diagonal lines when starting darwinia

[daravelli]

hi, first things first. here are my system specs.

amd 4800+ dual core
2 gb corsair xms ram
2 evga 7900 gt (sli)
windows xp operating system
direct x 9.0c
nvidia drivers (84.21)

there is a known driver issue with the 7900 gt where you have to run games in windowed mode or else you get diagonal lines across the screen which causes you to either not be able to see the game at all, or with some distortion. setting to windowed mode has solved the problem for all other games i've tried so far. with the darwinia demo, it doesn't seem to stay in windowed mode when i set the preferences.txt file to a "1" in the windowed mode option. the music comes on, but all i can see are the diagonal lines. it does not freeze the system, but all i can do is push the power button and let it shut down because even when alt tabbing or hitting the windows key it doesn't allow me to see the screen. with most games i'm still able to access the options even tho the lines are there and set it to windowed mode, but in the darwinia demo you can't see anything. any ideas?

[daravelli]

keep in mind that this issue is only with the demo... i wanted to purchase darwinia but i figured if the demo wouldn't run then the game probably wouldn't either. would the patched version of the game possibly fix this issue?

[trickfred]

1) IV's not responsible for buggy drivers. Nag at (I assume) ATi.

2) Have you read through this thread, and at least tried changing your RenderLandscapeMode parameter?

[NeoThermic]

trickfred: it's an nVidia card, not an ATi card, thus that won't help

daravelli: We can not really go into solving this if a similar issue exsists with nVidia's drivers. I would wait until the next driver fixes the original issue, then check to see if the problem still exsists. If it does, you're more than welcome to bump this topic, and we can go into solving the issue.

NeoThermic

[trickfred]

Wow, talk about me not paying attention. I should be slapped with a wet n00b noodle.

[Lowell]

I too have the eVGA 7900gt co running in SLi, and I think it has problems running at the default overclocked speeds in OpenGL games The only thing that worked for me to fix the flickering was to turn on 4xAA in about 50% of my games that had the problem...
EDIT//Half_Life2, Battle Field2 ran fine without any of these changes...

Or the real fix:

Lower the clock speeds to the default 7900gt specs of 450/660(1320): mine ran fine at 500/700(1400), instead of the eVGA CO default speeds of 500/750(1500).

After doing this I had no problems with any games anymore, and everything ran fine with the default game profiles. Though the cards did run fine at their default clock speeds when not running in SLi mode.

Give that a try and see...
Lowell

[daravelli]

i'll try that, thanks man. btw what util did you use to change the default mem clock speeds?

[Lowell]

i'll try that, thanks man. btw what util did you use to change the default mem clock speeds?

Download CoolBits. This will modify your registry so that you can access the clocks in the nVidia control panel. If you are having trouble I suggest you look into increasing your cards voltage as well. You can do this by updating the cards BIOS.

Lowell

[Lowell]

Also I use the EVGA brand card...their drivers are at 84.56 now... check your driver version... I think the Nvida drivers are at 84.21.

[daravelli]

i didn't notice previously that there was an overclocking/underclocking utility option built into the nvidia control panel. underclocked the cards just a tad. problem solved =) thanks for the help.

[Lowell]

Sure...anytime.

Use Direct X 9.0c ... keep a close eye on new Driver sets with your cards and Direct X.

I know Steam is having issues with the some Direct 3D drivers. I have had no other issues with any other games...Fear played without under clocking as did Battle Field2, Bio Shock, Tabula Rasa (about to get my hands on a copy of HellGate London)

So I am sure the newer titles will play without adjusting the clock speed.

Lowell

EDIT HellGate London teaser video ... http://www.CrimsonSun.cc/hellgate_one.wmv
http://www.CrimsonSun.cc/hellgate_two.wmv

Sorry...my Flash Streamming software isn't up on my new site yet. But the movie files are worth the wait. "Turn up the sound and get ready..."