ATI Radeon X850 Pro - Game Won't Play

[RangerX3X]

I've had RVS since the demo in late 2002. I played it all the way through Iron Wrath using Nvidia cards without many graphic issues.

I recently installed an ATI Radeon X850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 graphics card using the Catalyst 5.13 drivers.

Now Raven Shield won't play (or I should say will not start correctly). I have uninstalled the game and reinstalled in twice (with and without patching) and it does the same thing:

The game starts with the UBI video and the 1945 video. Then the screen goes black while I hear the music continue. The screen flashes to the desktop and/or flickers several times before appearing at the main menu screen with the top and bottom portions of the screen cut off. When I end the game, all of my desktop icons are rearranged randomly.

For a game that advertised "Optimized for Radeon!" this is a bit disgusting. I have no intention of installing Omega drivers so please don't go there if that is the only advice you have.

Anyone know what the issue here is? All - and I mean all, even the other UBI titles I have - play fine and have no issue since upgrading to the X850 Pro.

Short of a solution, the game will remain uninstalled on my PC (which exceeds all requirements for game play).

Any useful help will be appreciated.

[RangerX3X]

I've had RVS since the demo in late 2002. I played it all the way through Iron Wrath using Nvidia cards without many graphic issues.

I recently installed an ATI Radeon X850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 graphics card using the Catalyst 5.13 drivers.

Now Raven Shield won't play (or I should say will not start correctly). I have uninstalled the game and reinstalled in twice (with and without patching) and it does the same thing:

The game starts with the UBI video and the 1945 video. Then the screen goes black while I hear the music continue. The screen flashes to the desktop and/or flickers several times before appearing at the main menu screen with the top and bottom portions of the screen cut off. When I end the game, all of my desktop icons are rearranged randomly.

For a game that advertised "Optimized for Radeon!" this is a bit disgusting. I have no intention of installing Omega drivers so please don't go there if that is the only advice you have.

Anyone know what the issue here is? All - and I mean all, even the other UBI titles I have - play fine and have no issue since upgrading to the X850 Pro.

Short of a solution, the game will remain uninstalled on my PC (which exceeds all requirements for game play).

Any useful help will be appreciated.

[orbit22679]

Well you have to realize that the x850 is such a new card that it's possible RvS won't run correctly on it. I'm sure the chipset is quite different from the ATI 9000 series of cards, which is what the game supports. Although I have read other posts on these forums about people getting the game to run on the x800. I don't recall reading any about the x850.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I have no intention of installing Omega drivers so please don't go there if that is the only advice you have. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Then try the DH ZeroPoint Drivers: http://driverheaven.net. They're better than the Omega drivers anyway.

[RangerX3X]

Thanks for the response. I have no intention on using anything other than the official ATI drivers for the card.

Other UBI games I have that have no issue:
Silent Hunter III
Pacific Fighters
Lock On Modern Air Combat
Splinter Cell
SC: Pandora Tomorrow
Far Cry

As it is only this game and no others that has an issue, as far as I am concerned it is the game that is the issue, and is as good as dead in my book.

[coolcody77]

I don't use anything but the default drivers for my radeon cards as well. The Omega drivers are a joke, but i don't know about the "ZeroPoint" drivers.

I have an ATi Radeon X800XL 256MB DDR3, and it works fine. But, since you have the X850 i'm not sure. Raven Shield uses the Unreal Engine like UT2K4, or America's Army, etc so i don't see why it would be a compatibilty issue with your video card because the engine used is such a popular engine. Have you tried any other older games such as this one? Have you tried newer drivers?

It sounds like the game tries to switch resolutions when starting up (The videos and menus run in 640x480 resolution [eww]). You could try editing the line in RavenShield.ini that says "UseVSync=True" to "False". Maybe if the X850 has trouble with RVS in 640x480 res when starting up, edit the line that says "StartupFullscreen=True" to "False" (Also in RavenShield.ini). Then, when the game switches to full resolution after joining a game, you can hit "Alt+Enter" and go fullscreen.

I wish you luck to get this solved, -Cody.

[coolcody77]

Oh, and, the desktop icons are rearranged because sometimes when going to the menu, RvS accidentally switches your desktop resolution, forcing your icons to be rearranged.