ATI Agent Ruby

[ QUOTE ]
I know you've probably been ask this but heck, why not at least try, right? No harm no foul.

Q p1- Any extra graphics cards?

Q p2- Assuming the above is a yes, how can I EARN one?
I have BOTH a villain and a hero. If you need something heroic, I can do. The other side, sure, too. lol

-Sin Stalker

[/ QUOTE ]
1) sorry, we gave them all away!
2) see answer to question 1

But, as I said in a previous post, we're hoping at some point to do something like this again, so stay tuned...

[ QUOTE ]
Ask Agent Ruby:

I currently use Ubuntu 8.10 (and run the game via Cedega). Is there a low end card that you recomend for us linux hippies?

I currently use an ATI x1300 that i got with my dell. I do use MS Vista as well and the Raedon x1300 very vista unfriendly (especially with the driver that dell shipped). Not playing bleeding edge games, but I would like to turn the bling up under COMPIZ and AERO to 11 :-)

Thanks and regards

[/ QUOTE ]
Why not just make 10 louder?

Aaaaaanyway, as far as a low end card recommendation, check out the ATI Radeon HD 4550, which is pretty decent for gaming and affordable to boot. There's a good review here.

As far as your Dell goes, it never hurts to update your driver to make sure you're getting the latest and greatest - two options on that front, check the Dell support site for official driver updates (as they will have a customized version of Catalyst) or download the generic Catalyst Vista driver from GAME.AMD.COM - only drawback here is that you could lose some customized features for your Dell system, and it may affect your warranty/support (if it still exists), so definitely do a System Restore save before you install it (if you do).

[ QUOTE ]
First of all welcome ruby, although I'm still sad my little Fae, that even healed you on Freedom didn't make to the collage :angryface:

on to the question.

Ask Agent Ruby: Are you single? :P:P

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Hi Adar_ICT - in Catalyst you can, in fact, create your own profile with your preferred settings for CoX, that you can select before you play the game (and switch after finished playing. That of course isn't pre-selected optimizations, but it does put that selection in your hands vs. taking something "cooked".
We also recently launched that functionality with a separate gaming tool you may be interested in called Fusion. It is a utility which at the click of a button can shut down all non-essential background programs, freeing up system resources to improve gameplay. You can also customize it to build your own profile and choose exactly what you want disabled for a leaner footprint. Fusion is also hooked into Catalyst as well as our overclocking utlility, OverDrive. Fusion is in BETA stage right now, but can be downloaded for folks to try out - only one stipulation: becasue of all the system-level optimizations built in this can only work on an AMD platform (AMD CPU + ATI graphics).

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm... Guess I will have to look at my CCC, as I don't remember anything for using profiles for various games. If that exists, then I am just unobservant, and will now be quietly happy that i can do what I wanted to do.

When you say Fusion only works with AMD CPU and ATI graphics, does it actually do a check for that and prevent you from using the program if you have an Intel CPU with ATI graphics? I understand that there will be optimizations that only work with AMD CPUs, but if I can still use the utility to tweak JUST the graphics portion, and background apps, that would be a cool utility. In any case, I have downloaded it and will give it a shot tonight probably. I am, unfortunately, at work right now so I can't just test it myself yet.

Thank you for taking the time to answer questions here.

[/ QUOTE ]
Just to clarify on the CCC profiles question, there are not pre-selected game profiles. When you open CCC on top one of the options is "Profiles", so you could create a profile (for example) called "City of Heroes", go in and select what settings you want, and then enable that profile whenever you play CoH, and then have other profiles for other games or apps (if you so desire).
As for Fusion, it will not work if you don't have an AMD platform - the main reason is that it's not something we test outside our own platform - it also becomes a benefit for someone who would select an AMD platform.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I sure hope the problems can be fixed. It would be nice for ATI/AMD but it would be really great for this game. I shudder to think how many customers have been lost because they were crashing and getting weird graphic errors with a high end ATI/AMD card.

Now we need to wait and see. "No timeline" doesn't exactly fill me with excitement, but it's not a message of doom, either.

[/ QUOTE ]

In all fairness though, things do seem to have gotten a bit better with ATI compatibility over time. Before I switched to Nvidia, I remember the random crashes, missing textures and alt+tab bugs, but since I switched back to ATI recently, I don't have any of those nagging bugs anymore, just the lingering inability to mix FSAA with high water effects or depth of field.

