Rendered area offset when using non-thermal sight

[JustSomeGuy]

Hi,

I know that manual states integrated graphics cards are unsupported so this is not a bug, merely me seeking advice. However, on my old home laptop, I managed to run SB Pro PE 3 and:

+the game loads up and runs

+I could use the tactical map

+I could use TIS/FLIR

But when I attempt to switch from TIS to daylight optics or use the F8 external view, the terrain does render without any artifacts but way to the left of my actual screen: I could see about the last 10% of terrain as a stripe on the left side of my screen.

Attempts to "get out of optics" and watching interior of vehicles results into plain black screen.

I have tried both fullscreen and windowed, various resolutions, minimal and maximal details, but to no avail.

So, my question is, given the TIS works and terrain is also rendered which means that the integrated graphics card (Intel GMA4500MHD) is basically able to handle the load, does anyone have any idea how to compensate that offset with daylight optics?

(If not, okay, I could still use SB in other location, just not nearly so often.)

[Ssnake]

...but if you start with the daysight, the picture is normal - it only happens after the thermal sight picture was shown at least once?

[JustSomeGuy]

Sorry for late reply, I decided this was due to integrated laptop graphics and I better change to a PC to play SB... Only it didn't help. Today, I got to make a clean OS install and it didn't help either. So, screenshots:

This is how I can see through TIS -- all good:

But when I try to turn off TIS:

Note the tiny strip on the left: that is the radiator an license plate of that Unimog. That's all I can see. But it proves my machine is somewhat capable of rendering sky, terrain, models and shadows, only in a weird way.

Another, to prove sky and effects:

When I'm not even looking through a GPS, I can only see pitch black darkness -- even switching to the "outside view editor thermals" doesn't work.

This, however, is in the Editor: when I try "Instant action", game crashes instantly after a sky render flashes through.

I have clean install of:

Windows XP Pro 32bit SP3, fresh DX 9.0c

Radeon X1650 on Catalyst 10-02 (8.593.100.0) drivers,

3,5GB RAM and Core2Duo E8400,

reinstalled SB PRO 3.0.2.5

So the HW requirements should be met.

[Sean]

Does the laptop have windows 7, or is that XP as well?

[Ssnake]

Please run Steel Beasts in the "debug" mode (there's a separate icon for that in the Start Menu | All Programs | eSim Games | Steel Beasts Pro PE) to make it crash as you described.

Then locate "dxdiag" (which may be found in the C:\Windows\System32 directory) on your computer, run it, and "save all information" as a text file. Finally, in your user account's root directory there is a (hidden) folder AppData\Local\CrashDumps where you may find some files "SBProPE... .dmp". Please compress them (WinZip, WinRAR. ...) and attach all of these files to an email that you will please send to me (Ssnake (at) eSimGames.com) so I can forward it to our programmers for further analysis.

[JustSomeGuy]

Sean: the laptop had Windows XP as well and was running on Intel MHD4500 integrated graphics.

Ssnake: I have an update on that crash -- it seems I unintentionally misled you, not being consistent in my testing. The CTDs were not caused by the "Instant action" but by enabling "HDR Bloom" instead. With that option on, I can briefly see okay render of the vehicle (or it's 3D interior) and then CTD.

With the HDR Bloom off, only the original problem occurs throughout whole SB: I can only see normally through TIS, see only narrow stripe throug GPS day channel, and see nothing but black screen while in observer mode or "3D interior" mode, but the game doesn't crash.

So it seems that somehow, I can either see the 3D objects and 3D interiors (with HDR Bloob on) but then get a CTD the next instant, or not get a crash and only be able to play through TIS.

DXdiag is attached, I also have some log files (full of "ERROR: Error creating hdr_blur4_1", "ERROR: Error creating shadow_map"), but there are no dumps anywhere on my system although I did run SB in "debug mode": the system variable your link is using, "%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps", didn't exist on my XP system, so I created both the sysvar and the folder.

However, there are no dumps in it (even after the HDR-caused crash) and there is no "Local" folder in either %appdata%, "%userprofile%\Data aplikací" (localized "%userprofile%\Appdata" folder) or "%userprofile%\AppData\".

EDIT: I tried downloading fresh 3.028, unistalling and reinstalling, but to no avail: same two problems (HDR Bloom -> render and crash, no HDR Bloom -> TIS only.) And still no dumps.

