Foggin' NFS5

[Ares' Lament]

Hello,
Umm.. I guess I'm a litle late to post this topic, but anyway..
does anyone know how to enable fog in NFS5 PU?

[dZeus]

Get a CPU with SSE, until Matrox implements this also for non-SSE CPUs... maybe that will never be the case? At least, if there is no hardware support for fogging in the G400, and that only SSE capable CPUs can do fogging without too much of a performance hit. You should ask Matrox Tech Support about this... I'm just guessing

[Jorden]

Don't listen to Rags!!
(Excuse me, couldn't resist myself dZeus )

It doesn't matter that much these days if your CPU is AMD or Intel, but it does matter what kind of drivers you use, and under which Windows you try to run the game, so I have a question for you Ares: What Windows are you using, and which drivers do you use?

NFS:PU uses fogging at every frame where it needs it, so if you're driving through a waterfall's spray, you'll see the fog. If you're driving through the Schwarzwald, you'll see fog hanging inbetween the trees.

But I must say that the new drivers of PD 6.10 made it much clearer in Win9x/ME.
And I haven't tested it yet in Win2k. Maybe you should try Win9x/ME to see the effect!

Jord.

[dZeus]

on my G400 in Win2k with the latest drivers, I get fog with my Coppermine 700. However, with my Celeron 366 I don't get fog.... so please explain that Jorden

Why would there be a reason why it doesn't work with the Celeron, but does with the Coppermine? Wouldn't that be SSE? (it probably also works with 3DNow! but I haven't tested)

I am not saying that you're wrong, but I am saying that there still are a lot of people around with a Celeron-1, or a Pentium-2.. those people don't get fog in Win2k? Don't know about the current Win9x drivers, but I do know that this was also the case with the first PD6.x drivers

[impact]

In W98, I get the fog with a Celeron 366 and the 6.04 drivers. Not that I want it, it really slows the game down noticeably.

[Jorden]

Check on Porsche Unleashed, dZeus. Go for the Specs -> Requirements, and what do you read on the first line there?

Minimum System Requirements:
- Windows 95 or 98 (Windows NT and Windows 2000 are NOT supported)

So there could lie your answer

Jord.

Edit: About the SSE things, it also says you need a 200MHz or faster Intel Pentium MMX, Cyrix M2 or AMD processor. I think your Celeron runs perfect MMX, so even that wouldn't be it

[This message has been edited by Jorden (edited 21 December 2000).]

[Ares' Lament]

dZeus
Fogging is a multitexture process that using certain alpha blending technique, and should be doing by graphic accelerator.
In this texture oriented process, does a SSE or 3Dnow CPU will make a better or correct fog?

Jorden
My machine specs:
Pentium II 350@466 (133 FSB)
Matrox G400 16/SH
128 MB CAS3 3-3-3
Windows98
PD 6.04 (PD 6.10 has some graphic errors in Eidos' F1 World Grand Prix '99)

My fog is not clear, infact I'm barely can't see it at all, enabling fog just will make the background brighter and SLOOWWWin' my machine down.

Well, this is my biggest lament (or lamentation??), since I'm a racing games lover.

[impact]

Well then disable the fog and be happy. With fog, I get choppiness with 5 opponent cars on screen in 800x600x32, without fog I get no choppiness with 5 opponent cars on screen in 1152x864x32. Hmmm, which one should I use?!?

Now go out there and race some!

[dZeus]

dZeus
Fogging is a multitexture process that using certain alpha blending technique, and should be doing by graphic accelerator.
In this texture oriented process, does a SSE or 3Dnow CPU will make a better or correct fog?

What if the graphics core doesn't accelerate this fog implementation, and that the only way to perform it in the drivers without too much of a performance penalty would be by using a enhanced instruction set like SSE or 3DNow!-2 ?

[Jorden]

Fogging was used in the old days to accelerate your PC, for then the programmers didn't have to show you all of their 3D world yet. Even today this technique is used in a couple of games, but not in NFS:PU. Here it's more an aestatic (sp?) effect.

Your CPU and amount of RAM are sufficient for running NFS:PU with fog on (and btw, I never found how to disable it in my version of PU, so where is it? ), although a faster CPU is always better (ofcourse ).

I have noticed that on my P3-450 with drivers 6.10, the choppiness has gone away. And the fog is way better and more around.

When I'm home tonight I'll check a couple of settings.

Jord.

[mirp]

Yeah, an option to toggle fog would be nice. I just noticed with PD 5.x there was no fog. But with PD 6.x there is.

[impact]

It's in the EA's drivers. *cough* It is possible to disable it with a hexeditor. *sneeze*

[Jorden]

The things I found so far are:

• Choppiness is extreme when you play the game at 800x600x32 with all graphic options on High and Very High (where applicable).
• Choppiness is not to be seen when playing the game at 800x600x32 with all options set to High only.
• I can't disable fog without a hex-editor (as xortam says )
• Set in the registry at setting My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Electronic Arts\Need For Speed - Porsche Unleashed the following settings:
  - D3D Device setting at 1
  - Hardware Acceleration at 1
  - Tripple Buffer at 1

Time for some good old NFS: 4 racing circuit racing

Jord.

[Jorden]

By the (speed)way, I added this thread to the NFS FAQ.

If you want more answers about NFS Porsche Unleashed and other Need For Speed games, check in at the Need For Speed FAQ

Jord.

[Ares' Lament]

Thanks for all of your suggestions.
I encourage myself to upgrade to PD 6.10...
and start my PII466..
NFS5 resolution 1280x1024x16bit colour (try this res. it's fun)

Running NFS5, go to Normandie, and... Whoa..it's FOGGIN'.
During race start framerate was just terrible (well..7 opponents)
After leading the race, framerate were playable as well.
It's fogging everywhere from start to finish line.
But, pay attention to those fences on the left and right
sides of the road. There is something strange on 'em.
I guess this is some kind of Bilinear Filtering problem in PD 6.10

Try another track ..THE ALPS..
Fog ONLY appears in the start and finish part of the track.
Fog begin to disappear when entering tunnel or village (areas with snow rain).
So I guess that fog is not "compatible" with snow rain.
Well, it's only take so little time for me to find those bugs.

PD 6.21 is out now let we see what it can do..

Enjoy your holiday and CUL8ER )