[/ QUOTE ]
Okay, before I go any further, the fact that you have Randy from Trailer Park Boys as your avatar made me laugh out loud!
Thanks - agreed, some things have been improved over time, but we still have work to do!

[ QUOTE ]
Ask Agent Ruby: I missed both the contest and the related events in Pocket D ( I was in the middle of moving and didn't have internet access right away ) Will you be doing anything again soon ?

[/ QUOTE ]
Well, I certainly hope so! We've gotten some great feedback and participation, so as long as the community and the great folks at NCSoft want things like this happening, we'd love to try it again.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I sure hope the problems can be fixed. It would be nice for ATI/AMD but it would be really great for this game. I shudder to think how many customers have been lost because they were crashing and getting weird graphic errors with a high end ATI/AMD card.

Now we need to wait and see. "No timeline" doesn't exactly fill me with excitement, but it's not a message of doom, either.

[/ QUOTE ]

In all fairness though, things do seem to have gotten a bit better with ATI compatibility over time. Before I switched to Nvidia, I remember the random crashes, missing textures and alt+tab bugs, but since I switched back to ATI recently, I don't have any of those nagging bugs anymore, just the lingering inability to mix FSAA with high water effects or depth of field.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree's, the problems with ATI seem somewhat overblown and entrenched in the forum culture.

Certainly the mutually exclusive AA/AF and Bloom/DOF/Water problem still exists but for example I don't like the Bloom/DOF and water on low looks the same as water on high (except for some/all reflections iirc), so this 'problem' doesn't bother me at all.

And I don't remember a crashing problem except for 1 driver version a year ago or so, which was quickly sorted out on the boards here and everyone avoided that version.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think it's mostly just people who have higher standards, or a better eye that are terribly bothered by the problems. BillZ can tell the difference between using various settings, while I can not. The incompatibilities are mildly annoying to me, but what bothers me MORE about ATI cards, and even to some extent NVidia cards, is the fact that it DOES require you to make changes within the drivers in order to get the combination of appearance and performance that you want.

For me personally, it isn't a huge deal to go into the CCC and tweak my settings. For a lot of people though, doing that is very daunting. All those big words, antialiasing, anisotropic filtering, etc is not something a lot of people can even fathom. Then you run into cases where settings you change to improve CoX, have a negative effect on other games.

It IS a valid complaint though that these issues have been brought up over and over, with no response other than "we're aware of the issue". Working in a software development company myself, I understand how you have to make decisions on what is best to spend resources on. As much as we love this game, a 4+ year old game is unlikely to continue to get a lot of resources thrown at it to fix issues that really only impact a small percentage of people.

One thing NVidia has (ATI may have something similar though I have never seen it in CCC), is profiles for specific games. THAT is something I would like for ATI cards, so that I can tweak to my heart's content for CoX, and NOT have it mess with settings in my other games.

[/ QUOTE ]
Hi Adar_ICT - in Catalyst you can, in fact, create your own profile with your preferred settings for CoX, that you can select before you play the game (and switch after finished playing. That of course isn't pre-selected optimizations, but it does put that selection in your hands vs. taking something "cooked".
We also recently launched that functionality with a separate gaming tool you may be interested in called Fusion. It is a utility which at the click of a button can shut down all non-essential background programs, freeing up system resources to improve gameplay. You can also customize it to build your own profile and choose exactly what you want disabled for a leaner footprint. Fusion is also hooked into Catalyst as well as our overclocking utlility, OverDrive. Fusion is in BETA stage right now, but can be downloaded for folks to try out - only one stipulation: becasue of all the system-level optimizations built in this can only work on an AMD platform (AMD CPU + ATI graphics).

[ QUOTE ]
Ruby, why can't I quit AMD products?

They're like raspberry truffles.

[/ QUOTE ]
Reiraku, I'll probably get in trouble for this for telling you, but long ago we found a secret society of mole people who we keep happy by feeding them Oreo cookies and tissue paper, and in return they give us the secret recipe for a special colorless coating we put over every product we make, the contents of which produce an odorless odor, that when inhaled makes the person forever addicted to our products.*

* Ruby is a fictional character, and in no way do her views and comments reflect the views and comments of AMD. The mole people, if they exist at all, are certainly not under AMD's control, and if they do in fact produce an addictive, odorless liquid, it certainly is not necessarily the reason why people like AMD products. Also, the mole people's relationship with AMD (if said mole people even exist) is purely based on admiration and mutual respect, not Oreos and tissue paper.

