ConQueso

Anyone figured out how to eliminate this bug yet? ;( Any ideas anyone? DosFreak?

Hey, DosFreak, did you ever post this news on VOGONS?

Quote: Zork...when your lamp runs out. 8) . PFFFt!!! That hardly compares to Adventure when a dragon comes after you and you're holding the sword on the wrong side! 8)

No need to get defensive, I didn't mean it as an insult, hence the . BTW, the only motherboard listed for that patch is the "K7T266 Pro(MS-6380)". So I see a driver for specifically your mobo, and I read that it improved USB compatibilty for some devices, and I figure I'll give you the link in case it happens to help. Sorry that it was a "complete waste". Just trying to help, how rude of me.

Quote: Easily System Shock 2. If you can't take my word for it, how about PC Gamer naming it the Scariest PC game ever. . The Scariest game ever, System Shock 2 (those that don't think so likely haven't played it), just got scarier. If Silent Hill or Resident Evil was scary for you, you might want to avoid SS2, as it might be too much. Especially with the new mod that replaces the creatures with high detail ones. I'd link to the site, but it contains some 'nudity' and I don't want to break the forum rules here. The mod is in beta, and so far only replaces the 3 hybrid types, the midwife and the crew corpses. Can't wait until it's finished. 8)

Are you contradicting yourself? The link I gave is from your motherboard makers's site, and is pertinent (albeit a beta) to your motherboard. Might be worth a shot if it solves the problem.

Quote: I just thought I'd point out that that from the benchmarks that I see, UT2003 is the only one where there is an AMD advantage. I didn't link to them as they were in the same article as the UT2003 benchmarks, and the dropdown box takes you to other benchmarks pages. Nonetheless, here are the Jedi Knight 2, the Comanche 4 and the ageing Quake 3 benchmarks (where the P4 2.66 does in fact beat the XP 2800, however the XP2800 beats it's equally priced 2.4GHz intel counterpart).

Quote: AMDs perform especially well in UT2003. Intels seem to put up better numbers in other tests. AMDs also perform well (as in the 2800+ compared to the more expensive P4 2.66) in Comanche 4 and Jedi Knight 2. The more expensive intel chip does do a bit better in Q3, not that that matters. So AMD performs better in the newer games with equal comparisons. Let's also factor in the $50 or more bucks you'd save from not needing to buy a soundblaster card, put that money toward a better video card, and the AMD solution would walk all over the intel solution in gaming. Better bang per buck, which is why I recommend the AMD/NF2 combo for gaming above any intel system.

Hmm... Nice thing about nForce2 and gaming is the mobo comes with a good surround sound built in (that is, if it's southbridge is MCP2-T), which has very low CPU utilization as does the nvidia based onboard NIC. That, and the XP 2800 and 3000 both do better in UT2003 benchmarks (botmatch and flyby) than the P4 2.4 or 2.66. Seeing as the 2800+ costs the same as the 2.4 and less than the 2.66 and performs better than both, and as you could save money utilizing the nF2 soundstorm APU instead of buying a seperate APU card for an intel shipset mobo, this means the money you saved could be put toward a better video card. Which means substantially more performance for the same ammount of bucks. IMO, with gaming AMD and NF2 are the way to go.

Have you tried the beta USB driver (VIA® USB filter driver (BETA VERSION, for test only). This driver improves compatibility some USB devices. 2001-8-23 ) found here?

Do you have any other USB devices? Do they work when the mouse does not? Do you have the latest USB drivers? Does another USB mouse work on USB when your mouse stops working?

Ya, I think there's a sticker on the underside of the case or something with a service tag that you enter into dell support online and can get your system specs (not terribly detailed, but should be detailed enough)

For what purpose? Digital video? Graphic design? Web Browsing? Gaming? Do you prioritize maximum bang per buck, or maximum performance?

