MaglorD

That is why on my last LS playthrough, I killed all of them and didn't get any DS points for doing so. Plus, I absorbed their essence and increased my Force capacity.

hmm that's odd. You can try adjusting the ingame gamma to almost maximum. Then use the ATI control panel to do the finishing touches. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The problem is that the in game gamma adjustment always defaults back to the ATI contral pannel gamma after a movie or after leaving the game. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> In my case, the ATI control panel is able to compensate for the brightness sufficiently so I don't have to use the ingame slider. I set the ATI gamma to about 2.75 out of a maximum of 3.50 instead of the usual 2.00 for 3d applications. Besides the gamma, you can also try increasing the brightness in the ATI control panel.

hmm that's odd. You can try adjusting the ingame gamma to almost maximum. Then use the ATI control panel to do the finishing touches.

Let's see I posted something like this my first time through with all my misconceptions :D so I'll try to paraphrase hopefully with none of that having now played this game 4x(LS Guardian/Weapon Master, LS Consular/Jedi Master, DS Consular/Sith Lord, LS Consular/Jedi Master using lots of DS powers). Prologue - The image of the damaged Ebon Hawk was a bit disconcerting and made me wonder what happened to its original crew, as in Revan et al. Nowhere in KotOR 1 is the Ebon Hawk shown in such a state of disrepair so the contrast was very apparent. Peragus - Pretty routine. I found the turret game at the end quite fun as I noticed it was much more accurate than in the first game. Telos - Also pretty routine. Enjoyed the lovely graphics planetside. Nar Shaddar - Lots of things to do if a little bit long. I liked the Jekk Jekk Tarr with the aliens and interesting effects, very much in tune with Star Wars. The music in the cantina is a rearrangement from the Taris cantina...and I couldn't help reminiscing about that destroyed world from KotOR 1. Dantooine - Ooo so many memories from KotOR 1...what Dantooine was like then and now, great contrast again. Gone are the Matales and Sandrals and their endless feuding. Once again, you get hints of the past here and there, the old Matale estate now known as Khoonda, overheard conversations etc and of course the ruined Academy. I remember talking to Master Zhar as Revan at the training room and the other masters at the council, now reduced to ruins. The route to the old landing spot is blocked. And I finally get to kill that irritating Vrook. Dxun - Great graphics and music. A place littered with relics from the Mandalorian Wars - droid soldiers, remains of republic soldiers, weapons caches. It didn't take me long to figure out Mandalore was really good ole Candyman suited up in cool armor. I liked how the Mandalorians were portrayed with their militaristic culture, not dissimilar from ancient Sparta. Onderron - As someone said, this was lifted from AOTC with that Indian-sounding Queen Talia and her knight in shining armor Jedi Kavar. Korriban - Another one of those planets from KotOR 1. Enjoyed exploring the ruined Sith Academy with Bastila's cameo. And of course the DS cave with the ghostly images was very well done, especially playing LS. In hindsight, Malak truly seemed like a pawn, manipulated by the Force to his own detriment. I recall what he said in his dying breath on the Star Forge about what his fate would have been had he instead of Revan been captured by the Jedi. I didn't like the "apathy is death" bug which prevented Kreia from disappearing if you chose to help her. Ravager - Heh, Mandalorians trying to relive their past, 'nuff said. Wow, I really liked Carth's and Bastila's cameo, especially the part when Carth starts reminiscing about how he met Revan... Melachor V - First time I played I thought the game ended with Carth's and Bastila's cameo so this was like an epilogue. Due to Obsidian/Lucasarts cutting a lot of material after the Ravager, this planet felt a little rushed and meaningless but I enjoyed the combat. Also Sion's defeat when he finds his final rest.

Yeah, one would hope that this workaround is by now common knowledge...you can skip having to use it if you're on the 4.11 OGL.

You need to adjust your gamma using ATI's control panel rather than the ingame gamma slider, which seems bugged for ATI cards. Just increase the gamma to a higher setting in the ATI control panel than you normally use and don't touch the ingame gamma slider.

This won't work if you have a newer card belonging to the X series.

In your price range, probably a plain GeForce 6600(AGP). http://www.futurepowerpc.com/scripts/detai...600256&REFID=PW

Just too bad it isn't compatible with their newer cards, like those in the X series.

I have 2 gaming pcs, one with 6800 gt and the another with X800 xtpe. Oh btw, I confirmed the 5.3 with the old control panel causes glitches for me at 1280x960, so it really does look like ATI is forcing people to move to their bloated CCC.

Have to agree. It takes forever to load up even on my pretty high-end machine and is very buggy, as you said buggy piece of bloatware. I have no choice but to use its profile section because of KotOR 2's screwed up ingame gamma control for ATI cards. The problem with the ingame control is it will always reset to default gamma after a movie. As there are opening 'movies' when starting KotOR thanks to Lucasarts and Obsidian, it also loads up at default gamma. Hence, the only way to fix the gamma presently is to use an external gamma control and not rely on the ingame gamma. I also created a profile to reset the profile to normal and while it does reset the gamma according to the CCC, I still have to open up bloatware CCC to click reset before the gamma truly resets. While the gamma problems existed for the old control panel, at least it loaded very quickly. But I noticed when using the old control panel, I get graphic glitches when running at even 1280x960. The graphics glitches disappeared when I loaded 5.3 CCC. Maybe 5.3 with the old control panel is ok. Point is if you're using ATI, you have to jump through so many hoops just to make the game work at an equivalent standard on the Nvidia. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I switched to 5.3 with the old control panel and it seems I can run at 1280x960 without glitches so I don't need CCC. I am using the profile feature in the old control panel and the gamma problem has now been fixed :D

What Catalyst version are you using? Are you relying on your eyes to determine performance issues or do you use a proper program? The Dantooine lag problem only started with Cat 4.12 and ironically the area transition crashing bug started in Cat 4.4 I believe and was fixed with Cat 4.11. Notice it too 7 mths for ATI to rectify the area transition bug and introduced the Dantooine bug almost immediately upon fixing the earlier bug. That is why many people claim 4.11 as the best ATI KoTOR driver, at least for those using X800 series cards, which require at least Cat 4.6 or so. People using older hardware can actually run KotOR 1/2 on Cat 4.3 and earlier without too many issues. I suspect in your case, you're using an older Cat driver on your Win 98?

Have to agree. It takes forever to load up even on my pretty high-end machine and is very buggy, as you said buggy piece of bloatware. I have no choice but to use its profile section because of KotOR 2's screwed up ingame gamma control for ATI cards. The problem with the ingame control is it will always reset to default gamma after a movie. As there are opening 'movies' when starting KotOR thanks to Lucasarts and Obsidian, it also loads up at default gamma. Hence, the only way to fix the gamma presently is to use an external gamma control and not rely on the ingame gamma. I also created a profile to reset the profile to normal and while it does reset the gamma according to the CCC, I still have to open up bloatware CCC to click reset before the gamma truly resets. While the gamma problems existed for the old control panel, at least it loaded very quickly. But I noticed when using the old control panel, I get graphic glitches when running at even 1280x960. The graphics glitches disappeared when I loaded 5.3 CCC. Maybe 5.3 with the old control panel is ok. Point is if you're using ATI, you have to jump through so many hoops just to make the game work at an equivalent standard on the Nvidia.

Hmm I'm quite happy with this. Not having to meddle with the buggy ingame gamma slider bar is great.

