Can anyone explain this:

DX9 in Windows 7 on my rig:



DX10 in Windows 7 on my rig:



DX9 in Windows XP x64 on my brothers rig:



Why does my Brother get that HDR effect in the window in DX9 XP, when I can only get it in DX10 Win7?

Links to another comparison: (notice the candles)

DX9 in Windows 7 on my rig:

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/4993/acdx92.jpg

DX10 in Windows 7 on my rig:

http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/2636/acdx102.jpg

DX9 in Windows XP x64 on my brothers rig:

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/5980/acdx9b1.jpg

Settings for each test were identical except for the following:

My rig: 1920x1080, 4xAA.

My brothers rig: 1600x1200, 0xAA.

Can someone running AC on WinXP post a shot for comparison?

are you forcing AA on your ssystem through the graphics card controle panle? (game hates this) is one version running a ATI graphics card and the othe a nvidia card? finaly do you realise Windows 7 is incompleate and has no fully finished drivers so will have problems.

quote:

Originally posted by caswallawn_2k7:
Are you forcing AA on your system through the graphics card control panel? (game hates this.

No, I am NOT forcing AA via the NVIDIA CP; I'm using the game's own AA option (activated via .ini because the in-game menu option is greyed out due to my high res). Furthermore, I have tried disabling AA altogether, but it made no difference.

quote:

Originally posted by caswallawn_2k7:Is one version running a ATI graphics card and the othe a nvidia card?

No, we are both using NVIDIA cards. Here are the basic specs for each system:

My System:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8600
Graphics: XFX GTX 285
Memory: 4GB Corsair Dominator XMS2 1066
Motherboard: Asus P5Q Premium

My Brother's System:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Graphics: XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog Edition
Memory: 2GB Corsair Dominator XMS2 800
Motherboard: Asus P5Q Pro

quote:

Originally posted by caswallawn_2k7:Finaly do you realise Windows 7 is incompleate and has no fully finished drivers so will have problems.

Well, as far as graphic drivers are concerned, Windows 7 and Vista are all but identical. Windows 7 is already a very mature O/S.

Anyway, none of that is relevant because before I switched to Windows 7, I had AC running under XP x64 (the exact same O/S that my brother is using) and that lighting effect was still absent on my system while being present on his.

it could also be the graphics card the GTX cards (more so the new ones) as still being added to the support for the nvidia drivers and still getting bug fixes. generaly it can take upto a year for Nvidia to get a graphics card fully supported.

as for stating that vista and win 7 being identical, they are not. Microsoft made multiple changes to the kernel cuting chunks out of it to remove embedded software from Vista and if you know anything about code when you cut chunks out or add chunks it can massivle effect other code.

this biggest thing that shows this differance is that between the last update for Win 7 beta and Win 7 RC they had to patch out sevral thousand bug's that never existed in Vista. if you want to make a comparison Vista and Win 7 is like Win 2k and Win XP, while you could get the drivers from win 2k to work under XP they nearly always had problems due to the changes to the kernel.

Resolution: Use the 182.08 Vista drivers.

I had tried the older Windows 7 'approved' drivers (the ones that are under the Windows 7 section of NVIDIA's download page), but it didn't occur to me to roll all the way back to the Vista equivalent of the 182.08 drivers my brother is using.

So I install the 182.08's and sure enough, the lighting is now identical to how it is on my brother's rig.

So it was NVIDIA's fault (no surprises there). How they manage to consistently screw up at least one aspect in every driver release? How long before thwey fix this issue in a new release? I want my ambient occlusion back.

That's interesting. Maybe that's why DX10 looks way prettier to me than DX9

Did you try it with the 190.38 Vista driver?

quote:

Did you try it with the 190.38 Vista driver?

No, but note that before switching to Windows 7, I was using XP and a driver version somewhere between 182.08 and 190.38 (I forget the exact version), and the lighting effect was still missing. So the bug has been in the forceware drivers for a while now, and since it affects both windows 7 and XP drivers, I'd expect it to be in the Vista versions as well.

I'm not sure that I can be bothered going back through the drivers one by one, to find out exactly which version the bug started in, but I'll notify NVIDIA of the issue...

I'll stay on the 182.08's for now - I'm just glad to be able to use DX9 mode again without those effects missing. DX10 mode absolutely destroys performance, and I honestly don't notice any differences in visual quality now that the lighting bug is gone. If I wanted to kill my performance, I'd do so in return for an effect I can actually see like Ambient Occlusion.

In DX9 mode, I get higher framerates with 4xAA than I did in DX10 mode with no AA at all. This game really needs AA, and I'll take 4xAA over the invisible DX10 'improvements' any day!

DX10 is a sham.

Can confirm that the issue is present in the 185.85 WHQL Forceware.

I thank you Skakruk for this valuable information!

I think I will try the 182.08 driver too