No stars in 1.71.2

[Frame]

Just out of curiosity, how is 1.65 behaving if you run it now?

I will admit that part of the reasoning that follows is the easy way out because I don't have much time anymore to work on the code, but on the other hand, I find it terribly difficult to believe that there is a problem with the game code itself. Oolite 1.71 was released two months ago and an issue like this is too obvious to miss. The game runs without glitches on a wide variety of graphics hardware and it is only now that we have two reports of problematic skies, both on ATI HD family cards, and in the case of Baza, at about the time of updating drivers. To me, it sounds more like an OpenGL support related bug in the graphics driver (which is why I proposed the completely independent Omega drivers set as a possible solution). Having said that, I am really curious as to why exactly this happens, and if I manage to free up some time to investigate, I will give it a look.

Baza: Can you fall back to your previous driver installation and see if the issue gets fixed?

All users with ATI HD cards: I would be very interested to know how it runs on your systems and what version drivers you have.

Well i´m in copenhagen, with my wife to celebrate her sister getting her graduation... -but when i get home, ill report from my HD 2600 XT, that i have not have had any problems with in regard to skies and the like...

Anyway Baza and S----- some number, could you both try the drivers that came with your vidio cards... i´m not talking about the ones you get at www.ati.com

My HD2600 XT is from HIS, and on vista i have to use those provided by HIS, the standard ATI will not work proberly, and despite me filing several reports about this, they fail to address the matter... i just get a mail for each new release that says, did this release solve your problems... i have replied no, and not likely your engineers will ever solve it, cause they must be underpaid ppl, that dont give a crap since this issue has now been an issue for a full year... and you people cant reporduce the problem while i can take this card and other cards to any other machine and reproduce the problem right there, which makes me think your engineers aint worth a rubber duck.. and no i´m not angry, with the increase in programmer and technical assistants and whatever title people gets for free these days, i´m not suprised at all.

The bottom line is, try the drivers from your gfx card´s vendor, in my case it is HIS.

[s8404755]

Thanks, another_commander. v1.65 still works fine, but the .exe you sent me which uses the 1.65 sky code does not. I will try to fall back to older drivers too and try the omega drivers on win XP...

[another_commander]

The test build is not using the actual 1.65 code. It is using code that has been there since 1.70, possibly even earlier, but not 1.65. Just wanted to clarify this point.

[s8404755]

Have just tried Omega drivers for Win XP 32 and I can confirm that this fixes the problem!

I'll just have to hope that the Vista 32 ones come out soon...
(although I could try reverting to an earlier version, but that seems a little extreme for the sake of one game)

[Baza]

right I'm back from writing my dissertation so i'll have a look at the manufacturers drivers and get back

[Baza]

OK my card is a sapphire...HD2600XT on vista 64bit
Download drivers from there...no change I'm afraid.
probably will have to wait for next ATI drivers package

[s8404755]

Just an update on this issue:

I have just updated to 1.72 and to the latest ATI drivers but the problem still remains

[Alex]

Hi Guys, I've just updated my sapphire radion 9600 card that uses ati drivers, exact same thing with the stars, right enough it took me more than 20 mins of playing to notice. Recon it must be the ATI drivers causing it. Noo I wonder where I put that sapphire disc all they years ago?? Might have left it back on Lave!

[Alex]

Forgot to mention that I updated the drivers because with the old ones the shaders wouldn't work, I still have the 1.71.2 version which has never had shaders switched on, Plenty off stars there still. Even with the new drivers? Dunno if I should switch them on, Might loose the stars...

[another_commander]

If you are on WinXP/2000, just give the Omega drivers a try (link available on earlier post, same thread). As you can see a few posts above, they seem to perform better than the official ones.

If you are on Vista, then I'm afraid there are not many options other than fall back to earlier driver versions and hope the issue is resolved.

[Alex]

Thanks and yes I did try to get the Omega drives but the link to the official omega site keep sending me to some prog that want's to check everything for new drives and constantly download as they come out for only $10. About half the mirror sites set of my antivirus missiles. Gave up on it after an hour floating around different sites.
Went back my previous version 71.2, it was working fine till I turned on the shaders. Then stars became Dark Stars, can still see them sort of. But then I'm usually in so much trouble I don't really get much chance to admire them anyway.

On a seperate note, now that tdm (This Damn Machine) is working proper as far as actual game play anyway. I was wondering about planet textures, Is it just the few that you fantastic progers do or is there a blanket oxp that I haven't came across. Please excuse my ignorance in programming things if I'm asking a silly Q
p.s. I have XP on a 1.6GHz cpu 1G ram and radeon 9600xt Much better than the 486 I was using 2 years ago.

[Commander McLane]

The OXP that textures all planets (and adds a few more and some moons to each system) is called System Redux.

[Alex]

Thanks for the oxp for textures. Bit moot now though, Had to go through my discs to find the original drivers for sapphire 9600. Just wasn't the same flying with no stars! So back on the old drivers but no shading Just have to save me Cr's for a proper card.

[Frame]

Thanks for the oxp for textures. Bit moot now though, Had to go through my discs to find the original drivers for sapphire 9600. Just wasn't the same flying with no stars! So back on the old drivers but no shading Just have to save me Cr's for a proper card.

I think your main problem is that when you switch on the shaders with the other drivers, that your screen simply gets to dark, in order to see the stars.. this is especially true for 1.71.2.. i think 1.72 have better visuals in regard to this...

the Catalyst Control Center will let you modify gamma settings, that is a sort of brightning setting, but will let black stay black but enhance all other colors...

of course it also lets you modify the brightnes setting... usually you have to do both after you launched the game... Or you can use a profile to set a specific setting. but really it is just to experiement with various options in the control center

Cheers Frame...

[Alex]

Thank you Frame,
Sounds like a proper plan. Though did try upping the gamma before, caused poor wee 96 zero zero to crash n burn. Though that might have to do with game running at the time of increase, bit like trying to use injectors and hyper in witch space I suppose.
Though?... Doesn't increasing the gamma a lot white out the whites? Like a white horse in a blizzard?
I've only had to increase the gamma a lot when I scanned X-Rays to AI. You want proper shields while doing that sort of stuff.
Kidding aside; I'm away to try that.