How the game looks on my HD 3870, compared to my X1900XT, using the same Catalyst version 7.12, and at the exact same settings in CCC and in game.

System specifications:
CPU: Intel C2D E6750
CPU cooler: ZALMAN CPNS9700LED
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus Formula (bios 907)
System RAM: 4 GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500
Videocard: Sapphire HD3870
Soundcard: Creative X-Fi Platinum
Harddiskdrives: WD 3200AAKS + WD 5000AAKS
PSU: Coolermaster Realpower M850
DVD-RW: Optiarc (NEC) DVD_RW AD-5170A
Monitor: Eizo T965 @ 1600x1200/85Hz
Coolermaster Stacker
Keyboard: Logitech Internet keyboard
Mouse: Logitech G9
OS: Windows XP Professional 32-bit
DirectX9.0c version: November 2007
Game: DVD version Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (patched 1.01 and 1.02)

The game runs very well on HD 3870 @ 1600x1200 maximum ingame settings. Measured in Fraps:
Min, Max, Avg
48, 116, 75.918


Problems that look very bad:
- the "grab" icon has a horizontal line
- the HDR effect on the lit windows is out of proportion, extreme, and can not be corrected by setting HDR to 'Bloom' or 'None'.

HD 3870:



















When setting High Dynamic Range to "Bloom" or "None" it still looks bad:





While it SHOULD look like on my X1900XT:

System specifications:
CPU: Intel C2D E6600
CPU cooler: ZALMAN CPNS95500
Motherboard: ASUS P5W DH (bios 1602)
System RAM: 2 GB Corsair PC2-8500
Videocard: Club 3D X1900XT/512MB
Soundcard: Creative Audigy 2 ZS
Harddiskdrives: WD 2500KS + WD 5000AAKS
PSU: Coolermaster Realpower 550W
DVD-RW: NEC DVD_RW ND-3550A
Monitor: Eizo T765 @ 1600x1200/85Hz
Coolermaster Stacker
Keyboard: Logitech Internet keyboard
Mouse: Logitech G9
OS: Windows XP Professional 32-bit
DirectX9.0c version: November 2007
Game: DVD version Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (patched 1.01 and 1.02)

















On both systems i use the same settings:

Settings in CCC @ default (3D settings = "Use application settings").

Settings in game:

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BlindNero,

I submitted to ATI Catalyst Crew Driver Feedback, referring to this thread.

quote:

Please see my problem description WITH CLEAR IMAGES at:
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8821027804/m/8131010026
(Btw) sadly, your feedback form does not recognize the existance of your Radeon HD 3870 and Catalyst 7.12, so in "Required field = current ATI product?" i was forced to select "Not Listed" and in "Required field = Driver Version?" i was forced to select Catalyst 7.11 while in fact i'm using 7.12

Almost finished the game first time on this card, and not any other problem encountered.
I must say, apart from these two 'anomalies', the performance and image quality on the Radeon HD 3870 is absolutely SUPERB!
It takes the crown from my good old X1900XT. X1900XT's (only i'd say) weakness was that it showed horizontally striped flickering in the reflection of fire on the rocks surface in certain situations. (i could show a picture later maybe). Whereas the 3870 slides through the game like a limousine.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BlindNero,

Sadly, second time replaying DM on HD 3870 card, i encountered a third problem
(that never happened on X1900XT).
I would call it

Exceptional FOG-effect

Maybe it is related to the issue mentioned in Cat 7.12 Release Notes:

quote:

Dark Messiah, Might and Magic, or Sin Episodes: Too much fog or incorrect fog no longer occurs during game play. This issue was known to occur on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 2x00 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31101

This happened only once (yet), on two places close to eachother, during one gaming-session. A minute before, this happened in the outside area running down the stairs.
This was in level Temple of Spider. After fixing the elevator in the upper area, returning down to this place, after having killed all Goblins that were guarding.

It was this area:



Between the log and the wall, then towards the opening



Standing between the hanging log and the wall:


... When you look up, it is gone:



down, it reappeared. It was a 'glimmering' fog (not static).




Looking down, it hangs on for a second,



... then disappears.


(Btw, also note again the horizontal line in the upper half of the grab-icon, the way it appears always throughout the game)

Notified Catalyst Feedback Crew of this as well.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BlindNero,

I believe i found a relation to the clue.


A glowing bottle of potion is standing there on the third statue, near the center of the screen. The goodies in this game do not always glow. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, this is a inconsistancy of the game and we are used to that.
But when a goodie glows, it normally should look like this (however, here on HD 3870 it's glowing much too brightly):





Going outside, to the right, downstairs (where the fog happened as well):



there is also a bottle of health



glowing:



I am certain that it must have been a corruption of the glowing light of the bottle causing the fog on HD 3870.
The fog was not static, it had the same 'pulsating' all over the screen as the glowing of the bottle normally has (as a little star).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BlindNero,

Well i think this is the clue:

On Radeon HD 3870, the light-effect from the 'goodies-star' is simply much too bright. The 'HDR valve' is opened too far, should be turned back a few nothches! But it can't be done through the game's Options panel, and i want to keep ATI CCC settings all at default. It should be done in the drivers.

