ATI video cards with KotOR2

[MaglorD]

I have Radeon 9600 and OpenGL games are running smooth, very smooth. But KotOR I/II isn't. I think it's rather engine's fault, not ATI cards' and if there could be something done about it, better do something with game (patch? will the one we are waiting for change anything with the smoothness? I don't think so...). Fortunately KotOR III graphics will run on another graphics engine, I hope it will be better for ATI cards than Odyssey.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Depends on who is designing the engine. If it's Bioware, you can be sure it will the same thing as Bioware likes to base their new engines on their older ones, so all the ATI bugs get transferred over...just like Odyssey was developed from Aurora.

[Haitoku]

I have Radeon 9600 and OpenGL games are running smooth, very smooth. But KotOR I/II isn't. I think it's rather engine's fault, not ATI cards' and if there could be something done about it, better do something with game (patch? will the one we are waiting for change anything with the smoothness? I don't think so...). Fortunately KotOR III graphics will run on another graphics engine, I hope it will be better for ATI cards than Odyssey.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Depends on who is designing the engine. If it's Bioware, you can be sure it will the same thing as Bioware likes to base their new engines on their older ones, so all the ATI bugs get transferred over...just like Odyssey was developed from Aurora.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I hear you... There is just something about this engine... I've tested this game on both a P@3.2Ghz w/ a Geforce 6800 reference and a ATI x800xl. Both D3D and OGL games fantastic with either card (well, better on the x800xl card). But for some reason... KOTORs engine seems very un-optimized. I don't know if its because of the long dialogue strings... Or something else. It just doesn't feel right when i play it...

[Master Dahvernas]

I hear you... There is just something about this engine...  I've tested this game on both a P@3.2Ghz w/ a Geforce 6800 reference and a ATI x800xl.  Both D3D and OGL games fantastic with either card (well, better on the x800xl card).  But for some reason... KOTORs engine seems very un-optimized.  I don't know if its because of the long dialogue strings...  Or something else.  It just doesn't feel right when i play it...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I don't think there is any occlusion (only drawing what you can see) going on. I think it may be rendering EVERYTHING on a map instead of whenever it comes into view.

 

What is leading me to believe this is that you look one direction and it is fine... Turn just a few degrees in another and you can see the frame rate plumet and it is most often whenever you look toward areas where there are a lot of verticies and things going on on the other side of the wall/barrier you are staring at. A good example if the Refugee sector. It plumets to single digits if you are looking at some refugees and a pile of containers behind them that also has more refugees and other things beyond... But turn toward another wall where there isn't much behind them (except the end of the map) and it goes back to nomral (at least above 30 FPS).

 

There is a command in under the [Game Options] setting called "Hide SecondStoryTiles" and this is supposed to activate culling of objects (the secondary tiles you can't see).

 

I don't know if it actually is implemented in the KOTOR engine since it is an Aurora Engine command, but the Odyssey Engine is based off of that, so I am assuming it is still in the code, just not activated for some reason? I don't even know if it would help that much, but anything is better than the current versions (both KOTOR and TSL).

 

I am hoping that KOTOR III, whoever makes it, that they just go D3D this time and save everybody the hassels as D3D is a more universal API in terms of people's video cards (not rendering or performance) and we get cool Shader 2.0 and 3.0 effects in the next installment as well as better graphics overall. The good thing is that it doesn't have to do 100 FPS. This isn't a First Person Shooter and anything above 60 FPS will sufice for a game of this speed.

[Judge Hades]

I would be happy with 15 to 20 FPS in a CRPG.

[Haitoku]

I would be happy with 15 to 20 FPS in a CRPG.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

You hooking your Rig to your TV?

 

15 FPS looks like a slide show on my monitor

[Snow]

I would be happy with 15 to 20 FPS in a CRPG.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

You hooking your Rig to your TV?

 

15 FPS looks like a slide show on my monitor

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Don't feed the troll...

[Haitoku]

I would be happy with 15 to 20 FPS in a CRPG.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

You hooking your Rig to your TV?

 

15 FPS looks like a slide show on my monitor

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Don't feed the troll...

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I'm not really proficient with forum slang... what exactly does troll mean?

[moteldiscoverde]

To play Better, Play with NVIDIA.

[Apocalypse Blue]

The 5.2 Cats are working well for me at the moment.

