Melloj Posted August 21, 2000 Share Posted August 21, 2000 Hello, Some time ago there were several messages from people having the exact same problem as me. That would be the flashing in game text, and flags on the bottom of the screen, and on the orders window when it comes up. I would like to know if anything has been identified as being the culprit behing that. thanks! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melloj Posted August 23, 2000 Author Share Posted August 23, 2000 SOB!!!! Please anyone???? IS there any workarounds or solutions for this Win2K problem????? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted August 23, 2000 Share Posted August 23, 2000 Someone mentioned that they used "certified" drivers from their OEM (Dell in this case) rather than the newer Reference drivers of the video chipset manufacturer. In this case I believe it was a TNT2 or Matrox from Dell. I don't know if this person has had any further problems with CM or not. You may want to do a search on "Win2K" and "certified" in the Tech Support forum. [This message has been edited by Schrullenhaft (edited 08-23-2000).] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melloj Posted August 24, 2000 Author Share Posted August 24, 2000 No it looks as if there are no current solutions to this problem. Its a pain in the butt, since the mouse pointer and the in game text are whacked out. The Dell certified driver suggestion might work for dell systems, but i have a clone, besides it is probably the original driver that came with that system. I am using Detonator 3 drivers, and those are much advanced than any original win2k drivers. I have had this problem with several different driver sets, so i know its not the 6.18 fault. The game runs fine in Windows 98se with detonator drivers, so it has to be some incompatibility with win2k.... Sometimes the game text gets fixed when you press escape, other times not. Makes me think its some sort of refresh, redraw code error inside CM. Anyways would be great if BTS could mention if this is a documented problem, and that some effort is being made to fix it. Its not a win2k-wide problem, as none of my other games experience this behaviour. Thanks! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradleyh Posted August 26, 2000 Share Posted August 26, 2000 I'd like to add my experiences here too. I've been running W2K since before it came out and in CM have experienced rasterization, pixelization, and flashing graphics. I was running on a mid-grade card (rage 3d pro) and attributed the issues to it. I just upgraded to a Viper V770 Ultra and now I'm getting additional video issues -- including the text in the bottom portion of the game window flashing and some white text in the mission briefings becoming transparent. I've run through the small list of drivers I could find. I've also gone through multiple video resolution/refresh rates and no luck. It definitely looks like something in CM. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melloj Posted August 27, 2000 Author Share Posted August 27, 2000 Most definately, I have tried different drivers, even downloaded Directx 8 beta. On my work machine, running win98 there is no such problems. It seems wierd as there are much more graphics intensive programs out there that, have absolutely no problems... ah well...at least i can play 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robo Posted August 28, 2000 Share Posted August 28, 2000 I found a Win2K solution for nvidia a few weeks ago. I force installed a Dell driver from my work computer onto my gateway at home (the only "certified" driver I've found for nvidia under win2k is the one on my Dell). Nvidia uses the same driver for all their different chipsets - it's smart enough to handle them all. I installed the "GeForce" driver for my TNT Ultra and it works like a charm. Got rid of the all the text problems - have seen no problems with anything else on the system. Believe me when I say I tried all the other nvidia drivers including the just released one. I can make these drivers available on my web page for download. They will only help if you have an nvidia card (of any type I suspect) of course. I can make them available later today and will post the URL. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robo Posted August 28, 2000 Share Posted August 28, 2000 Well, it was easier to get onto my web site than I thought. The Win2K NVIDIA drivers from Dell are here: http://www.suba.com/~robo/6624t.zip unzip the file to say c: ; it will create a folder called 6624t with all the files inside. to force install it do: 1. Update Driver 2. Next 3. click "Display a list of known drivers..." 4. Next 5. click "Show all hardware of this device..." 6. press "Have Disk..." 7. press "Browse..." 8. find the location where you unzipped the files 9. you should see a NVDE info file - select that and "Open" 10. OK 11. I believe I selected the first one: NVIDIA GeForce 256 AGP (Dell) - that or the second one 12. You will get a warning popup; Press "yes" to continue ... 13. reboot Note that I have a TNT Ultra AGP that I bought and installed myself on a Gateway Computer and am using the GeForce AGP driver from Dell. I don't know if this will work if you don't have AGP - but the third Dell driver listed is not AGP or so it says. While the game was playable before I installed this driver, it's much more a pleasure to play now with the text looking perfect - plus the scenario editor was pretty useless beforehand. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robo Posted August 28, 2000 Share Posted August 28, 2000 Also, note that I can reproduce the text problem on my Dell at work (with the Demo) whenever I install any driver other than the one that came with the machine. I tried the latest NVIDIA reference driver, etc... - all reproduce the text problem. Whenever a new NVIDIA driver comes out I test it out at work first to see if the problem is fixed... no such luck yet so I just continue to use the Dell driver at home. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robo Posted August 28, 2000 Share Posted August 28, 2000 I think the problem is a bug in CM having to do with the text background. They might not have tested the game fully under win2k. I think the problem should be fixable or could be worked around by the CM developers; I've run into this kind of thing a lot while developing graphics programs over the past years - something minor has changed from '98 to Win2k. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melloj Posted August 28, 2000 Author Share Posted August 28, 2000 Hey Robo, Thank you for your hard work! the only question i have is this. I play some other games on my comp besides CM, and most of these games are really graphics intensive. How old are these drivers from Dell? Reason I ask is that if they are really old, then it might make a performance hit on my machine. I am running a Asus v6800 DDR pure card... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robo Posted August 28, 2000 Share Posted August 28, 2000 Yeah, you're gonna have to try it out probably - you could always back out. These Dell drivers have a version number of 3.75 (I think that's a Dell version number) and are the latest available from their web site. Mine are dated 1/20/00 but the same version on their web page are dated 3/10/00. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lugnut Posted August 31, 2000 Share Posted August 31, 2000 I've been investigating this a bit and the problem (at least on my machine) seems to be the following: - Any pure white pixels in the game bitmaps are being written as transparent, not white. I actually tried editing some of the game bitmaps from pure white (255,255,255) to a very light gray (240,240,240) and it seems to solve the problem for those bitmaps. Unfortunately the text displays for the after action reports and the save file prompt dialog seems to be hardcoded to be white on black. Andrew. andrewr@snotmonster.com PS: My PC is W2K2000SP1, TNT2 Ultra Detonator 3 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melloj Posted August 31, 2000 Author Share Posted August 31, 2000 I know they have a lot of other things on their plate, but maybe BTS could release a small patch for win2k users, that changes the white palette to a really light grey... This would also apply to the mission briefings etc. That way we could avoid the problems and troubles we have. Any thoughts? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted August 31, 2000 Share Posted August 31, 2000 The strange part is that CM doesn't use any pure white text. A limitation in Win95/98 made it necessary to use "almost white" (R=255, G=255, B=244 for you programmer types). So it seems that Win2K may not like "almost white" either! We're looking into it... Charles 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melloj Posted August 31, 2000 Author Share Posted August 31, 2000 Ok GREAT! Makes me feel better that you guys are on the case... yay... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myles Posted September 4, 2000 Share Posted September 4, 2000 I don't have much new to add. Just wanted to chime in. I have fallen in love with Win2k (relatively speaking that is... I'd still take Linux if it had equal SW support). Anywho, I have a Geforce2 GTS and I'm running the latest *everything* as of 9/3/2000 (I installed everything fresh last night). That includes the reference Win2k drivers from Nvidia. Not sure what version of directx (how can you tell?). I'm having the same text problem everyone else is talking about. I've written a good bit of software in my life and I can imagine it's ultimately a MS bug, BUT, I'm sure that Battlefront could work around the problem if they decided it was important enough. I hope they do. Even though they already have my money, I won't play the game until the text problem is fixed and I hope that matters more to them (it would to me). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragewind Posted September 9, 2000 Share Posted September 9, 2000 I've encountered the exact same annoying problem under W2K. This is a Dell machine, and CM ran perfectly with the Dell drivers for the TNT2 card. When I upgraded to the Detonator 3 drivers these problems appeared. Tried changing the driver settings, all CM graphical settings, W2K color and resolution, etc., nothing works. Usually I'd revert back to the prior drivers as this is a fast machine and the framerate difference is negligible. However I'm a 3D animator and one of the apps I use only runs with the Detonator drivers, even though I'm tempted to switch as CM is so good An in program solution would be great. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReneLloyd Posted September 14, 2000 Share Posted September 14, 2000 Thanks to Robo for the tip about the Dell drivers, they solved the transparent white problem for me 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hakujin Posted September 17, 2000 Share Posted September 17, 2000 Just thought I'd add to the mix. I've been running Win2k with a Voodoo3 3000 for about 5 months with no problems. CM looks fine although moving across a large map can be a bit slow (I'm using the Graphic Realism Mod with serious high-res). But I'm not seeing the extra flags or text that others are talking about. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melloj Posted September 17, 2000 Author Share Posted September 17, 2000 Thats because the problem seems to be limited to those with an Nvidia based graphics card. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffC Posted September 18, 2000 Share Posted September 18, 2000 When I ordered CM I was running a Voodoo 3 2000 on a WIN2K P3-450, in preparation (whilst CM was in transit to the UK) I downloaded the latest 3Dfx drivers AND started reading the forums! What I read about the Voodoo 3 was unsettling but I play the game for 3/4 night without any sign of the problems, however the damage was done and I arranged to 'borrow' a Creative Geforce 2 GTS on approval from a colleague who'd brought but didn't really need or want it. I installed the Creative with the drivers supplied in the box and again no problem BUT I downloaded firstly the latest creative drivers and then Nvidia's 5.32 and 6.18 drivers. All of the downloaded drivers exhibit the flashing text and mouse problems (FSAA has no apparent affect) therefore I'm back to using the Creative versions from out of the box. Unfortunately these drivers are only identified as GB0010 V1.00 so you may not able to located them. If we get a fix from BTS (or whoever) I'll retry the downloaded versions although I'm tempted just to forget about all the video card issues and play the game instead - It's ASL on a PC - what I've wanted for 10-15 Years!. Jeff. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale Larson Posted September 21, 2000 Share Posted September 21, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>We're looking into it...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I'm real happy to hear this. I normally run in Win2k with a TNT2 based card. I'm running the latest nVidia detonator drivers (6.18) and I can't see most text. Other than that the program runs with no problems. The ONLY reason I even boot Win98 is to play Combat Mission. It's a total hassle. Please keep us posted. Thanx, Dale Larson 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lugnut Posted September 23, 2000 Share Posted September 23, 2000 I find that if you ALT-TAB away from CM to the desktop and then back, the text becomes readable again. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dale Larson: I'm real happy to hear this. I normally run in Win2k with a TNT2 based card. I'm running the latest nVidia detonator drivers (6.18) and I can't see most text. Other than that the program runs with no problems. The ONLY reason I even boot Win98 is to play Combat Mission. It's a total hassle. Please keep us posted. Thanx, Dale Larson<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claymore Posted June 6, 2001 Share Posted June 6, 2001 Ok..searching the dim past I find other Nvidia users have experienced the same problem. BTS said they were investigating a solution but nothing seemed to have been resolved. Any input? Cheers Murray 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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