[grppaperboy]

Hey all, not really a help request just a general statement because I wasn't sure where this should go. I have a 4870x2 and since Catalyst 9.4 have had to play Il-2 in DirectX mode. Finally installed newly released 9.6 and can finally play Il-2 on perfect settings in OpenGL without it either failing to load the maps (as it did in 9.5 unless on directx) or with horrible visual bugs like stuttering interface after every single-player offline campaign mission as it did in 9.4. so grab it while it's hot I say and get playing on perfect. Only bug i've noticed is that during the loading for campaigns the screen goes black for about 2-3 seconds after but it goes away and loads the mission and all is well. However, if you have two cards or an x2 like mine i recommend disabling crossfire, it runs a good deal slower without it. cheers!

[JAMF]

The forum title says "PC Technical Help" and can be read different ways, so you're offering help.

I'm glad that ATI owners can now enjoy a better OpenGL driver. I'll have to pass this on. Can you run water=4 and have it look close to what we see with nVidia on that setting?

[grppaperboy]

Bugger, just checked my il-2 stab 6.3 (which i use to set the graphics for il-2) and after setting it to 4 for water, flying and exiting and rechecking it had reset it to 1, so it's not perfect yet, but it's considerably more playable, and i don't really play over water much anyway (prefer the eastern front to pacific, and am usually too busy to notice the quality of the rivers as i'm chasing down a Yak or Lavochkin :-P) so for me personally it's not a huge loss, but just an advisory to others there. Oh, and correcting a typo to the end of my first post, should read "runs a good deal slower with it." not "without". cheers!

[jermin]

If I recall correctly, the highest water shader setting for ATI cards is 2, which equals to 4 for Nvidia cards in visual effect.

[grppaperboy]

hmmm, i'll try 2 then and see

[Boris The Spider]

I've always been able to play in OpenGL with my ATI cards. It just that the .dll's have always been optimized for nVidea cards because that is what Oleg works with. The last ATI drivers Oleg "approved" were the 4.7's IIRC.

I've personally like the ATI IQ even though it hasn't yet supported advanced pixel shaders. My current card is an ASUS 4870. I have tried most of the recent CATS and had issues with the graphics. I finally settled on the 8.5 driver w/o CCC which gives me the best picture quality and the least problems. For tweaking I use ATI TrayTools.

Here is my OpenGL settings in my conf.ini. The picture quality is quite good IMO;

[Render_OpenGL]
TexQual=3
TexMipFilter=3
TexCompress=0
TexFlags.UseDither=0
TexFlags.UseAlpha=0
TexFlags.UseIndex=0
TexFlags.PolygonStipple=0
TexFlags.UseClampedSprites=0
TexFlags.DrawLandByTriangles=0
TexFlags.UseVertexArrays=0
TexFlags.DisableAPIExtensions=0
TexFlags.ARBMultitextureExt=1
TexFlags.TexEnvCombineExt=1
TexFlags.SecondaryColorExt=1
TexFlags.VertexArrayExt=1
TexFlags.ClipHintExt=0
TexFlags.UsePaletteExt=0
TexFlags.TexAnisotropicExt=1
TexFlags.TexCompressARBExt=0

TexFlags.TexEnvCombine4NV=0
TexFlags.TexEnvCombineDot3=1
TexFlags.DepthClampNV=0
TexFlags.SeparateSpecular=1
TexFlags.TextureShaderNV=0

HardwareShaders=1

Shadows=2
Specular=2
SpecularLight=2
DiffuseLight=2
DynamicalLights=1
MeshDetail=2
VisibilityDistance=3

Sky=2
Forest=2
LandShading=3
LandDetails=2

LandGeom=2
TexLarge=1
TexLandQual=3
TexLandLarge=1

VideoSetupId=17
Water=2
Effects=1
ForceShaders1x=0

PolygonOffsetFactor=-0.15
PolygonOffsetUnits=-3.0

That being said, my next build will be around an nVidea card.

[major_v]

Thanks for the tip, grppaperboy. I also have a 4870x2 and have been forced to use Direct X. I just installed CAT 9.6 and am now able to run the game in OpenGL as intended without problems (at least so far).

Regards,

Major V

[Naz]

It's been talked about before.

Of course ATi cards can handle OpenGL.

And yes, Water=2 for ATi equals Water=4 for nVidia.

If u have that "Map.LoadingError" just go to your Catalyst setup.
Open up 3D settings and go to All Settings where u set the slider for "Catalyst AI" to "Standard" or disable the "Catalyst AI".

ATi cards produce a prettier picture with -sometimes- anomalities. NO big issue for me. nVidia cards are not without faults either. Don't panic if u see that.

Naz

[Naz]

LoL I just checked and ran the game wit Cat 9.6

I moved the Slider to "Advanced" and the "Map.LoadingError"did NOT pop up!

Good work ATi !

Naz

[grppaperboy]

hey Boris, great tips, used your opengl settings and now have Ati tray tools, what setting sfor it do you find typically work the best?

[Boris The Spider]

Glad it helped grppaperboy.

My Tray Tools setting for Open GL are;

Antialiaing: 4X
Anisotropic: 4X
Texture Preference: Quality
Mipmap Detail Level: Quality
Wait for Vertical Sync: Always Off
Force Z-Buffer depth: Disabled
Refresh Rate Override: Disabled
Additional Options/Triple Buffering: Not Checked

Screen Resolution: 1680 X 1050 in Perfect mode.
Video Card: ASUS ATI 4870
CPU: AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+
4 Gb Patriot DDR2-6400 Memory

This gives me and average Framerate of 58-60 FPS in the Black Death track with lowest (during cassette bomb explosions) 24 and highest around 95.

[grppaperboy]

hey Boris, sorry for the communication delay there, thanks a lot for the settings, never played il-2 better on my 4870x2 yet i doff my hat to you sir!

[Boris The Spider]

Glad I could help.