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RC6/RC7 Patch Comments


Supreme Cmdr
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quote:

Originally posted by Shingen:

I'm confused.

Are you going to make the final patch intentionally NOT work with gf4 mx 440 cards
even with the old drivers that simulate the vertex shader
, and if you are, why?

I'm confused too, My cousin runs UC on his evo Compaq with an Intel Extreme Card that simulates the vertex shader and it runs great on his machine. I think he would be very disappointed if he applied a patch and it stopped working.

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My advice Shingen and Darkling, would be to hold onto the patch you have now. Make sure you put a copy into a folder somewhere for safe keeping as the SC rarely resends out old RC patches again once a newer one is released, then once you get a card with a vertex/pixel shader go nuts. The game wasn't made for card without a vertex shader so you really should consider yourself very lucky.

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quote:


Originally posted by Shingen:

I'm confused.

Are you going to make the final patch intentionally NOT work with gf4 mx 440 cards
even with the old drivers that simulate the vertex shader
, and if you are, why?


What I said was clear I thought and I'm not going to repeat it. If you don't get it, have someone translate it for you.

I am going to put in the correct device ID check. Every developer does it now that we know nVidia was misleading. When you check (using DX) for a vertex shader, the driver comes back and says ..yeah, I can do that. Which is lie. This causes problems (as we have all seen) in most games and since most people don't use the correct drivers (which have this nonsense disabled), a deviceID check is the only way. Had I known about this, I would have done it a long time ago. After I sent proof of my findings to nVidia, they sent me this on 02-11 (I am on their dev program, as I am on all chip makers).

quote:


Some game developers wanted to disable vertex shaders on all chips that don't do them 100% in hardware, so that includes the GeForce4MX. So, since we exposed the cap, the only way to do this would be to detect the chip using GetAdapterIdentifier() on the D3D object and checking the device id.

We have the device ids here:

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/device_ids.html

(though it looks like the d3d code is out-of-date, and wouldn't work with dx9. i'll make a note to update that)

So the relevant device id check for GF4MX-like chips would be (deviceID >= 0x0170) && (deviceID

But, if you're willing to require that users use up-to-date drivers with your game, then this is all unnecessary.


My game requires a card with a shader engine. And having a misleading driver dictate otherwise, is just not happening.

In fact, I am going to put it in this morning. So, the RC7 patch will be the last patch that will work with cards without a shader.

quote:


Originally posted by dirt12:

I?m not entirely certain that this is related to the RC6 or not but I didn?t have the problem prior to it. I?m playing the first mission of campaign where you escort the elders from LV130. I?ve just arrived in LV130 and thought I?d dock to the Cygni station and take on supplies. I can?t seem to ?catch up? to the station. Very odd. Never seen it before.


You don't need to catch up the station in order to dock.

And I suppose you missed the part where - in RC3 - I increased the orbital speeds of the stations?

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

I have deleted three posts which bear NO relevance to items in the RC6/7 patches.

quote:

Originally posted by Banquet:

Yikes, I did have a few beers last night, so thought I'd better go and re-check that!

Anyway, it does happen (sorta) I'm in a Warmonger on Treas and when I Alt-E I get this message;

'You cannot exit this craft while on a planet or you'll die'

Thinking about it, the planet looks quite hospitable - and the message says 'a planet', rather than 'THIS planet'

Oh well, it seemed kinda neat while I was drunk.

I just started a new game and flew to Earth. Touched down, did ALT+E works fine.

Went to Treas, works fine.

What'd I miss?


Very odd.. I just restored my game to Treas and got the message again. I flew to Cronus and got the same message. Then I created a new roam game, again in the Warmonger.. landed on earth and I could Alt+E without problem.

I have a savegame if you want to see it. Otherwise just put it down to something stupid I've done in my current game (the craft exits are blocked by beer cans, or something!)

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Guest Shingen

quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

I am going to put in the correct device ID check. Every developer does it now that we know nVidia was misleading. When you check (using DX) for a vertex shader, the driver comes back and says
..yeah, I can do that
. Which is lie.

Well it worked as of about five minutes ago, so whether it's in the hardware or drivers, or what not, it still runs the game, pretty damn good.

If it's a lie or whatever, it's immaterial to me.

I'll admit, that there is minute problems, but I'm NOT going to buy another card for this kit, just to patch this game.

I'll keep the RC7 patch on my gf4 MX 440 kit.

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

No thanks, keep your saved game But if you started a new game, why don't you go to Treas?

Phew, the ship is a mess and I couldn't find a command for Marines in TACTICAL for 'clean up the ship, the SC maybe payin a visit!' Damn messy bunch of hombre's they are!!

So we made it to Treas and landed successfully. I got sent out to empty the bin bags and it worked.. Alt+E, no problems.

So something must've happened to my old savegame, but it's ok now.. the mission continues.. and we fly, err.. thata way.. after I find a bin (Treas is a beautiful, untouched planet - I ain't just dumping these bin bags in an area of nature beauty!)

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Guest Shingen

quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

Shingen, I have decided to not do the deviceID check - as long as people with those boards do NOT post about graphics anomalies. Fair?

Works for me.

In fact, I can't really think of a single game I've ever bought that didn't have some kind of graphics glitch somewhere...

