Quick Fix for Most Graphics Problems

[MattH]

Try this before posting:

The best quick fix for most graphics-related problems is to update your drivers. Visit the manufacturers website and download the newest version.

Microsoft has published a list of know issues with common graphics cards. This thread lists graphics cards and how well they work with the game. People have been having compatability issues with S3 Graphics cards. It is possible that the cards are a) incompatible with directx 9 and/or b) do not support pixel shading and other advanced functions.

[stju]

you know, that is real MS-style support -> cannot be the game, msut be your drivers...,
out there are "some" gamers who really know a bit about computers, and have tried driver updates first....

about the thing with Shaders, DX9 and low-spec GPU...if I print 500mhz/16 mb 3d as min specs on the cover i simply must make sure that the game is playable wiht that specs (nobody said anything about pretty still), everything else simply is fraud...

i dont wann flame anybody, but i am having a serious trouble with a €50 game, and the only answers I find are from some jokers who all think they just invented driver updates....

[MattH]

Sorry, I was just posting one of the most obvious possible solutions. I'm quite lucky, no serious problems yet. But it's dissapointing to see the specs so low. The game will start, you just can't do anything and that's misleading. Also, it really sucks that Microsoft only provides limited e-mail support.

[WhiteySmalls]

I hope this helps someone. The best course of actions for me was to *downgrade* my video drivers.
Specs: PIII 1GHz, 384MB RAM, WinME/Win2K, Philips AcousticEdge.

Had an Asus V3800 32MB TNT2 wiht latest Detonator drivers. This game was barely playable. Had to turn all details to LOW, and turn off music. The bottlenecks between the CPU and the videocard were obvious and made the sound extremely choppy (this always happened on other games, but I assumed it was the sound card drivers). This was only playable on Win2K. Unplayable at all on WinMe.

So I bought a Radeon 9600 PRO. Installed it and played right away. What a difference! (duh!) Played a few solo games and the tutorials without a problem. Then I decided to get the latest Catalyst drivers from ATI. I would get CTDs (which translate to system reboots on Win2K) all the time. I'd muck with the rise2.ini to no avail. After a wek of suffering and tweaking and reading about everyone's problems I uninstalled the 3.4 drivers and reinstalled the drivers that came with the card -- Catalyst 3.2. And you know what? I just spent the afternoon getting my butt kicked by the computer (on moderate) -- yeah I'm that good . Now, the other variable with all this is DirectX9a which I also installed between the time I know it worked well and the time I upgraded Catalyst (was DX9 before, obviously).

So now the game is playable and reasonably enjoyable. That's not to say my experience will solve everyones' problems (and some of them do seem downright nasty), but I do hope that someone with similar problems as I had will benefit from my experience.

I do have a video issue that I would like to mention in the hopes that someone has an answer. I have issues when I use MAX Quality settings on the card, where buildings don't render right after a little bit -- they are transparent except for a couple of outlines where the edge of the roof would be. So far I think it has to do with setting the Anisotropic filtering, to other htan application preference. I'm also playing with the anti-aliasing settings, but so far I haven't found a problem linked to that just yet. If anyone else has this experience then I woul dbe happy to hear about it.