Problem with Morrowind & G400... only res 1600x1200?

[Porter]

I'm having a problem with Morrowind. I buy the game and take it home and install it, and it autodetects my vid card as a G400 (which it is of course) but the ONLY resolution it offers me is 1600x1200.

This is completely unplayable on my 32mb G400, even with an Athlon Tbird 1.2 and 512MB system RAM. I have the latest DirectX, and I'm running Win2k Pro Service Pack 2.


Help! What the hell is wrong with this thing?

[Porter]

I fixed it!

There is an incompatibility between Morrowind and the monitor customization control panel in the Matrox PowerDesk drivers.

Morrowind apparently queries the available resolutions AND refresh rates when checking whether a resolution is available. If it doesn't match VESA standard refresh rates, it doesn't list the resolution.

By disabling my monitor profile and using standard refresh rates (70, 75, 85hz) all the other resolutions reappeared in the Morrowind video options dialog.

I'm now running 800x600 and appear to get 25-30fps inside and 15-20fps outside. I wouldn't call this good by any stretch of the imagination, but it's playable in a rudimentary sense. It pains me that I have to turn off shadows to be able to get even this result.

Anyway, all seems to be working finally.

This fix should work for users experiencing this phenomenon on any Matrox product since the drivers are unified.


Cheers!

-Porter

[mdhome]

Hello Porter, I was going to suggest that maybe the game thought it was dealing with the Parhelia

Cheers

[spawn666]

mh. never tried that game on my g400max, but with my herc4500 i stand in the water all the time *g*

[RAnta]

Herc4500sollution

The fix is terrible simple to fix morrowind simply

go to the 3d optimisation and create a profile for morrowind.exe

and check under d3d "defer render until flip" and enable "RHW buffer"
and then you´re set and done.

[Porter]

Um, that's on a Hercules 4500... the issue I'm referring to is with the Matrox G400. If I had a problem with a Herc card I'd probably go find a Herc forum??

I guess other cards might have a similar phenomenon with this game... frankly I hadn't thought of it.

[SteveC]

Originally posted by Porter
Um, that's on a Hercules 4500... the issue I'm referring to is with the Matrox G400. If I had a problem with a Herc card I'd probably go find a Herc forum??

I guess other cards might have a similar phenomenon with this game... frankly I hadn't thought of it.

RAnta was replying to Spawn666