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Well, its not just graphics glitches, I am using some advanced shader instructions which the TnL fake that nVidia is doing, may or may not be able to handle. This can lead to crashes at inopportune moments. Save often.

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

Shingen, I have decided to not do the deviceID check - as long as people with those boards do NOT post about graphics anomalies. Fair? [/QB]

I am one of the lucky individuals who has a GeForce 440mx that actually runs the game (surprisingly well, actually), so I would like to thank you for leaving out the deviceID check.

I understand that there are going to be graphic problems caused by my card, and I can live with that, but I can still see people with this card who haven't read this post complaining about graphics problems.

An idea I have about how this could be solved is to put in the deviceID check, but also put in a command line parameter to skip around it. If the users card fails, put up a message box telling them that their card doesn't support vertex shading, but they MIGHT be able to use the command line parameter to make the game run. Also mention that if they do this, they get to live with any graphic anomalies that may arise, and if the game still doesn't run even after trying this, they are out of luck.

This is just a suggestion, take it or leave it.

(btw, I love this game. Can't wait until I can upgrade my pc to one that will show off the full graphic capabilities of this game.)

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I am also Grateful, and will NEVER post about a crash etc..

It runs very well, and I planned on an upgrade anyways, once I manage to find a new job. The all powerful Wife would never let me blow 200 bucks, and I don't blame her!

If I do post about something, it will be strictly gameplay related, so please don't roast me cause of my card, when all im trying to do is get my gammulan raider to a friendly abse with no hyper space fuel left!

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

Shingen, I have decided to not do the deviceID check - as long as people with those boards do NOT post about graphics anomalies. Fair?

FAQ worthy?

Edit:I see the FAQ links back to the "UC Pixel and Vertex shader requirements" thread so ok

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Maybe one way to do it is like some other programs that make you check the "I agree" box before the install/update will proceed.

So a simple message pops up: "Your configuration may play this game but its unsupported for the following reason...etc." they check I agree, and then everything proceeds.

This of course doesn't help when people still don't read, and it will cost many hours of effort to add that into the update or install process, but maybe you can kick the tires on thinking about it....

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Why? The box clearly states that the game requires a card with Vertex Shader 1.1.

Anyway, this is no longer open to debate, so lets just drop it and quit littering the thread with repetitive posts. Thanks for your suggestion though.

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quote:

I just tried to exit the cc on a planet (tranis?) and rather than exit and then die.. (as u do, sometimes) I got a message saying you can't exit because you'll die. I didn't notice this prior to RC7.

A small thing.. but apprecitated nontheless (how many planets have I died on?!)

And now I'm going to bed coz I'm posting far too much crap for no apparent reason.

RC7

I had this same bug last night. Was in a BCMkIII and flew down to the planet Earth over one of the mission zones. Landed my CC and when I pressed the Alt-E got the message you can't exit on a planet or you'll die.

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quote:

Originally posted by $iLk:

quote:

I just tried to exit the cc on a planet (tranis?) and rather than exit and then die.. (as u do, sometimes) I got a message saying you can't exit because you'll die. I didn't notice this prior to RC7.

A small thing.. but apprecitated nontheless (how many planets have I died on?!)

And now I'm going to bed coz I'm posting far too much crap for no apparent reason.

RC7

I had this same bug last night. Was in a BCMkIII and flew down to the planet Earth over one of the mission zones. Landed my CC and when I pressed the Alt-E got the message you can't exit on a planet or you'll die.


OK what have you two done before hand... gotten out of ur ship in space, got back in and then landed? stuff like that... it works fine on a new game so give us some more details of what you had been doing... think of things like I mentioned above!

[ 03-02-2004, 02:50 PM: Message edited by: Aphelion7 ]

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Thats right. They give NO details whatsoever and yet they expect me to pay attention and fix it.

They may have exited the craft in space, then entered it, went to the planet, then tried to exit again. If thats the case (I need to know please), its a new bug which probably crept in as a result of my not allowing the SFM (which is what the Commander is when he exits the craft in space) to exit while on a planet (since he can fly a shuttle to a planet).

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quote:

They may have exited the craft in space, then entered it, went to the planet, then tried to exit again. If thats the case (I need to know please), its a new bug which probably crept in as a result of my not allowing the SFM (which is what the Commander is when he exits the craft in space) to exit while on a planet (since he can fly a shuttle to a planet).

That's what I did... I only played a 10 minute game because I was testing out the new patch - from start to finish all I did was lower shields, orient my ship to face the maximum solar panel collection, climb out to fly around, got back in the ship, set a waypoint to a mission zone, flew down and landed using the CTRL E shortcut, hit the Alt-E and got that message.

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

Thats right. They give NO details whatsoever and yet they expect me to pay attention and fix it.

Blimey, I only mentioned it cause I thought it was a new feature!

I have no recollection of exiting the ship (but, then again, I have little recollection of anything much from that night after me 8th tin of brew) I'll go test it now and let u know what happens

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Right.. yes, I must've exited the craft. I just re-tried with my game where I CAN exit.. went into space, got out for a float around, got back in.. landed on earth and then couldn't Alt-E.

I guess this whole debacle probably means my invite into the beta team is on hold, eh?!

Edit: Thanks Grizzle!! lol

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