[Driver issue]ATI Fog problems (formerly: Blinking lights.)

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 0:43

Do you still need someone with an ATI card to help test this out?

I'm using a Radeon 9800 Pro... using the latest CATALYST drivers (5.10)

Just give me instructions on what to do.. and I'll see what I can do...

I've got the latest version of GZDoom...

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 1:17

Right now I am out of clues but you may check two things:

Start E4M3 of LTSD, go to the water, type 'fly' in the console and move to the edge until you hit the edge of the sector. I'd like to know whether the area beyond the horizon line also shows the fog bug.

If someone could modify E4M3 of LTSD so that the outer linedefs of the water area aren't horizons anymore I'd like to know whether the fog bug shows itself on the walls as well or only on the floor.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 2:25

There you go...

I don't believe it looks right (the fog)... I could be wrong...

Edit: Whoops.. I don't think that's what you wanted...

There you go now...

If I looked at a different angle... one side would have the fog effect.. at some point, I could make it so that both have the same amount of fog applied to them... (well, if I change the viewing angle.... anyways, I assume this is what you were looking from me?)

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:03

Yes, that's what I wanted to see - and it is mostly what I suspected. The area beyond the horizon is rendered with different OpenGL calls than the real sector - and it looks ok!

I'll release a new version today with some optional code for ATi cards. Please check the news page and test it when it is done.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 13:03

This is a different position (at the corner).

gl_atifog was reported as "TRUE"

It seems to do the the same thing as before (setting it to true or false doesn't seem to change a thing - I assume it is supposed to work on the fly?)

Is this what you were looking for?

Btw, this port looks rather impressive to ZDoom (I have yet to try ZDoomGL though)

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 15:14

Thanks for the quick report. That was my last hope to solve this but apparently ATI is doing something terribly wrong inside the driver.

But could you please make another screenshot looking from the harbor out to sea?

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 16:25

Three different angles.. same position:

The original position.. everything looks fine...

Lookng at about 45 degrees to the right of the original position, you can start seeing the problem...

Looking at 90 degrees to the right of the original position.. it looks really bad...

This occurs whether or not the new cvar/variable is set to TRUE or FALSE..

Hopes this explains what is going on...

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 17:13

Looking as shitty as ever. I really don't understand how ATI can screw up something simple as fog. It's one of the most basic 3D features available...

Soultaker · Post by **Soultaker** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 17:18

Too bad I won't be able to help with this nasty and appalling problem. My new rig will be using the 7800GT. Then again it is problems like the fog foulups that made me go Nvidia for now on.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 17:35

I'll take a look at what it renders on another system I have with an NVidia Geforce 6600...

There's a lot of things that favor/disfavor both companies.. it matters what matters to you most..

Personally.. there are certain things NVidia screws up on (OpenGL mode doesn't work in an emulator I use... which works just FINE with ATI)...

It's a matter of preference (and the games you play).

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 17:44

Deathlike2 wrote:I'll take a look at what it renders on another system I have with an NVidia Geforce 6600...

No need to. Fog works fine on NVidia. It did on a 5900XT, 6600GH and 6800 for me without any problems. This is a bug in ATI's drivers.

There's a lot of things that favor/disfavor both companies.. it matters what matters to you most..

Personally.. there are certain things NVidia screws up on (OpenGL mode doesn't work in an emulator I use... which works just FINE with ATI)...

It's a matter of preference (and the games you play).

Doom is important to me so ATI is out by default unless this bug gets fixed.

Soultaker · Post by **Soultaker** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 17:51

It seems to me that ATI and Nvidia has gotten their roles reversed. ATI used to release stable video cards and Nvidia was infamous for their shitty video cards. Now it is the other way around. I think in ATI's haste to beat Nvidia they have made several huge mistakes including screwballing their entire letter\number system. I can figure out without a problem which Nvidia card is the most powerful yet with ATI well it is a logistical nightmare. Another huge mistake is the Fog problem which Graf is having problems with in GZDooM.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 19:11

Ever considered contacting ATI about this problem? If you haven't yet, would you at least try that and see?

Post by **solarsnowfall** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 22:02

In my tinkering around, I find that if the fog is set to a 3dfloor, and it's a non-solid floor that renders the control sector's properties into the 3d floor, the problem is completely remedied. In this test wad, the sector you start in, has the fade defined normaly, and with my ATI card, it of course does not display correctly. The sector connected to it uses a 3d floor (tag, 3, 2, 0) to fill the space, and the control sector for it is also given the fade, and it looks perfect as far as I can tell. Maybe other ATI users can verify this, and perhaps this may shed some light as to what the core problem is?

[edit] Here is the fog used normally, the sector tag is 1, the fog is (128, 128, 128) and you can barely see it around the corners, and it of course acts all strange as you move thorugh it.

Here, the sector is tagged 2, the control sector tagged 3, and the fog is assigned to tag 3, with the same RGB values. It doesn't behave strangely at all, and is consistant throughout the sector.

And this only seems to work right with 3d floors, if the fog is assigned to a deepwater control sector, it still looks bad.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 22:11

I can't verify of course but this doesn't make sense at all.