Quake3's bots aren't nearly as inteligent as UT's counterparts. UT's bot skills change several factors of the bots characteristics, whereas Q3's is basically just aim accuracy. That and Q3's bots aren't too bright when it comes to CTF or other activities that involve more than seek and destroy. Bots feel like bots in Q3. However, in UT they feel like players, I've often mistaken them for friends only to find out after smack talk that it was a bot I just offed. for me, but for UT. Also, the unreal engine has excellent net code. I at first was disappointed with UT2003, but grew to like and realize why the changes were made. Also, for those who like the original UT, IIRC there is a mutator with one of the bonus packs to revert settings to classic UT. Basically I feel UT's a much better game than Q3. Whatever trump cards Q3 had over UT were lost with UT2003.

(quick copy paste from another thread ) I just bought and can recommend the Belkin Nostromo n45 Dual Analog USB GamePad. It can be purchased (at the time of this post) in the US for under $16 shipped free from buy.com. Each and every one of the 13 buttons (and even 8 way digipad) can (with the latest v2.6 drivers which are digitally signed by Microsoft) be bound to almost any (if not every) in game function. My only complaint with it so far is that the analog pads are a bit close together, such that if you have the left one full right, and the right one full left, your thumbs might bump together, though the pads don't. And, in case you were wondering, you can custom bind which axis goes to which analog pad. This means, you can bind the x axis to the left pad, and the y axis to the right pad. Which means you can drive the car like a remote controll RC car, one only steers left and right, the other only accelerates/brakes. I set it this way and also have two buttons set for accelerateing/braking. Works great.

Good choice on the case. (SLK3700AMB perhaps?) If so, I don't know why they call it bronze, when it looks more grey, with just a hint of bronze. Anyway, nice case with a big fan in back for good and quiet cooling, and a nice car quality metallic paint job. I'd either try to drop any redundant or unnecessary drives or get a better PS as someone else was saying. Don't want to underpower your system. Keep in mind the beefy GFX cards use up enough power that they need it straight from the PS. Maybe a True Power 380 or better. Know anyone you could sell the 350 to? And, as someone else said, don't bother getting an expensive GPU (or system for that mater) to play D3 until it comes out. If D3 gets bumped back and graphics cards make their projected releases, you might deprive youself of a much better GPU or GPU price than if you buy now. Nice choice going with the nforce2 chipset. I've built several systems with it, and while none were Abit, I've read good things about the board you mention (especially if it's revision 2.0)

http://www.techspot.com/guides.shtml

Oof. Window crashed and I lost the clipboard (of this original post, only more detailed) ;( OK, this'll be a much shorter version. EA didn't seem to include an easy way to do this, so I figured out my own way. This appears to fake DDS files. That is, it seems DDS isn't completely tied to a .TGA format (which is why I didn't edit from the original mugshot image, couldn't get it to open in PS even after renaming it to .TGA). NOTE: Do this at your own risk. Might cause problems. Haven't tried this for online games, as I don't intend to play online. I suggest following these steps exactly, and deviate from them only after an acceptable image is created that the game displays correctly. Several very noticable glitches were present in slight changes from the below discription. What you need: A good image editing program, that can do layers and .TGA file formats (I used Photoshop 5.0 LE); an image(s) of the face(es) you want to import, converted to .TGA format; TW:PGAT2003. In the ...EA SPORTS\Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2003\Courses\Prince, open PRILOGO.TGA Make a copy of this file. Do the following to the copy of the file (not the original) Crop this image to a square image (hold down shift or ctrl) including the top left pixel, and with the bottom just under the dark grey pixes of the lower circle. (the circle will not be perfectly centered, but looks fine in gameplay anyway, so don't sweat this detail) Resize this image to 120x120. Copy the only layer. Use the eyedropper tool to get the color of the brightest white between the tree and the text. Make a layer under the copied layer that is filled with this white color. Switch back to the circle layer. Paint this color over only the tree and text, and not over the metallic looking circle or it's nearby shadows. Use the magic wand tool (tolerance 20 or so) to cut out the center of the circle. It should look no different, of course, unless you hide the two bottom layers. Hide these layers if necessary to verify that there is a hole in the top layer. The following things go in the ...EA SPORTS\Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2003\Data\Players directory. Save this file as TEMPLATE.PSD (or whatever the extension is of a work in progress for your image editor). Save the file again as TEMPLATE1 (with extension) Use the template files for additional mugshots being carefull not to save over the template. Open the converted-to-TGA-format image of the face. Crop a square with the top edge being at the top edge of the head/hat, and the bottom being just below the adam's apple. (lower is OK, but makes the mugshot have less detail.) This should be centered horizontally about the face. Resize the cropped image to 80x80. Drag this image onto the TEMPLATE1 file. Change it from the top layer to the layer just under the circle layer. Erase the background (of the face layer as need be so that only the face and shoulders show in the circle. Save this file as the players name and as a work in progress file (.PSD for PS). Then "Save a Copy" as a .TGA file, flattened, 32 bit with alpha channels included. Rename this file from [player name] to [player_name]_pic.dds . Do not use spaces. Example: bob_smith_pic.dds . Do not leave the TGA extension at the end. Be sure to have this file in the ...EA SPORTS\Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2003\Data\Players directory. This image should now (hopefully) be available in the customize golfer submenu.

