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Author Topic: Battlescape blackmodels with ATI cards - New Observations  (Read 3124 times)

Offline Edi

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Battlescape blackmodels with ATI cards - New Observations
« on: May 13, 2010, 10:29:52 pm »
All of us ATI card users are probably well aware of tracker item 2997073, which deals with the issue of all battlescape models of soldiers, aliens, ufos and Phalanx aircraft showing solid black when GLSL shaders are enabled.

Except, I noticed that not quite everything in those models appears black.

In the Firebord model, there are textures/brushes/other components that look exactly like they're supposed to even when everything else around them is black. In some of the weapon models, there are things that look as they should too. See the attached screenshot. I've marked the things where you can see things looking correct amidst the solid black.

  • The lights on the wingtips of the Firebird
  • The wall panel inside the Firebird (the one on the opposite wall looks right too, it just isn't visible in this shot)
  • The safety/energy indicator/whatever on the electromagnetic rifle held by the soldier on the right.

I didn't check for other components, but there may be some. I have no idea why these components are not affected by the shader issue, but they might be worth looking into. If they are more recent reworks of the models and show correctly, then replicating the differences across the models in the game may help solve this problem.

These observations were made on a Windows XP Pro SP3 system with a Radeon HD4870 card with the latest ATI drivers (Catalyst Control Center 10-4, published on April 28th).

Offline DiDiT

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Re: Battlescape blackmodels with ATI cards - New Observations
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2010, 10:55:16 pm »
well, thats interesting...

aren't those textures the ones with glow-maps?



Offline MCR

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Re: Battlescape blackmodels with ATI cards - New Observations
« Reply #2 on: May 13, 2010, 11:23:29 pm »
yes, those are the glowmaps.

Offline Edi

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Re: Battlescape blackmodels with ATI cards - New Observations
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2010, 06:52:29 am »
Does this mean that if all textures were assigned a glowmap (even if it actually had zero glow), the problem would disappear?

Not saying that this is an ideal solution or even a workable solution, but I figured asking about it won't hurt. I know nothing about how to do any of that or where to even begin, so I'm reduced to just reporting what I see and then asking if it hs relevance.

Offline MCR

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Re: Battlescape blackmodels with ATI cards - New Observations
« Reply #4 on: May 14, 2010, 11:21:33 am »
No, because only the glowmaps get rendered, the 'normal' textures still get rendered black on those models...

The best thing here is to keep calm, stay cool & trust in arisian's skills...

The changes to the shader-system & the dynamic lightning are so big, so he simply needs time to get all of it working correctly...
If you cannot wait anymore I really would suggest checking a Nvidia gfx-card somewhere  ;)

Offline Edi

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Re: Battlescape blackmodels with ATI cards - New Observations
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2010, 10:24:02 pm »
Oh, I can live without the shaders, that's not a problem. The reason I'm asking questions is because I know nothing of that side of development. Absolutely zilch. And he who asks nothing shall never get any answers...