CATALYST 4.2 Feedback Thread

[black hole sun]

www.ati.com

Not sure if this is my place to be doing this, but since CM has stopped posting, someone has to post this.


Release Notes



Resolved Benchmark Issues


Performance losses noticed in Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory with the previous CATALYST™ display driver have been resolved in this release of CATALYST™


Resolved CATALYST™ Driver Issues

• Logging on as an Administrator under Windows XP and doing a fast user switch to limited user no longer results in display corruption when playing a DVD using WinDVD version 4 or 5
• User defined colour setting are now retained when exiting a 3D game or application
• The ATI Control Panel no longer fails to launch when attempting to enter the Advanced options of the primary display adapter after disabling extended desktop support
• The Cancel button found in the ATI 3D tab is now working properly when switching between a user defined profile and the default setting
• Enabling the CRT as the primary display and turning the TV off in the Display page no longer results in a general protection fault under Windows ME
• The Anisotropic Filtering custom setting is now retained under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 7200 installed
• The D3D panel now retains the user defined AA/AF setting under Windows XP when a RADEON™ 8500 series is installed and the main setting is set to High Quality

Resolved Game Issues

• Launching the game Tron 2.0 under Windows XP no longer results in the game failing to respond after the game introduction is loaded
• Launching the game Line of Sight: Vietnam and setting the graphics option to 800x600 16bpp no longer results in the game failing to respond when selecting a new game
• Running the game Armed and Dangerous under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 9200 series installed no longer results in the display image appearing corrupted when selecting Storm the Base mission in the game
• The game Half-Life is now displayed properly under Windows XP when the game resolution is set to either 320x240 or 400x300
• Playing the game Serious Sam 2 under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON&tdrade; 9500/9800 series installed no longer results in the game failing to run when the game option is set to OpenGL
• Playing the game Unreal Tournament 2003 under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 9600 series installed no longer results in texture corruption being displayed on the flag surfaces in the DM-Tokara Forest
• Selecting the Optimum Quality setting in D3D control panel no longer results in a frozen frame when launching the game HALO
• Setting the resolution in the game SpyHunter to 1280x1024 along with having the Use
• Recommended Settings slider set to balanced in the ATI 3D tab no longer results in some background images being missing while the game is loading
• Setting the display option to 640x480 or 800x600 in the game Splinter Cell no longer results in the game menu flickering
• Returning to the main menu in the game Counter-Strike no longer results in the game's refresh rate reverting back to 60Hz when resuming game play

Known Issues

• Playing the game Nascar 2003 with the display resolution set to 1280x1024 32bpp results in display corruption being seen. This issue will be resolved in an upcoming CATALYST™ release. Further information on this issue can be found at: www.ati.com/support/infobase/4388.html
• Setting the video resolution to 1280x1024 in the game Medal of Honor: Spearhead, along with Anti-Aliasing set to 2x results in the main menu of the game not displaying properly. This issue is known to occur under Windows 9x with an ATI RADEON™ 9200 series installed. This issue is resolved in the next release of CATALYST™. Further information on this issue can be found at: www.ati.com/support/infobase/4355.html
• The demo movie Worms 3D randomly fails to properly play. Launching the movie may result in sound only being heard with no display. This issue is known to occur under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 9800 series card installed. Further information on this issue can be found at: http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4405.html
• Display corruption is noticed when playing the game Aquanox under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 9100 IGP series installed. This issue is known to occur when specific video options have been customized. Further information on this issue can be found at: http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4404.html
• Running the game Hegemonia under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 8500 series installed results in all of the main menu options and the 3D textures in the background not being available. Further information on this issue can be found at: http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4402.html
• For further information and general help on driver or software installation, game issues, and more, visit the ATI FAQ website.

The multimedia release notes, which are too big to be posted, can be found here.


Programmable SmartSharders

That's right! For all you coders out there you can now write your own post-processing effects. See the following links for more information:

http://www.beyond3d.com/misc/atiss/
http://www.driverheaven.net/smartshader/



Post any issues/feedback related to 4.2 here!

[KMax]

So far it looks like it has some nice fixes, but I won't know exactly until I get a chance to install it later tonight.. Good find though!