Thanks for the reply... Im sure my CPU does have something to do with it, I dont doubt that. I dont know if I have Disable Vertex Buffers enabled...I normally just install games, turned everything on to their highest setting except for AF/AA. So most likely, if its in the options menu, and it says Disable, I leave it alone. I also am not sure what my specific framerates are, everything is smooth to my eyes. Thats normally all I ask for. As for gamma, I dont mess with the in game gamma. ATi's CCC has a profiling option, and one section has a gamma slider, and I create seperate profiles for each game I play. I select that profile, and start my game. That way I dont have to mess with it in game. Its interesting you are not having issues with Khoonda. Even my Xbox version even has framerate issues with Khoonda. Are you doing anything different? That is not contained in the normal options menu? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> If you're using Cats 5.3, you should go into swkotor2.ini and insert this line under [Graphics Options] Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1 This will solve your problems at Khoonda. Those areas that I mentioned a drop in frame rates may not be noticeable to someone without software checking for frame rates. That's often an excuse used by graphics card manufacturers not to have to fix frame rate issues. They will say it's only noticeable if you use 3rd party software to check frame rates, so it doesn't need fixing. I will try CCC's gamma control as a temporary fix.

2. slightly more areas with frame-rate issues compared to Nvidia, though all in all still relatively rare. The slowdowns I experienced were on Peragus at the Fuel Depot with the neon-coloured force-fields, some of the rooms with smoke where T3-M4 first ventures in on his way to the fuel depot and only in certain directions, the heated area with orange-red smoke where the exile is told to turn on his heat shield, Telos residential area(this one probably due to some kind of memory leak. Seems to occur after getting the first quest from the Ithorians. Doesn't occur during the finale when the Ravager goes to Telos) and Nar Shaddar at the docks area near the landspeeder. Oddly enough it only slows down after you return from destroying Goto's ship. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I have an X800 XT PE and I dont have any of these issues that are being described. The only framerate issue I have is Khoonda, thats all. And when in Khoonda I can fix if by turning everything off and down (texture settings AF/AA). I can go right back in turn everything back on, textures on High, and AF/AA x4, and then it runs fine, until I enter either dialog, or go to the menu. I rinse and repeat to fix again. Again its just Koonda, the area outside the enclave is fine, and every other area on Dantoonie is fine. And every other planet is fine. I dont believe it's the drivers and/or the card. Because for one I dont have any other framerate issues, and when I turned the settings down to the lowest possible (with everything off) it still happens. Im running Catalyst Control Center v5.3, my specs are below: AMD64 FX-55 Abit K8T800 Pro 2GB DDR400 Corsair ATi X800 XT Platinum Edition SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro Saitek GamerBoard Razer Diamondback High Precision Mouse <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Maybe it's because you have a very good cpu. I'm running on amd64 3000+ and 1GB RAM. Do you have "disable vertex buffers" enabled? What are your frame rates in those areas I mentioned? Do you have gamma issues? For good measure, I don't have any issues at Khoonda or any part of Dantooine.

I run fraps thoughout the game so I spot frame rate issues easily whereas others may not. I did not experience any slowdowns on Dantooine due to "Disable Vertex Buffers". However, I have read having this option also reduces overall frame rate in other parts of the game, and could contribute to frame rate issues elsewhere. If you're running Cats 4.11, then you do not have to disable vertex buffers. Somehow, 4.12 onwards, the option has to be activated otherwise Dantooine becomes unplayable. I do not know if the fault lies with ATI, but as it stands, ATI cards do have slightly more issues than Nvidia. I do know though that the gamma issues should be fixed in the patch. If like me you have played on both ATI and Nvidia, you will find playing on Nvidia much more pleasurable due to less glitches overall.

