Please send all questions and comments related to this gallery to Danil Gridasov.

Testbed

Games are checked on a PC on Pentium 4 2.4GHz (533MHz FSB), ASUS P4GE-V (i845GE) and 512MB PC2700.

The checking is performed only under Windows XP Service Pack 1 (+ tens of Windows Updates from Service Pack 2) and DirectX 9b.

The following cards were used in making of this material:

• ATI Radeon 9000 Pro
• ATI Radeon 9600
• ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
• NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4600
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900

The latest changes are marked light-red.

Games are checked only with the latest reference drivers (53.03 for NVIDIA and 4.10 for ATI) coupled with the latest patches. When a bug is found, it's tested on the next reference betas. Exceptions prove the rule :-)

Attention! Some bugs that we noticed might occur only in our test configuration. If you do not have some of the mentioned bugs or, vice versa, you have one that we don't write us providing maximum details on your configuration (CPU, chipset, graphics card and drivers, OS, DirectX version, game version). Besides, you can send in a screenshot, but not more than 100Kb in size - we pay for our traffic :-)

News

• Archived a number of bugs fixed (in November 3Digest).

• Removed some hopelessly permanent game bugs :-)

• The following drivers were released in December:
  ATI:
  • Catalyst 4.10 (6.14.10.6414), another reference driver from ATI.
  NVIDIA:
  • ForceWare 53.06, the new leaked beta for TNT/GF.

• The following updates were issued for games in our gallery:
  • Patch v1.4 for Need for Speed: Underground;
  • Patch v1.22 for IL2 Shturmovik: Forgotten Battles

Games

1. Battle Engine Aquila
2. Colin McRae Rally 3 v1.1
3. Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour v1.02
4. Deus Ex: Invisible War v1.1
5. Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind v1.6
6. Enclave
7. Halo: Combat Evolved v1.031
8. Homeworld 2 v1.1
9. Mafia v1.2
10. Midnight Club 2
11. Need for Speed: Underground v1.4
12. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time v1.81
13. Return to Castle Wolfenstein v1.41
14. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic v1.01
15. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell v1.2b
16. Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness v52
17. Unreal Tournament 2003 v2225
18. IL-2 Shturmovik: Forgotten Battles v1.22
19. Silent Storm v1.2

Battle Engine Aquila

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
Radeon 9000 Pro Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 4.10	Tree textures are surrounded by some snow, if anisotropic filtering is forced.
		The only solution for now is to disable anisotropic filtering.

Colin McRae Rally 3 v1.1

Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour v1.02

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.10	Heat Effects can't be enabled. If you try to change desktop resolution after you exit game, you get the BSOD.	-
		Fixed in either patch 1.02, or Catalyst 4.10.
Radeon 9000 Pro	4.10	When AA is forced, enabling Heats Effects causes visual artefacts.
		Fixed by not forcing AA (Radeon 9000 Pro doesn't have resources anyway).	-
GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900 Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	52.16 53.03 3.9 3.10 4.10	When you force AA from driver and enable Heat Effects ingame, the screen goes black (except for some bitmaps) when these effects are used (e.g. during production at Microwave Tank).
		Disable Heat Effects ingame. Don't force AA. For GeForce FX it's solved in patch 1.02. Now FSAA is disabled, when there are Heat Effects. Heat Effects turn black on Radeon 9500+ with patch 1.02, if you move ingame camera aside, the image restores, but this also disables FSAA independently on Heat Effects presence.	-

Deus Ex: Invisible War v1.1

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	4.10	Multisampling (AA) and Bloom together produce gray dots on some objects.
		For now just don't enable multisampling and Bloom together. Besides, with Bloom enabled AA works only on 3D HUD elements on both Radeon, and GeForce anyway.	-

Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind v1.6
(with Tribunal and Bloodmoon)

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	51.75 52.16	Water shader bug.
		Fixed in 53.03.
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 4.10	Messed up water shader (see screenshots).
		None solutions so far. Each graphics card actually draws this long-suffering shader in its own way :-) But if the error isn't so noticeable on some cards, it immediately draws the attention on R9000Pro. (R9800Pro screenshots to the right).

