Forum Settings
       
Reply To Thread

Performance problem identifiedFollow

#1 Jan 02 2004 at 5:31 PM Rating: Decent
39 posts
Shortly after upgrading my video card I really started wondering why the performance in EQ was so abysmal while in EVERY other game I tried it was top notch, then today while in my EQ directory to change the data rate I got curious to check some other txt files there and stumbled onto a device init log that shows why...

[Tue Dec 30 23:06:59 2003]00000:Entering eqmain.dll
[Tue Dec 30 23:06:59 2003]00001:FE: Found adapter #0 - RADEON 9600 SERIES

[Tue Dec 30 23:06:59 2003]00002:FE: Forcing No TnL in t3dEnumDevices().

Forcing no TnL?? The TnL engine in my 9600 is worlds faster than my cpu, and quite a bit above what Nvidia has on any current cards. (Not arguing overall card speeds but the ATI vertex engine blows the others out of the water currently) Could this be changed in some file I didn't find, or am I stuck until the devs decide to stop crippling performance for all ATI users?
#2 Jan 02 2004 at 5:51 PM Rating: Excellent
Avatar
******
29,919 posts
The earleir ATI cards don't use industry standard Hardware TnL, so everquest has it disabled to stop people from getting boot errors every 2 seconds.
#3 Jan 02 2004 at 5:58 PM Rating: Decent
39 posts
Considering the age of the EQ engine that kinda makes sense, but come on devs, add a check for a Radeon anything and let us have TnL. ;)
#4 Jan 02 2004 at 7:15 PM Rating: Decent
Where did you find that line? It is not in my EQini or datarate files.
#5 Jan 02 2004 at 7:27 PM Rating: Decent
39 posts
I found it in the dbg.txt file. If you sort files by type then it's the one right after the DataRate.txt file. Also wanted to let ATI users out there know I found a program called 3d Analyze searching on google that allows you to do all sorts of sneaky graphics stuff. For instance you can lie to EQ about what card you have. hehe EQ currently THINKS I have a GeforceFX 5900 and it promptly started using hardware TnL, and has made a MASSIVE difference in performance. I still think this is just plain lame of SoE, essentially making a single manufacturer's cards appear to be inferior just because they turn off features for it alone while utilizing them on other cards.
#6 Jan 04 2004 at 2:11 AM Rating: Decent
ATI's TnL engine has been problematic off and on for a while. The issues were pretty much cleared up with the Catalyst 3.4 drivers and later.

However many cards are still shipping with earlier drivers, and so disabling the TnL for the Radeon's is a safe move on SoE's part.
#7 Jan 04 2004 at 2:38 AM Rating: Decent
Can't edit posts, but I decided to check on my wife's machine and see what she gets in dbg.txt

She has a Athlon XP 2600+ 333 FSB, 512 MB PC3200 DDR, Radeon 9700 Pro 128 that I built her last February.

Anyways, in her dbg.txt it does NOT turn off TnL

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:54 2004]00000:Entering eqmain.dll
[Sat Jan 03 18:25:54 2004]00001:FE: Found adapter #0 - RADEON 9700 PRO

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:54 2004]00002:FE: Adapter #0 - RADEON 9700 PRO :

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:54 2004]00003:FE: 32Bit = 1, D32 = 0, D24 = 1, D16 = 1

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:54 2004]00004:FE: 16Bit(565) = 1, D32 = 0, D24 = 1, D16 = 1

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:54 2004]00005:FE: 16Bit(1555) = 0, D32 = 0, D24 = 0, D16 = 0

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:55 2004]00006:FE: t3dInitializeDevice: Using 32bit mode.

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:55 2004]00007:FE: t3dInitializeDevice: Using 24bit depth buffer.

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:55 2004]00008:FE: Before Create Device

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:55 2004]00009:FE: After Create Device

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:55 2004]00010:FE: Create Succeded

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:55 2004]00011:FE: Before Get Backbuffer

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:55 2004]00012:FE: Before Get Device Caps

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:55 2004]00013:FE: Before Create Viewport

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:55 2004]00014:FE: t3dInitializeDevice: t3dD3DCreateViewport Succeded.

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:55 2004]00015:FE: Before Set Default Render State

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:55 2004]00016:FE: Before Init Buffers

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:55 2004]00017:FE: Before GetAvailableTextureMem

[Sat Jan 03 18:25:55 2004]00018:FE: t3dInitializeDevice completed successfully.

[Sat Jan 03 18:26:25 2004]00019:OpenComms create begin
#8 Jan 04 2004 at 2:39 AM Rating: Excellent
Avatar
******
29,919 posts
and the 9700's came out after the 9600's. hmmmm...
#9 Jan 24 2004 at 9:11 PM Rating: Default
IIRC, the 9600 came out after the 9700.
Reply To Thread

Colors Smileys Quote OriginalQuote Checked Help

 

Recent Visitors: 207 All times are in CST
Anonymous Guests (207)