DescentBB

Well, I'm bonding more with my new computer every day, but I made some nasty discoveries trying to play Descent 3. In the setup dialog from the launch screen, I have the following options for video rendering:


If I select OpenGL, which I'm pretty sure I saw a logo for on boot, I get flickery artifacts, like the wrong texture is trying to butt in on certain surfaces:


I also started one game while Paint was also running, and it took only the lower-left quadrant of the game screen and stuck it in the upper left quadrant, with my other apps visible behind (alongside) it and my mouse locked in the center until I switched apps!

If I play in Direct3D mode, my 3D looks fine but my 2D elements are screwed up, like the menus and targeting reticle:





I'm running D3 at 1280x960 resolution with high detail. My motherboard is an Intel E4500 with a 2.2GHz Core2 Duo. I've been told the integrated graphics and their inadequacies may be behind the artifacts and that even a low-end graphics card should solve it. Should I try installing the OpenGL drivers from the setup? Or something else?

It's a driver issue.

try D3d until they have an update. Hard luck. Nice system.

I would suggest to invest in a dedicated graphics card. The chipset graphics is simply not ment to play games. I doubt that you will ever see a driver for the G985 that will fully work w/ D3 at a decent framerate.

Grendel wrote:I would suggest to invest in a dedicated graphics card. The chipset graphics is simply not ment to play games. I doubt that you will ever see a driver for the G985 that will fully work w/ D3 at a decent framerate.

x2

There are some decent ones that are around $100 or even under.

Grendel wrote:I would suggest to invest in a dedicated graphics card. The chipset graphics is simply not ment to play games. I doubt that you will ever see a driver for the G985 that will fully work w/ D3 at a decent framerate.

x3, I guarantee this is your problem.

Yeah, even a used 64mb nvidia off of Ebay is better than Intel integrated graphics. I've never had D3 play well with those.

Duper wrote:It's a driver issue.

try D3d until they have an update. Hard luck. Nice system.

i agree just use D3D for now

Update! My brother-in-law immediately upgraded the video card on his new system last summer and made the old card, an NVIDEA GeForce 7350 LE, his birthday gift to me. I just installed it without a hitch (although the alternating bands of sharpness and blurriness during the driver search was a little scary!) and my D3 graphics--now OpenGL--are fixed! My textures are stable, my menus and reticle are fine, and I'll be back online soon as I practice a little more with my new controls. Thanks everyone for your attention and advice!

Awesome!

As with any new system, check for driver updates; motherboard included!

I have never had the best results with the “latest” drivers as far as D3 is concerned, I always get a good stable set and stick with them.

But if you have problems with other programs, you may want to update.

Excellent! See ya in da' mines!

Spidey wrote:I have never had the best results with the “latest” drivers as far as D3 is concerned, I always get a good stable set and stick with them.

But if you have problems with other programs, you may want to update.

I only had trouble like that with Nvidia. (my 6600GT) ATI never gave me much trouble. /I actually had trouble with D3d for a while with ATI. ... go figure. And a driver update fixed that.

Cheap video cards FTW! I've been rocking a geforce 6200 for over a year now.