Enclave

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	51.75 52.16	Corrupted main menu. A previously played movie frame drawn instead of the Enclave world map.
		Fixed in ForceWare 53.03.
GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	52.16 53.03 53.06	Pixel shaders look very strange.
		Rollback to 45.23 or 45.33.
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 4.10	Shader problems. The bug occasionally disappears to appear again next run. The source of it is unknown.
		It periodically disappears to occur next time the game is run. Even when this doesn't occur, it seems the water shader is "overpixelated". Hard to say whose fault it is...

Halo: Combat Evolved v1.031

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	52.16	Some light sources are missing.
		Fixed in ForceWare 53.03.
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.9 3.10 4.10	Shader bugs.
		None solutions so far.	-
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	All versions	Radeon's "selective" trilinear filtering shows up again. It works on all texture layers, when anisotropic filtering is selected by application. But it's disabled on some layers, when aniso is forced from the control panel. Note there's almost no difference between Perfomance and Quality AF, but MIP levels are clearly seen even when AF 16 is forced.
		None solutions so far.	-
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.9	Incorrect sniper scope visualization in night mode.
		Switch pixel shaders from 2.0 to 1.4 by running the game with '-use14' option. Fixed in Catalyst 3.10.
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	4.10	Your weapon vanishes into walls, when you are close to them on Radeon 9500+.
		It seems like the result of W-Buffer support absence in Rx3x0 GPUs (screenshot taken on GeForce FX 5900).

Homeworld 2 v1.1

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	52.16 53.03	Antialiasing can't be forced.	-
		Fixed in Patch v1.1.
Radeon 9000 Pro Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.8 3.9	Locks up when you try to change resolution. It actually changes, but you have to kill Nomeworld 2 thread from the Task Manager and reboot to run the game in the new resolution. This occurs on all cards, except Radeon 9000 Pro. If you don't reboot in-between, it locks up again.	-
		Fixed in Patch v1.1.
Radeon 9600	4.10	Forced FSAA causes great performance drop and artefacts.
		Fixed by disabling forced AA.	-

Mafia v1.2

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	51.75 52.16 53.03 53.06	Only 4x or even 2x are forced when trying to force 8x anisotropic filtering. New Detonator 50 "optimizations" coupled with Mafia rendering traits. New NVIDIA drivers clearly reduce the anisotropic filtering on all levels, except the first and Mafia performs main rendering on levels higher than the first, so the primary textures are filtered less then it should be.
		The only way to get normal anisotropic filtering on GeForce FX for now is to use the previous 45.23 or 45.33.
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	All versions	Trilinear filtering is disabled when any anisotropic filtering level is forced (be it Perfomance, or Quality). Such a trait or ATI drivers coupled with Mafia texturing peculiarities. When Quality anisotropy is forced, Catalyst enables trilinear filtering for the first level only to perform main texturing. But in Mafia primary textures are processed on the next levels disabling trilinear filtering.
		None solutions so far.	-

Midnight Club 2

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600 GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	52.16 53.03 53.06	AA can't be forced. It seems the game doesn't support it.	-
		Hasn't been fixed yet.
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.8 3.9 3.10 4.10	Forcing AA: 1) distorts main menu rendering; 2) leaves the loading picture, when the race is already started.
		Just don't force antialiasing.	-
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.8 3.9 3.10 4.10	Antialiasing can't be forced.	-
		None solutions so far.

Need for Speed: Underground v1.4

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600 GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	53.03	When AA is forced and Light Trails and/or Motion Blur are enabled the screen goes littered.
		Fixed in Patch v1.4. Now forced AA disables when the aforementioned effects are enabled.	-
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	53.03 53.06	Headlights give "discrete" light switching from darker to lighter (on fencing and houses). This doesn't occur on other maps.
		It seems the headlights are made using a pixel shader that causes problems on FX cards (funny, but FX5200 doesn't have this bug).	-
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.10 4.10	When AA is forced and Light Trails and/or Motion Blur are enabled the screen goes littered.
		It seems these effects are still incompatible with AA.	-
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.10 4.10	Headlights don't work.
		None solutions so far. Screenshots from Radeon 9800 Pro are to the right.
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.10	Screen goes black, when AA is forced and Light Trails and/or Motion Blur are enabled.	-
		There wasn't such bug in game v1.0 - AA just couldn't be forced with these effects enabled. Fixed in patch v1.4, but with forced FSAA and enabled Light Trails and Motion Blur the game is exteremely slow despite of disabled FSAA.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time v1.81

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	4.10	Forced AA smears, and water starts to shine through walls.
		For now just don't force AA (Screenshots taken with GeForce FX 5900 with forced FSAA).

