RBR flashing scenery with ATI Radeon

I've seen this mentioned a few times on other forums, but haven't found a solution. With the ATI Radeon card, the scenery flashes on and off. The ground, car, moving spectators etc are rock steady, but all static scenery (trees, crowds, bushes etc.) flash on and off. Very annoying. If I hold down the Print Screen key, everything stays in the image, but of course the framerate drops to the cellar as it is writing screenshots to a memory buffer. Anyone else have this problem, and has it been solved? Driver issue? Patch?

"Stephen F." <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht news:41611e39$[email hidden]...

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> I've seen this mentioned a few times on other forums, but haven't found a > solution. With the ATI Radeon card, the scenery flashes on and off. The > ground, car, moving spectators etc are rock steady, but all static scenery > (trees, crowds, bushes etc.) flash on and off. Very annoying. If I hold > down the Print Screen key, everything stays in the image, but of course > the framerate drops to the cellar as it is writing screenshots to a memory > buffer. Anyone else have this problem, and has it been solved? Driver > issue? Patch?

Same problem here. And as I'm using a laptop, I can't simply upgrade my videocard. I haven't come across a solution for it yet, it's not even clear yet if it's a problem with the game or a driver problem. I think they should also add an option to turn off pixelmapping (I think that was the term for it) to improve framerates on lower-specced machines. I guess it's just a matter of waiting until I can finally play this game, it's a bit frustrating. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.772 / Virus Database: 519 - Release Date: 1-10-2004

"Milan Poll�" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:cjr8e2$hg2$[email hidden]... > "Stephen F." <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht >> I've seen this mentioned a few times on other forums, but haven't found a >> solution. With the ATI Radeon card, the scenery flashes on and off.[...] > Same problem here. And as I'm using a laptop, I can't simply upgrade my > videocard.[...] I have this problem as well with my 8500. I bought a used 9800Pro, cause I got reeeeally fed up :-) It should arrive today. There's a workaround that works for some (it did for me): Hold the [PRINT SCREEN] button when you're in the game, and the flickering should (almost) disappear. As long as you hold [PS] the fix will stick, but touch any other key on the keyboard after that, and you have to press and hold [PS] again. You'll see. That said, ATI has just released new beta CAT drivers (v8.07 beta), a hotfix for Star Wars KOTOR: http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4649.html I believe they are based on CAT 4.11, due out in november (current CAT = 4.9). Anyway, Omega has released a new driver set based on these betas, and this is what it says in the readme: [quote] Fixed a bug with some Radeon cards (mostly 8500 and 9000) which caused texture corruption in some 3D games/applications. Thanks to lockves for the tip." [/quote] from: http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati/radeon_omega_drivers.txt I don't know if this fix addresses the 'flickering' issue, but you might want to try it... Ice D

Stephen F. wrote:

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> I've seen this mentioned a few times on other forums, but haven't found a > solution. With the ATI Radeon card, the scenery flashes on and off. The > ground, car, moving spectators etc are rock steady, but all static scenery > (trees, crowds, bushes etc.) flash on and off. Very annoying. If I hold > down the Print Screen key, everything stays in the image, but of course the > framerate drops to the cellar as it is writing screenshots to a memory > buffer. Anyone else have this problem, and has it been solved? Driver > issue? Patch? > >

I'd try another driver. I have a 9800 Pro and no flashing, using the 4.2 driver. -- Achim http://users.skynet.be/AchimT

"Ice D" <[email hidden]> wrote > There's a workaround that works for some (it did for me): Hold the [PRINT > SCREEN] button when you're in the game, and the flickering should (almost) > disappear. As long as you hold [PS] the fix will stick, but touch any > other key on the keyboard after that, and you have to press and hold [PS] > again. You'll see. To Stephen F: Apparently I overlooked that you were already mentioned the Print Screen fix (and it didn't work for you). Sorry :-) Ice D

"Joachim Trensz" <[email hidden]> wrote

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> Stephen F. wrote: >> I've seen this mentioned a few times on other forums, but haven't found a >> solution. With the ATI Radeon card, the scenery flashes on and off. >> [...] > I'd try another driver. I have a 9800 Pro and no flashing, using the 4.2 > driver.