K-Max

[**G.I.BRO**]

Stickied'
You guys know the drill. Leave your whining and complaining out of here. Talk about the fixes you have, and talk CONSTRUCTIVELY about the issues that still remain.

ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY NO FLAMING WHINING NOR COMPLAINING LIKE LITTLE KIDS

So please, when briefing us on your issues, please do so professionally. It will do everyone some good. Even better yet. If your still having issues, please dont forget about ATi's Catalyst Crew form.

Greatly Appreciated

[HeartbreakKid]

I would like to know if the issue with Medal Of Honor Spearhead freezing has been resolved. Using 4.1 the game would freeze from time to time. So I went back to 3.10...I would like to upgrade to 4.2 but if the freezing is still there I won't.

Thx

[Uriel]

I REALLY like that they finally removed the reinitialization when applying D3D settings. This also made the loading of the advanced settings (ie controlpanel and such) much faster or so it seems. Now it loads just as fast as it does on nVidia boards.
Very nice.

Good work, I've been whining about that for a year now and ATi reps here told me it was impossible to remove, guess I was right after all.

Other than that it works fine except I got an error message after the first reboot that said a file was missing. Problem is I did't notice which file and just clicked "ok". Anyone else getting asimilar problem?
Perhaps it's a part of the WDM package, because 3D works fine but I haven't tried videocapturing yet.

[Wotan81]

Originally posted by HeartbreakKid
I would like to know if the issue with Medal Of Honor Spearhead freezing has been resolved. Using 4.1 the game would freeze from time to time. So I went back to 3.10...I would like to upgrade to 4.2 but if the freezing is still there I won't.

Thx

If you read the release notes, it says that it only happends with R9200 under Windows 9X.

"Setting the video resolution to 1280x1024 in the game Medal of Honor: Spearhead, along with Anti-Aliasing set to 2x results in the main menu of the game not displaying properly. This issue is known to occur under Windows 9x with an ATI RADEON™ 9200 series installed. This issue is resolved in the next release of CATALYST™. Further information on this issue can be found at: www.ati.com/support/infobase/4355.html"

[Clockwork]

Originally posted by Uriel
I REALLY like that they finally removed the reinitialization when applying D3D settings. .

I think it is there, it's just done faster.

[HeartbreakKid]

That's not it...the game freezes out of the blue...you play then bang the game froze. People even reported freezing in COD using 4.1...

There is even a thread on this on page 2 or 3 of this forum I believe.

[mavvy911]

Originally posted by Uriel
I REALLY like that they finally removed the reinitialization when applying D3D settings. This also made the loading of the advanced settings (ie controlpanel and such) much faster or so it seems. Now it loads just as fast as it does on nVidia boards.
Very nice.

I have to agree with yah there, that reinit was annoying, and it used to make my screen do funny things.. but all is well so far

-Mavvy911

EDIT: Scratch that, the init is faster, but it still does wacky things to my screen. Display just shifted over to the left, and has a weird tinge now.. sorta sepia tinge Time to reboot again

[Wotan81]

Originally posted by HeartbreakKid
That's not it...the game freezes out of the blue...you play then bang the game froze. People even reported freezing in COD using 4.1...

There is even a thread on this on page 2 or 3 of this forum I believe.

Sorry HeartbreakKid! Perhaps I should learn to read before posting an answer!

[HeartbreakKid]

The thread is right here:

http://rage3d.com/board/showthread.p...eadid=33738390

[kboye]

The ATI Control Panel no longer fails to launch when attempting to enter the Advanced options of the primary display adapter after disabling extended desktop support

I can't believe they actually fixed this!! I'm going to try this out tomorrow, and report back in to see if the control panel actually sticks, since I've been having this problem for half a year now. I was forced into rebooting every time, which is quick nowadays. But the real problem of course being that I had to close all my programs (I couldn't watch a movie or play a game on TV-out while I was say 30% done encoding video, or up/downloading files). CM? Not sure if you're still monitoring this site, but it feels absolutely amazing to see driver releases like this actually FIX things poor insignificant little /me have problems with I remember the AGP issues with MPx dual chipsets, they were fixed too (haven't seen the stuttering and bluescreens in a LOOONG time now). That MPx chipset isn't exactly mainstream, so thumbs up for listening.

