Corrupt graphics from a distance

[Mojo Voodoo Dol]

When I play Jedi Knight Outcast, the graphics, especially the enemies, appear glitchy, corrupted, and flashy from a distance when I zoom in with my scope or binoculars. This happens every time as soon as I get into the game. This still occurs even if I set my game to 32 bit. I have not modified the console/registry, but is there some sort of console edit or game tweak, or anything I can do to remedy my problem? I've included my system specs. Thanks a lot.

 

Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1 Build 2600)

Processor: Pentium 3 804 MHz

Memory: 256 MB RAM

Direct X: 8.1

Name: NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX/MX400

Approx. Total Memory: 64 MB

Current Display Mode: 1024 X 768 (32 Bit 75 Hz)

Monitor: Korea Data Systems Visual Sensations

Main Driver: nv4_disp.dll

Version: 6.13.10.2832 (English)

[Disco Joe]

I have almost the exact same specs as you on the PC I'm playing this game on and it does the exact same thing. Maybe it's some weird OpenGL glitch.

[Pa3PyX]

That's a standard Z buffer inaccuracy issue, present on almost all major video cards. Depth (Z axis) coordinates are stored as inverse decimal fraction values, and many cards use relatively low precision for these in order to speed up computations, plus (I think) some of them use fixed point math (instead of floating point) for the sake of the same. That results in incorrectly determining which planes should be drawn in front of which if two planes are far away and close to each other.

 

As far as workarounds go, there is that r_znear console variable (default value = 4) which determines how far the near Z clip plane is distanced from the point of view. On 3Dfx boards (dunno about nVidia ones) I found that setting the near plane farther awat from the eye helps reduce these inaccuracy glitches. For example (in console):

 

seta r_znear 8

 

This, however, will clip a part of your gun, too, but then you can play with the gun position by cg_gunX, cg_gunY, and cg_gunZ variables.

 

The problem is, all the above variables are cheat protected; r_znear in particular because when set too high, it will allow you to see thru walls. Meaning the game will not allow you to modify them normally; you will first have to type "helpusobi 1" to enable cheats, and then modify these variables. And you'll have to repeat the whole thing at the start of each level/after loading each savegame. So I don't know if it is worth the trouble or that it will work for you in the first place, but if it will, then you can perhaps find a way to hex edit the executable file in order to disable the cheat protection first (who cares about cheat protection in single player, besides the player him/herself!), and then set your variables at will. But that requires assembler/disassembler skills.