Baldur's Gate II readme info!

[rickd]

Start bugging any contacts at Matrox to
fix these!
--------------------------- http://webboard.interplay.com:8080/read?90104,35

Matrox G200:
Very slow performance in 3D. "Backwards Compatible 3D=1"
must be set in the Baldur.ini file under [Program Options]
for this card to display properly.

Matrox G400:
Very slow performance in 3D. "Backwards Compatible 3D=1"
must be set in the Baldur.ini file under [Program Options]
for this card to display properly.

Specific Video Cards and Fixes
Matrox Millennium (1) : Enable Software Mirror and Software
Transparent BLTs.

[derah]

http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum4/HTML/004258.html

I think this info came out after readme.txt




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ASUS P3BF i440BX,Intel PIII 500, 128MB RAM,Fujitsu 13GB HD, Creative 48X CDROM, Matrox G400Max 5.52 BIOS 1.6.25,SB Live MP3+(ver 4.06.711),Liveware3.0,DX7.0, Linksys 16bit ISA NIC/cable internet, Viewsonic E790 19" monitor

[rickd]

None of those people had gotten their copies
of BG2 yet. Knowing that BG development
referred to the most recent drivers, and
Matrox's history of terrible OpenGL support,
I fear for the worst.

[derah]

Rick:
I just received this from Interplay Support:
"If the 3D mode is not working for you, then you will want to instead play the game in 2D mode.
As stated in the Baldurs Gate2configuration, 3D mode is not officially supported and graphical problems might be encountered on
some video cards.

The best suggestions I would have is to make sure the latest OpenGL drivers for your video card are installed. On cd 1, in the GLSETUP folder, is an installer that will assist you in obtaining the latest drivers for your
video card.

Baldur's Gate II uses 3D cards for enhanced graphics capability. BG2 does not require 3D acceleration but the 3D graphics enhance the gameplay experience.

If you have any problem with 3D support and Baldur's Gate 2 we recommend you turn off 3D acceleration; the game works just fine without it."

What a drag.



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ASUS P3BF i440BX,Intel PIII 500, 128MB RAM,Fujitsu 13GB HD, Creative 48X CDROM, Matrox G400Max 5.52 BIOS 1.6.25,SB Live MP3+(ver 4.06.711),Liveware3.0,DX7.0, Linksys 16bit ISA NIC/cable internet, Viewsonic E790 19" monitor

[Gurm]

It works fine.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Gurm]

Installs fine, runs fine. No edits necessary (other than having to edit baldur.ini AFTER the first run of the game if you want a refresh rate other than 60hz, ick!).

However, it displays the same fade mode bug that is present in Daikatana. I'm hoping at some point Matrox fixes this...

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[derah]

Gurm:
Which drivers are you using?
Did you have to edit the game's *.ini file to
enable 3D?
Thank you.


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ASUS P3BF i440BX,Intel PIII 500, 128MB RAM,Fujitsu 13GB HD, Creative 48X CDROM, Matrox G400Max 5.52 BIOS 1.6.25,SB Live MP3+(ver 4.06.711),Liveware3.0,DX7.0, Linksys 16bit ISA NIC/cable internet, Viewsonic E790 19" monitor

[derah]

Installed BG2, set it to 800X600X32 and 3d with default OGL and crossed my fingers.....

Huzzah!
It looks incredible and plays very smoothly. What an improvement over the 2D in BG1!

Gurm:
I see what you were referring to by "fade mode bug". I see it on the menu and loading screens.

Also, at the edges of the screen, where the next area is still beneath fog of war, bits of the next area pop through on occassion but its not bad.
I will try BG2 800X600X16 and also in 2D for a comparison but if it plays well on my troubled rig it should play well on anyone's.
-------------------------------------------

Wait up Minsc! It's time to kick some butt.


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ASUS P3BF i440BX,Intel PIII 500, 128MB RAM,Fujitsu 13GB HD, Creative 48X CDROM, Matrox G400Max 5.52 BIOS 1.6.25,SB Live MP3+(ver 4.06.711),Liveware3.0,DX7.0, Linksys 16bit ISA NIC/cable internet, Viewsonic E790 19" monitor

[This message has been edited by derah (edited 27 September 2000).]

