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Radeon, Frame Buffer and Soft Shadows


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Today, I have finaly gotten myself a new PC, with Radeon 9800SE onboard. I tried to use KotOR as a benchmark, but it's running a bit weird - some odd model errors, slight graphic garbage appearing now and then. Can't select soft shadows. But the real bugger is the frame buffer effect... it was a real FPS leecher back on my old GeForce 5200, and I just waited to play smoothly with it turned on. And now... it is selectable, but doesn't work.... it doesn't change the graphics the slightest bit, and I know how the game with frame buffer looks like...

 

Got the newest Catalyst, newest patch for KotOR... uh... help? Anyone encountered this problem too?

 

Frame buffer and soft shadows require vertex and pixel shader support... R9800 is a relatively new and more powerful than GF 5200, so it SHOULD support it...?

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  • 2 weeks later...

your problem may be similiar to mine.

 

I just bought a computer recently

 

3Ghz P4

1GB DDR RAM

X800Pro

 

Game ran perfectly with all frame buffer effects. BUT it lagged horribly in Dantooine.

 

So I installed the latest catalyst drivers and everything is running smooth. But the horrible thing is PIXEL FLARES (the glow) is permanently off!

 

I'm searching around trying to find a way to enable it ... need help.

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Originally posted by Piece of metal

Kotor runs smooth for me with all graphic options at the highest setting, but i can't select soft shadows either!:confused::confused:

 

What is your PC Specs? Mine is somewhere in the forum. My computer cannot run smoothly with Anti Aliasing turned on FULL. It's only 2x.

 

My Pc should be able to handle highest settings, shouldn't it?

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^^^^

it should, but as i told someone else, i'm not sure if kotor completely supports some of the more advanced settings like 8x anti-aliasing or 16x antistropic filtering.

 

with my radeon 9700 pro, my settings are:

 

1074x720 res @ 85hz refresh rate

vsync off

soft shadows on

grass on

frame buffer effects on

anti-aliasing - 8x

antistropic filtering - 4x

 

seanlooi, you should be able to run a higher screen res than me, but i would keep the anti-aliasing and antistropic filtering levels the same since your running a radeon. hope that helps. :)

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Originally posted by stingerhs

^^^^

it should, but as i told someone else, i'm not sure if kotor completely supports some of the more advanced settings like 8x anti-aliasing or 16x antistropic filtering.

 

with my radeon 9700 pro, my settings are:

 

1074x720 res @ 85hz refresh rate

vsync off

soft shadows on

grass on

frame buffer effects on

anti-aliasing - 8x

antistropic filtering - 4x

 

seanlooi, you should be able to run a higher screen res than me, but i would keep the anti-aliasing and antistropic filtering levels the same since your running a radeon. hope that helps. :)

That's a LOT of AA there... and you aren't getting any fps drops? :eek:

 

I have:

 

9600 XT

 

1024x768 @ 85hz

Vsync on

Soft shadows on

Grass on

Frame buffer effects on

AA 2x (temporal AA, it looks like 4x, but runs like 2x)

AF 16x

 

It's slightly choppy in the Kashyyyk forest and other areas with fog.

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Originally posted by TemporaryTomato

That's a LOT of AA there... and you aren't getting any fps drops? :eek:

 

It's slightly choppy in the Kashyyyk forest and other areas with fog.

heh, i also have a factory overclocked radeon 9700 pro. :D

 

and yes, i do get some fps drops in certain areas by having it that high, but it doesn't drop much lower than 20fps, which means its still playable. ;)

 

i'll have to go back to my old system to do this, but you can set the game in the ini file to have windows designate the game to high priority, which frees up more of your proccessor to run the game. i gained almost 7 fps by doing that on my old system (athlon 2600, 512 Mb RAM, & geforcefx 5600 w/256Mb).

 

you can manually do this by pressing ctrl+alt+del to bring you back to the desktop and have the task manager load up. under the processes tab, find kotor.exe. right-click and highlight "Set Priority". then select "High". DO NOT SELECT "REALTIME". IT WILL CRASH WINDOWS. then close out the task manager to return to the game. :D

 

now, if you want to start talking about fps drops, try running tcor: efbb at full AF, use the 2.0 shaders, and run the screen @ 1600x1200 (AA is automatically set @4x or lower depending on the card the game detects. you can set that to 8x in the ini file, though). its real pretty lookin, but you get fps numbers between 10-20 in a really sparse area. add detail, and watch the the fps drop to 2-3 fps. definately not good for a fp-shooter. :eek:

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I'm having an odd problem with my 9500 Pro / 9700 ATI card running on 4.12 drivers, no matter what graphics resolution I set it out there seems to be odd texture errors and a line or something will appear on the model when looking at it from a certain angle, I don't know how to describe it really. I've been having loads of problems with my ATI card when I switched over from a FX5200, I'm starting to wonder if it was worth it.

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that makes it sound related to video memory or system RAM. but that still wouldn't make much sense, considering i have a 128Mb card and 1Gb of system RAM.

 

all i know is that i never had that problem on my old geforcefx 5600 w/ 256Mb. thats why i think its the age old problem of the game not completely working with ATI cards or drivers. :(

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maybe we can find some similarities in our systems. post your specs and video driver version. i'll assume your using kotor version 1.03.

 

mine are:

System Specs:

athlon 3200 (32bit)

1Gb DDR333 RAM

400Mhz fsb

nForce2 chipset

nForce 5.1 surround audio (5.1 enabled)

Powercolor Radeon 9700 Pro (overclocked)

180 Gb HD (serial connection, ATA)

Windows XP Home SP2

 

driver versions:

6.14.10.6497(ATI video driver)

6.14.442.30(nForce Audio drivers)

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The "line on characters faces" bug is an Ati specific problem, and I don't know of any fix.

To put it simply, KOTOR doesn't like Ati cards(all hail the Source engine :naughty: ).

The latest drivers fix a lot of crashes and bugs though(as well as the horrible frame rates). Maybe more bugs will be fixed later on, like the golden metal shaders(blah, this really bugs me).

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Well, I get this problem as well, but only on drivers 4.4 or above.

 

The 'Frame Buffer Effects' setting works fine on 4.3 or earlier versions.

 

I just hope Kotor II is changed just enough to enjoy the game on the latest version of ATI Drivers.

 

I have the following Spec:

 

AMD AthlonXP 2600+

1GB DDR PC2700

ATI Radeon 9800Pro 128MB (Sapphire Brand)

 

Catalyst Drivers 4.3 = Nice Aura around Light sources (Lightsabers, Lights. etc.) but more prone to crashes, but i have yet to encounter any.

 

Catalyst Drivers 5.1 = No Aura Around anything, but it is more stable, but i did notice a severe FPS drop on Dantooine, but i don't know if it is the drivers, the game or my machine or all 3. lol

 

I just hope Kotor II doesn't suffer from the same problem because SWG is starting to get slower and slower with these old drivers.....I think it is a ATI Specific problem, so i doubt ATI Will fix it for Kotor, but if Kotor II has the same problem, they should fix it, since it is a new game....hence it not being out for PC yet. lol

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