Forceware: any way to handle old advanced options?

[Cerb]

Way back when (before the new control panel), you could enable fog table emulation, and change handy settings for things like z-buffers for old games.

Rivatuner, of course, is a no-go. Even after signing RivaTuner64.sys, and forcing the version, the best I get is that it detects Forceware and lists file versions. No options are available.

Is there any way to do that now, in Windows 7 64-bit, with a current Forceware?

 

[nitromullet]

Have you tried nvidia inspector?

 

[ViRGE]

I'm fairly sure those features are no longer present in NVIDIA's drivers.

 

[Cerb]

Have you tried nvidia inspector?

Yes, I use it regularly. It has only the basic options, that NV sees fit to remove easy access to for no obvious reason. I'm looking to deal with glitches in games that I've had for awhile, or older ones from GoG. Their cite of compatibility means it works, not that it necessarily will play smoothly, nor necessarily look as good as it did when new. Flickering, stuttering, flashing solid-color shapes, jerkiness of near-still objects, etc., are not exactly conducive to an immersive experience, and usually fog, depth, and odd texture compatibility options eventually get it done. What I really hate is getting most of the way through a game, before levels start becoming complex enough for graphical glitches to show up (Rayman 2 and Beyond Good and Evil, FI).

I'm fairly sure those features are no longer present in NVIDIA's drivers.

That possibility was in the back of my mind, but I hadn't been able to confirm it one way or the other. I guess my next step will be to see if early Fermi supporting drivers exhibit the same lack of options in RivaTuner. If not, it may be worth it to swap drivers around, if I can backup and restore settings easily. If they're still gone, I might dig out a USB hub and KVM, for a native XP box.

 

[Anarchist420]

Yes, I use it regularly. It has only the basic options, that NV sees fit to remove easy access to for no obvious reason. I'm looking to deal with glitches in games that I've had for awhile, or older ones from GoG. Their cite of compatibility means it works, not that it necessarily will play smoothly, nor necessarily look as good as it did when new. Flickering, stuttering, flashing solid-color shapes, jerkiness of near-still objects, etc., are not exactly conducive to an immersive experience, and usually fog, depth, and odd texture compatibility options eventually get it done. What I really hate is getting most of the way through a game, before levels start becoming complex enough for graphical glitches to show up (Rayman 2 and Beyond Good and Evil, FI).

That possibility was in the back of my mind, but I hadn't been able to confirm it one way or the other. I guess my next step will be to see if early Fermi supporting drivers exhibit the same lack of options in RivaTuner. If not, it may be worth it to swap drivers around, if I can backup and restore settings easily. If they're still gone, I might dig out a USB hub and KVM, for a native XP box.

Use nglide for Rayman2 (works fine; I use version 98, I force 4x RG-MSAA, and forcing 16x AF, which I do also, eliminates the texture aliasing).

As for BG&E I've been having a problem also. Anyway, I think the issue with Beyond Good and Evil on newer GPUs is that it used the Wbuffer. Until nvidia emulates the w-buffer or until they allow forcing a z-buffer format that's really close to the w-buffer, there will always be a problem.

I do think that nvidia has every fog type emulated, but I guess the driver could be forcing the wrong fog type on certain apps.

 

[Cerb]

As for BG&E I've been having a problem also. Anyway, I think the issue with Beyond Good and Evil on newer GPUs is that it used the Wbuffer.

I did notice that changing that from the auto-detected compatibility settings caused it to not start. Also, I found only SSAA and integrated AA combined do a good job on all jaggies (fuzzy, but oh well), without causing additional glitches; and on my PC, turning off HW vertex processing fixed some stuttering. Texture flickering, stuttering around smoke, and all kinds of weirdness in fog, I could not get rid of.

BG&E was definitely playable, and no problems exhibited themselves in action-heavy scenes (did get a, "no memory," crash after the final boss, and had to redo that fight to see the ending), but it came to mind since I recently decided to just put up with the weird boat camera and touchy boat controls, and get through it (it was worth it, but I don't want to think how much time the looter's caverns took, with the camera circling all about at the slightest bump, or in a tight corner).

I do think that nvidia has every fog type emulated, but I guess the driver could be forcing the wrong fog type on certain apps.

I don't necessarily know, without being able to change it, whether problems with fog are the fog or not. It's not like graphics go all weird and I can always pinpoint the problem, so much as I could usually spend 5-10 minutes checking and unchecking boxes until it got better, and 99% of the time, it would be either a fog or depth setting that did the job .

I haven't used a Glide wrapper in ages. Will check out nGlide!
Update: nGlide worked like a charm for Rayman 2, after turning off the splash (the configurator worked w/ the splash on, but the game crashed on start). GoG's version has the Glide DLL in subfolder of where it needs to go, and the INI needed manual editing for the resolution.

 

[Anarchist420]

I did notice that changing that from the auto-detected compatibility settings caused it to not start. Also, I found only SSAA and integrated AA combined do a good job on all jaggies (fuzzy, but oh well), without causing additional glitches; and on my PC, turning off HW vertex processing fixed some stuttering. Texture flickering, stuttering around smoke, and all kinds of weirdness in fog, I could not get rid of.

BG&E was definitely playable, and no problems exhibited themselves in action-heavy scenes (did get a, "no memory," crash after the final boss, and had to redo that fight to see the ending), but it came to mind since I recently decided to just put up with the weird boat camera and touchy boat controls, and get through it (it was worth it, but I don't want to think how much time the looter's caverns took, with the camera circling all about at the slightest bump, or in a tight corner).

I don't necessarily know, without being able to change it, whether problems with fog are the fog or not. It's not like graphics go all weird and I can always pinpoint the problem, so much as I could usually spend 5-10 minutes checking and unchecking boxes until it got better, and 99% of the time, it would be either a fog or depth setting that did the job .

I haven't used a Glide wrapper in ages. Will check out nGlide!
Update: nGlide worked like a charm for Rayman 2, after turning off the splash (the configurator worked w/ the splash on, but the game crashed on start). GoG's version has the Glide DLL in subfolder of where it needs to go, and the INI needed manual editing for the resolution.

As someone who loves to play old games, I feel your pain. I'm glad to hear that nglide worked for you with Rayman 2 I knew it would.

Perhaps if we could get some kind of mass petition to nvidia they would do their job. It shouldn't be the liability of the game developers to make sure that their games work on future gens of hardware (although I definitely always appreciate it when they do beyond what's expected of them)