[Exxtreme]

Originally posted by Uriel
I REALLY like that they finally removed the reinitialization when applying D3D settings.

The reinitialisation is still there. I don't know the reason.

[Gamefreak]

So far so good ... a step to the right direction.

Driver dated 1/27/2004.

[bratboy]

did my install go bad or something? Did everything the normal way , ie Add remove all then reboot and install, but I cant find Smartshaders anywhere now. Did they remove it or am I missing a tab somewhere?

[BonyTony]

Refresh will not stay @ 85mhz in OpenGL no matter what i do in the 4.2`s. But in the 4.1`s it does !.

I know how to set my refresh rates within the driver ....so whats changed in 4.2 ?.....does your OpenGL stay at your setting ?....if this gets buried in here like alot of posts tend to do in this type of thread is it ok to post in main stating the problem ?.

[bratboy]

Originally posted by bratboy
did my install go bad or something? Did everything the normal way , ie Add remove all then reboot and install, but I cant find Smartshaders anywhere now. Did they remove it or am I missing a tab somewhere?

Also don't see a VPU tab to turn it off either

[mad]

Originally posted by Exxtreme
The reinitialisation is still there. I don't know the reason.

should be there on all cards below 9500 if i have understood the release notes correctly...

Edit: from the release notes:

Previous versions of the ATI display driver required the monitor going blank for up to 8 seconds when applying Direct3D settings. The latest ATI software driver for the RADEON™ 9500 and higher class of products now allows for the Direct3D setting to be applied without the monitor's display going blank.

[Exxtreme]

Originally posted by M_A_D
should be there on all cards below 9500 if i have understood the release notes correctly...

Edit: from the release notes:

I know. But i have a R9700 Pro. This is the problem.

[BobbyRPI2712]

Not sure if this applies or not, but does this new Direct3D thing take care of having to restart my computer for certain settings (AA and AF) to take effect?

[sireric]

Originally posted by Uriel

Good work, I've been whining about that for a year now and ATi reps here told me it was impossible to remove, guess I was right after all.

We still do the same thing. However, the symptoms of that (such as blanking the screen) have been removed. Took a lot of work to do that. However, the basic principal behind broadcasting the D3D settings to the driver is the same, and cannot be changed.

[ATMArage]

Someone should mention the Smartshader tools and new contest:

http://www.beyond3d.com/misc/atiss/
http://www.driverheaven.net/smartshader/

[Qb2k5]

Nice surprise!



Hope Deus Ex runs better.

[Sentri]

KOTOR seems a bit smoother to me with soft shadows on. Everything thing else I tried seems to run good.

Only problem I am having is with the English sonic adventure dx demo giving me a blank blue screen some times. Tried different drivers and it still does it. Must be some hardware conflict or sonic itself. Oh well.


SmartShader is under the custom d3d and open gl settings.

[BonyTony]

Can someone just test to see if the refresh rate in OpenGL stays at there preset rate...unlike mine which will not/can not be forced to run @85mhz....dont have problem with 4.1`s.

Tested with a few opengl games and all back to 60mhz...arrg

[Qb2k5]

Originally posted by bratboy
Also don't see a VPU tab to turn it off either

i see a tab.

[bratboy]

Okay now something is weird hehe. I DL the new full set of files. Ran the install and acording to Options-Details my Drivers are 6.14.10.6422 and CP 6.14.10.5088 which I think are right but on my system it installed older looking cp with d3d and ogl on seperate tabs.

Am going to dl just the cp file and reinstall it maybe that will fix things

[Wotan81]

Originally posted by bratboy
did my install go bad or something? Did everything the normal way , ie Add remove all then reboot and install, but I cant find Smartshaders anywhere now. Did they remove it or am I missing a tab somewhere?

Try to install them again, without uninstalling the drivers that are now installed. Sometimes WinXp mess things up when it tries to install drivers by it self.

[ATsirogiannis]

using the ATI uninstaller in control I uninstalled the 4.1s then rebooted, installed the 4.2s then rebooted. All is fine. Going to start testing some games, and I love how the monitor doesn't go black for several seconds when applying D3D settings! Good job ATI and for that I give you a virtual cookie.

[evilchickenking]

is performance in enemy territory back to par or better than what it was before the drop?