Unplayable amount of aliasing on Linux, please help :(

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Stelpa
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Unplayable amount of aliasing on Linux, please help :(

Postby Stelpa » Tue Oct 22, 2013 9:11 pm

I posted emailed Introversion support, and (after a week of waiting with no response), I posted this on the Steam forum, and now it's been yet another week with zero response! That's two weeks of an entirely nonexistent attempt at support or outreach. I just want to play the game I bought without terrible graphical problems, and I haven't even heard a single word from any dev/support people. This is getting really frustrating :(

Well, first of all, here are some screenshots of the issue:

Image
Image
Image
Image

So as you can see, there is some very extreme-level aliasing going on here. These screenshots were taken with both "Smooth Lines" and "Use Anti-Aliasing" enabled, but neither option seems to make any difference. I bought the game several weeks ago, and it's pretty much unplayable due to this issue. Borders pop in and out of existence, and all ingame lines are very unpleasant to look at (especially the borders).

I am on a 32-bit linux with an Intel graphics card. I'll post Steam's diagnostics of my computer after this post.

The game runs properly otherwise, from what I've seen. Frame rate is smooth, but the aliasing makes it very straining on the eyes to play (it looks much worse in motion than in screenshots, I promise you). I'd appreciate being able to enjoy this game with smooth lines, as I didn't have a huge amount of money to spend on games, and I bought this game based on the recommended system specs, not knowing that it'd be almost painful to look at due to harsh aliasing. If someone could PLEASE help me deal with this issue, I would be very grateful.

Thanks for reading, specs will be in the post after this one.
Last edited by Stelpa on Tue Oct 22, 2013 10:40 pm, edited 6 times in total.
Stelpa
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Re: HUGE amount of aliasing on Linux, help would be apprecia

Postby Stelpa » Tue Oct 22, 2013 9:13 pm

Code: Select all

Processor Information:
Vendor: GenuineIntel
CPU Family: 0x6
CPU Model: 0x2a
CPU Stepping: 0x7
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 2200 Mhz
4 logical processors
2 physical processors
HyperThreading: Supported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Unsupported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported

Network Information:
Network Speed:

Operating System Version:
Linux Mint 13 Maya (32 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 3.2.0-53-generic
X Server Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server Release: 11103000
X Window Manager: Xfwm4
Steam Runtime Version: steam-runtime-release_2013-09-05

Video Card:
Driver: Tungsten Graphics, Inc Mesa DRI Intel(R) Sandybridge Mobile x86/MMX/SSE2

Driver Version: 3.0 Mesa 8.0.4
OpenGL Version: 3.0
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 59 Hz
VendorID: 0x8086
DeviceID: 0x116
Number of Monitors: 1
Number of Logical Video Cards: 1
Primary Display Resolution: 1366 x 768
Desktop Resolution: 1366 x 768
Primary Display Size: 13.54" x 7.60" (15.51" diag)
34.4cm x 19.3cm (39.4cm diag)
Primary VRAM Not Detected

Sound card:
Audio device: Intel CougarPoint HDMI

Memory:
RAM: 3187 Mb

Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
LANG: en_US.UTF-8
Microphone: Not set
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 594942 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 507521 Mb
Stelpa
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Re: HUGE amount of aliasing on Linux, help would be apprecia

Postby Stelpa » Tue Oct 22, 2013 10:34 pm

Just found this post, which seems to imply that the issue has only been present since version 1.6.

Worryingly, that post is from more than a year ago, and never received a single response.

This is not making me feel very positive about Introversion customer support. Please, someone help. I don't have much spending money, and it's really upsetting that the game I decided to buy has a graphical bug, with nobody to help solve it :(
Stelpa
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Re: Unplayable amount of aliasing on Linux, please help :(

Postby Stelpa » Tue Oct 22, 2013 10:55 pm

Read through this one as well; what the FUCK kind of customer support is telling your users "keep holding 'J', obviously :)" indefinitely to "fix" the issue (providing no explanation as to why "j" helps, or what the root of the issue is), and after futher questioning just saying "oh, your graphics card doesn't support antialiasing", even though the version just prior to that one rendered fine? That makes no sense.

Firstly, why the hell would holding "J" fix the problem at all? And if it does, why isn't that the default state, or an option that can be toggled? And how do you seriously expect your users to just keep holding the "J" key the entire time they play the game? That's probably the most incredibly lazy (and rude!) customer support I've ever seen.

Could someone please explain this ridiculous excuse for customer support? If Intel cards really are a problem, you should've specified that in the System Requirements on steam before you got people to buy a game that doesn't render correctly.

Thanks.
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Laika
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Re: Unplayable amount of aliasing on Linux, please help :(

Postby Laika » Wed Oct 23, 2013 7:00 pm

bert_the_turtle, author of the "J" comment, is not an IV official. In fact, customer support for Defcon was abandoned by developer years ago, so the only ones able to help are fellow linux users, who are in minority on these forums. Anyway, I never played on linux, but solved a similiar problem on windows by updating videocard drivers (obviously you still have to turn anti-aliasing on in options).
Stelpa
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Re: Unplayable amount of aliasing on Linux, please help :(

Postby Stelpa » Thu Oct 24, 2013 2:21 am

Laika_rus wrote:bert_the_turtle, author of the "J" comment, is not an IV official. In fact, customer support for Defcon was abandoned by developer years ago, so the only ones able to help are fellow linux users, who are in minority on these forums. Anyway, I never played on linux, but solved a similiar problem on windows by updating videocard drivers (obviously you still have to turn anti-aliasing on in options).


I see; that explains a lot! I was not aware that support had ended for Defcon. Kind of a shame. I realized a "workaround" of sorts, to just disable map borders altogether in the options. Do you think country borders are essential to the game? I've yet to play an online game, so I'm hoping that they are not totally necessary to play well...

Oh well, I wish I'd bought this game years ago so I could get some help to resolve the issue instead of just ignoring it. Thanks for responding though!
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Laika
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Re: Unplayable amount of aliasing on Linux, please help :(

Postby Laika » Thu Oct 24, 2013 8:11 am

I play with water, city names and borders turned off.
Stelpa
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Re: Unplayable amount of aliasing on Linux, please help :(

Postby Stelpa » Thu Oct 24, 2013 9:19 am

Laika_rus wrote:I play with water, city names and borders turned off.


Well that is wonderful news to hear! That makes me feel quite a bit better. Out of curiosity, I can understand borders/names, but why turn water off? Thanks again :)
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Laika
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Re: Unplayable amount of aliasing on Linux, please help :(

Postby Laika » Thu Oct 24, 2013 11:54 am

Just more comfortable for me. You're welcome :)

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