Problems with demo

[WYBaugh]

Hi. I am interested in purchasing IOE but am having a weird graphics problem in the demo. When I move the mouse in the game an artifact appears horizontally across the entire game screen. It disappears when the mouse stops moving.

I am using an ATI x800 pro video card with the latest Catalyst drivers.

Thanks,

Bill

[WYBaugh]

Hi again,

Is there anyone around to answer?

Bill

[Erik Rutins]

Hi Bill,

Sorry for the delay in responding. Let me rattle off a few questions off the top of my head:

1. Are you using any kind of unusual mouse cursor - i.e. extra large, animated, with movement trails, etc.?
2. What kind of mouse do you have?
3. Do you have any forced video settings going in terms of anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, etc.? Have you tried turning those off?

Thanks, if I can't figure it out hopefully Mark, the developer, will get a chance to chime in.

Regards,

- Erik

[Sarek]

Hmm...

I have the same horizontal artifacts appear with mouse movement in the demo. Maybe an ATI thing, as I'm running an ATI X800 SE card. Mouse is a Logitech MX500. I am using a standard cursor. Video card control panel is set to let application determine anti-aliasing and anistropic filtering.

[Marc von Martial]

Hi guys, try updating your mouse drivers to the latest version. If you run MS default mouse drivers make sure you install the mouse manufacturer drivers. also make sure you run the latest grpahic card drivers for your ATIs.

[WYBaugh]

Marc,

I have the latest mouse drivers (8/16/2005) for MS Intellimouse and the very latest ATI Catalyst drivers. Still get the same artifact when moving the mouse.

Bill

[Sarek]

Again, same here... Latest Logitech MX500 mouse driver and ATI Catalyst driver installed. Tried rolling my Catalyst driver back to the previous release, but it made no difference.

[WYBaugh]

Now this has reached a level of principle...

I attempted to email the technical support of Enemy Technology at techsupport@enemytechnology.com and alert them to this post. The email bounced back from my work and home email.

This post was started on Saturday morning and only Matrix has responded...no dev has bothered to respond nor any response beyond try the latest drivers which I stated in the first post was already tested.

It's nice to see the level of dedication to their project. Thanks for showing us before we spent money on your game.

Bill

[mtemple]

Hello and sorry for the delay as we are enduring some construction which means we have had the power off for some periods.

Anyway, down to business. I also have an ATI card (9550) on which all versions of the game had run flawlessly for quite a long time. Then I had need to update the drivers for some reason such that I loaded the latest Catalyst drivers, and wham! The game now has obnoxious artifacting whenever the mouse is moved.

I also had a customer awhile back with some other issues with the Catalyst drivers. The first thing I am going to try is to revert back to the drivers (non-Catalyst) that came with the card. I will also see if there are any other new versions of the drivers that may work as well. I am also going to see if I can rework my code to come up with a patch to fix this particular situation.

I'll report back here as to whether reverting will work in the short term. And then I'll see about a code fix if possible.

In the mean time, has anyone seen any problems with any other games when using the catalyst drivers?

Thanks for your patience!

[mtemple]

Yes...that did it. I reinstalled the drivers from the CD that came with my ATI 9550 card and everything is now fine. In addition, it also cured some artifacting I was seeing in my web browser (Netscape 7.1). So I would say the Catalyst drivers definitely have some issues.

Does anyone have need of the Catalyst drivers such that reverting back is not a good permanent option? Or are the Catalyst drivers now shipping with ATI cards (which of course would eliminate the option of reverting)?

In response the one of the comments I saw above, I do in fact care quite a lot about the game as I did just about all of the programming and production, and I have sacrificed quite a bit to create it. I am lucky to still be married. By way of explanation, I thought that since the demo had been out for nearly six months with no reported problems, it would be ok to risk going down for a couple of days to change out our electrical panel. Wouldn't you know it, the wheels come off of my little red wagon as soon as I do!

In addition, I failed to realize that the sudden appearance of the artifacting was due to the installation of the new drivers (and not the low voltage from the old panel), until I saw your posts here. Ahh well... I guess it just goes to show that God has a sense of humor!

[Sarek]

Mark,

Glad to hear you are able to reproduce the problem. I really like the demo, save the artifacting, and will no-doubt purchase the full version if the problem is solved.

Thanks for the update!

[Erik Rutins]

Sarek,

Have you tried older drivers yet to see if it solves the problem for you as well? Also, the "Omega Drivers" might be a possibility worth trying.

Regards,

- Erik

[mtemple]

Just to be clear, it is the "Catalyst" drivers that cause the problem. I am talking with ATI about seeing if they care to fix it as I can easily provide a test case for them. But if they can't be bothered, I'll see if they have a link for non-catalyst drivers.

In the mean time, find that CD the card came with and reinstall that old driver. This fixes the problem for me. Again, AVOID the "Catalyst" drivers and I'll keep you all posted as to the progress I have with ATI on this.

Thanks again for your patience and I'll be keeping a much more frequent eye on this forum now that my electrical issues seem to be solved. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience!