Radeon 8500 and FSAA???

[Guest]

Has anyone got their Radeon 8500 working with FSAA (ATI call it smoothvision) with FS2k2?Mine keep switching itself off and / or causing smearing of the panels.Does anyone know the secret?Ian

[Guest rogue1]

Try 1024x768x16. Works ok for mine. Also, turn it off in the game, and use the Display Control panel to turn it on.Jim

[Guest]

Hi,I was successful at 1024x768x32, aniso 16x, Smoothvision 4x quality, but trueform off! Seems to collidate with FSAA. Textures and mipmap both at high quality. It is a bit tricky to have a constant FSAA, I am not certain what the major effect on Smoothvision is, but the quality is very good at least. Try Catalyst 3.0 drivers, they are running better than 2.5 for me.Good luckMartin

[Guest]

Thanks all for the hints. I have a workaround now, albeit not a very pretty one.Firstly, my system, in case anyone else has a similar problem:AMD Athlon XP 1700+Via KT133A mobo384MB PC13364MB ATI Radeon 8500 @ 275/275 with Cat 3.0 driversTB Santa Cruz Sound with Vxd drivers (acceleration turned down two notches, or else FS2k2 crashes....)DX916X Anisotropic4X FSAA QualityTrueform forced Off.If I switch veiws too much, FSAA will disappear still. To get it back, I just need to toggle full screen mode on and off by hitting Alt+Enter twice. It then reliably comes back.Odd.BTW, does anyone know how to add the Alt-Enter command to a joystick button? It does not seem to be listed as an assignable comand.Ian

[Guest]

Ian,I had the same problem when changed to catalyst drivers. Don't use them. Instead, use any drivers from 4.13.9021 to 4.13.9031 with the same settings and you'll get the same performance, image quality and won't lose AA.Cheers,Gig

[Guest]

Gig,Thanks for the hint. I've juist tried installing the 9031 drivers....but the install process bluescreened on me.Back to running the Cat 3.0 drivers for now. Ian

[Guest]

Hi Ian,Assuming you are using Windows 98, before installing the 9031 follow this procedure to completely uninstall the drivers you are currently using:1. UNINSTALL YOUR CURRENT ATI DISPLAY DRIVERDo this by going into your control panel and running add/remove programs. ATI Display Driver should be one of the first few on your list. Choose yes when it asks if you would like to uninstall. Choose no when it asks to reboot. 2. REMOVE ALL LEFTOVER .INF FILESWindows will use these to reinstall drivers (or at least try) without giving you an option for a clean install. To do this, you'll want to do a find all files/search, which can be accessed via the start menu. Windows ME has it labelled as search, and I believe Windows 9x has it labelled as find. In the search window, you'll want to enter ati*.inf as the target file. Don't bother making it search your whole hard disk, instead, under the look in field, type in C:WindowsInf, and make sure look in sub-folders is checked. Now your set, click find/search. Delete all files which it reports (make sure the location is c:windowsinf or c:windowsinfother, do not delete ati*.inf files in other directories, just in case you chose to search your entire hard drive). Once you've completed the .inf flush, you're now ready to move on. 3. REBOOT COMPUTERWindows will load with a default VGA adapter driver, which the ATI uninstall conveniently installs for you. Little do we know, ATI forgot to take out all the registry settings, ack! Here's what you need to do... 4. DELETE REGISTRY ENTRIES (ATI, DISPLAY CONFIGURATIONS)There are two sections you'll need to delete garbage from, the first one being the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE. Click the plus next to software and in the directory tree below it you will see a key labelled ATI Technologies, simply highlight this key and hit the delete key on your keyboard. Click yes to confirm removal when Windows prompts you. That will fix all previous tweaks you may have done, so you can ensure a fresh driver install at default settings. Now, on to the next key(s) you'll want to delete. WARNING! The following keys which I recommend you delete automatically assume you are using only one display adapter(video card) in your system. If you are using more than one, I will assume you are literate enough to know which keys can safely be deleted without mucking up your secondary adapter. Go to the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesClassDISPLAY, click the plus next to DISPLAY and you will see at least one sub key, normally labelled 0000. If your registry is dirty, you will likely see multiple keys, such as 0001, 0002, 0003, and so on. If you have only one video card in your system, it is now safe to delete every sub key of DISPLAY, including 0000. To do this highlight each key respectively and hit the delete key on your keyboard, click yes when Windows asks if you wish to remove the entry. Once you have deleted all keys, it is now time to close the regedit program and move on to the next step. 5. DELETE DISPLAY ADAPTER IN THE DEVICE MANAGER - NO REBOOTYou will now need to go into your system device manager, which can be accessed in two ways. One, by right clicking on My Computer, clicking Properties, and then Device Manager in the following window, or you can access the device manager in your system Control Panel and double clicking on the System icon, and clicking Device Manager in the following window. Under Device Manager click the plus symbol next to Display Adapters, you will now see the Standard PCI adapter listed below. Highlight it and hit the delete key on your keyboard and click yes to confirm when Windows prompts you. It will then ask you to reboot your computer to finish removing the device, click no. Next step. 6. EXTRACT RADEON DRIVERSExtract/Unzip/Decompress your Radeon drivers of choice to a location which you will remember (I use C:WindowsDesktopRadeon). Once you have extracted the drivers, you can now reboot your computer to manually install them. I do NOT recommend using the ATI setup program to install drivers. When you reboot your computer, Windows will detect new hardware and ask if you wish for it to search for drivers. I always tell Windows where to search, and do not recommend you let Windows search automatically. Since Windows 9x and Windows ME vary slightly in this driver install process, I will assume you are familiar with basic driver installation and can handle pointing Windows to the directory which you extracted the drivers (i.e. C:WindowsDesktopRadeon for 7041 whql or C:WindowsDesktopRadeonATIDrive for all other driver packages). From here you may proceed to let Windows search the specified directories for the .inf file containing the driver install information, and the rest should be fairly self explanatory.Hope this helps,Gig