500 views and no responses? ;( BTW for those who don't have a good gamepad to play C2 with, I just bought and can recommend the Belkin Nostromo n45 Dual Analog USB GamePad. It can be purchased (at the time of this post) in the US for under $16 shipped free from buy.com. Each and every one of the 13 buttons (and even 8 way digipad) can (with the latest v2.6 drivers which are digitally signed by Microsoft) be bound to almost any (if not every) in game function. My only complaint with it so far is that the analog pads are a bit close together, such that if you have the left one full right, and the right one full left, your thumbs might bump together, though the pads don't. And, in case you were wondering, you can custom bind which axis goes to which analog pad. This means, you can bind the x axis to the left pad, and the y axis to the right pad. Which means you can drive the car like a remote controll RC car, one only steers left and right, the other only accelerates/brakes. I set it this way and also have two buttons set for accelerateing/braking. Works great. And about the OpenGLide... I have noticed one quirk. I was playing a map (Beaver City I think) and some of the polygons would get a tad dark, like there was a shadow when there wasn't. Similar to the effect of a UT map with BSP problems, though not the hall of mirrors effect. It was playable, however, and after exiting and re-entering the game, the problem seemed to go away. Still, a big to those who made OpenGLide. And a notice to those who want to use it: you need a card that can handle OpenGL.

Try the tool one, then try clicking fix. This should bring up a window where you just give it the info and click next.

CMR3 demo is out.

For those who don't have a copy of the game you might find them here or in the software bargain bin section of a local store. I picked up a couple copies at Fred Meyer for less than $10 each. I suggest the 2 game pack. Might as well get two games (C2 and Crime Killers) for the same price as C2 alone.

Calling up microsoft should sort that out. That is, if you have a legitimate copy of windows. If you don't I suggest you buy one.

Oh, and the patch (this one I think is for the US version only) can be found on this page. The patches for other versions can be found here.

Believe it or not, you can get C2 to run with hardware 3D (640x480) and with a joystick/gamepad. Once the game will run with hardware 3D, (with the shortcut changed to the CARMA2_HW.EXE file, and with compatibility set to Win95 and 640x480 resolution for good measure, Win2K users just need to switch to 640x480 res before playing) you only need one more peice of the puzzle that DosFreak was kind enough to suggest: OpenGLide. This basically translates (if I understand it correctly) the Glide functions from the application into OpenGL functions to the GPU. To use OpenGLide, all that's needed is to put the Glide2x.dll file that comes in the download into the C2 directory. Running the CARMA2_HW file alone apparently defaults to Glide rendering. Now there's some weirndess in the menu, but the game looks great. You can even make it look better than it ever looked by cranking up the anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing settings under OpenGL! (might as well, since you can't increase the resolution). So why fake Glide? Well it appears that the bug that crashes the game when a joystick is attached is related to D3D rendering somehow, because using OpenGLide somehow gets by this bug. I tried version 0.08 Final OpenGlide and it worked great. After trying one of the many 0.09 versions, I backed down to 0.08 again. Let me know if you try a version later than 0.08 Final and have good results. As far as the graphical anomalies in the menu, I don't know if they're hard on the graphics card (though my guess is they're not), so use at your own risk. Pretty cool, eh? Oh, I suppose you've been waiting for an OpenGLide download page link, so there you go.