[11238_1556103629]

To play Better, Play with NVIDIA.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You mean, To play THIS GAME better, play with nVidia... <_<

[Haitoku]

[quote name='

[Tenax246]

I'm thinking of getting a new graphics card and I can only get either the ATI 9250 or the Nvidia 5200, whick one should i get?

[Dire]

continue to save up for a better card!

[JamieKirby]

continue to save up for a better card!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I agree, continue to save up for a better card.

 

Also, I have tried Kotor II with a 9800Pro and a 5900Ultra and despite the 5900Ultra being slightly faster because it has double the memory and the glowy thing worked without a problem.....the game worked the same....had the same bugs (minor ones) so it makes little difference on which type of card you have, since this game was poorly made in the first place, you can't say that this game runs better on Nvidia or ATI.

 

Both ATI and Nvidia have the same problems. (severe slowdowns in the same areas) and no the fix for Dantooine doesn't fix this problem. lol

 

The only difference between the cards are: the glowy thing works on Nvidia and since the nvidia one is slightly faster, the slowdown is less noticeable, but not much.

 

So, in the long run, this game is just poorly made, it makes no difference on what card you use.

 

some people are just lucky and others are just unlucky.

[AlanC9]

Both ATI and Nvidia have the same problems. (severe slowdowns in the same areas) and no the fix for Dantooine doesn't fix this problem. lol

 

Well, you could go back to Win 98. I've never had any slowdowns anywhere on my 9800 Pro with that OS. Don't ask me why.

[L_Cantrell]

Well if i may interupt the never ending arugment of who's graphics card is more well endowed i thought people might like to know that a 9700 runs with the atioglxx.dll omega 4.11 and with the Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1 added to swkotor2 ini file.

 

Now all i have to do is wait for the patch so that i can get off this moon of doom!!!

 

p.s. having had both makes i can clearly state that my 9700 pee's from a great height on all of my FX cards (5200 - 5900), then dances like a naked fatman on their grave!!

[Mormodra]

I think everyone who is complaining about ATI doesnt know anything... anyone who has ever used a ATI card knows.. they run harder, cooler, and faster... That is why Nvidia has to try to run 2 cards hooked together to get the same results as one ATI x800XT. But this is actually about something totally different... Is there no one that will be able to give us a clear answer on when the patch is coming out, so we can stop blaming video card manufacterers. This game has so many bugs that it cant just be because of "ATI" cards... Im sure everyone is have the same sketchy graphics, and the pausing then appearing on the other side of the map, or just wierd graphics all together.. As we speak many of the graphics issues are probably being looked into... But i just dont see how its taking so long when, Bioware seemed to be able to get patches out whenever they wanted and they had a hand with Lucas Arts before and never had these kinda of delays... Maybe its possible its just due to poor programmers... Bioware is canadian and has alot more potential and I think. It was dumb for Lucas Arts to get a company where most of the people left black Isle to make "Obsidian." If they realized their failure they will give contracts back to Bioware unless they didnt want it... Im sure others have even noticed... all the coding must have been taken directly from Bioware as i see no graphical changes... Enough of my ranting though... maybe this will influence the programmers to at least try to get a patch out and maybe to the players who wont stop whining about ATI, when if you had a brain in your head you know ATI is better.

[L_Cantrell]

To Mormodra

 

Whilst i agree with most of what you said i do have one small issue. This is both ATI and obsidian not talking!! A common mistake in the industry i am lead to believe. This is evident since changing the ati opengl file has fixed many peoples problems (note many people, not all). Whilst the game has many glaring issues technically, it is a superb game to play. I would be inclined to believe that obsidian were sat on for a release. Looking at Lucas Arts current crop of wingdingers i would suspect that they wanted this out ASAP.

 

It can be hard starting on your own and having played both one and two side by side your right about the graphics, and i personally feel the characters themselves are not as good, some new features have been added (required of sequal perhaps?) and many of the clear cut descions of one have been mixed and misted!!... oopps i'm ranting, i didn't mean to rant... sorry

 

(oh by the way i think you'll find SLi does beat an X800XT all over the room but i am an ati fan before you start preaching!!

