Quenaelin Posted April 16, 2002 Share Posted April 16, 2002 I just bought this game and thought it has great graphics but now it seems I cannot get volumetric shadows working, shadows are just causing unplayable slow downs and screen tearing. Is there something I could do about this? Is Quake3 engine so bad with Kyro? I thought it has good dynamic lighting effects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteChedda Posted April 16, 2002 Share Posted April 16, 2002 Originally posted by Quenaelin I just bought this game and thought it has great graphics but now it seems I cannot get volumetric shadows working, shadows are just causing unplayable slow downs and screen tearing. Is there something I could do about this? Is Quake3 engine so bad with Kyro? I thought it has good dynamic lighting effects. I beleve the volumetric shadows were intended for newer card that support shaders, as in the Gf3 and latest ATI radeons, not older cards aor cards that do not support them. IE a Rage Fury Maxx, an Nvidia Gf1, and the Kyro all have issues with volumetric shadows, but it possible these are simply Opengl extensions raven is using as well, in which case getting the latest drivers may help. Personally the performance hit on my card makes shadown not worth it, but........... Volumetric shadows do not directly involve dynamic lighting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiles4 Posted April 16, 2002 Share Posted April 16, 2002 Is Quake3 engine so bad with Kyro? Actually, the Kyro 2 is known to love Q3-engine games. I think the wisdom from this forum is to forget about volumetric shadows and use simple. They cause excessive slowdown and people have reported too much weirdness with them. After reading all the posts before I even got the game, I decided to not even try volumetric shadows. But you've piqued my curiousity. When I get home tonight I'll give them a try. Rune had the same issue for many video cards - it just wasn't worth the performance hit. Honestly, when I play, I'm so primed for combat I don't even notice the shadows. From my own experience, JK2 plays VERY well on the Kyro 2. Just make sure you turn off Anisotropic Filtering and don't play on "very high" detail. You'll get slowdowns (sometimes severe) with the Kyro 2 from the following: - fog - smoke - explosions involving translucency The "explosion problem" is sometimes severe. This problem with translucency has never been solved with new drivers on the Kyro 2 and may be related to its tile-based rendering algorithm. But for a card that currently retails for $60 US, the card ROCKS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quenaelin Posted April 17, 2002 Author Share Posted April 17, 2002 I don't usually play FPS titles, I guess I bought this game becouse it has praised to have good graphics and it is Star Wars game. I am quite disappointed, becouse graphics aren't so good after all. I remember that JKI MoS, has quite good dynamic lighting engine. Light saber was actually illuminating and you could see blaster bolts illuminating also. In JK2 there is no or little illumination from blasters (except large muzzle flash, which is quite weird) and light saber light is just simple spot. Can somebody help me tweak or edit Quake3 engine so that I can see those damn shadows and blaster bolt lightings too. I think the problem isn't with the tile based rendering, problem is that games don't support it properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiles4 Posted April 17, 2002 Share Posted April 17, 2002 I am quite disappointed, becouse graphics aren't so good after all. I'd have to disagree with that one, I think JO's graphics are friggin' awesome. And from reading the posts on this forum as well as reviews, I'd have to say that most people agree with me. I'm thinking that Raven chose not to have the saber or blaster bolts light up dark areas for a reason. I also remember using the blaster or saber to light up dark areas in JK1. Maybe Raven did it for strategic reasons. If they worked that way, the Light Amplification Googles and batteries wouldn't be of much use. I tried vol. shadows last night and saw that they make the game unplayable (with a Kyro 2). They appeared to render fine but the game became severely choppy. IMHO, the vol. shadows looked stupid - much more pronounced that they should be given the lighting. I use simple shadows and since I never notice them unless I look for them I may just turn off shadows completely - I don't think they contribute anything to the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quenaelin Posted April 18, 2002 Author Share Posted April 18, 2002 Strategic reasons my ass, anyway it isn't realistic. Light saber should cast light and light amplifiers and googles are used to see enemies over distances not couple of meters front you. I call this bad level design. I found solution to shadows type following command from console: cg_shadows 3 Now shadows are finally working great and graphics are awesome OK. I am Star Wars fan but I am not so big fan of these FPS games. How to get through first level, I have killed every stormtrooper and are in the area where are three bridges, how to get past those doors in those two rooms and how to get past downstair shield door where are three stormtroopers waiting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiles4 Posted April 18, 2002 Share Posted April 18, 2002 Chill out man! Maybe if you rant enough about shadows to a Raven rep they'll fix them in the first patch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quenaelin Posted April 19, 2002 Author Share Posted April 19, 2002 I allready posted some e-mails to Activision support Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quenaelin Posted April 19, 2002 Author Share Posted April 19, 2002 I am chilling out now I got this problem solved, thanks for persistence I had. "Shall the force be with you." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ummester Posted April 19, 2002 Share Posted April 19, 2002 I don't think they will be able to fix the shadows with a patch. I reloaded quake 3 the other night got the latest patch and turned on volumetric shadows. They don't work properly. The problem isn't with JKII its with the Q3 engine. That engine was written at a time when no-one had cards that could even think about running volumetric shadows properly so I don't think Id bothered working them out properly. Why people hve to release modern games on antiquated engines is beyond me. Why no-one has bothered to use the Serious Sam engine in a nother game is also beyond me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quenaelin Posted April 19, 2002 Author Share Posted April 19, 2002 Building new engine takes money and time. Game developing takes at least 1 to 2 years, Max Payne for example taked 4 years to make, so game engine may be allready old when game comes out. It really depends what new graphics gimmics competitors are inventing. Star Wars Jedi Knight II is developed with little expenses in 3D-engine, which is quite bad, why they didn't make totally new engine is really mystery to me. Becouse I believe Lucas Arts have lots of money. Only reason could be the time what it takes to make completely new 3D-engine. Anyway, Quake3 engine has one more option for shadows as I discovered, try typing this command from console: cg_shadows 3 And you get shadows working, these are only floor casted shadows. This option don't cast shadows to walls and objects, like cg_shadows 2 does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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