3d acceleration eh?

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meep
im running an:
amd athlon 64 3200+
1 gig of pc3200 ddr400 ram
ati radeon 9800 pro 128 video card
asus k8v deluxe mobo.....

and yet.....3d acceleration is a no-go in bg2
.....WHY?
any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

While I don't have an answer, I hope someone else does, because your system is very similar to the one I ordered recently

 

3D accelleration adds very little to this game. I had it on, now I have it off, and it's still a great game. There is a thread somewhere... I think the Bioware forums, or under Bioware's Known Issues page... that talks about this issue more in depth. But basically it went on to explain what 3D Acc. does in this game, and it's not very much, just a few spell-effects are changed.

 

What do you mean, "no-go"?

The changes are so small and minor and you might very well not have noticed they were there at all.

The only changes I ever noticed are some spell effects (definitely Fireball, though I personally like the 2D look more) and shadows. I now always play the game with 3D acceleration off, and never feel I'm missing a thing.

 

I have an alienware laptop built for gaming. I can play graphically intense games like farcry and Flight Simulator 2004 with all the graphic options maxed out and still get 30fps. Pop in BGII and i get some stutter when 3D acceleration is on. Turn it off and just enjoy the game. I've never noticed any difference that would make me enjoy the game any less.

 

while all this may be true, i do not see why my box is unable to handle the mighty processing requirements of bg2. It doesn't really matter how much it adds, it adds something, and my computer is deffinatly able to handle it. i will check the bioware forums for the thread mentioned. thanks all

 

It runs fine for me on a much lower spec machine, even in 1024x768 mode. P4 2800, 512Mb, ATI Radeon 9200.

The only reason I can think of, is graphics drivers. They are notorious for given performance problems. Check they are the latest drivers and if possible that they are registered (or whatever they call it).

The only other possibility, is that BGII can't deal with the Athlon64 technology very well. It uses a new hyper-thread type technology and perhaps it is just too much for poor old BGII to handle.

Other than this, just turn-off 3D. Your system will be easily able to handle the speed of the game.

 

Well, I'll tell you why. The game was designed in the late 1990's. Windows XP did not exist then. Your graphics card did not exist then.

No one here is saying your system is not powerful enough to handle it. We're saying 3D Acceleration feature of BG2 is not powerful enough to run on your machine. And we're also saying (several people have said this now): Don't worry about it, you're not missing anything.

BG2 was never designed as a 3D Accellerated game. It was an experimental thing that effectively did nothing except enhance a few spell effects in a minor way.

Bioware said:

http://www.bioware.com/games/shadows_amn/support/known_issues/#3d

3D in BG2 series games explained

By turning on 3D mode in the game you essentially turn on 3 effects. All water is then rendered with a blending rather than a dithering effect, as is the fog of war. All effects in the game that can be brightened or blended will render faster. Fading from one color to another will happen faster. There are no other changes to the way the rendering system works.

The differential in speed that you may notice is dependant on the video card you use and what features it supports. Not all 3D accelerators will notice an improvement and there are some video cards that will even render it slower or not at all. Unlike games that have massive amounts of polygons and require 3D accelerators to draw them really quickly, this is a sprite based game. All graphics are drawn out on to flat surfaces, not in a 3 dimensional environment, so the acceleration noticed by other games may not be noticed in the game.

[ August 30, 2004, 22:13: Message edited by: Col. Bruce Hampton, Retired ]