ATI and OpenGL vs. TA spring

[morimoto]

Since the latest update to Spring I am not able to launch a game. Immediately after launching I get the "GL_ARB_texture_env_combine not found" then the crash. I have consulted the forum which states that this problem occurs when one has:

--Older graphics cards
--ATI graphics cards
--Old graphics drivers
--Using the Vista operating system

MY system is:

--AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ 3.00 ghz
--windows vista 32-bit service pack 2
--3 gb ddr2
--ATI Radeon x1950 pro (in crossfire mode)

Now, considering that the Radeon X1950 pro is not an old graphics card and that the drivers are all up to date, basically this means that I can not play TA because I use windows Vista and I have an ATI graphics card. If you are telling me that the only way I can play TA is if I shell out 80 bucks for an Nvidia card, that is kind of unfair.

I am not a programmer, but can't you include the ATI OpenGL library as well as the Nvidia. I'm sure that I am not the only Vista/ATI person on the planet.

Does anyone have a solution other then getting a Nvidia video card?

[lurker]

Spring uses normal OGL, it's just that ATI makes buggier drivers. I'm reasonably sure I've run it on vista with ati...
What's the exact version of your graphics drivers? Sometimes it's less 'old drivers' and more 'roulette drivers'.

Side note; why do you have vista 32 bit rather than 64? And which vista?

[morimoto]

I am using Vista home premium. I didn't get the 64bit version because it cost more and I don't need more than 3gb of ram.

the driver is: Catalyst version 8.12

I hear a lot of accusations on this forum that ATI is buggy and thus conflicts with Spring, however I have never had a problem or a crash with any other game I have played since having this set up. So, is it ATI or spring programming?

[lurker]

How many of those games were OpenGL? ATI does a fine job with DirectX.
Strange that 64 bit would cost more.

[morimoto]

True. TA spring is pretty remarkable considering that it is not funded, and perhaps it is unreasonable for me to compare TA to those games...

I guess I am just frustrated because it seems there is no way for me to consistently play Spring with an ATI card. Sooner or later I will update my drivers and it won't work again. Is ATI really that bad? Is there a bias toward Nvidia? I don't know.

--Side note: Windows 64 ultimate is the standard Vista currently offered, however 2 years ago when vista first came out, the 32-bit version was 50 or so dollars cheaper.

[jK]

the correct title would be:

ATI vs. OpenGL

[morimoto]

No, that would imply that ATI has an issue with openGL. According to you guys, ATI uses the same openGL as Nvidia, i.e. OpenGL 3.0.

Furthermore, here is a list of games that also use openGL rendering that I have played on my system with no problem:

-Neverwinter Nights
-Homeworld 2
-Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
-The Witcher

So... You tell me.

[Pxtl]

The difference is that the developers of those games have professionals who get beta versions of ATI boards before they release, and have the manpower to write work-arounds for every crazy idiosyncratic feature of the ATI drivers. Just because they hide the problems from you doesn't mean they don't exist.

[morimoto]

So you are saying that ATI inherently has more problems than Nvidia? Or is it just that the people working on spring tend to only consider Nvidia issues? Is there personal experience that ATI is more buggy or just perception from word of mouth?

One of my previous replies acknowledges that Spring is operating under limitations and I recognize that, I am just trying to be critical minded and trying to find out if I should change to Nvidia. Basically my only reason to dump my ATI card would be to play TA, and that seems kind of impractical.

[Pxtl]

You see, this is the point where you stuck your foot in your mouth. None of what you said is easy, particularly when the people doing it are doing it for free and for fun.

And as for the problem: graphics are not magical. Graphics developers make pretty stuff happen on your screen by calling functions. On nVidia cards, these functions generally do what they're supposed to do according to standards that were written by people who are beholden to neither nVidia nor ATI. On ATI cards, they frequently do not.

Big game developers spend buckets of money and time researching and working around the ways that ATI cards fail to do what the libraries say they should do, because gamers do not care why game X fails to work - they just want it to work. Small hobbyists do not have the money or the time.

[morimoto]

I am not in danger of sticking my foot in my mouth as I openly admit that I am ignorant-- I am just asking questions. I apologize if I offended you, I agree that what has been accomplished with spring is awesome considering that it is done by people who are doing it for the fun of it.

I'm genuinely wondering how I can be able to play TA spring and if the answer is that I can't because I have an ATI card then thats what I want to know.

[det]

What? Spring works 100% on my ATI card.

[morimoto]

Really? ok then it must be something weird with me. I will try some other things and see if I can figure it out.

I was just reading the another post where they said to run regedit and delete all of the spring files in the registry which seemed to work for some people. Maybe there is conflicting registry data between the old spring and the update.

Anyways, thanks for the feedback.

[morimoto]

Looks like registry editor worked! After I removed all the files from the registry and re-installed it fixed the problem.

I will add this as a solution for the "GL_ARB_texture_env_combine not found" bug.

[Beherith]

If your running regedit, might as well enable the ATIHACKS key in spring. Set it to 1.