Ground texture gone bad

[Pappy55 1]

 

Anyone know what would cause this?

[Dutch_P47M 9]

Video card please????

[Pappy55 1]

ATI HD 3870 X2 1GB

[itifonhom 6]

    Not mean to hack the thread but I got the exact same card and get such ground textures too, not always, only from time to time,  much smaller areas than this one in this screenshot and it´s always half black and half white. It seems though, that the problem is there only at certain angles or distances, when these change the problem goes away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                     itifonhom.

 

 

[Pappy55 1]

I took the advice and I have set my terrain detail to 3 and those black areas have gone away a fair ammount.

 

I cant say that I see any real differance on the detail side.

[BirdDogICT 3]

I took the advice and I have set my terrain detail to 3 and those black areas have gone away a fair ammount.

 

I cant say that I see any real differance on the detail side.

Pappy55,

 

Trust Uncle Al. He has more experience with this game than just about anyone.

 

You might review the following, it gives a basic description of how your graphics card works: http://www.tweakguid...Graphics_4.html As the article describes, there are numerous steps in graphics processing, and your problem appears to be related to "Step 8: the Data Is Sent To The Frame Buffer". When you reduce sliders in OFF, you're reducing the amount of data that your ATI frame buffer has to handle. There are numerous tweaks that should help performance due to frame buffer limitations, including some described in the article (e.g., Fullscreen Page Flipping and VSync). If you haven't done so, consider applying the tweaks described in the OFF FAQ here: http://www.overfland...ds.com/Tips.htm

 

You probably won't be able to run high slider settings with a 3870. As a frame of reference, in my 3GHz machine, my X1950XTX is barely adequate with 2-2-2-2-2 sliders, but my 4870 works pretty well, giving avg 28 FPS with 5-3-2-3-2 sliders at 1920X1050 resolution with 8XAA and 8XAF. The 3870 has roughly 1/3 less graphical computing power than the 4870.

 

Of course, your mileage may vary. Hope this helps.

Edited October 25, 2009 by BirdDogICT

[Maxiku 0]

I have a similar rig to the above (Q6600 quad-core running at 2.4Ghz, 4 Gig generic ram, Win7 64bit) but invested in a ATI 4870x2 card.

That card makes a massive difference to the performance and I can run OFF nicely at 1920x1200 resolution (32 bit/No Anti Aliasing) with all sliders set to 5!

 

It's very rare that I see any slowdown. The only slowdowns I remember seeing where on the massive 20 vs 20 dogfights and to clear that I just knocked my resolution down to 1920x1080.

 

Obviously the power of the graphics card is very useful but I have a feeling that it's the 2Gb of Graphics memory that is equally important.

 

As for the graphics issue mentioned at the start of the thread (Large Black squares on the landscape) - I think that's a graphics driver issue with the ATI cards. I used to get it very badly in OFF3 but updating my graphics driver cleared it for 90% of my missions.

I do still get the issue from time to time, but I get exactly the same problem in Rise Of Flight.

 

Tally-Ho

 

Maxiku

 

 

[Parky 8]

Do yourself a Big Favor Pal, NEVER exceed 4 on scenery or terrian. You won't experience any problems in the beginning, but sure as little green apples, within a weeks time you won't be able to explain the video anomolies that are bound to occur. Consider yourself warned, you shall RUE the Day

 

By the way, when SP1 is made available for Windows 7, and it supports Force Feed Back, I'll welcome it with open arms. But until that time, I'll keep plugging along with XP

 

I understand the concept of not running scenery or terrain sliders at 5 so as not to overtax hardware that isn't capable of handling it. Please explain though, why would it take a week for any resulting anomilies to occur....if they even did??? Just curious as I've never experienced, witnessed, or even heard of anyone else experiencing that kind of delayed reaction with regard to the impending graphical disaster you speak of. I can pretty much assure you that I'd be able to run with both those sliders on 5 for six months and the worst result I'll get is lower framerates. That however, would occur immediately after having increased those settings.....not 7 weeks later.

Edited November 1, 2009 by Parky

[Parky 8]

anywhere from a few hours to a WEEK, unexplainable video anomalies Will occur.

 

Somehow in your case, I'm reminded of a saying

 

"I've already made my mind up, now don't confuse me with facts"

 

That timeframe you keep referring to, I'm sure it came as the result of exhaustive clinical trials that yielded consistent and tangible results.

 

 

Of course it did, and in your case, I'm also reminded of a little saying. It goes something like this:

 

 

"Bulls**t baffles brains"

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

Parky

[Parky 8]

I'm not disputing the fact that the developers themselves recommend people settle for those settings, but I don't seem to recall any of them indicating that if you ran the sliders in question on 5's, that within a week, big, lumbering, pink elephants would start appearing on the screen. Mind you Al, after a couple more beers, they in all probability might just do that. They'd certainly make an entertaining replacement for Zeppelins if you hadn't already looked after that via the addon.

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

Parky

[Parky 8]

Large white patches where they never were before YES.

 

It takes no genius, it's merely cause and effect, which doesn't occur immediately.

 

That's why it occurs so often, it's not there one session, yet it is the next.

 

The one week, is merely an arbritrary measure of time, we know the eventual result, but not the when

 

Perhaps: In the interest of accuracy, I should modify my statement to WITHIN a Week

 

 

Indeed. I suppose it can all be put down to the well known and commonly dreaded, slow but inevitable degradation of your video card's texture fill rate capabilities over a very short period of time. If what you say is true, then it only stands to reason that after about 3 weeks, you'd be faced with having to look at a completely blank, white screen. Makes perfect sense to me....

 

(By the way Pappy...sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread. What Uncle Al says is in fact true in a sense. The phenomenon you're experiencing is indeed most likely a result of your hardware's inability to render textures at the chosen detail settings. It could also be something as simple as a specific choice of settings at the driver level. Turning those sliders down will improve things. The problem in question on the other hand, wouldn't have gotten any more severe over a period of time.....strictly from a technical standpoint of course. Trust me. The texture fill rate capabilities of your GPU will remain constant as long as there are no environmental problems (ie: thermal issues ) or the card itself starts to fail. Regardless, Al's advice is sound. You'd be wise to follow it, even if the accompanying and somewhat mystifying theory defies any conventional logic whatsoever, and is entirely bereft of any technical merit or value.)

 

 

I'll get off my soapbox now.

 

Thanks for comin' out.....

 

 

Parky

Edited November 2, 2009 by Parky