[Dragonforce]

in general, ATI cards run much faster and can handle newer games better than nvidia cards, though nvidia cards tend to make the games look better due to lighting and slightly more advanced pixel shaders

 

for this game, once the patch comes out, hopefully it will fix the ati cards problems, ati cards will be better for it, while right now in its unpatched form, nivida cards are better as there are less hardware issues

[MaglorD]

in general, ATI cards run much faster and can handle newer games better than nvidia cards, though nvidia cards tend to make the games look better due to lighting and slightly more advanced pixel shaders

 

for this game, once the patch comes out, hopefully it will fix the ati cards problems, ati cards will be better for it, while right now in its unpatched form, nivida cards are better as there are less hardware issues

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It was never completely fixed even with the original so I doubt it will happen with this game. The most obvious trouble currently seems to be with the ATI drivers and how vertex shader objects are handled. Cats 4.10 and several driver versions before suffered from the horrible area transition crashes.

 

As for the comment about Nvidia and ATI, I'm not sure I'll generalise by saying ATI runs faster. It really depends which specific models one is comparing. While it may be true for the very high-end cards today, it isn't necessarily true for the mid-range or upper mid-range cards. And we all know ATI performs dismally for Nvidia-optimised Doom 3 compared to Nvidia. While Nvidia's 5000(FX) series is no match for ATI, their 6000 series is pretty decent.

 

ATI make good hardware but seem to be let down by less polished drivers compared with Nvidia. Or perhaps, many game manufacturers such as Bioware optimise their games/engines for Nvidia rather than ATI.

[JamieKirby]

I haven't had any problems with Kotor I or II, everything i have experienced have happend on Nvidia Cards too. (5900Ultra & 6800Ultra)

 

Both get massive slowdowns in the Peragus Minging Tunnels and the area where you take control of T3-M4 on Peragus and on Malacor V on the first area. (same slowdowns on each of the cards, it is just slightly less noticeable...but it is still there)

 

I am using the Unian v1.1.53 drivers based on the Catayst 5.3 and i am using the OpenGL .dll file from Catalyst 4.3 to get the neat glows back.

 

I don't get any crashes what so ever.

[MaglorD]

I haven't had any problems with Kotor I or II, everything i have experienced have happend on Nvidia Cards too. (5900Ultra & 6800Ultra)

 

Both get massive slowdowns in the Peragus Minging Tunnels and the area where you take control of T3-M4 on Peragus and on Malacor V on the first area. (same slowdowns on each of the cards, it is just slightly less noticeable...but it is still there)

 

I am using the Unian v1.1.53 drivers based on the Catayst 5.3 and i am using the OpenGL .dll file from Catalyst 4.3 to get the neat glows back.

 

I don't get any crashes what so ever.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Something is wrong with your 6800 setup because I don't experience any slowdowns with my 6800GT at all. I'd go out on a limb to say the game performance is flawless except I did get one black screen as documented in the KotOR 2 readme, fixed easily with quicksave/load.

 

Why don't you try using your Unian v1.1.53 without using the 4.3 OGL and see how Dantooine plays out? Don't include the Disable Vertex Buffer Objects in your ini file. Btw, the 4.3 OGL is not supported by the X-series Radeons so what would you suggest for getting the glow effects?

[JamieKirby]

if you can't use the 4.3 drivers, then there is no hope....unless ATI get off their asses and does something about it......only people that can use the 4.3 can get the glow back.

 

 

EDIT: Also, my brother would say that the game is poorly done. (he is a self-absorbed person, he thinks his machine is perfect)

[Master Dahvernas]

EDIT: Also, my brother would say that the game is poorly done. (he is a self-absorbed person, he thinks his machine is perfect)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Your brother has a point, truth be told. I don't know if he means artistically or technically, but TSL suffers from both and desperately needs a content patch to restore the ending and definitely a tech patch to correct some of these slow downs and other issues like black screens and crashes to desktops.

[noun]

The ONLY thing that worked for me with Radeon 9600XT was adding this line to the Kotor2.ini file in the Graphics Options:

 

Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1

 

I got onto Dantooine and it's beautiful. Grass, shadows, et al. Sigh of relief.

 

Just wanted to post a reply that this fixed my slow motion party teleportation problem in Dantooine as well. I have all the options at max (except for adding the above line to my .ini file) and it's now smooth as butter again.

 

I don't know about coding to say for certain whether it's a KOTOR engine or a ATI driver bug, but man, this sure was bizarre. All members of my party would spin in place, teleport randomly around the Dantooine map, all at about .5 FPS.

 

My setup:

 

Intel 2.4 ghz

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro w/Catalyst 5.2 drivers

Creative Labs Audigy 2