Graphics problems : Only Square !

[Galhager]

Hi . I have a little problem, i can't play because all cities, silos & submarines... are represented by a square .
I can't take a screen, it gives me only a black color when i copy it in paint .

I have a P4 2.4Ghz, 1GB Ram but ( maybe the problem ) my old graphic card have burn and i now have a " 3dfx Voodoo 3 " ^^ and i dl directx 9 .
So i don't know if it's my graphic card, but i can run with it games like " Counter-Strike or Warcraft III " .

[xander]

I am pretty sure that the other games you list use DX9. Defcon uses OpenGL, so the fact that those other games run really doesn't tell us anything about whether or not Defcon will run. If you could try taking a screenshot, that might help. Rather than use the in-built functionality, hit [P] while playing Defcon -- that should save a screenshot in your Defcon directory.

Also, it might help if you posted a dxdiag. I believe that you can get this by hitting Start -> Run, then typing "dxdiag.exe" into the box, and saving the result somewhere. Copy the result, and paste it here between [code] tags. If those aren't the right directions, I am sure someone will correct me in a minute -- the poor Mac user isn't that familiar with Windows.

All of that having been said, I am pretty certain that your graphics card does not meet the minimum suggested specs, so you may be up a creek.

xander

[zach]

You are correct xander, though omitting .exe (thus writing dxdiag) works fine, too.

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Galhager, there are two main reasons you can't compare the other games you mentioned to Defcon, apart from xander mentioning the DirectX vs OpenGL difference;

1. Counter-Strike and Warcraft III are both very old games (1999 and 2002, respectively).
Defcon came out in 2006, and was designed to run well on mid-end computers at the time - just because Defcon 'looks' cheap, graphically power-wise, doesn't mean it is (and it turns out it isn't, after all). It's a bit like saying "My computer won't run Battlefield 2142, but it runs Counter-Strike and Warcraft III just fine".

2. Millions of dollars were spent optimising the two games you mentioned. Introversion can't afford to hire a gang of programmers to do this, and when you only have a few people working on optimisation, the results - while still being quite good - simply do not compare to that of a dedicated million-dollar team.

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It is always advised to update your graphics card's drivers to the latest available, but I can see why that would pose a bit of an obstacle in your case - finding the drivers for such an outdated card, that is. Looking into it, 3dfx Interactive didn't even get around to making a new driver for Windows XP before filing for bankruptcy. Luckily, some customers took it upon themselves to do just that.

I took some time to see if I couldn't help with this in some way or other. It turns out I could;

The latest official driver for Windows 2000 is 1.03.00 [voodoo3-win2k-10300.zip], released 22nd November 2000.
The latest third party driver (for 2000/XP, even) is SFFT Alpha 47 [SFFT-Alpha47.zip], released 27th May 2007.

These drivers were found at http://falconfly.de/voodoo3.htm. I recommend you install the latest SFFT Alpha 47 (at your own risk), and see if that solves anything.

If not, please see if you can't get a screenshot in some way or other (Print Screen, pressing 'P' ingame, or using a third party capture application like Fraps. Additionally, as xander said, it would be helpful if you posted your dxdiag-information.