Nvidia cards and the old engine

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Ustarlen
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Nvidia cards and the old engine

Post by Ustarlen »

Hi Chris

Bit embarassed but for the first time I've checked the GPU Activity Monitor on my laptop and it seems the right click method for choosing a graphics card temporarily or permanently doesnt work. Using this method and running the game, the card is inactive so AO isn't seeing the card. I've tested the activity monitor with other games and can see the Nvidia card is being used.


I have a 2012 Gigabyte P35 laptop with Geforce GTX 765M and inetgrated Intel HD Graphics 4600. What are my options if any?
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Re: Nvidia cards and the old engine

Post by Ustarlen »

Ok, I've given up on the old engine, downloaded the new engine and I guess the card has been able to pick up on the DX drivers because the Nvidia GPU activity monitor shows that it has picked up AO. Oddly though, when I right click to select the Nvidia card, it doesnt offer it as selection in the game settings - just the usual primary and integrated choices. I have no idea if it's just by passing the game settings or what, but should I ever see the Nvidia card as a choice in settings?


Also, I'll need to do some fine tuning on the new engine, as the framerate seems a bit jumpy. I remember an old YouTube video that someone did to adjust modern cards with the new and old engines...



Finally, does anyone know if it matters running in windows or borderless with the new engine and Nvidia cards?
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Re: Nvidia cards and the old engine

Post by Chrisax »

The old engine has troubles with modern CPU with integrated graphics on laptops that also have a dedicated graphic card.

You may need to disable the integrated graphics in the CPU with this method (please note this doesn't always work, depending on the laptop):


Use system search (the looking glass icon near the windows icon top left (usually) of your screen and type "Control Panel" (the good old one).
  • In Control Panel click System
    > Advanced System settings
    > Select the "Hardware" tab
    > Device Manager
    > Display Adapters.
    > If there is an Intel display on, or anything that is NOT your Nvidai, right click on the no-Nvidia listed display (often named Intel integrated graphics accelerator) and select DISABLE.

    NEVER select uninstall for integrated Intel graphics even if you don't use them: it may cause serious issues.
This can also be needed sometimes for the new engine or some other applications.



About the NEW engine, if you have troubles on a system with Nvidia graphics, you could try this with the new engine:

New Engine? Crashing? Nvidia? Read this.
http://www.athenpaladins.org/forums/vie ... =2&t=10831


Finally Borderless or with Border should pose no problem but it may make a difference on some systems. You need to try. (In the worst case, you can always run full screen but it's a bit annoying if you need to switch to see something else.)


Feel free to use screenshots to show us how the settings / choices look.
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Re: Nvidia cards and the old engine

Post by Ustarlen »

Thx Chris

Much of the problems I seem to have with this laptop are due to the integrated HD Graphics 4600 and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M sitting alongside it. I've tried disabling the 4600 but that makes a mess.

Been doing some testing and tried your suggestions above and followed the forum posts, but the new engine just isn't workable for me it seems. I've tried to use the Secret World Nvidia profile method which increased the frame rate a bit, but it still careens between 11 and 60 at ICC, hangs for a bit then renders at the speed of a hamster wheel when whoomping through some locations and freezes in raids. I've tried overclocking with the MSI app but this card already runs pretty hot.

So, I'm back to trying to get the old engine to see the Nvidia card...

In the first stop post for most people: http://forums-archive.anarchy-online.co ... recognized

...I noticed the edit and downloads for the sgVoodoo2 wraparound.

http://dege.freeweb.hu/

I downloaded the files and hey presto AO now sees the card.... but crashes just as it loads to the game... boooo. Wondering why, as this has been tested and worked with a range of Nvidia cards. Then I saw the following in the setup doc in test results:

'If dynamic shader compiling is utilized then dgVoodoo generally performs quite well on all hardware except integrated chips (like Intel HD 2000 and 4000)'

http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/Readme.html

So, having no idea what dynamic shader compiling is, and suspecting that this is why the game is crashing, my question. Am I doomed? has anyone else with integrated laptop woes gotten past this stage?
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Re: Nvidia cards and the old engine

Post by Chrisax »

That's a tough one. I need to think about it a it more. :?