This bug only affects a few cards: 8500, 9000, 9100, 9200(?). Anyway, the 9800 Pro is not one of them, AFAIK. I agree it's probably a driver issue though. Ice D

Ice D wrote: ... > This bug only affects a few cards: 8500, 9000, 9100, 9200(?)... Ah I got lucky then. -- Achim http://users.skynet.be/AchimT

"Ice D" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:41612c34$0$62048$[email hidden]...

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> > "Milan Poll�" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:cjr8e2$hg2$[email hidden]... >> "Stephen F." <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht > >>> I've seen this mentioned a few times on other forums, but haven't found >>> a solution. With the ATI Radeon card, the scenery flashes on and off. > [...] > >> Same problem here. And as I'm using a laptop, I can't simply upgrade my >> videocard. > [...] > > I have this problem as well with my 8500. I bought a used 9800Pro, cause I > got reeeeally fed up :-) It should arrive today. > > There's a workaround that works for some (it did for me): Hold the [PRINT > SCREEN] button when you're in the game, and the flickering should (almost) > disappear. As long as you hold [PS] the fix will stick, but touch any > other key on the keyboard after that, and you have to press and hold [PS] > again. You'll see. >

As I mentioned, Print Screen kills my framerate.

"Ice D" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht news:41612c34$0$62048$[email hidden]...

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> That said, ATI has just released new beta CAT drivers (v8.07 beta), a > hotfix for Star Wars KOTOR: > http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4649.html > > I believe they are based on CAT 4.11, due out in november (current CAT = > 4.9). Anyway, Omega has released a new driver set based on these betas, > and this is what it says in the readme: > > [quote] > Fixed a bug with some Radeon cards (mostly 8500 and 9000) which caused > texture corruption in some 3D games/applications. Thanks to lockves for > the tip." > [/quote] > > from: > http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati/radeon_omega_drivers.txt > > I don't know if this fix addresses the 'flickering' issue, but you might > want to try it...

Thanks for the tip! I tried them out but unfortunately they didn't solve the problem. I didn't really expect them to solve it, because that would be a really fast driver fix. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.772 / Virus Database: 519 - Release Date: 1-10-2004

"Stephen F." <[email hidden]> wrote > "Ice D" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > As I mentioned, Print Screen kills my framerate. Have you tried the new Omega drivers as well? Ice D

>> This bug only affects a few cards: 8500, 9000, 9100, 9200(?)... Those cards are so old and/or slow that the game wouldn't be playable anyway. I wouldn't even think about playing this game on anything less than a 9500 Pro.

"Steve Simpson" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht news:[email hidden]... >>> This bug only affects a few cards: 8500, 9000, 9100, 9200(?)... > > Those cards are so old and/or slow that the game wouldn't be playable > anyway. I wouldn't even think about playing this game on anything less > than a 9500 Pro. In that case they should do something about that, because Mercedes World Racing runs perfectly fine on my Radeon 9000 and it looks much better than RBR. Adding an option to turn off the pixel shaders would probably fix the framerate well enough, those are only used for dirt on the car and window and fog anyway. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.772 / Virus Database: 519 - Release Date: 2-10-2004

> In that case they should do something about that, because Mercedes World > Racing runs perfectly fine on my Radeon 9000 and it looks much better than > RBR. The scenary in RBR is at least 3x more detailed than in MBWR.

>> In that case they should do something about that, because Mercedes World >> Racing runs perfectly fine on my Radeon 9000 and it looks much better >> than RBR. > > The scenary in RBR is at least 3x more detailed than in MBWR. Just out of curiosity, I installed MBWR on my second PC (P4 2.66GHz with a 9200) and it ran like a dog's breakfast to put it mildly.