3 screenshots to illustrate the glimmering light that goodies shine (when they do), captured at 3 stages from its faintest to the brightest moment, as it appears throughout the game on HD 3870.







Isn't that rediculous. The brighest is absurd. Picture 1, the faintest, would be bright enough (maximum!) and is what i was used to on X1900XT. Please dim that light a tad, ATI.

One of the bugs in this game is that the 'star' on a goodie doesn't always shine, maybe only 5 out of 10 times it does (broken game code?).
My theory is that when a goodie fails to shine because of broken code, the videocard still thinks it must display the reflection of the light on the surrounding walls (maybe X1900XT did that too, but so faintly you could never notice, that card doesn't exaggerate) but the card doesn't know the location of the source (the star isn't there), so it fills the whole room with reflection... and on HD 3870 (as it exaggerates anyway, see above screenshots) it can lead to the 'foggy effect' in the Tempel of Spider screenshots (below).



Yes, keeping replaying the game on 3870 i'm seeing this ofter. The situation is always similar: a bottle in the room that either forgets to shine at all but the walls reflecting its (non-existing) glimmering, Or a bottle that shines faintly but spreads it through the room (foggy).



After reloading, the effect is gone (no shining, no reflection).

In all other cases where a goodie shines, it shines too bright or even rediculously bright.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BlindNero,

Closer to the clue.

Noclipping to such window. WHY does it look different on HD 3870? Look at the lit windows again.

On X1900XT:
Beautifully shining.


Close-up:
Good transparency.

See1600x1200 pixels version picture 1900XT 1


See1600x1200 pixels version picture 1900XT 2


See1600x1200 pixels version picture 1900XT 3

On HD 3870:
Shining like a Lighthouse.


Close-up:
Not as transparent as it should, almost solid.

See1600x1200 pixels version picture 3870 1


See1600x1200 pixels version picture 3870 2


See1600x1200 pixels version picture 3870 3

Note also that on X1900XT the 'noclip-space' is very dark blueish black. On HD 3870 it suddenly becomes absolutely WHITE! When looking around, the whiteness starts creeping like a fluid over the screen behind the decor (or rather, the blackness is eaten up by the brightest light).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BlindNero,

By the way,
Disabling A.I. in CCC does not solve any of the problems. Worse: it triggers huge fog effects in rooms and on distant landscapes.
Setting A.I. to Standard seems optimal; Advanced gives occasional crash.

Also, disabling AA and setting Filtering to Trilinear/Bilinear have no effect on the problems at all.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BlindNero,

Replaying for a third time on HD 3870 i can easily reproduce the foggy glimmering.

Temple of Spider again. Back to kill the Goblins. Approaching the place, kneeling to aim at them, the glimmering fog appears.



After killing the Goblins. Yes there are still 3 bottles of potion in the room. The bottles are NOT glowing, and the room is filled with the glimmering fog.



My inventory is saturated with potions i don't even use. So i eat some, then i take all potions left in the room.



After taking the last potion out of the room, the fog is gone.



Back into the hall where the elevator is there is also the fog (because there is a bottle of 10 health):




Not taking the bottle. Just save. Then reload the savegame, and the bottle suddenly shines:




Not taking the bottle. Just reloading again the savegame, and the bottle does not shine this time, but also no glimmering fog.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BlindNero,

The 'foggy light' is the most serious of the 3 problems. It ruins the game.





When you found a secret box in a narrow room and open it, you can't see what you're doing anymore:



walk back out of the narrow space to measure the impact:


When you walk back to the box and close it, the fog is gone:



As usual, save and reload makes the fog effect disappear. But it should never happen in the first place! It never happened on the X1900XT.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BlindNero,

Interesting post BlindNero. I'm also running a 3870 (2 in crossfire) and I noticed how extremely bright the lights were especially when casting spells (I'm running the Steam version). But....for some reason my FPS are running less than 10. The sound is also very choppy when in the main menu. I don't get it. Two 3870's, 64bit Vista and 4 Gigs of DDR3 Ram yet it's 10 FPS. All my drivers are up to date.

I installed all the hotfixes and HL2 runs 40+fps at 2560x1600 rez. I tried turning all the setting way down but it really makes no difference. I change the video rez and it runs smooth for about 1 minute and then slows to a crawl.

Have you heard any problems relating to the 3870 and 64bit Vista running this game? Are they going to fix the lights?

Basic Specs:
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Ultimate (6.0, Build 6000) (6000.vista_gdr.070828-1515)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: X38T-DQ6
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 4094MB RAM
Page File: 1847MB used, 6492MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DxDiag Version: 6.00.6000.16386 64bit Unicode

Hello Tanee. Of course i will try to help you, but could you please start a NEW thread then?
Please see DARK MESSIAH Installation and Troubleshooting Instructions [POST 19] and post your 1, 2, 3, 4 into the new thread you started. I'll be glad to help.


Your remark about the too bright spells is valuable. I usually play as Warrior, and hadn't tried the spells.
Could you post some screenshots?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BlindNero,