Oolite Bulletins

sorry dumb question... I know this is related to screenshot thread but didnt want to spoil it asking for help on it!

i have griffs amazing ships, but they never are as colourfull as the ones on here (unless i am some how confused) those screens are stunning.

my gpu is the one onboard the GA-MA785GM-US2H

not the fastest in the world but fully featured. i would have thought it would work even if the frame rate suffered.

(based on ATI 4200 chipset)

PS 62 kills to my name now going well, though randomly still get my arse kicked quite a bit.

still loving it.

I suspect your gfx card/drivers combination does not support shaders. We can confirm this easily if you start the game, exit immediately and post Latest.log here.

I would be very suprised if that GPU didn't support shaders, so I'm curious about a_c mentioning the hardware/driver combination. Are there situations where a piece of kit can support pixel shaders, yet the drivers are not 'activating' them properly?

Poro wrote:

I would be very suprised if that GPU didn't support shaders, so I'm curious about a_c mentioning the hardware/driver combination. Are there situation where a piece of kit can support pixel shaders, yet the drivers are not 'activating' them properly?

Yes. The classic example is the Intel X3100 Core w/ GM965 chipset. The hardware is perfectly (well, almost ) capable of supporting shaders, but actual shader support was only achieved with the introduction of the version 6.14.10.4990 drivers, sometime towards the end of 2008.

Strange. I wonder if that would be a marketing decision then: 'Let's not advertise it as having pixel shaders until we know we can support them properly'?

Wasn't there a version of the iPhone or iPod Touch that already had a bluetooth chip inside it, even though you had to wait for version 3 of the OS to activate it? Again, it seems like a manufacturer wanting to properly support something before acknowledging its existence.

Try a bios update, and the latest drivers.

FWIW just check if the shaders are on (and set to FULL) under Game Options. (Press 2 when a commander is loaded.)

another_commander wrote:

Poro wrote:

I would be very suprised if that GPU didn't support shaders, so I'm curious about a_c mentioning the hardware/driver combination. Are there situation where a piece of kit can support pixel shaders, yet the drivers are not 'activating' them properly?

Yes. The classic example is the Intel X3100 Core w/ GM965 chipset. The hardware is perfectly (well, almost ) capable of supporting shaders, but actual shader support was only achieved with the introduction of the version 6.14.10.4990 drivers, sometime towards the end of 2008.

Another classic example is the ATI Mobility drivers.

Basically what happened is that, for many years ATI have had their hands tied with laptop manufacturers (OEMS) who request that ATI do not offer support for their device in the Catalyst Driver. This may seem strange, however makers such as Dell have implemented their own support system and they do not want their customers downloading “reference” drivers from ATI’s home page.

AMD (formerly ATI) introduced the concept of Catalyst Mobility which is a generic driver that works decently for most laptops. The only way they are able to do this is through permission by a laptop manufacturer (OEM) to include their device in the Catalyst Mobility. Unfortunately, only a few vendors have given permission for them to do so.

This leaves laptop owners with ATI graphics chips in a bind, as the OEM manufacturers seem to only update their drivers once in a blue moon, and never to the current state-of-the-art.

This is where the HardwareHeaven (formerly DriverHeaven) Mobility Modder Tool can help. I've used it on my ASUS Pro31J laptop to great effect, after weeks of unsuccessfully trying to use or modify the latest ATI drivers to work with my X2300 GPU. Now my nebulae look like nebulae, instead of fuzzy square blobs, and I have full shader support!

I'll try to post a tutorial on it soon.

Diziet Sma [skipped quote]

Thanks for posting that. My laptop's abandoned gfx chipset hasn't seen an update since I bought it and it's on the list. Yee-Haw!

ingteresting thread.

still havent got access to my pc to test the shaders, although i flew back to lave to try lave accademy just after posting yesterday, and there is so much more detail going on around that station (looks gorgeous) that my framerate crashed, which leaves me to believe even if they are supported and i can switch them on......... my gpu will not be capable of running properly.

still, cant grumble, it was never purchased for gaming so i am happy it runs it as well as it does, and will put me on till i can afford my new gaming rig.

will still check the shaders when i can however.

Tutorial now posted.

https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t=7444

Diziet Sma wrote:

Tutorial now posted.

Nice one!