SI Engine Bugs

[old.Wildfire]

Since I got SI I must say my DAoC experience has been quite significantly degraded. The reason is this: for me, the new engine is far more graphically buggy than the old one. I've taken a few screenshots to illustrate. The first five show what I assume to be rendering errors (normal instead of additive blending perhaps?), and the further five show actual bugs in the engine itself. I should mention that while I haven't had any show-stopping graphics bugs since SI has been installed, I now have a continual glitching (every second or two you'll see a momentary graphics bug, or part of the interface will distort) which is driving me mad. Sometimes it's clear that a particular tree, object or player is causing the bug, as the bug will remain flickering from the same location. This glitching becomes far worse when lots of players are in the area - sauvage pad being the best (worst) example I can think of. Finally, my framerate is MASSIVELY sapped by the trees in the game, campacorentin forest is unplayable if you look above the horizon. I have asked around and no-one I know has similar problems to these.

My system specs are:

Processor : P4 2.4GHz
RAM : 256MB DDR
Graphics : 64MB GeForce 2 Ultra
DX : 9 (formerly 8.1)
Drivers : 42.68 (formerly all sorts, I've tried loads)
OS : Win XP Home

I should point out before someone jumps on the wrong bandwagon that I'm not wondering why my crappy graphics card can't render the reflective water or other SI-specific enhancements. However... this is just wrong, surely.

Rendering Errors (wizard and necromancer spells)

wizard pbae
necromancer buff
opaque generic bladeturn
dulled elementalist shields
necromancer melee abs buff (pic coming soon)

Pure Engine Bugs

polys stemming from a tree
missing terrain polys
polys stemming from the sky
interface distortion
name distortion

 

[old.moriath]

Try new gfx drivers i never get any of that with my gf4 ti

and friends who have gf2's havent said anything .... i expect its gfx drivers try 40.72 dont seem to have problems with them

 

[Hit ^_^]

heard it sould work much better on a gf4 ti400ish gfx card. atleast for the wizzy pbae.

 

[Arnor]

no probs with my SI



oh, and get more ram mate

 

[old.Wildfire]

Yeah I know about the ram thing its at the top of my shopping list but as with all components it aint cheap.

 

[belth]

How's the cooling on your GF2? I know I had missing polygons etc with my GF2MX overclocked to 200/200 and insufficient cooling. If the heatsink feels hot to touch, might be time get a new one, shouldn't cost you more than ~10-15€ (generic aluminum heatsink and a 50mm fan).

 

[old.Wildfire]

Card's running fine, only mildly warm to the touch, no problems in any other games. It's not overclocked either.

 

[acei]

I had all those errors you've reported on DAoC Classic since upgrading to SI i have had none of those problems...

>> Drivers : 42.68 (formerly all sorts, I've tried loads) <<

This may be your problem, if you don't uninstall 3*.** nVidia drivers before upgrading to 4*.** drivers it can cause version conflicts. Version 43.00 seems to fix version conflicts.

To get the 43.00 drivers go to:
http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=9758&category=main

Hope this helps

 

[belth]

The glitches look like hardware-related to me, but if the card's properly cooled, not much I can think of right now (no pun intended), except drivers and chipset cooling (which shouldn't cause that)... Try the new 43.00 drivers, was a link on BetaNews last night atleast, maybe they can solve the problem (propably not).

 

[old.Wildfire]

I'm going to go geeky here and say that the first set of bugs are all improperly labelled rendering modes. The polys should be set to additive blending, however the card seems to be rendering them as normal or texture blending. As for the bug bugs ...couldnt think of a better way to describe them, yes it does look like the card is overheating, but they vanish in the old engine, I have no problems in any other games, and occur whether the machine is freshly on or has been running for days.

edit: thanks ill try the 43.00 set

 

[QuickS]

I had the exact same card in my old 'spare' machine and i couldn't even get SI to run. It came up with a "render creation error". I tried all different drivers and i managed to get to the logon screen where it kicked me back to the desktop.

I then reinstalled with windows XP instead of win98 and it works fine now. You dont say what OS you're using but try winXP if ya can.

 

[old.Wildfire]

Running xp home, ive updated the original post, thx Q

 

[old.Wildfire]

Now running 43.00 - no change.

 

[stupidshady]

got gf 2 mx and got some things with the spells.....but tought that was normal.....? but I dont got the glitches, so I doubt its from the card ?

 

[old.Xanthian]

I have a similar prob with certian buff spells not looking how they should, and some of the glowing weapons are just solid polygons.
But I just put it down to having a GeForce1 DDR.

Oh and im using 41.09 Det & Dx9.

 

[Deadmanwalking]

Ok i cant stress this enuff!

Dont use direct x 9 unless you have a direct x 9 card or a game that requires it it will just cause problems

ty

 

[belth]

No problems what-so-ever with DirectX 9 here Nothing but the usual slowdowns from having an inadequate card.

 

[katt!]

try 12.90 drivers, i upgraded to 42.XX and i get annoying squares around sprites now :/

 

[Gabrial]

Thing the bladeturn is supposed to look like that?

Dunno about the others though

 

[Puppetmistress]

http://www.teamshs.com/wildfire/daoc/newpics/bug06.jpg
(polygons missing on the ground)


I have this close to all the time in emain when I exit the APK and run towards the AMG. Most of the times it's on the same spot.

I don't think it's a hardware-issue, I never have any problems with other game (same as WF) and never had it with the old DAOC-engine.

It is annoying to say the least.

I also encountered something you didn't mention. When a sorc casts a spell (doesn't really matter which one, I saw it on his mezz, his AF-shield, matter-nuke, body-nuke, etc) I sometimes see a 'graphics-glidge' in the sky (random position to the sorc btw).

I think the last part is introduced to make sorcs even more easy to recognize in RvR so mids and hibs can kill em easily.....

 

[Gabrial]

My mentalist creates a sort of mirror of her casting in the distance on many of her self buff spells. Like a trail of her arms - seen it on other players aswell.

 

[Tar-Aldarion]

Hehe! I have the same problem everytime someone casts a spell, I see a mirror in the depth. When RvR I think is an enemy caster and charge!