnostic. Then install the Radeon tweaker.

Delete your prefs file for CMBO and start if up. Select the approrpiate resolution and see how well CMBO plays. Now try the same with the CMBB Demo and see if it still only offers the 'Software Mode' 640x480 resolutions.

I don't know if there'll be a 'fix' for this issue. Only the Radeon users are having a problem with the Z-Mask. The Radeons have some optimized Z-Buffers and it's possible that current drivers might be problematic for CMBB. I don't know why this issue only exists in CMBB and not in CMBO. If this issue can be isolated and recoded, it might be done in a patch. The retail release is going to be pretty much the same as the Demo is (though there is no bailed crew bug in the full version).

I know that there was some graphical code had to be dropped because the NVidia drivers had a bug in them (this isn't a doodad or something that got dropped, just a way of drawing the screen). It's possible that this may have had implications on the Radeon Z-Buffer code one way or another. However I don't know if these problems can be specifically isolated for the Radeon card. It usually ends up a situation where they have to go to a slower and/or more compatible method of doing something graphcially to accomodate one video card (or family in this case). I kind of doubt that a fix could be made that would only affect the Radeons. This will have to be looked at in more detail since the Mac Radeon users aren't seeing this issue (to my knowledge).

[ September 08, 2002, 04:54 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]