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AMD graphic cards: 16-Bit Z-Buffer glitches

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First post, by Mr.Blade

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Good afternoon,

have you ever heard of these Z-Buffer glitches with AMD graphic cards? The result of this are many black, flickering squares on your screen in Direct3D games. This issue only appears on newer Radeon graphic cards on Windows Vista, 7, 8.

Here are some games which do not work correctly:

- Crimson Skies (http://www.replaying.de/wp-content/uploads/Cr … Squares-AMD.jpg)
- Monster Truck Madness 2 (http://www.replaying.de/wp-content/uploads/Mo … Squares-AMD.jpg)
- Sports Car GT (http://www.replaying.de/wp-content/uploads/Sp … Squares-AMD.jpg)
- Omikron: The Nomad Soul (http://www.replaying.de/wp-content/uploads/Th … Squares-AMD.png)

If you know a solution or workaround for this problem, please tell me. 😉

Regards

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Reply 2 of 29, by Mr.Blade

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Thanks. I found some fixes, this problem seems not to be insoluble.

Omikron: The Nomad Soul -> Download fix (by TheDrunkenPL @ youtube.com)

Crimson Skies -> Download fix (by timeslip @ sourceforge.net)

Regards

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Reply 3 of 29, by Davros

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The problem in crimson skies is nothing to do with 16bit zbuffer
its a non power of 2 texture support problem

the game doesn't check correctly for the support of Nonpower of two textures. The Forceware driver now have an unlimited support for Nonpow2 textures. That means we don't export the caps NONPOW2CONDITIONAL anymore. However the game misinterprets this as we don't support Pow2 and/or nonpow2 textures.

its the same problem on amd cards

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Reply 4 of 29, by Mr.Blade

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the game doesn't check correctly for the support of Nonpower of two textures. The Forceware driver now have an unlimited support for Nonpow2 textures. That means we don't export the caps NONPOW2CONDITIONAL anymore. However the game misinterprets this as we don't support Pow2 and/or nonpow2 textures.

Thanks for your reply. Same as in The Nomad Soul and Monster Truck Madness 2. But this problem concerns the Z-Buffer, doesn't it? Take a look at RobotJesus' post on http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33946075

its the same problem on amd cards

Yea, but not solved yet. And I think it will not be solved by the drivers.

Regards

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Reply 5 of 29, by filipetolhuizen

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I get something like this on MTM2 with a Geforce 8600M GS on Win7 64 bits. With a GTX460 on Win7 32 bits is fine...

Reply 6 of 29, by Davros

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3d analyser has a force 16bit zbuffer option no idea if it works
http://www.tommti-systems.de/go.html?http://w … eien/files.html

also ati tray tools have a force 16bit zbuffer option

Last edited by Davros on 2012-12-09, 23:16. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 7 of 29, by filipetolhuizen

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Sadly it only works for D3D 8.1/9 and OpenGL games. I was hoping to get MDK D3D looking right again. 🙁

Reply 8 of 29, by Davros

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you sure? i remember 3d analyse was a way to get maxpayne working on cards that didnt have hardware tnl

and force 16bit zbuffer is not in the D3D 8.1/9 section

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Reply 9 of 29, by leileilol

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I get 32-bit Zbuffer glitches in DX11 games X_X 🤣

3danalyze wasn't necessary for Max Payne. Max Payne can work out of the box on even a Voodoo Banshee, the only card it has real problems with is a Savage2000

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Reply 10 of 29, by filipetolhuizen

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The Savage was problematic for most games...
32 bits ZBuffer would only be for AMD cards right? 'Cause nVidia dropped support for this a long time ago.

Reply 11 of 29, by archsan

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Mr.Blade wrote:
- Crimson Skies (http://www.replaying.de/wp-content/uploads/Cr … Squares-AMD.jpg) - Monster Truck Madness 2 (http://www.replayin […]
Show full quote

- Crimson Skies (http://www.replaying.de/wp-content/uploads/Cr … Squares-AMD.jpg)
- Monster Truck Madness 2 (http://www.replaying.de/wp-content/uploads/Mo … Squares-AMD.jpg)
- Sports Car GT (http://www.replaying.de/wp-content/uploads/Sp … Squares-AMD.jpg)
- Omikron: The Nomad Soul (http://www.replaying.de/wp-content/uploads/Th … Squares-AMD.png)

Ahh, 1998-2000 titles, right? Of those, I've only played the SCGT (great sim btw) on a Banshee card. But they all require DirectX 6, I suppose.

If you know a solution or workaround for this problem, please tell me. 😉

solution: go to Marvin, tease yourself to some building-up-a-retro-rig thread, or

workaround: try nGlide for SCGT and MTM2 (and also MDK)

for the rest (generic advice) -- hope and wait for official updates (fat chance) or community patches (less likely for non-popular titles), or for that universal "old D3D" (esp. 5/6/7) to "modern D3D/OpenGL" mapper.

Last edited by archsan on 2012-12-10, 05:33. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 12 of 29, by leileilol

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Those screenshots look like table fog crapouts. It'll happen on Radeon 7x00 too.

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Reply 13 of 29, by Mr.Blade

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Ahh, 1998-2000 titles, right? Of those, I've only played the SCGT (great sim btw) on a Banshee card. But they all require DirectX 6, I suppose.

Yea, that's right.

workaround: try nGlide for SCGT and MTM2 (and also MDK)

Thanks, I suppose this will work. By the way, an good alternative to nGlide is Zeckensack's Glide Wrapper, although it's older. I noticed that some games, e.g. King's Quest 8: Mask of Eternity, work better with Zeckensack's.

solution: go to Marvin, tease yourself to some building-up-a-retro-rig thread, or

Yea, I already thought about this, but I always come to the conclusion that there're a lot more old games which run perfectly under Windows 7. 😉

universal "old D3D" (esp. 5/6/7) to "modern D3D/OpenGL" mapper.

Sounds promising.

The Forceware driver now have an unlimited support for Nonpow2 textures.

I have a notebook with a GeForce 420M. Usually I don't play games on it, but I'll try out the games I mentioned in my first posting. I hope they work well. 😀

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Reply 14 of 29, by archsan

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Mr.Blade wrote:

By the way, an good alternative to nGlide is Zeckensack's Glide Wrapper, although it's older. I noticed that some games, e.g. King's Quest 8: Mask of Eternity, work better with Zeckensack's.

...or Zeckensack's, yes, it is the first glide wrapper that really took my attention. It's just that nGlide seems to be "on fire" now -- having better support and community at this moment. I think it has a lot to do with DX9 being a much easier API to work with now than whatever version of OpenGL Zeckensack had to use when starting on the project.

As for KQ8, there's a patch for nGlide, but I don't have the game. Maybe I'll try both wrappers when there's a discount on GOG 😀

Yea, I already thought about this, but I always come to the conclusion that there're a lot more old games which run perfectly under Windows 7. 😉

Well, yes it depends on how much titles you have that will work best on a highly retro-compatible win9x rig, I guess. Looks like the only strong reason left for going down that road (apart from D3D 5/6/7 titles that haven't been updated) is support for Aureal A3D.

Reply 15 of 29, by Mr.Blade

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Well, yes it depends on how much titles you have that will work best on a highly retro-compatible win9x rig, I guess. Looks like the only strong reason left for going down that road (apart from D3D 5/6/7 titles that haven't been updated) is support for Aureal A3D.

Aren't there only a few games which support A3D? I guess EAX is more established, and if you have a Creative X-Fi, you can download a program called ALchemy which tries to emulate EAX in older Dx6, Dx7 and Dx8 games.

I installed "The Nomad Soul" and "Monster Truck Madness 2" on my notebook with a GeForce GT420M - both work perfectly. Even the fights in "The Nomad Soul" are really smooth with 60 FPS.

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Reply 16 of 29, by Zebius

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Few years ago I reported the same problem with Omikron on my PC with ATI Card: Omikron the Nomad Soul - problem with graphics

I wasn't able to solve it in spite of many trials and tests. After switching back to nvidia (GTX 460) the problem is gone, but there are some minor glitches like slowly working inventory and crashing from time to time. They could make a remake of this game, I would buy it at once.

Reply 17 of 29, by archsan

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Mr.Blade wrote:

Aren't there only a few games which support A3D? I guess EAX is more established, and if you have a Creative X-Fi, you can download a program called ALchemy which tries to emulate EAX in older Dx6, Dx7 and Dx8 games.

For its time, A3D (esp from version 2.0) was much more advanced than EAX (up to version 2), if implemented fully. It was a truer 3D sound simulation (they called it "wavetracing") when EAX was just mostly reverb effects. Only later in 2000~2001, around the time when Creative basically killed and ate Aureal with lawsuits (Aureal won, but went bankrupt due to costs), they improved EAX significantly through versions 3-5.

Complete lists are here and here.

Reply 18 of 29, by leileilol

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What about Intel RSX? 😜

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Reply 19 of 29, by Mr.Blade

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but there are some minor glitches like slowly working inventory and crashing from time to time.

That's true, but I noticed this problem even on my old Windows XP PC - maybe it is caused by windows. If you like "The Nomad Soul", take a look at "Indigo Prohecy" and "Heavy Rain" - they are all from the same developer (Quantic Dream) and the same game designer (David Cage).

For its time, A3D (esp from version 2.0) was much more advanced than EAX (up to version 2), if implemented fully. It was a truer 3D sound simulation (they called it "wavetracing") when EAX was just mostly reverb effects. Only later in 2000~2001, around the time when Creative basically killed and ate Aureal with lawsuits (Aureal won, but went bankrupt due to costs), they improved EAX significantly through versions 3-5.

Complete lists are here and here.

Ah, okay, didn't know that.

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