[ QUOTE ]
what happened to those pictures you took Friday Night at the D?! I've been wondering about those and how to find the pictures of them so I can view them

[/ QUOTE ]
Keep checking your server forum - something will be up very soon.

[ QUOTE ]
Ask Agent Ruby: (Thats so RP, but to the question) I just Bought the new ATI HD4870 X2 and I was wondering where i can find some great wall papers that actually fit a 2560x1600 Resolution? Hopefully something cool, I remember getting wall papers and a screensaver on my old graphics card but not on this one..... I was sad

[/ QUOTE ]
That's a tough one - we have wallpaper on our site, but nothing close to that resolution. That would be a very tough one to find options on...

[ QUOTE ]
Ask Agent Ruby: What are your specs, by the way? o.O

[/ QUOTE ]
AMD Athlon X2 6000+
ATI Radeon HD 4850
AMD 790FX motherboard
2GB DDR2 system memory
1440x900 panel

[ QUOTE ]
Ask Agent Ruby:


=^_^= MOW!!!

*kitty translation: hi and welcome to the forums, please stop by the showdown to the litterbox thread and say hi.*

[/ QUOTE ]
Done!

[ QUOTE ]
Ask Agent Ruby: I'm going to be building a computer with an AMD 9950 2.6GHz Black Edition and an ATI Radeon HD4870; respectively, this is the best CPU and video card AMD has out right now. So, assuming I put everything together correctly, would it be fair to say that if I have any issues with CoX, it would be a sad verdict against the compatibility of AMD's products with CoX?

[/ QUOTE ]
Hi CaptainFoamerang - the system you're talking about putting together is better than the specs of my current gaming rig, and I have no problem performance-wise with any of the games I play. A lot of what we're talking about in this thread in terms of technical issues probably have more to do with driver issues vs. hardware, and therefore mostl likely need to be solved in software.

[ QUOTE ]
I sure hope the problems can be fixed. It would be nice for ATI/AMD but it would be really great for this game. I shudder to think how many customers have been lost because they were crashing and getting weird graphic errors with a high end ATI/AMD card.

Now we need to wait and see. "No timeline" doesn't exactly fill me with excitement, but it's not a message of doom, either.

[/ QUOTE ]
Again, thanks for the honest feedback. I apologize that we can't be more specific yet, but I do promise that as updates become available, we will be letting the community know about them.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ask Agent Ruby:

[ QUOTE ]
there are some things still being tackled, but being a CoH player myself, I can tell you that there have been a lot of improvements over time

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm curious as to these improvements you speak of. While there may have been performance ups and downs over time, I've come across no functional changes that have resolved any of the known issues nor have I ever seen any of them listed in the patch notes for the new Catalyst packages over the past near four years.

[/ QUOTE ]
Believe me, I'm not saying things are perfect. But I've been playing the game since it launched too, and I know a long time ago we had some issues with shadows that have since been corrected, as an example. But as you can see from some of my posts, we do have some improvements to make and are trying to tackle this.

[/ QUOTE ]

Were you an ATI employee prior to the AMD buyout?

I must admit some level of curiosity at the fact that you've been playing since launch but seem unaware of the extent and depth of the ATI issues that have plagued this game since launch.

In any case, thanks for punching that thread through the channels.

Back when I was more interested in the fight, I sent those same findings through the feedback channels at ATI, then again after the AMD merger, and constantly pushed the info here for the Cryptic team prior to the NCNC conversion.

I believe I gave up some time before Cryptic left the picture.

It will be nice to see if any of this leads to better days for ATI users. It wasn't until the somewhat recent purchase of an Nvidia G92-8800GTS that I had used anything except ATI video cards since 3DFX went under way back when.

[/ QUOTE ]
Hi BillZBubba - not to get into the whole "history of me" but yes, I am a former ATI person. However, during my ATI days I actually worked in a completely different group that had nothing to do with gaming or drivers. Please don't think I'm here to "convert" you - not my intention. If you like our products, great; if not, that's okay too. I'm not one of those people who believes that we always have the best solution and are infallible - we can always do better. That's one of the reasons we wanted to do this thread - to get some real feedback from CoX players, whether good or bad, and when it's feedback that isn't positive, see if we can correct things.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ask Agent Ruby: Everyone has some horror story be it lousy teaming experance or an 'oops' personal moment. Can you think of one of your own that you could share?