So I at least saved some of the windows error message data and application compatibility DB file attached that:

AppName: sbpropecm.exe AppVer: 3.0.2.8 ModName: sbpropecm.exe

ModVer: 3.0.2.8 Offset: 00218b5e

debugLog.zip

DxDiag.txt

23ae_appcompat.txt

Edited September 29, 2015 by JustSomeGuy
More data

[Ssnake]

What about the *.dmp files, can you please compress them end then send them to me by email?

Please mention this thread explicitly, ideally with its URL.

[JustSomeGuy]

There are no *.dmp files anywhere, Ssnake: SBPRO just doesn't create/save them. The dump folder remains empty.

Even after running (anc crashing) SBPRO in the debug mode.

Even after reinstalling to 3.028.

[Ssnake]

Okay. Steel Beasts wouldn't create them (it has crashed, after all). That would be done by Windows itself.

[JustSomeGuy]

Oh, okay, I thought there is some Bug-catching SW.

In that case, I'll try changing Windows bug-logging options and report back.

[JustSomeGuy]

So, even with Windows crash logging on, nothing appeard in the SB CrashDump folder.

I tried playing with NVG, though, and it works with both exterior and looking into interior:

When I cannot use NVG, I don't get to see anything. And FLIR doesn't work for me when outside in a mission created in the editor.

To recap this:

- I can use thermals from within GPS/F6 view normally

- I can use commander's NVG while unbuttoned

- I cannot use the day channel of the GPS

- I canot use thermals anywhere else than in GPS/F6 view

- I cannot use NVG while in the F8 view

- when I try to see something during the day, I either see pitch black screen with only the overlay symbols/graphic, or there is a tiny strip of the rendered area to the edge of the screen

- game runs smoothly unless I try "HDR Bloom"

- when using "HDR Bloom" option, game crashes

- if the game crashes, nothing gets saved to the CrashDump folder

- I do have some error logs, though

Is there any chance we could get this solved, considering what I've just recapitulated?

[Ssnake]

1) The NVG screenshots look allright to me...?

2) If it's too bright, they shut down, so it's natural not to see anything

3) Have you tried different driver versions for your graphics card?

I mean, the X1650 is almost 10 years old, and you're running on Windows XP still. ATi is no longer a company of it's own, and AMD stopped supporting this card for Windows 8. It's quite possible that it's a driver issue, in which case there isn't much that could be done about it.

[JustSomeGuy]

1) Yes, NVG works ok for commander, which proves that the root cause of this problem cannot be in rendering 3D models themselves (external or interior), textures or sprites. However, NVG doesn't work when outside of the vehicle (F8) - only in F7.

2) I specifically set up night scenario so that NVG wouldn't shut down. And as I said, F7 -> working NVG, F8 -> pitch black.

3) I tried to, but it wasn't any better. But if it was a drive problem, how comes the card is able to render models, textures, thermal, NVG, sprites, everything - just "overlays" anything during the day with blackness? Couldn't it be some kind of problem with the alpha-channel of UI overlay?

[Ssnake]

Well, as far as I know, you're the only case. Maybe nobody else has this specific graphics card, or it's got to do with your specific configuration. I can't rule out that you discovered a bug that becomes manifest only with your specific system configuration.

What I can say is that I alerted the programming team about your case. When they have a clue, they will let me know or post directly in this thread. What I cannot promise is that we'll solve your case within a specific time period. At this point we're still investigating which may or may not take a while.

[JustSomeGuy]

Thanks for that. I'll consider buying older non-ATI graphics card to see if I can rule out the driver problem.

[Ssnake]

Heck, even ATi cards "should" work if they are less dated than the current one. The problem simply is that there's just no way for us to replicate your problem which makes it difficult to come up with a solution.

[JustSomeGuy]

I'm just writing to confirm that the problem disappeared when I bought a newer GPU.

However, since ATi X1650 appears to be supported:

Steel Beasts Professional - Personal Edition

IBM compatible PC with the following minimum configuration:

...256(1024)MB dedicated video RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 5+ Series / ATI Radeon 9600+ (DirectX 9 compatible with shader model 3.0 or higher)

Memory Size 256MB

Features DirectX 9 and ShaderModel 3.0 support

And indeed "partially" supports the game while in "thermal" or "NVG" views, could you possibly make a note on the "GAME_INFO" page that older graphic cards may not support SB Pro although they meet the memory size and shader model requirements, and specifically note that while they might appear to work in this "glitchy" way, they are actually unsupported and too old?

Thanks