NVIDIA GeForce drivers v175.16 + Vista + SH4 v1.5 = yay!

[Doolittle81]

Yes...I had also found that with post processing and high texture turned off, I could get some success with PE and 1.5....explosions galore, DD's firing like crazy,etc.....BUT, as you discovered, after a while, the BSOD strikes again seemingly randomly.

[Agent.Nihilist]

I'm running Vista Ultimate 32bit 2GB E6300 8800GTS 640. SH4 1.5 with TMO 1.5b, I tried the 175.16 drivers and had issues, Specifically a Black screen with the sound loopped after a Fire or explosion effect. If I was fast enough i could get away from effect and only suffer screen flickers otherwise a cold reboot was required.
I tried with the 175.70 beta drivers as well, It ran great for about two hours before a torpedo hit caused another recurrence. The previous driver I was running (not quite sure of the version #) would only occaisally suffer a CTD, no BlSOD. I think I'm going to try to roll back.

I am also not running SP1 yet, but will be updating that soon.
though I have to say its a releif that others are seeing this, I was starting to think My video card was dieing.

Edit: My previous drivers were 163.69, I am rolling back to see how performance is.

[JackhammerJohn]

I have been catching up with my reading of PC GAMER and MAXIMUM PC magazines and they all agree that Vista is a dud when it comes to gaming. Slower framerates overall, higher overhead, and lots of crashes.

I am sticking with my tried and true XP for now.

[Agent.Nihilist]

Don't be so swift to blame Vista for this issue. I am inclined to belive it is an issue with the vista version of Nvidias Graphics driver. I run something to the effect of 50 Games on my vista systems with no troubles. This is actually the only game I've run into issues with, and at that only when Running a mod.
I play Everything from Supcom to penny arcade adventures to Master of Magic and Galactic Civilations, Halflife to Team Fortress 2 and Crysis.

As for this Issue, at least for me Switching to an Older Driver (v163.75) Stopped the BlSOD's and Instead just CTD'd while Disabling Post Processing Effects has elimminated the CTD.

[Doolittle81]

Originally Posted by Agent.Nihilist

Don't be so swift to blame Vista for this issue...
....

I agree..Sorry to again repeat my findings, which I have described in several threads, but...I have noted that regardless of which NVidia Drivers are used:
PE3 + SH4 1.5 + 8800GTX card + VISTA32 = BSOD when explosions, DD gunfire, etc, occur

PE3 + SH4 1.4 + 8800GTX card + VISTA32 = Flawless performance at all times

To me that should logically prove an incompatibility of 1.5 with PE in association with the above-mentioned Card and VISTA(1.5's "Fault", not VISTA's which is a Constant in the two situations described).

Also:
W_Clears EE MOD + SH4 1.5 + 8800GTX card + VISTA32 = Smooth performance if Post Proc and High Texture are turned off.

To me that should logically lead one to suspect some specific difference between EE MOD and PE MOD, which in PE only is totally incompatible with some specific aspect of 1.5

Again, PE and EE both work perfectly with SH4 1.4, regardless of NVidia Drivers used.

I don't see that VISTA can be blamed as the single Cause of the BSOD result.
------------------------------------------------------

QUESTION: Does anyone run the following combination of factors, Flawlessly?

PE3 + SH4 1.5 + 8800GTX card + WindowsXP with all SH4 Graphic Options ON

[Agent.Nihilist]

I'm running TMO which uses EE.
I'm going to try the 175.16 drivers again when I get off of work. So far I still haven't had any crashes with post processing turned off.

After looking back on what I've done to get everything working, I've found that the installation of 1.5 was a starting point for my errors, however I did not get any errors running just 1.5, Only when I installed TMO did the problems start.

This leads me to beleive that one of serveral things is occuring

1- 1.5 altered the way post processing works and the EE/PE3 mods are causing a issue with a small number of graphics cards rendering engines. (I am NOT familier enough with the workings of the mods to understand their interaction with the normal game effects)

2- Same as above but with me being completly wrong about the actual effects problem. Aka 1.5 introduced a glitch with the aformentioned mods that only affects a small number of cards.

3- An issue with Nvidia's Vista drivers(have not heard of people with XP having this issue) for the 8800 cards - Drivers changes have only altered the degree of the crashing for me so this is less likely.

My experience seems to point to the problem being an interaction between the particle effects and the post processing used in the EE mod. As all crashes i've encountered have been caused by torpedo hits, cannon fire, a ship being on fire(less common, only happens if a get flickering but avoid a crash be not looking directly at the effect), and I had one instance where the smoke effect(boiler) triggered the crash.

[Defiance]

Hiya's,

Sorry Folks just got error

If you saw the fix ignore

Think i'm on the right track though

Ohh well roll-on new cards

Ciao

Def