AvP2 flickers like mad

[Tom-boy 0]

I just strated to play AvP2 for the first time and the graphics are absolutely horrible. From the briefing cut-scenes onwards the display is filled with various kinds of 'geometrical' (for lack of better word) patterns, mostly seem to be triangulars,flashing, changing and giving me a headache. They render the image beyond hopeless. Changing of the display configurations has no affect whatsoever, nor anything else I do, for that matter. Sound's Ok and the game launches quickly. No other game has anything like this. What should I do or is there anything to be done? Some say it's because the game doesn't like GeForce cards?! Oh, yeah: it has been patched up with latest patches.

AMD 1200 MX

GeForce4 Ti 4200 64MB+ Detonator 40.72

Sound Blaster Live

DirctX 8.1b (DiagX says everything os OK)

256 MB RAM

over 30 gigs freespace on disk

Win2kPro+SP3

Norton Utilities says everything is OK

[adamvjackson 0]

AvP2 ran just fine a while back on my Geforce card, so I highly doubt that's the problem. What driver version are you running for your video card?

[tuneS 0]

Try the latest WHQL drivers version 30.82. The newer Detonator 40 drivers are still in beta stage, thus some bugs are to be expected.

[Tom-boy 0]

I had Detonator 40.72 at first but I took them out and put in 30.82 instead. No luck. Still the same chaotic flickering. It's odd, since 40.72 worked fine with Il-2 Sturmovik and JK2, Hidden and Dangerous and AvP GE which all require quite hefty resources and lotsa graphics computing power. I experienced some crashes and lock-ups but due to their nature I would blame Sound Blaster rather than GeForce, or then it was just the H&D, which is known for them. I dunno, maybe it's some little thing I've forgotten when installing/unistalling the drivers, since everything otherwise runs just fine, but the fact still is that no matter what configurations I apply for AvP2, nothing works.

[adamvjackson 0]

Well, if you really think it may be sound card related, disable it in device manager before you run the game, and see if you notice any difference.

[Tom-boy 0]

No dice. Same thing. A terrible thought just occured to me: I bought this comp about a month ago from a store where they put your machine together from parts you choose. Quite nice and good way to get a computer for yourself, btw. They really tried to push me Xp but I insisted that I'll stick with Win2K, instead. Later I called them for changes in the parts I chose and another guy was surprised that I didn't want the OS, as well. So what if they put the Xp in anyway, then took it off but left the partitioning there? Then it should be for NTFS but my 2k is (accidentally) FAT32. It they partitioned at all. I had some serious lag at one point, when it took almost fifteen minutes before everything on desktop was ready. It would explain some issues but not the fact that Norton Utilites says everything is OK and nowadays the comp runs beautifully. What's your take on this thought and can it be fixed afterwards (if this is the case)?

[pmistry 0]

Have you tried enabling the V-Sync?

Try Bilinear filtering, disable aniosoptropic, and FSAA for the time being. Try to run in some conservative modes like 640x480 and disable all special effects in to possibly pin point the problem. For example, disable props, detail textures, run in 16-bit color, etc, and then add them in as you go.

[Tom-boy 0]

OK, I tried that too with no improvement. I give up. I have more important things to do than fighting with all the sofware needed to make a stupid game run. These should come ready straight out of the box without having the gamer first to get a degree in computer studies. This is happening all too often, anyway.They make these big fancy games with a lot of stuff in them and then leave it for the consumer to guess/assess whether the darn things'll actually work or not. They simply should stick to the principals and not try to invent something 'great' and 'new' all the time. Grumple grumple boohoohoo and what not.

Anyway, thanks for input,guys. It's appreciated,rest assured.

[pmistry 0]

Yeah I know what you mean, sometimes software companies suck or rush too much and overlook something that causes someone utter frustration. I remember a game called Sin, which when first released at v1.00 was complete shit, I made it so far in that game only to learn that the game wasn't beatable, due to many bugs. I then grabbed the 1.01 patch and learned that hey your save games are incompatible with the new version. Great.......

[Tom-boy 0]

Heh and ouch. That is something else, allright. I dunno, it does sound kinda ninny to complain about things like these, but the again, we invest money on them. Time. Nerves. Too many cigarettes (to calm down) and it is happening too often. Few cases in point:

1) well, the AvP2 obviously

2) cannot install Thief2

3) Hidden and Dangerous crashed alot

4) episode 1 Racer throttle jams (ingame,not the stick)

1-3 great games which I really want to play, but no. And we cannot actually go to the store to ask our money back- it's not their fault. When you think about some total newbie, a kid perhaps, who doesn't know anything advanced about hardware/software- it's people like these who the designers should think about when trying to create something new. Too many disappointements simply because of introvert software designers. And I just hate to think what'll happen when Microsoft comes up with a new OS. It's goodbuy for many golden oldies.

[pmistry 0]

Yeah new MS OS Releases piss me off sometimes, like Windows 2000 when released broke compatibility with lots of games. DOS games are pretty much gone now. Windows XP can run most Win9x games but there are still some that just don't run the same for me, in fact almost any game based on the Quake2 engine gives me save game errors. Occurs under Quake2, Sin, and Kingpin.

 

I wonder how these games will run on a 64-bit "consumer" version of Windows.