Return to Castle Wolfenstein v1.41

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	51.75 52.16	Depending on camera position entire level becomes light-struck. Seems to be a lightmap bug. Seems to occur in the multiplayer part only.
		Fixed in ForceWare 53.03.
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra	52.16 53.03 53.06	Already familiar AA experiments: image shakes, samples change positions in a frame. This happens, when you try to force AA 4x Performance. It still produces correct screenshots, so you have to check it on your monitor personally.	-
		Hasn't been fixed yet. Use Quality setting or rollback to the previous drivers.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic v1.01

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell v1.2b

You should remember that for NVIDIA GF3+ the game utilizes shadow mapping for increased shadow details. On GF4 MX and all RADEON cards it utilizes projected textures of considerably lower resolution. The difference is clearly seen on screenshots. . But what's the most interesting, SC's shadow mapping causes GF3+ cards to increase ingame "light amount". On the same screenshots you can see the different light meter values.

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600 GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	44.03 45.23 45.33 52.16 53.03 53.06	FSAA can't be forced. According to NVIDIA, this what game developers asked for to avoid rendering errors (see below about Radeon).	-
		Not a bug, but a feature. This feature can be bypassed by renaming SplinterCell.exe into, say, SplinterCel.exe. This enabled FSAA, but might also produce bugs similar to those observed on Radeons.
GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	53.03 53.06	Various drivers and NV3x GPUs have different Shadow Buffer results. The later drivers hide some shadows and light sources.
		In the Projected Shadows mode (for all non-GF cards) everything is drawn correctly. To enable this mode uncomment the "ForceShadowMode=0" line in "Splinter Cell\system\SplinterCell.ini". Projected Shadows mode will reduce shadows quality, but will restore their initial number and add a number of other light effects absent in the Shadow Buffer mode for some unknown reasons (see screenshots).
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 4.10	FSAA forcing problems again.
		Just don't force AA.
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9	Forced FSAA causes overbrighting when enabling/disabling nightvision.
		Just don't force AA. From Catalyst 3.10 AA can't be forced anyway. Renaming the exe-file doesn't help either.

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness v52

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600	45.23 45.33 52.16 53.03 53.06	Some Louvre guards lack textures.
		No sources of this have been found so far.	-
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 4.10	Some Louvre guards lack textures.
		No sources of this have been found so far.	-

Unreal Tournament 2003 v2225

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	44.03 45.23 45.33 52.16 53.03 53.06	High-level anisotropy is disabled on some textures. Drivers 52.16 introduced some new "features" into Detonators' oldest "bug". Textures, on which AF level is reduced, have changed (compare screenshots obtainted with 45.23 and 52.16). And if you enable AF via INI file, 52.16 drivers provide normal AF without any optimizations. This naturally causes a considerable performance drop.
		UT2003-specific aniso optimizations. None solutions so far. GeForce4 Ti4600 screenshot is to the right.

IL-2 Shturmovik: Forgotten Battles v1.22

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600	52.16 53.03 53.06	When shaders are enabled ("Excellent" detal level) the game crashes, when you try to load a level.	-
		Rollback to 45.23 or 45.33.
Radeon 9000 Pro	4.10	Enabling the long-suffering "excellent" detail level causes a lock-up or reboot.	-
		Roll back to the previous drivers.
Radeon 9000 Pro Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.4 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9	Water shaders occasionally turn acid green. These used to turn sky blue in 1.0r version. Isn't it the progress? :-)
		Disable water shaders by reducing landscape detal level. The bug doesn't occur if text output is enabled. Fixed in Patch v1.21.
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.10	When 1C fixed pixel shaders bug, ATI managed to spoil something in Catalyst again. When "excellent" landscape detail level is enabled, the game locks up, when the 100% of loading is complete.	-
		Fixed in Catalyst 4.10.

Silent Storm v1.2

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 4.10	Serious texturing problems.
		This doesn't occur, if you reduce quality down to "Low" or "Average" ingame. To the right - screenshots from GeForce4 MX.

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