Strange canopy glare issues with new graphics chip

[malibu43]

Guys (and gals),

 

I searched and looked at the knowledge base and didn't find this anywhere.

 

My new laptop uses a GMA x3100 integrated graphics card. Game runs great with much better fram rates than before, but when I have canopy glare turned on, when I look straight up or back over my shoulder, I see these flashing triangles. Anyone had this happen before? How do you get rid of it?

 

Thanks!

Edited March 27, 2008 by malibu43

[Aintry]

I get the effect occasionally, but it depends on what plane I'm flying. You might turn off canopy reflections and see if that takes care of the problem.

[malibu43]

I get the effect occasionally, but it depends on what plane I'm flying. You might turn off canopy reflections and see if that takes care of the problem.

 

Turning off canopy reflections does solve the problem, but I like flying with them on.

 

Thanks though!

[malibu43]

Anyone else have any suggestions for this problem? It definitely only happens on certain aircraft. For sure the F-14, F-105, F-4, and A7. Definitely not on the AV-8A, F-15, and A-10. Could be a WOV vs WOE issue, but I'm not really sure.

 

Any ideas?

[malibu43]

Looks like I'm on my own for this one, but just in case, I finally got a screen shot of the issue:

 

 

The problem also happens to the "cloud layer bottom" textures (or whatever they're called) when you get close to the bottom of the cloud layer in overcast weather...

[+DoctorQuest]

You have the latest graphics drivers?

 

If so, have you tried rolling back to an older version of the drivers?

 

Is it heat related? Does it happen immediately after a power up?

 

Do you shut down services to improve performance? Some graphics cards required certain services to be available to operate correctly.

[malibu43]

You have the latest graphics drivers?

 

If so, have you tried rolling back to an older version of the drivers?

 

Is it heat related? Does it happen immediately after a power up?

 

Do you shut down services to improve performance? Some graphics cards required certain services to be available to operate correctly.

 

I have the latest driver, and have tried it with the earlier version. No change. It happens right after start-up, and I don't really close down any programs before starting.

 

Thanks, though!

[MAKO69]

shut off the glare

[malibu43]

shut off the glare

 

Yeah, someone else already suggested that, and I replied that I really enjoy having the glare on (if you look a few posts up) But I have it shut off now so at least the game is playable.

 

However, I noticed this morning that the Tornado canopy is all messed whether reflections are on or not. The Tornado has that wire thingy running the length of canopy over the pilot's head. In order to resolve this, I had to remove the torn-glass.lod (or was it a .tga?) from the cockpit folder. That fixed the problem, but now the tornado no longer has that wire in the canopy.

 

The tornado issue combined with the overcast cloud texutre issue means that it's more than just canopy reflections. But that's about all I've got. Not sure where to go next...

Edited March 28, 2008 by malibu43

[+DoctorQuest]

Agreed it's more than reflections but it looks for all the world like one of the following:

 

1. Drivers.

2. Heat corruption.

3. Video card not getting enough power.

4. Bad vid card to mobo connection.

5. Bad vid card.

6. Bad mobo.

 

Drivers are the easiest to check. Can you go back even further than the previous version?

 

Have you contacted the video card folks?

[malibu43]

Agreed it's more than reflections but it looks for all the world like one of the following:

 

1. Drivers.

2. Heat corruption.

3. Video card not getting enough power.

4. Bad vid card to mobo connection.

5. Bad vid card.

6. Bad mobo.

 

Drivers are the easiest to check. Can you go back even further than the previous version?

 

Have you contacted the video card folks?

 

I'll roll back the driver further and see if that helps. I've also had graphics problems with EECH on my new laptop, so at this point I'm settling with the fact that it's an issue with my system and not the game.

 

The graphics chip is an integrated chip from Intel. I've emailed customer support, but all I got was "that game is not on the list of games that we have tested with your graphics chip, check to see if there are any game patches availabe, make sure the driver is up to date." Not really helpful. The list of compatible games is basically the most popular roll playing and FPS games from the last couple years. I doubt they tested any flight sims, or are interested in helping me trouble shoot one.

 

As far as verifying that the mobo and graphics chip are working properly, I don't know what to do there, short of trying to find someone with the same system and trying it there... and that may be difficult. I doubt there a ton of people around with Macbooks running xp through bootcamp that would be willing to let me load a game on their laptop... :)

Edited March 28, 2008 by malibu43

[Aintry]

Looks like I'm on my own for this one....

 

The problem also happens to the "cloud layer bottom" textures (or whatever they're called) when you get close to the bottom of the cloud layer in overcast weather...

 

Yikes. I've never had anything that looked that bad. For me there has always been just a flash of triangular stuff at the edge of the screen, then nothing after settling into forward view.

[malibu43]

It just hit me, for some reason, that this may actually be a simple driver issue. I've been rolling back drivers to trouble shoot EECH, but that was before I was really trying to troubleshoot this WOV problem.

 

If I remember last weekend correctly, I think I played a dogfight mission in an F-4 right after installing XP and the driver that came on bootcamp. I don't remember seeing this problem. Then I started updating and rolling back drivers like crazy trying to get EECH to work. So that is good news: I may be able to fix it (maybe)...

 

The bad news is that I'm having weird issues with the drivers, and I think my best option at this point is to completely wipe the XP partition of the macbook, and then start all over again with a fresh operating system and fresh drivers from the Bootcamp Disk.... :(

 

Keep you fingers crossed for me!

[Aintry]

Good luck.

 

The Thirdwire series seems to like Nvidia drivers and hardware better than any other graphics combination. For quite a while I couldn't turn on aircraft shadows because the drivers I was using with my Radeon card just wouldn't do shadows correctly. ATI finally straightened out whatever was causing the problem, but it took a long effing time.

[+Fubar512]

Malibu, Google is your friend: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4154

 

Their conclusions:

 

IMAGE QUALITY

 

I'm sure by now you've noticed an abundant lack of the screenshots which usually accompany my reviews. Simply put, image quality on the X3100 is, much like the framerates often are, erratic. I've played very little on it where there wasn't some kind of artifact that creeped up, be it the odd polygon here, or nasty texture flicker there. About the only game I ran on it that seemed to look right was Far Cry.

 

And then there's the erratic performance to discuss. While a couple of games like Far Cry and F.E.A.R. delivered as well as any competing ATI or nVidia part, the majority of my experiences with the X3100 have been disappointing. In some games, framerate slowdown appears random. In others, it goes to hell in places an ATI or nVidia part wouldn't struggle with.

[malibu43]

Thanks for all the help guys. Looks like I srewed up my drivers somewhere in the rollback-update process. I reinstalled XP and all the drivers, without updating anything after. The problem is completely gone!

 

Thanks again for your help!