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you play the game Ruby? I meen like, play normally or are you just here and maybe playing cause of this.

Just curious.

And if so, what do you think of the game? Me, I love this game. Been here longer than my reg date says. I just didnt bother with the forums till later. And no matter what changes they are or might make to the game, I like it enough that I will stay and have fun playing no matter what.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, I've been playing since launch years ago, and love the game. I've been lucky to be in a SG that has stayed together for a long time, and have made a lot of great friends because of it.

[ QUOTE ]
Ask Agent Ruby: Everyone has some horror story be it lousy teaming experance or an 'oops' personal moment. Can you think of one of your own that you could share?

[/ QUOTE ]
I can't think of a really bad time specifically, but for me, I've always embarrassed when i ask players "dumb" questions on how to do this or that, or how to find this or that, and then have to tell them that I have been playing since the game launched. For example, I have never even tried to do binds! Is that bad?

[ QUOTE ]
I see it was asked on page 6, but there was no reply. When will winner be announced for the server costume contest?

[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry - just answered it, but to repeat: we still have some servers to visit, and then I believe the judging will begin. At this point all I can say is to keep checking your server forum section for updates.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I know you're probably tired of hearing this question but I'm not sure how you're replying to these questions sooo...

Ask Agent Ruby: I have Radeon ATI 3600 series HD Card on 3 gigs of ram and a 2.6ghz quad core AMD processor. Not sure about the motherboard - windows vista 32 bit. I know people on systems with inferior (by comparison to my card's potential) NVidia cards and 1/3rd the memory I have on windows XP that can get to enjoy the maximum visual affects that this game has to offer. I get a reduced framerate and buggy water effects instead. Will ATI, given their new partnership, address these issues any time soon?

[/ QUOTE ]

Ask Ruby,

above me and,

I have always wondered this. I have the same card mentioned above, the ATI 3600 HD (thats what it says) but its supossed to be the overclocked vertion. The 3650, BUT, it doesnt say the 3650, it says the 3600 when I check my hardware. And also in the part you can overclock the card more in the ATI controls, when you unlock it, it wont let you put it where it is supossed to be.And that is at 800 and 400. It says and stays at 724 and 396. The card is supossed to be at 800 and 400 minimum and it is supossed to be a 3650. Also, when I go to get drivers for the card on the AMD/ATI site I can never find the 3650, only the 3600 drivers.

Can you please tell me why this is? If not here hopfully in a PM so it doesnt get lost in the forum mess this will end up becoming lol.

Thanks in advance, Whiteseeker

[/ QUOTE ]
Hi Whiteseeker - the 3650 is part of the ATI Radeon HD 3600 family, so when you check in Catalyst Control Center it will list the family and not the specific variant, and that's how it's listed (by family) when you're looking for a driver as well. As for the changing the clocks, I assume you're using the OverDrive feature - I apologize but I don't have details around this to be able to answer correctly. I would recommend you check out our Catalyst Crew Feedback Program and submit this issue, or if you've registered your product, you can also submit this to our Customer Care program. Hope this helps!

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh thanks you Ruby

I understand now. And yes I will do what you have suggested.

Thanks again for being so kind as to answer our questions

EDIT: Oh yeah umm hehe, can you suggest that they take that terrible WoW trial thing out of the Driver packedge download? LOL.

It is kind of nerve racking to have to try and hunt that thing down and delete the 3-4 MB it takes up on your HD. deleting the shortcut it slaps on your desktop doesnt get rid of what it really puts on your HD.

I am sort of sayibng this jokingly and sort of not lol.

Maybe have the option to choose to have it in the download instead of having the trial snuck in with the packadge.

[/ QUOTE ]
On the trial thing - duly noted and I will share internally.

[ QUOTE ]
Agent Ruby,

No pressure or anything, but when will the winners of the server costume contest be announced?

BTW, what do you think is happening with the Rikti Invasion RP thingy going on?

[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry, I don't know the exact timelines, but if you check back to your server's forum section there will be further updates in the near future. In the meantime, we still have a few more servers to visit before everything is finalized and the judging begins!

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ask Agent Ruby: Whoah, partnership with AMD? Does that mean that NVIDIA support will slowly disappear and you will only be able to play the game in the future with an ATI card?

