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ATI video cards with KotOR2


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This might be a little premature, but I am getting a bit apprehensive about the potential graphics problems I will have with KoTOR2 on my PC with a Radeon 9600XT card. I had a horrible time with the first game until ATI came out with the 4.11 catalyst drivers. Unfortunately, the subsequent versions (4.12, 5.1) were broken once again. I read an interview with either someone at Obsidian or LucasArts (can't seem to locate that article now) that the developers had suggested changes to ATI during PC development and QA. I hope those changes had been included by ATI by the time of the 4.11 driver release. If those changes were introduced later, then we might have no driver version working correctly upon the PC release of the game. Since KoTOR2 uses pretty much the same graphics engine as the first game, probably with minor tweaks, the issues that cause problems with the latest drivers will likely still be there...

 

Does any one know anything specific mentioned by any of the developers in this regard?

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You had problems with a 9600? I was running on a 9200, and it ran pretty darn smooth at 1280*768 and it didn't ever screw up.

 

The problem wasn't that the card was unable to handle the load -- it ran very smooth *when* it ran. But, there were frequent (and apparently random) crashes to the desktop, especially during load screens. It was an issue acknowledged by both Bioware and ATI. Bioware's KoTOR forums were full of fellow victims, and ATI (finally, in Nov. 2004) fixed the issue in driver release 4.11 (the fix was mentioned in the release notes). However, bugs resurfaced in newer driver versions from ATI. Specifically, there's a tremendous lag in large open environments (e.g., Dune sea on Tatooine or outdoor areas on Dantooine). Apparently, there's some problem with the vertex shader code in the drivers. Several people have reported similar problems when using the latest drivers with even higher end ATI cards, such as the X700 and X800.

 

The card suits me well for most other games, including Half-Life 2, so I am not ready to switch to nVidia... yet. I just wish I was aware of ATI's shoddy work on drivers before investing in this card :)

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go here: http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?sh...pic=26850&st=15

 

It says that Obsidian either fixed the engine or showed ATI on how to fix the ATI Specific Bugs found during Kotor II's development.

 

Ati si not for games...If you wanna play by Nvidia!

 

fan of s**thouse poetry?

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go here: http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?sh...pic=26850&st=15

 

It says that Obsidian either fixed the engine or showed ATI on how to fix the ATI Specific Bugs found during Kotor II's development.

 

Ati si not for games...If you wanna play by Nvidia!

 

fan of s**thouse poetry?

 

oh not another flame war......guys be quiet.

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go here: http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?sh...pic=26850&st=15

 

It says that Obsidian either fixed the engine or showed ATI on how to fix the ATI Specific Bugs found during Kotor II's development.

 

Ati si not for games...If you wanna play by Nvidia!

 

fan of s**thouse poetry?

 

Yeah, whatever...

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In general: ATI is better with DirectX, NVidia is better wiht OpenGL. All OpenGL games have more problems with ATI than NVidia. May be it is best to ask Akari or s.o. else which ATI driver versions are nost friendly to KOTOR2.

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In general: ATI is better with DirectX, NVidia is better wiht OpenGL. All OpenGL games have more problems with ATI than NVidia. May be it is best to ask Akari or s.o. else which ATI driver versions are nost friendly to KOTOR2.

 

go here: http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?sh...pic=26850&st=15

 

It says that Obsidian either fixed the engine or showed ATI on how to fix the ATI Specific Bugs found during Kotor II's development.

 

as it states, the latest drivers are recommended because the ATI drivers for the last 6 months were also used to fix driver issues with Kotor II

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I was playing with a 9200, 512 RAM, 2.6 P4 Ghz, and Direct X 9.0c.... Since then, I've upgraded from a 9200 to an All in wonder 9600XT I don't think that I'll have any problems, but now you guys are starting to freak me out.... :-

 

It should run fine, i personally don't have shadows on, it doesn't make it all glamerous....it makes it look worse to be honest.

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I managed to get a decent playing experiance out of my GF2MX. Textures are on High but just about everything else is on the lowest possible. Only time I get any lag is when there is smoke/mist/dust. This means that it is impossible to win any swoop races on Tatooine.

 

I get along by killing anyone who even thinks about throwing grenades. Grenades freeze the screen for about 5 seconds.

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If you want to make shure you have drivers that work, use the ones that were new during the bugfix/tweaking phase of the development of K2. That is november-december 2004.

 

 

KoTOR was compatible with the drivers for its time, the problems started with the newer ATI drivers along with patch 1.03

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If you want to make shure you have drivers that work, use the ones that were new during the bugfix/tweaking phase of the development of K2. That is november-december 2004.

 

Hmm... you are right, the ATI driver release that works best with KoTOR (catalyst 4.11, supports antialiasing as well as soft shadows, no crashes in 2 play-throughs) was released in mid or late November. This gives me hope that the same drivers would see me through KoTOR2 ;)

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