[rickd]

I see you got the game before I was able to
send you the readme.
Have you tried playing in an unsupported
resolution? When it shows up in the mail
I'm plan on trying 1024x768.
I notice you're using the 5.x drivers.
Aren't the 6.x drivers supposed to have
better OpenGL support?
I'm just hoping for the best as I'm going
to play under NT4, and Homeworld was
unplayable with the 4.x drivers, and worse
with the latest 5.x ones.

[derah]

Hi Rickd:
Just received your email. Thank you.

I haven't played in higher than 800X600 in 2D or 3D yet.
I am switching back and forth between the two to decide which has better battle speeds.
So far they are about the same but I haven't had any huge battles yet.

The two graphical anomalies I see occur only when 3D (opengl) enabled
First: Colored thin stripes
This occurs on all loading and saving screens.They start at the bottom and move to the top of the screen.

Second:
The edges of the fog of war flicker with the contents of the next area. This occurs at the edge of the monitor but isn't too annoying.

Hard to say if this is a driver problem or due to my rig's needing vynch enabled for all OGL apps.

I am still using the 5.52 drivers as any higher version completely trashes Half Life and Opposing Force graphically and loses the "flashlight".



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ASUS P3BF i440BX,Intel PIII 500, 128MB RAM,Fujitsu 13GB HD, Creative 48X CDROM, Matrox G400Max 5.52 BIOS 1.6.25,SB Live MP3+(ver 4.06.711),Liveware3.0,DX7.0, Linksys 16bit ISA NIC/cable internet, Viewsonic E790 19" monitor

[This message has been edited by derah (edited 28 September 2000).]

[This message has been edited by derah (edited 28 September 2000).]

[Gurm]

I haven't seen that particular "strips" bug which you have the screenshot of.

However, the OpenGL Fade Mode bug can be worked around by forcing VSync to "on". This is done a number of ways for OpenGL, but I just use the Matrox MTSTUtil.

That load screen thing is ugly and different - I'd post some screenshots on hardware and see if they have any ideas.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Will D]

Of course, there's still the one:

Matrox G400
If you are using this card, having Dual-Head enabled will slow down the game considerably. We suggest disabling this while playing Baldur's Gate II.

I observed this last night, and indeed it ran like molasses. It wasn't until this morning that I realized why - it's probably running in software opengl at that point, since the system opengl32.dll won't allow HW acceleration under dualhead.

Now, if we only had a G400 opengl32.dll to drop into the game directory, this wouldn't be a problem...

[derah]

Gurm:
I shall post over to hardware.

I already have vynch enabled through the
mtstu200 utility. Without it, I can't play any opengl games

I have been trying to remove the shearing from my system for almost a year now.
Even with vsynch enabled HL still kicks me out to the desktop and freezes. Sometimes I can reboot with ctrl-alt-del, other times have to cold reboot.
There is something about the G400 and my computers that don't mix. I guess I have to live with it.



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ASUS P3BF i440BX,Intel PIII 500, 128MB RAM,Fujitsu 13GB HD, Creative 48X CDROM, Matrox G400Max 5.52 BIOS 1.6.25,SB Live MP3+(ver 4.06.711),Liveware3.0,DX7.0, Linksys 16bit ISA NIC/cable internet, Viewsonic E790 19" monitor

[Targon]

Baldur's Gate 2 will run beautifully in OpenGL mode. The only requirement is that you be running Powerdesk 6.04, NOT the earlier beta 6.xx drivers. Without 6.04, you will have all sorts of nasty graphics problems with the OpenGL mode.

Now, the "cut-scenes", those little movies for sunrise and sunset, sleeping, etc all seem to be displayed in 256 color mode, but since this is a small part of the game itself, it won't ruin it for you. I've heard that this is a bug, but I havn't heard if it's with the Matrox drivers, or with BG2 itself.

[Victorian]

targon - when you say you have to have the 6.04 drivers and not the betas does that also mean the 5.55 drivers won't work?

The reason I'm asking is I went back to the 5.55 drivers cause the 6.04 drivers where causing problems in various d3d games like NHL 2000 and Shogun (in 2000 I was getting 'jerkiness' in the movement, in Shogun, extreme jerkiness and the occasional freeze).
Went back to the 5.55 drivers and everything was fine again.

BTW, I'm running a CUBX motherboard, PIII 600E@800, G400 Max, SoundBlaster Live, 384 megs pc133 ram, and a NIC.