One thing though that's I'll remind you: wen you disable the integrated graphics, as I said somewhere, you must NOT delete/uninstall the driver for Intel integrated graphics or it will be a mess. Laptops NEED the driver for the Intel integrated chipset to be there, EVEN if the integrated graphics are not used (disabled).


Edit: what's the specific model of your laptop?
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Re: Nvidia cards and the old engine

Post by Ustarlen »

Thx for this. No I wouldn't delete anything, just disable.I overstated by saying it made a mess, it just didn't work and the game still didn't pick up the Nvidia card. The Nvidia card did however, pick up everything else while the integrated card was disabled :)

The model is a Gigabyte P35 laptop

Edit:

I've done some more work starting, as mentioned above, the Glide.dll files dont work and the MS files D3D8.dll etc.. do pick up the card.

Additional required files: I've not had to use the D3DCompiler_47 file as I use Windows 10. I have added the 3DFXSplashDlls and D3DRM files all as described on the download page.

All these Dll files are in the AO main directory where the game .exe programme is.

There is a config app to help you set this all up but Windows see it as a threat and deletes it. I closed down my scanner and firewall (saw that it is safe in other posts) for 15 minutes to run the app but no luck making any changes that would run the game.

The game loads to the AO icon and crashes right after that.
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Re: Nvidia cards and the old engine

Post by Chrisax »

I'm looking into it. Not an easy thing to do remotely. :?

And you have to other computer to put AO on, by the way?

Is your laptop one of those?
https://www.gigabyte.com/Search?kw=P35
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Re: Nvidia cards and the old engine

Post by Ustarlen »

Hi Chris

It's a P35 but as it's quite old (2012) it doesnt have any version mark. This is my only machine atm as I need to be mobile for my work. I'm in the mountains all winter travelling between different areas so cant drag a desktop around with me. To be honest Chris, this probably isn't something worth spending your time on, as much as I appreciate the effort. I've spent 2 days on this and the new engine. Although I don't have your skills on this, asking you to investigate remotely is really tough. The game runs on the integrated card with a reasonable framerate. Newer games do run on the Nvidia card but trying to figure out why the wraparound doesnt work on a 16 year old game will be quite a mission. I might try to contact the Voodoo guy and see if AO interests him as he has optimized a range of other older games. He does make it clear integrated cards are difficult.


As above I appreciate everything you've done.
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Re: Nvidia cards and the old engine

Post by Chrisax »

I might try to contact the Voodoo guy
Why not; never knows.

I'll still try to get an idea though but it might be a long process. :?

One things you never said I guess: are you running under Win10 or an older one?
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Re: Nvidia cards and the old engine

Post by Ustarlen »

Windows 10

Additional required files: I've not had to use the D3DCompiler_47 file as I use Windows 10. I have added the 3DFXSplashDlls and D3DRM files all as described on the download page.

Thanks again Chris. I will contact Mr Voodoo
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Re: Nvidia cards and the old engine

Post by Chrisax »

Ugh, missed the Win10 mention. OK, thx.
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Re: Nvidia cards and the old engine

Post by Chrisax »

One thing that is not directly related to the current topic but that can help for testing or in general:

Do you know that AO doesn't register anything in the Windows Registry and therefore can be used from a portable hard drive (like for example a USB Western Digital Passport but an ethernet network HD works great too) or a USB key? (The USB key may cause some things to be slow but you can also go for a very fast USB key).

You only need to save and transfer

Your preferences and profiles that are stored there:
C:\Users\C\AppData\Local\Funcom\Anarchy Online
(Copy the folder and put it at the right palce on your other system)

And any of the following if you need them:

Skins
C:/Users/C/AppData/Local/Funcom/Anarchy Online/random-ID-numlber-here/Anarchy Online/Gui/
(This location can be chnages in "Settings" in the AO launcher)

Scripts
C:/Users/C/AppData/Local/Funcom/Anarchy Online/random-ID-numlber-here/Anarchy Online/scripts/
(This location can be chnages in "Settings" in the AO launcher)

Screenshots
C:/Users/C/AppData/Local/Funcom/Anarchy Online/random-ID-numlber-here/Anarchy Online/Screenshots/
(This location can be chnages in "Settings" in the AO launcher)
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