it is very late here in "the sticks" of west virginia...must be mid-morning or later at work for Ralf...but he continues to email...2 times since my last post. (gonna have to look up the timezones...)

he said he was "sure" he would find a copy from a friend...i get the idea that he knew one already, and would not need me to send a copy....but thanked me and "the community" for our offer on "the project" proposed.......cool.

he declined the free copy of the game because although he said he would surely investigate, he was just not sure that he would be successful....given the info in his previous email...

thank you elix_gx. you and a couple others are the ones i had in mind with the "technical knowledge".

even if this line of inquiry doesn't pan out, at least SOME knowledge will be gained...even if it is another OPINION on whether the fix can even be done AT ALL. (lowboy expresses cautious optimism for one of the few times;)...and puts away the soldering iron.....hee hee)

Lowboy, thanks for your efforts. I'm affected by this banding too.

"...it looks like that the game used indexed textures for the banding parts. GF 6XXX doesn't support this anymore."

BINGO, that is EXACLTY the case, the game does use indexed textures.

GF6xxx not supporting this anymore?
Thats lame from NVIDIA, aren't they guaranteeing full backward compatibility?

This is my last NVIDIA board for sure.


Lowboy, check your PMs.

Iam, PM Info acknowledged. Mission Accomplished.


Complete text of Ralf's latest email:
********************
Problems like this banding problem can be fixed for sure. At least you can build a special fix only for this special game. But as I am responsibly for a product that should be useable for as much games as possible I need to build a solution that can be use with any game that show the same problem. If I can't do this it will be hard to justify the time I spend on this.
********************


so, does anyone know if there are other games affected by this same "indexed textures" issue that i could inform him of? the more, the better, i think. if we could provide him with a long list of similar games it may help persuade him to spend the time.....he apparently thinks he can fix it "for sure".

also, i am going to ASK him if some sort of FEE could be paid to him or his company to defray the cost of any time spent....it is a hypothetical question at this point....just want to see what he says to the idea of being paid.

on the "hedging my bets" side of things....if Ralf turns out to be of no help, has his info on "indexed textures" been of any help to any of the smart guys on this board?

what if someone requested of Nvidia to fix indexed texture support....perhaps with a specific request like that which is general for many games they may do it now.....?

anyways...Ralf's latest email sounds kinda discouraging to me.....

Thanks!


Jane's F-15
Grand Prix Legend

I'd hold off on that for now. Wait to see what he can do about the problem thru DXTweaker first or what was discussed in my PM.

I contacted SEVERAL times about this issue, several meaning at least 10! How many answer did I receive? I'll let you guess the magic number.

Not to me. He's saying it can be fixed for sure...

i'm keeping a list of games affected by banding which i'll send him in a few days if we can get a bigger list....so far:

strike fighters
j-f15
grand prix legends

any chance of a *newer* game being affected?

Lowboy, Remove strike fighter, it works fine, its a 32bit game not using indexed pallette textures.
It appeared with banding on the other screenshot because it was forced to do so.

Add this to your list:

WWII Fighters
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Unreal
Unreal Tournament
Quake
Terminal Velocity
Tribes 2
Homeworld
ONI
American McGee Alice
4x4 Evolution
Rune
Screamer
Hitman
MDK2
Battlezone 2

Thats what I can think of now.

Done.

Anyone have any more? The more the better....will email Ralf with final list tomorrow night after work (10/3/05 @ 2330 EST).

My list is updated...

Joe (or Iam):

i am not sure how to private message either of you....here's my question:

would it possible...or even appropriate..to make a request/plea on the SimHQ main page somewhere for a programmer to look into the "indexed textures" problem for a fix? it seems to me that since the problem is somewhat more widespread than just f-18 (see Iam's list of games...) that someone who does not come to the f-18 board may just have the programming experience to help us with our problem but not know about it since they do not read our posts...??? if this sounds sensible, good...if not, no big deal.

feel free to delete this post after you read it Joe...i tried but couldn't figure out how to send this privately....and Iam, if Joe doesn't respond for a couple days maybe YOU know how to send it to him....?