Curse

Alena · Jul 29, 2008, 07:20 AM // 07:20

I'm not sure if this is normal due to some texture compression scheme GW uses, or there is some problem with driver setting on my pc. Please check the ss out:

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/6450/gw134oq8.jpg

Do you notice the background sky is not smooth? Appreciate if you can check yours out and give me some feedback

Sin City Gamer · Jul 29, 2008, 08:08 AM // 08:08

Actually that is normal. The "color bands" are supposed to look like the aurora borealis (northern lights).

EDIT: I see what you're talking about now... /headslap
Not sure what's up with yours, my northern lights look smooth.

Alena · Jul 29, 2008, 08:52 AM // 08:52

Thank for the feedback. So as I worried, it has something to do with my system.

Which graphics card / driver are you using?

I'm on a GeForce 8600GT with the latest driver, 175.19. Everything is set at default, I'm not sure what is going wrong. This reminds me of the DXTC problem nVidia cards having with Quake 3 Arena years ago...

Brianna · Jul 29, 2008, 09:55 AM // 09:55

I don't know what you are talking about.

I have an 8800GTS and mine looks like this: http://img157.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dgsdgsdju2.jpg

1680x1050, X4 AA max settings. I don't know what yours are on but I imagine they are on max with an 8600. I don't know why this matters if it is only the log-in screen anyway, are you sitting and staring at it or something?

Quaker · Jul 29, 2008, 02:58 PM // 14:58

Both screen caps look normal to me, what am I missing?

Edit: Just a thought - is your desktop set to 32-bit color or only 16-bit?

Alena · Jul 29, 2008, 04:08 PM // 16:08

This problem is no big deal for GuildWars. The reason I asked was because it effected other games as well. I've been wondering about this for a long time and I decided to ask today, on Guildwarsguru because GuildWars happens to be the game I'm playing right now.

There was a similar problem with Quake 3 Arena long time ago on nVidia hardware. To archive better image quality at the time, you had to use a hack to force Q3A to use DXT3 instead DXT1. I haven't been following much of the tweaking community lately so I'm not sure if there're fixes for new problems or I'm doing something wrong anywhere. Tried google a few times but I couldn't come up with anything.

@Quaker: The problem indeed looks like the game was running on 16bit mode. But I have my desktop at 32bit and games these day don't allow you to select 16 or 32 bit, so I have no idea.

Sir Seifus Halbred · Jul 29, 2008, 04:40 PM // 16:40

Maybe you could post screenshots on the other games?

Alena · Jul 29, 2008, 05:14 PM // 17:14

Ok here we go

Homeworld: Cataclysm

Homeworld 2

Again I'm still not sure if it's my PC's problem or the game's problem (maybe those Homeworld games are having problems as well, though I don't recall they looked that bad), so I'd appreciate if you can check yours and see if you have it.

Brianna · Jul 29, 2008, 06:11 PM // 18:11

Well, since I've never seen those two games, it won't really help without comparison.

There's no hot fixes for Guild Wars though, I don't even think that's possible. The only way the game is possibly patched is via the client updater that A-Net uses, or TextMod. The latter only patches textures, so I guess if you found out some way to work around it there then I guess it would work.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention there's some kind of way to force Guild Wars to use High-Res textures all throughout the game, because in some parts they make them like mediocre-res or something to save people lag in packed areas, but I've never looked into this really.

Snograt · Jul 29, 2008, 06:35 PM // 18:35

That's Kuntz's KSMod - http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10232718

It only affects armor textures in town, where your own armor is high-res, but everyone else's is low-res.

Alena · Jul 29, 2008, 06:49 PM // 18:49

It's not the low-res armor texture problem I was talking about.

Digging through google a few more times, I found this:

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=68796

I'm more and more inclined toward that it's nVidia, not GuildWars. The problem remained unsolved though.

Brianna · Jul 29, 2008, 06:59 PM // 18:59

I know it's not about armor textures, I just thought it was worth mentioning in case.

I don't really know what to say about this, my second computer has an 8600GT and it's just fine. If other people are using the same video cards and don't have this problem then it obviously has to be some other hardware in that person's PC, it's the only logical explanation.

But what? I really can't say. My first suspect is the Processor.

Lord Sojar · Jul 29, 2008, 08:22 PM // 20:22

Linear draw points and texture overlay dampers. Guild Wars along with other games are not coded correctly in some areas for our version of hardware driven damping. You can fix it however, in MOST cases.

Go to your nVidia Control Panel.
Go to Manage 3D Settings.
Find the Conformant Texture Damp option.
Select Use OpenGL Specification.

Apply the settings, and it should fix it. If you still have the issue, then the only other thing to try is

Antialiasing (Transparency) - Enable this option to Supersampling.

Alena · Jul 30, 2008, 04:55 AM // 04:55

Thank for the suggestion Rahja, but the problem doesn't seem to go away...

Brianna · Jul 30, 2008, 07:36 AM // 07:36

What if it was something in the video card's BIOS then? Like it got messed up? I've heard of that happening, though I don't know how much that can relate to this, I'd automatically assume a messed up BIOS would be causing bigger problems.

moriz · Jul 30, 2008, 01:18 PM // 13:18

it's really hard to tell, but my radeon HD4850 seems to have the same "colour banding" problem. only in guild wars though, since i didn't notice this in HL2:EP2.

maybe it's just the way it is.

zamial · Jul 30, 2008, 02:50 PM // 14:50

Try rolling the driver back, Unless you were having issues with something else. I run 8800gt's and I have a HORRIBLE time with drivers

. I am stuck on 169. The newer drivers leave disembodied shadows on the ground. the 169 does too but way, way less. I really have to try to make it happen with the 169.

On a side note I may try the new bios and vid card drivers togeather.
running: p04 and 169.
moving to?: p07 and 177. (if it works....)

As you can see when it comes to drivers I am not on the edge of new, lol, but I don't have problems.

Quaker · Jul 30, 2008, 03:20 PM // 15:20

There's a possibility that it may be connected to the color capability of your monitor. Some low priced LCD's are not capable of displaying the whole color spectrum (sort of like built-in 16-bit mode). What brand and model# is it?

Brianna · Jul 30, 2008, 07:36 PM // 19:36

Ahh.. hmm..

I have a 22 inch Samsung 2220wm. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824001262 I have no color banding here so.. yeah.

Oh yeah, I'm on DVI. Are you guys on DVI perhaps?

Lord Sojar · Jul 31, 2008, 02:47 AM // 02:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alena

Thank for the suggestion Rahja, but the problem doesn't seem to go away...

Seriously? That typically fixes it. Try a vBIOS flash to the card and a new motherboard BIOS. Use the settings I mentioned above as well.