Cannot get the game to work...OpenGL problem...

[Dowding2]

Hi - I've done many searches across the net and on here and have tried just about everything I can think of. Can anyone help?

Basically, OpenGL fails to initialise on game launch. Using OpenGL Extensions Viewer, it says I only have 1.1 installed. I tried installing the latest drivers but to no avail (including driver cleaner after de-install). I tried 4 different driver sets but with no result - and all should have at least 2.1 functionality.

Incidentally, I can't get my AGP card to have fast-write - not sure this is relevant?

My machine:

Athlon64 4000+

2GB RAM

X1950 Pro AGP card 512MB

MSI K8N Neo2 mobo

500GB HD

WinXP Pro SP3

DirectX 9.0c

I'm pulling my hair out at this one - and pretty annoyed I wasted 3-4 hours trying to resolve it! Thanks.

[Madmatt]

People often say that they installed the "latest" drivers but that doesn't really mean anything because it doesn't say from WHERE you got them.

Please make sure and install the drivers currently online at www.ati.com as those will always be the very latest official drivers.

The problem you are seeing is driver related and for some reason your video card isn't properly initializing OpenGL. This could be a more severe issue, but try the new drivers first (and some new ones just came out) and let us know what you get.

Madmatt

[Dowding2]

Thanks for the help.

I originally had the last Omega drivers, but they are very old, so I un-installed those and used the genuine Catalyst 9.1 drivers. This did not resolve the problem, so I tried the very latest 9.2 version. No luck there, so I un-installed and tried 8.12, 8.11 and 8.10.

At this point I decided there was something very wrong and decided to post here. The same error message is given and the diagnostic software reports OpenGL v1.1. It's almost as if there is a system problem deep down in the OS?

I hate computers.

[donnieitaly]

I hate computers.

My family motto.

[JonCrane]

Do you have any other graphics related software running? CM would not start with my pc because graphics overclocking software provided by the vendor (Asus OSD) was installed.

Also, once I had a similar graphics problem that was caused by legacy graphics driver files left hanging about in the driver folder. This was Nvidia though. I had to swap to the standard VGA driver, manually delete residual Nvidia folder & then install the new drivers.

Good luck.

[Dowding2]

No, the system was a clean install just before Christmas and I don't have anything really running on it that sounds like that.

Is CMAK OpenGL? Because I had that running a few weeks ago with no problems. I think that was under the Omega drivers.

Incidentally, I originally tried the catalyst drivers to try and rectify a problem I was having with a shuddering scroll movement in internet explorer and a crashing google chrome. It is starting to look like something went wrong at that point. Maybe a fresh install is the only option?

[Schrullenhaft]

CMAK is a DirectX game, so it's possible for it to behave differently from CMSF which is an OpenGL game.

If the OpenGL Extension Viewer is only reporting OpenGL 1.1 compatibility, then your videocard and drivers are not supporting OpenGL hardware rendering. OpenGL 1.1 support basically indicates that your computer is just performing OpenGL software rendering. So something seems seriously wrong with the video drivers and their OpenGL libraries/support.

Do you have the latest Nvidia NForce 3 drivers (v. 5.11) installed ? These drivers have been out for awhile, so they're nothing new. Basically this just helps a little with AGP compatibility. I'd suggest installing these before installing/reinstalling any new video drivers.

The latest BIOS for the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum is 1.0D, but I don't see anything in any of the BIOS update notes that suggests any changes for AGP compatibility (mostly CPU updates).

The most likely solution involves completely uninstalling your video drivers and any video-related utilities (videocard monitors, overclocking, multimedia-related, etc.). DO NOT reinstall your video drivers once you've uninstalled them. You will probably want to run a driver cleaner program that will search for .DLLs and registry entries that may be floating around. One example (a beta program) is Driver Sweeper (though I don't have personal experience with this particular program). I highly suggest removing any ATI software that you have installed.

After you're satisfied that you've removed all traces of the video driver installs (you don't necessarily need to remove the installation files, which are hopefully not dumped into the Windows directory) you should now REBOOT and or SHUTDOWN. When you start up Windows you will be prompted with dialog boxes to install drivers DO NOT INSTALL THEM YET. Cancel all of the dialog boxes to install the drivers. Once the computer has finished booting (and it DOES NOT request that you reboot - if Windows does, then you should do that first) shut down any applications and utilities that have loaded up, including and especially Anti-virus/anti-spyware/firewall programs, instant messaging clients, etc. When all of that has been done THEN INSTALL the version of the video drivers that you want. The latest for the X1950 Pro Radeons is Catalyst 9.2; I suggest the 'Catalyst Software Suite' for download. I don't know if any specific version of the Catalyst drivers is better than another regarding CMSF or CMx1 games.

It's interesting that you cannot enable Fast Writes within your Catalyst Control Center. I'm not sure if there are any incompatibilities between the Nvidia 3 series chipset and the X1950 Radeon series. Do you know if Fast Writes (or whatever they may be called) are enabled in the BIOS ? Do you know what your video aperture setting in your BIOS is set at ? I don't know what the specifics are for your MSI board, but you may want that max'd out at 256 or 512Mb (assuming that this setting exists within your BIOS). Despite all of this I wouldn't think that Fast Writes would have anything to do with OpenGL running properly on your system.

If these steps still fail to get OpenGL working properly on your system, then possibly performing a clean install may be worth the effort (which I assume means formatting the hard drive, not just installing Windows over the current installation). If you opt for that course, I'd suggest updating your motherboard BIOS first (if it needs it), then once Windows has finished installing install the Nvidia chipset drivers next. With this done (after a possible reboot) then install some of the other hardware drivers such as networking and audio and possibly SATA. Once you have all of the other hardware drivers installed (and rebooting when required), reboot your computer and THEN install the video drivers (but run Windows Update to get the .NET files first) and reboot as necessary. If you want the AMD Cool'n'Quiet, you can install that now. Then run Windows Update for anything you've missed and then install other programs such as anti-virus utilities, etc.

[Dowding2]

Wow thanks Schrullenhaft for going to the effort of looking into this!

I tried the NVidia chipset package and it sorted the problem! Now showing 2.1 OpenGL compatibility.

Yay! Now I can learn how to play CMSF before the British module comes out.