That's just insane. No company in their right mind would sell newer products which perform worse than their older stuff. Fortunately, my X800 performs superbly for all other games I play. As far as KotOR 2 goes, the ATI-specific issues I've encountered on my X800 XT PE are: 1. gamma issues, which some people may not even have noticed. I actually saw a magazine with screenshots of KotOR 2 and it was obvious that the gamma was too low but it didn't bother them enough to correct. 2. slightly more areas with frame-rate issues compared to Nvidia, though all in all still relatively rare. The slowdowns I experienced were on Peragus at the Fuel Depot with the neon-coloured force-fields, some of the rooms with smoke where T3-M4 first ventures in on his way to the fuel depot and only in certain directions, the heated area with orange-red smoke where the exile is told to turn on his heat shield, Telos residential area(this one probably due to some kind of memory leak. Seems to occur after getting the first quest from the Ithorians. Doesn't occur during the finale when the Ravager goes to Telos) and Nar Shaddar at the docks area near the landspeeder. Oddly enough it only slows down after you return from destroying Goto's ship. PS: None of these issues are game-stopping and can be considered relatively minor. It's just that the Nvidia has fewer of these issues. For instance, it has no gamma issues at all and slowdowns were only encountered at the area with orange-red smoke on Peragus and the Telos residential area. Also for Nvidia, you don't have to fix the swkotor2.ini with Disable Vertex Buffers. However, my ATI can run at maxed AA and AF easily whereas the Nvidia starts slowing down. So the bottomline is the KotOR engine is optimised for Nvidia.

Why don't you start by telling us how to fix the intermittent gamma issues with ATI cards? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No problem. I have a little program I use to set everything up just right: http://praxisoft.com/pages/products.wiziwyg.html Try that out, if that won't work, use RadLinker to set your gamma levels and so forth...I have never once encountered a single gamma bug...Must be luck, or I'm doing something right that I haven't quite pinned a name on yet <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks but I'd rather not have to buy 3rd party software to fix the ATI gamma issues when I don't currently experience such issues with KotOR 1. In any case, I don't experience such issues with my 6800 GT Pci Express, which is one of Nvidia's newest offerings. BTW, it seems retarded that ATI's newest hardware should be worse than the older cards for KotOR 2.

Sorry but your solution doesn't work with the X800 series cards as the 4.3 atioglxx.dll is not compatible wth those cards, as the 4.3 predates the X800 series.

Why don't you start by telling us how to fix the intermittent gamma issues with ATI cards?

I run my 6800 GT at AF 4x and AA 8x at 1280x960 with decent fps. I cannot run it at AF 8x and AA 16x though as the fps drops too low then. However with my ATI X800 XT PE, I can run it at AF 8x and AA 16x without breaking a sweat. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Oh and another irritating aspect about the ATI is the gamma keeps resetting in-game. I have to keep going into the graphics settings to adjust the gamma otherwise it gets rather dark. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Same problem here. I hope that they remembered it in the patch, though it is not really a serious bug. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> KotOR 1 apparently also had the same problem when it first came out but it was fixed in a subsequent patch. Interestingly, the international patch is supposed to have addressed the issue however when I tried to use the automatic update, I was told my version, presumably US edition, was current. Having played through on the Nvidia and comparing with the ATI, it is quite obvious the testers and developers had Nvidia in focus when the game was developed since Nvidia runs with less issues compared to ATI. Also the Aurora/Odyssey engines of which KotOR 1/2 and Neverwinter Nights are based on are also pro-Nvidia. Support for ATI was more like a second thought provided through patches.

I run my 6800 GT at AF 4x and AA 8x at 1280x960 with decent fps. I cannot run it at AF 8x and AA 16x though as the fps drops too low then. However with my ATI X800 XT PE, I can run it at AF 6x and AA 16x without breaking a sweat. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Oh and another irritating aspect about the ATI is the gamma keeps resetting in-game. I have to keep going into the graphics settings to adjust the gamma otherwise it gets rather dark.

I prefer Viridien to Silver, which is just a white lightsabre. During my last playthough as a DS Consular/Sith Lord, I was using a Viridien classic lightsabre. I gave the silver double-bladed lightsabre to Handmaiden since she's so pale anyway. Visas got the double-bladed bronze and Bao-Dur got the double-bladed Cyan, which doesn't get deactivated, very fitting for Bao-Dur indeed.

I run my 6800 GT at AF 4x and AA 8x at 1280x960 with decent fps. I cannot run it at AF 8x and AA 16x though as the fps drops too low then. However with my ATI X800 XT PE, I can run it at AF 6x and AA 16x without breaking a sweat.