Quake 3 Arena 1.25 - Sky finally fixed for GeForce users....but benchmark broken???

[pg22]

First thing I noticed when I booted it up was the ugliest sky in the world (besides LA )problem is gone!!

But when I enter "timedemo 1" then go to the demo menu option and try to select either, it drops me back into the root menu!

Anyone else have this problem?

 

[pg22]

hmmm.....found this:

http://www.quake3world.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/016324.html

 

[pg22]

So I guess Star Trek Elite Force is our new benchmark program?

 

[Davros]

Of course, the timedemo needs to work on Elite Force first. There doesn't seem to be a default demo file in the game even though Raven says there is a demo001 file.

 

[Layzie310]

I guess the new patch fixes somethings (I never really noticed the sky) but I've been having some little problems that bothered me. First there's the benchmark thing. Then I started having problems with the model picture at the bottom of the screen. The thing was Sarge even though I was Cadaver. Changing models a couple of times fixed it though. Also, the play was a little jerky at first but eventually that went away. Plus, I'm starting to get artifacts now when I never used to. But I do like the little number that comes up after every frag. I be seeing those things a lot!

 

[oldfart]

The bug in the Q3 sky is not fixed. Its not a Q3 bug. The change is texture compression is off by default in 1.25. It was enabled by default in previous releases. Of course, if you have a non Geforce card, you didn't have the problem anyway.

 

[dawks]

As far as I know, the sky problems lies in the Det drivers, or the fact that the compression is done in software. Its not on Quakes end. so oldfart is most likely right.

 

[Warrenton]

Yes, its because Nvidia is fast but made of a bunch of software hacks.

 

[DirkBelig]

Ah, I was wonder when the Nvidia playa-haters were gonna try to spread the lie about the drivers and the Q3 sky.

The bad sky is due to the ART TEXTURES used for the sky. It's not properly coded for TC.

 

[Argo]

Btw, a question, how do you enable texture compression in Q3? Sorry, I forgot the command

 

[Leon]

Sky is not fixed. This release have TC disabled by default. Sky still look like sh*t.





<< The bad sky is due to the ART TEXTURES used for the sky. It's not properly coded for TC. >>



Maybe so, but it can be done right.

http://www.gamebasement.com/pages/article_single.asp?id=31&amp;page=1

 

[DirkBelig]

I just went and played it on my 32MB GF2 and the skies ARE fixed AND the levels Q3DM9 and Q3tourney4 which used to chug in a couple of places with the texture slider full on, play like buttah.

So there!

The ARE some bugs in this patch. Lots of game starting crap.

 

[2dfx]

Yep, S3TC is disabled by default with the new point release, so when I went in i thought they had fixed the sky too. But its just as f*cked as before.

They also changed the commands for enabling/disabling S3TC. The old one was /r_ext_compress_textures X, where 1 = enable and 0 = disabled. The new one is /r_ext_compressed_textures X. Enable it and weep.

I emailed Nvidia a few days ago about S3TC.

Here's the reply:
>>
Thank you for your comment. We are currently working on improving S3TC
within games and working with software designers to make sure our cards
will run great on them before they are released to consumers. NVIDIA
has
hired many new employees to ensure we have the resources to all the
necessary testing that is needed and hope this will help us in the long
run
to provide better products and service to our customers.

Regards,
Webmaster


hmmmm

 

[AMB]

I am at 84%, but I am downloading at 1.9k/s at the moment, I will post what happened later

 

[Chuck]

They say it breaks all mods... i'm going to wait for a bit till I upgrade.

 

[Doomguy]

Why dont you people understand its not NVidia's fault???? Its not a software hack dumbass. Its follows the exact S3TC standard. All S3 cards have the same problem. ATI and 3dfx's method is superior for certain textures(The sky) but the rest of the textures look fine. All if the game uses PreCompressed textures like it should there wont be a problem. As I said before NVidia's method is not a software hack.

 

[dawks]

bah

 

[LiekOMG]

I played Q3A on my voodoo5 for a long time, and it always worked flawlessly. But ever since this patch, all the shaders, and some textures flicker and flash as i move around the level! This includes fog too. Its VERY VERY annoying and looks horrible! I can fix the problem by turning &quot;GL extensions&quot; to OFF, but then i lose like 50fps! Umm... i think i will go back to 1.17

 

[Soccerman]

&quot;Its follows the exact S3TC standard.&quot;

if that were true, then why does the RADEON's sky look good? it uses S3TC right?

you can't compare the 3dfx card's comrpession of course, because they don't use S3TC. even though it works flawlessly

 

[BFG10K]

if that were true, then why does the RADEON's sky look good? it uses S3TC right?

No, only nVidia supports S3TC (from the three listed cards). The V5 and Radeon don't have problems because they use their own texture compression algorithms and implement them via OpenGL extensions. Quake 3 doesn't specify how to compress the texures, only that they should be compressed.

If Quake 3 used precompressed textures according to the S3TC standard the image quality would be perfect on nVidia's boards, but wouldn't work on any of the other boards. Carmack went for the most compatible option given he can't use DXTC in OpenGL.

I guess nVidia could write their own texture compression algorithm like the other cards and use it in place of S3TC in games like Quake 3. This would likely make the drivers larger though. But who knows, maybe that's what they are working on right now.

It is a Quake 3 problem. It has nothing to do with nVidia.

 

[Soccerman]

really? I'll have to read Anands review of the Radeon again...

ahh you are correct.. from anand's Radeon article:

&quot;Fortunately for ATI, the Radeon has built-in OpenGL compression which is compatible with NVIDIA's S3TC compression method.&quot;

what about any S3 cards? do they work fine on this?

 

[pg22]

I just want my timedemo fixed!

 

[2dfx]

Radeon and V5 use FXT1 (made by 3dfx) for texture compression. If you've seen the screenshots you will see that it has a much lower trade off in image quality than S3TC. Its has free licencing, so maybe nVidia could use it instead......

 

[BFG10K]

what about any S3 cards? do they work fine on this?

I would guess S3 cards would have the same problem as nVidia's cards.

Its has free licencing, so maybe nVidia could use it instead

Yeah that sounds like a good solution. I doubt Carmack will change Quake 3 in any way so I guess nVidia will have to do the changes. Perhaps this is what they are working on now (hopefully).

BTW, does anyone know what S3TC looks like when the textures have been pre-compressed? I read somewhere that the compression algorithm itself isn't all that great to begin with. Is this true?

 

[pg22]

All I know is thart in Q3 and Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, it makes alot of the textures have this ugly rainbow color to them...bleh :\