Direct 3d problem?

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Heya, i never used to have this problem and i dont know when i began happening. Im running an AMD Athlon 1.2 with 256meg SDram and a Geforce 2 GTS 32meg (Asus 7700 deluxe) Im also running WINDOWS 2000 professional.

I recently installed UNREAL TOURNAMENT but noticed that the graphics were terrible. When attempting to run the game in Direct3d it is jerky and the graphics are terrible, even while running at a resolution of 640x480 with 16bit colors. Yet the game runs perfectly (although dark, and the brightness doesnt change) in OpenGL, i can even run at 1024x768+. At this time i had ASUS's most recent drivers for my video card and directX 8.0 installed.

I tried changing the drivers around, using nvidia's drivers and directX8.1 and using the UT 436 patch, but still no luck. It's strange seeing how I should have far better performance using Direct3d than OpenGL. Im also getting very poor framerates in VideoCard benchmarking programs (5.6fps in particle fury)..

Another thing is that Rogue Spear runs fine on my machine and im able to run at resolutions of 1280x1024+........

Does anyone have any idea what could possibly be going wrong.
 

Smilin

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Oct 3, 2001
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Re download direct X from www.microsoft.com/directx

Install it over the top of itself. Other than that, no real definate answers.
 
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i've tried this, when switching from directX 8.0 to 8.1

no luck :(

ahhhh! hellp
 
G

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yes, i've checked unreals page and the build 436 version is recomended for windows 2000.... So im at a loss.

any other idea's?
 
G

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I am having exactly the same problem with an ASUS 6800 GEForce 2 DDR card in UT. Stuttering when playing, slow frame rates, the whole magilla exactly as described. Switch to Open GL and all is OK for awhile (dark as described) but that didn't last either. I'm running Windows 98 so I doubt it can be traced to a single operating system.

PS I also tried to change to the newest NVidia drivers, DirectX 8, etc. No go. Worse actually so I went back to the ASUS 6800 drivers.
 
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even if i do decide to run it in openGL my Direct3d performace is very poor, as shown in benchmarking programs.

:( why do these kind of problems always happen to me .
 
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I have a similar problem. My configuration is: AMD Athlon 1200MHz, Rhino KT133A-ASP mainboard with VIA chipset, Gainward Geforce2 MX200 graphics card with 32MB memory, SB 128 PCI, 256MB base memory, win2k + SP2, directX8.1

I tested my computer with MadOnion's 3DMark 2001 and the result was 1100. My friend have a system with AMD Duron 800 MHz, Geforce2 MX and win '98. His result was 2000.
I think my computer should outperform his but...

I have now tried following tricks to get it work:
- Updated VIA chipset drivers.
- Updated latest NVIDIA drivers.
- Updated directX8.0 to 8.1

Nothing helps. Im loosing my hope. Is downgrading to '98 only way to solve this?
 
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You can rule out w2k being the problem (in general). UT runs on win2k on my machine perfectly.

You can also rule out any reinstalling. I've been using the same UT directory for years and simply zip it up and move it around when i'm doing reinstalls, then just unzip it again (its about 1.2Gb now!). So don't bother reinstalling it again.

<b>I never <i>was</i> that good with hardware theory</b> :eek:
 
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ahhhhhh! nothing seems to help. It's strange because i know people who are using win2k with a geforce256 without any trouble at all
 
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I have just got a geforce2 mx400, im running a T-Bird 1gig on a Abit kt7. im using windows me and UT will not run under direct 3d. its fine in open GL, i tried the detonatorxp 21.80 drivers for the card and i reinstalled directx 8.0, but still get problems. my old voodoo4 4500 pci card was alot faster. the detonator 21.40 drivers are supposed to be the most stable drivers for geforce based cards.
 

phsstpok

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Dec 31, 2007
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Try the AMD/Win2K AGP patch and also try loading the separate Via AGP 4.05C driver (as opposed to the 4-in-1 drivers). Also, the official version of DirectX 8.1 is now available. Links below.

<A HREF="http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_756_759^871^2367,00.html" target="_new">http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_756_759^871^2367,00.html</A>

<A HREF="http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2" target="_new">http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2</A> (bottom of page)

<A HREF="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=33687&area=search&ordinal=6" target="_new">http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=33687&area=search&ordinal=6</A> (for Win2K only)

<b>We are all beta testers!</b>
 
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nope :( none of those things helped.

i had high hopes for the AMD patch too :(
 

phsstpok

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Dec 31, 2007
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Yesterday was a bad day, twice I misread messages and I forgot to ask a key question on your issue.

What motherboard are you using?

I assumed you have a motherboard with a Via Northbridge (probably because someone else mentioned Via drivers). No harm would have been done as only drivers for which you have hardware would have loaded. However, if you have an AMD northbridge you need different drivers. Get the AMD Driver Pack <A HREF="http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ComputingSolutions/0,,30_288_1278_809^965^871^2336~3226,00.html" target="_new">here</A>. <b>(Warning, under no circumstances, load the AMD drivers unless you have an AMD Northbridge!!!!)</b>

<b>We are all beta testers!</b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by phsstpok on 11/15/01 11:02 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

Ed_Phoon

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Interesting problem.
Did you try to play other games with your system?
Try one or two directX games, and open gl games.
Try to alter graphic/3d setting in the UT game too.
 

monkeyspank

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I don't suppose you have got active desktop enabled have you? (has win2K got it?)
I reinstalled win98 recently and forgot to disable it. My graphics were terrible, especially in D3D though. It took me ages to figure it out. I was doing my nut. As soon as i turned off the active desktop, my 3dmark scores went back over 7000, from about 3000.
Bit of a long shot, but I hope this solves your problem too.
 
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Ed_Phoon: the only other game i've tried is Rogue Spear which was absolutly fine.
 

phsstpok

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Dec 31, 2007
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Ok, this is a stretch but while I was troubleshooting a performance issue on my own system I discovered something that causes horrible "jerkiness". Maybe it's causing your problem. I enabled Video RAM caching in my BIOS and boom, where I had smooth game play I now get pauses every couple of seconds. Disable Video RAM caching and the problem is fixed. It's worth taking a look.

I found a BIOS tuning guide which contains an explanation of why Video RAM caching and Video BIOS caching actually degrades system performance.

<A HREF="http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_Index.htm" target="_new">http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_Index.htm</A>

<b>We are all beta testers!</b>
 
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i did a test with 3dmark2000 and i got a score of 1538... ahh, what's wrong :(

i cant seem to get above 7.5fps on direct3d aps
 

phsstpok

Splendid
Dec 31, 2007
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1538? It sounds like AGP is not working except this can't be true if one or more of your games is performing well. From your original post it sounded like Direct3D were operating in some kind of software mode, non-accelerated, but that isn't likely either. Both of these are strange.

When you installed the 4-in-1 drivers or the AGP driver did you select "Turbo mode". Without this your AGP would operate at AGP 1X only. Turbo mode allows the choice of 2X and 4X. (Maybe the Win2K drivers don't work the same way. I don't use Win2K).

According to <A HREF="http://www.geforcefaq.com" target="_new">www.geforcefaq.com</A>, setting AGP aperture below 32MB will disable AGP, force your video card to work in PCI mode. What is your AGP Aperture size?

<b>We are all beta testers!</b>
 
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everything was set up correctly for my card....

i finally fixed the problem with games. the card was set to use like 30meg ram... I upped it to like 55 and it seems to work fine. its still scoring low in benchmarks, but i dont care.