ATI Radeon HD 6870 Dxun grass texture problems

[Col_Zechs]

This is how the textures look on Dxun with my video card. I am using Catalyst Drivers 12.10 for Radeon HD 6870 Windows 7 64bit. Does anyone know how to fix this problem?

[Q]

Does it do that only with grass activated?

I tested a 6870 about 6 months ago with Catalyst 12.4 and never ran into anything like that.

[Hassat Hunter]

Yup, disable grass.

It's been a very longstanding issue with ATI cards

[Q]

I was just testing my buddy's card; I probably didn't run into any grass.

HH, have you tried AllowSoftShadows=1 for you ATI card? I know soft shadows are disabled on ATI cards, but that might enable them.

[Hassat Hunter]

You mean putting Soft Shadows to 1? Since that has no effect.
Or actually adding AllowSoftShadows under graphics?

[Q]

The latter.

[Hassat Hunter]

That actually worked.
Didn't know that.

Still able to learn new stuff it seems .
Grass issue is still unchanged then though.

[Q]

Does turning on soft shadows kill your frame rate?

It does on my GTX 460, but only with TSL. Turning them on with KotOR doesn't hurt it at all.

[JCarter426]

I have the same problem, with the 6970. I've determined that there actually is something wrong with the texture, though I haven't fixed it completely.

[Q]

You guys using the Dantooine lag fix (Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1)?

[JCarter426]

Yep.

To clarify, here is the alpha channel for the DXN_jungfx texture:



If you look closely, you can see that the background for three of the four parts is not completely black. And for some reason, some ATI cards won't render anything behind these parts of the grass. In other cases, the grass was not mapped properly, so bits of one texture show up at the top of another as awkward lines well above the ground.

However, there's only so much I can do with the textures due to the incredibly poor resolution. When it's rendered, the texture is smoothed over so it won't look so pixelated, but unfortunately that leaves behind an invisible halo around the grass when it's seen up close, or when a lot of grass is obscuring something far away.

[Hassat Hunter]

Can you upload the blackified textures and the .txi's you use?

See what it does so far, and what can be improved?

[Q]

Have either of you tried those planet retexture mods over at DeadlyStream?

They vastly improve the grass (to the point that it actually looks real), and, perhaps, ATI cards could digest it better.

[JCarter426]

Originally Posted by Hassat Hunter

Can you upload the blackified textures and the .txi's you use?

See what it does so far, and what can be improved?

Close up it looks mostly ok, but when you manage to see the grass from a distance (without it disappearing like it usually does) it can still cause things not to render:



(pay attention to their feet)

Here are the TGAs so far. TXIs didn't seem to help at all.

Originally Posted by Q

Have either of you tried those planet retexture mods over at DeadlyStream?

They vastly improve the grass (to the point that it actually looks real), and, perhaps, ATI cards could digest it better.

I haven't tried any. To which were you referring?

[Q]

This and this.

These are some of the best exterior retextures I've ever seen for TSL.

[JCarter426]

Nope, same problems. And it doesn't seem to affect the grass in 403DXN at all.

[Q]

Yeah, it doesn't replace the grass in the Mando camp.

The ongoing issues the KotOR games have with ATI cards is one of the main reasons why I've stuck with Nvidia all of these years. Otherwise, I'd have probably gotten an ATI card, because of their usually-superior bang for the buck.

[JCarter426]

My previous card was an Nvidia, but it was 8600 or something and burned out, so it had to go. I've been considering getting a cheap - but more recent - Nvidia to have both options, and also because my old XP actually has no video card at all.

Anyway, the grass. I've noticed a few errors remain on Dxun, and Dantooine's grass has some of those mapping issues I mentioned, so I'm going to take a look at it again. I have compiled a bunch of minor fixes, so I'll release the updated grass with that once everything's ready.

[Hassat Hunter]

Originally Posted by JCarter426

I have compiled a bunch of minor fixes, so I'll release the updated grass with that once everything's ready.

Such as? *interested what TSLRCM overlooked*
Hope you can fix it... haven't taken a look at it yet, should have time tomorrow.

[Hassat Hunter]

Well, just tried your grass, it's a definite improvement upon the old situation... so we can (read: I, and probably other ATI users who have to disable grass before) live with that. Did you also do the grass in 650DAN?
Or find some slight improvements to do? Haven't tried messing with them myself yet... but I don't really have editing programs, so I doubt I can do much with the texture

[JCarter426]

Originally Posted by Hassat Hunter

Such as? *interested what TSLRCM overlooked*
Hope you can fix it... haven't taken a look at it yet, should have time tomorrow.

Well, the window you know. The other stuff I don't know if it's in TSLRCM or not. I've only just installed that today, and I don't know when I'll be able to play through it; I've been too busy to properly play K2 in... years. But it's just little things... better resolution for the Citadel Station skybox, some laser colors swapped around, some ship textures replaced with the best quality I could find, and some other things I've noticed but haven't gotten to yet.

Originally Posted by Hassat Hunter

Well, just tried your grass, it's a definite improvement upon the old situation... so we can (read: I, and probably other ATI users who have to disable grass before) live with that. Did you also do the grass in 650DAN?

I haven't done anything from Dantooine... or rather, I haven't specifically done anything from Dantooine; it's possible Obsidian was lazy and reused a texture I've already done. But for now, let's say I haven't done Dantooine.

Or find some slight improvements to do?

Nothing other than what I mentioned before, but I'm going to do a more thorough investigation after I've fixed what I have noticed.

[Col_Zechs]

Installing ATI Catalyst 11.5 fixed it for me.

[Q]

Really? That's great, and very useful. Thanks.

Info on which versions of Catalyst work best with the KotOR games is always welcome here.

[JCarter426]

It fixed it for me, but it also brought the grass lag back, so I returned to the newest version.

[Hassat Hunter]

So, any progress on the grass texture fix? Cause it was awesome already.

[Hassat Hunter]

*shameless bump*