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

Testbed

Games are tested on the system on Pentium 4 2.4GHz processor (533MHz FSB), ASUS P4GE-V (i845GE) motherboard and 1024MB PC2700.

The test are run only under Windows XP Service Pack 1 (plus 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 with the latest reference drivers (56.72 for NVIDIA GPUs, 4.4 for ATI GPUs) 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

• Removed a number of bug descriptions fixed in February issue.

• Again some unfixable old bugs were removed (see previous 3Digests).

• The following drivers were released in April:

  ATI:

  • Catalyst 4.4 (6.14.10.6436), new reference drivers.

  NVIDIA:

  • ForceWare 56.72, new official reference drivers.

  • ForceWare 60.72, the first beta supporting the new Geforce 6800 family.

• The following updates were released in April for games listed below:

  • Patch v1.1 for Far Cry.

Games

1. AquaNox 2: Revelation
2. Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour v1.02
3. Conan
4. Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind v1.6
5. Enclave
6. Far Cry v1.1
7. Halo: Combat Evolved v1.04
8. Homeworld 2 v1.1
9. Mafia v1.2
10. Need for Speed Underground v1.4
11. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time v1.81
12. Return to Castle Wolfenstein v1.41
13. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic v1.03
14. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell v1.2b
15. Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness v52
16. IL-2 Shturmovik: Forgotten Battles v1.22

AquaNox 2: Revelation

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 Radeon 9000 Pro Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	Any	Judging by artefacts on distant objects, the game utilizes 16-bit Z-buffer.
		It's not clear whether it's a driver bug or a game feature, as such artefacts show up on all cards tested.	-

Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour v1.02

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
Radeon 9000 Pro Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	3.9 3.10 4.1 4.2 4.3	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).
		When patch 1.02 is applied, Heat Effects make the screen go black. If you move the camera away, the image restores, but FSAA is disabled independently on the Heat Effects. In Catalyst 4.3 an newer drivers the screen doesn't go black, instead FSAA turns off and performance drops until you move the camera away (FSAA remains disabled).	-

Conan

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	56.64 56.72	Seems like problems with fog. Doesn't show up on FX 5700.
		Fixed in FW 56.82 and 60.72 betas.

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

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600 GeForce FX 5200	56.64 56.72	Water shader bugs again: some water is frozen still.
		Use ForceWare 53.03. Fixed in ForceWare 60.72 beta.	-
GeForce FX 5200	56.64 56.72	Exteremely transparent water comparing to that produced by other GPUs.
		Use ForceWare 53.03.	-

Enclave

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	56.64 56.72	Problems with fog. Doesn't show up on FX 5700.
		Fixed in FW 56.82..

Far Cry v1.1

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	56.64 56.82	Problems with distant sprite fogging.
		Fixed in the first patch (Screenshot obtained on GeForce FX 5700 Ultra is to the right).
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	56.64 56.72 60.72	Clear banding on light source reflections.
		Either aggressive optimizations, or CryTek programmers' mistake. For now fixed only by not using patch 1.1. (Far Cry v1.0 screenshot obtained on FX5900 is to the right).
Radeon 9000 Pro	4.3 4.4	The game is AWFUL on Radeon 9000 Pro (if it runs at all). You witness massive triangles shedding that finishes with a lock-up on exit. And they state Radeon 8500 is a minimal requirement!
		It runs more or less with everything set to "Low". But still locks up on exit.	-

Halo: Combat Evolved v1.04

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.9 3.10 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4	Shader bugs.
		None solutions so far.	-

Homeworld 2 v1.1

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	4.1 4.2	Forced FSAA causes great performance drop and artefacts.
		Catalyst 4.2 fixed artefacts but saved performance drop for the future. Still the latter can be fixed by disabling dynamic shadows. Fully fixed in Catalyst 4.3.	-

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	52.16 53.03 56.64 56.72	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.

Need for Speed: Underground v1.4

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	53.03 56.64 56.72	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 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4	Headlights don't work.
		Hasn't been fixed yet. Headlights are drawn correctly if you disable road reflections ingame. Radeon 9800 Pro screenshots are to the right.
Radeon 9000 Pro	3.10 4.1	When AA is forced and Light Trails and/or Motion Blur are enabled the screen goes littered.
		Fixed in patch 1.4. Now FSAA is forced off if Light Trails / Motion Blur are enabled. But the game performance drops anyway.	-
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 FSAA and Light Trails / Motion Blur enabled, the game is really slow (FSAA doesn't work though.)

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time v1.81

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
Radeon 9000 Pro	4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4	When forced AA causes artefacts, including black rectangle in the upper left corner, garbaged water. Besides, instead of AA you get a dithered whole image.
		Artefacts ceased on Catalyst 4.2, but image of water remains dithered.	-
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4	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

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic v1.03

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4	Antialiasing can't be controlled ingame anymore and is off independently on its level selected.	-
		Normally forced from the control panel. AA is controlled correctly ingame with drivers older than 4.1.
Radeon 9600 Radeon 9800 Pro	4.3	Problems with enabling Soft Shadows. If it's enabled before level loading, the PC locks up. If Soft Shadows are enabled when the level is loaded, you witness a whole bunch of artefacts.
		Fixed in Catalyst 4.4..	-

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
GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	53.03 56.72	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). Shadow Buffer bugs were fixed in FW 56.64. But some lighting effects are still missing.
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5900	56.64 56.72	Water shader bugs seen as frozen still areas.
		Use ForceWare 53.03.	-

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
Radeon 9000 Pro	4.4	Objects sometimes disappear or go black.
		None solutions so far.	-

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness v52

Graphics card	Drivers	Bug description and solutions	Screenshots
GeForce4 Ti 4600	56.64	NVIDIA Shadows turned buggy again.
		Use 56.72 drivers.	-

IL-2 Shturmovik: Forgotten Battles v1.22

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