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry Philotic, I gotta ask the same question. Ruby will this ATI partenership mean those of use who spent money on NVIDIA cards are SOL? If it does, I may not be able to keep playing this game which would be sad for me. The year I've been on has been a great time.

[/ QUOTE ]
I already answered this, but just to reiterate: NO NO NO. It would make absolutely no sense (not to mention the fact that the great folks at NCSoft would never go for something like that, nor would we want that).

[ QUOTE ]
I love how she didn't touch the NVIDIA questions, either of them... heh.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not true!!! I did answer you!

[ QUOTE ]
Welcome to the Forums! Of DOOOM!

Glad to see somone on the tech end making themselves so accessible
Like any true hero would.

Ehh...questions...questions...Do you think the Phillies would repeat as WS champs if every game were 3 innings long?

Follow up question: What would you name Paragon City professional sports team and which sport would you prefer?

[/ QUOTE ]
Okay, these are tough! To answer in order:

1) Doesn't matter if it was 3 innings or 33, I think the Phillies have what it takes to win the World Series every year (I was a big Mike Schmidt fan growing up and always have loved the Phillies because of it - when the Blue Jays beat them in the '93 World Series, I think I was the only Canadian booing).

2) It would have to be hockey, and I would go with the Paragon City Pugilists.

[ QUOTE ]
Hi Ruby!

It was nice to have met you very briefly on Virtue when the comic photoshoot with Back Alley Brawler was prepping. Since you said that you have been playing CoX since launch, what would you say is your favorite archetype on each side of the coin?

Ashes to ashes,
Pheonyx

[/ QUOTE ]
Hi Pheonyx! That comic shoot was fun. On CoH, I've mainly stuck between either being a blaster or a scrapper. My only lev50 hero is an energy blaster, and it took me forever to get him to 50. Then, I have a few scrappers and blasters in the 20s and 30s, who I jump back and forth on depending on my mood. On the Villains side, I have a Stalker and a Brute who are both in the mid 20s.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ask Agent Ruby:

One of the things that many players will want to ask you about is the difficulties with in the past is using some of the higher-end effects, such as High water effects, FSAA Depth of Field, and other settings with ATI graphics cards in general. Do these settings still cause problems with City of Heroes/ Villains? If so, are they being addressed?

Thanks for stopping by our forums!

[/ QUOTE ]

Great question - there are some things still being tackled, but being a CoH player myself, I can tell you that there have been a lot of improvements over time. A few things to point out:

First, AMD releases a new CATALYST driver every month with performance and feature improvements, so it's always a good idea to keep your drivers up to date

Second, we have a great support program through our "Catalyst Crew" program - the Crew is a group of dedicated (some would say fanatical ) Catalyst testers who put our drivers through the ringer regularly, and test against as much as they can. They also try to reproduce as many issues that are submitted as possible, and you can submit any issues you encounter HERE.

Finally, our Catalyst Control Center (CCC) has a number of options you can optimize to change things like AA, AF and a number of other features, which sometimes helps in improving performance and image quality. There are also some good resources on our website on how to optimize CCC for a better gaming experience.

[/ QUOTE ]
Oh, new drivers have been tried. MANY new drivers. Same with CCC settings. Please understand, these problems have been going on for at least three YEARS now.

The Catalyst Crew sounds good, maybe they can get the ball rolling and a fix can be found. But right here, right now, and for the past three years, your cards have not been able to do Full Screen Anti-Aliasing and use the high end graphic options like high detail water effects at the same time.

So my question is - why would we buy one of these cards when <ahem> the other company makes cards that can use the high end options?

(Sorry for such a pointed question but this has been going on for years and instead of sending an engineer they sent a saleswoman. I myself suffered through this problem for a year and half. Coming in here to try and sell us a product with that still going on is galling to say the least.)

[/ QUOTE ]
I completely understand, and your question makes perfect sense. A couple of things I'd say - first, unfortunately while it's obviously impossible to do anything about the past three years, we are trying to improve things going forward. Second, we are not doing these activities to just blatantly sell you a product (although let's be honest, we are in the business of selling products!). Things like this let us support NCSoft, a valuable partner, and also let us get honest feedback from you, the people who buy CPUs, graphics cards and motherboards. So while some of the feedback is not positive, it's not something we want to ignore, because it obviously tells us how we can improve things.