Dont worry Steve i think he failed to tell you that his Radeon 9000 runs MBWR at 320 x 240 x 8 bit and with AA and AF at minus figures... ;P AD "Steve Simpson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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>>> In that case they should do something about that, because Mercedes World >>> Racing runs perfectly fine on my Radeon 9000 and it looks much better >>> than RBR. >> >> The scenary in RBR is at least 3x more detailed than in MBWR. > > Just out of curiosity, I installed MBWR on my second PC (P4 2.66GHz with a > 9200) and it ran like a dog's breakfast to put it mildly. > >

"Steve Simpson" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht news:[email hidden]... >> In that case they should do something about that, because Mercedes World >> Racing runs perfectly fine on my Radeon 9000 and it looks much better >> than RBR. > > The scenary in RBR is at least 3x more detailed than in MBWR. RBR uses a fixed track, in MBWR you have a whole complex landscape, which is quite detailed, even with planes flying around, in which you can drive around anywhere you like. The road has subtle specular highlights. Don't forget the other very detailed cars on the track, which look much better than the cars in RBR. I said that MBWR looks a lot better than RBR and it does. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.772 / Virus Database: 519 - Release Date: 1-10-2004

"AD" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht news:cjtmnf$p52$[email hidden]... > Dont worry Steve i think he failed to tell you that his Radeon 9000 runs > MBWR at 320 x 240 x 8 bit and with AA and AF at minus figures... ;P Actually I'm running it at 1400x1040x32, no AA ofcourse, I never use that. Hmm, I see the latest Omega drivers have a new GUI, AF is at application preference, probably off then, though I see no texture shimmering like I see in RBR (it's pretty terrible there). Texture and mipmapping quality is at max. Truform and VSYNC are off. Anyway, I don't know what kind of framerate a dog gets for breakfast but it's running quite smoothly here (moreso than I remembered even), that's on a 1.3GHz Pentium-M (2.0 Ghz P4 equiv) 512MB laptop (currently with virtual memory turned off). It's certainly not choppy in any way and the framerate is quite stable as well. It's very playable with my MOMO Force wheel. There's either something wrong with Steve's setup (maybe memory speed or driver-wise?) or I have a magical laptop :^) Or Steve is used to very high framerates. If it wasn't playable I would have reduced the display resolution and amount of colors obviously. BTW, that was with all my startup applications, viruskiller, firewall, WLAN etc. and even Outlook still running in the background. LOL here comes the kicker, I had my laptop still set to 'minimal energy use', meaning it was running at 600MHz :^D Trying again at 1.3Ghz... probably slightly smoother, not a whole lot of difference, main difference is that the laptop's fan comes on now :^) --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.772 / Virus Database: 519 - Release Date: 1-10-2004

"Steve Simpson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... >> In that case they should do something about that, because Mercedes World >> Racing runs perfectly fine on my Radeon 9000 and it looks much better >> than RBR. > > The scenary in RBR is at least 3x more detailed than in MBWR. > Not to start comparing apples and oranges, but I would consider CMR5 and LFS both quite visually pleasant games with a lot of environmental detail. In LFS at the rather poly-intensive city courses, with 8 other AI cars running in a race, I'm seeing 70 - 110 fps at 1024x768x16, and this is on a ThinkPad notebook with a 1.7 Pentium-M and the so-called dog-slow Radeon 9000 chip. Likewise CMR has pefectly acceptable framerates in the 50+ range. I'm not suggesting the chip is a world-beater, but I also think that it has enough muscle to provide a good driving experience in many current sims. None of us are arguing that the early Radeons are not out-of-date in terms of performance, but merely stating that, given the fact that we are satisfied with the 40 or so fps we get in RBR, can't we just get rid of the *!$&% flashing scenery?!

Well, in any case, my understanding is that it's a problem with ATI's drivers and there's a group of people over at RSC trying to lobby ATI to fix their drivers so that they can run RBR on some of the lesser Radeons.