Windows 7 vs XP and CoX graphics
By
Father Xmas,
Posted on: 2009-09-25 13:35 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Quote:
That's a shader quality difference. I'm guessing you have/had the game set to different shader qualities from the XP to the Win7 versions.
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Originally Posted by Stardrive
Shields and Arachnos helmets & shoulder armor have a great lookeing highly polished metal look to them.
The Rikti and Positron have lighted effects on their power armor. The Arachnos flyers have large sections illuminated with strobing red lights |
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I went with the default settings in both cases
It's most likely DX10 vs DX9.
If you find a way to install DX10 on XP, I'd love to hear about it. That would probably save me buying an operating system for another few years.
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On both my XP and Vista machines I see the same things you're seeing at high shader settings. And those things disappear at lower shader settings.|
Originally Posted by Stardrive
I went with the default settings in both cases
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Maybe in your XP box, there was something blocking your graphics card from displaying the bells and whistles available from the higher shader settings.
But you don't have to be in Win7 to see those things.
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It's the same box, I just have it on a dual boot setup, SOOOOO.... based on your input, I'd say it's likely that Windows 7 is probably just smarter at detecting optimim settings for the game. I'll have to tweak with the settings on the XP version of the game and see if I can get the settings comparible to how it runs on Windows 7
Some games will only show certain graphical features when you 1:specifically tell it to, or 2: it will be shown automatically if your system meets the requirments.
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The CoH/V uses OpenGL to render the game. Sound is still Dx.
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Originally Posted by Hart
It's most likely DX10 vs DX9.
If you find a way to install DX10 on XP, I'd love to hear about it. That would probably save me buying an operating system for another few years. |
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This. I noticed the same type of thing when I started using the higher quality preferences. I'm still using XP as well.|
Originally Posted by Zombie Man
On both my XP and Vista machines I see the same things you're seeing at high shader settings. And those things disappear at lower shader settings.
Maybe in your XP box, there was something blocking your graphics card from displaying the bells and whistles available from the higher shader settings. But you don't have to be in Win7 to see those things. |
The box may be the same, and the client may be the same, but the OS isn't necessarily the only difference.
Maybe the OP's WinXP video driver just sucks?
Well, again I'll try tinkering with the XP partition's copy of COX later tonight and report what happens. 
I suspected it was a game setting though, because the devs have no reason to push out a game upgrade for an OS that hasn't even been officially released yet.
And I think part of what helped Windows 7 is that there's an option in it to benchmark your computer, so that Win 7 can help your programs decide what settings to use.
OK, finally logged out of the game long enough to switch over to XP...
*is NOT an addict.. really* <_< >_>
ANYWAY... Yes, setting the shader settings onto high will give the effects I was commenting on seeing while using Windows 7
This shouldn't be too hard for anybody to do either, systems requirement wise. I'm running a sort of old system now:
AMD 5200+ Dual Core CPU
ATI 4650 1 gig video card
2 gigs of RAM
Give it a try, everyone. Some if the textures at that level are absolutely amazing. It looks like a totally different game vs the lower settings.
Already have most everything maxed before installing 7 settings wise, so no real difference there. The only real change I saw was the fact that 2GB of ram was not enough to play the game and multitask with x64 7. It was laggy switching programs. After installing another 4GB, things move much like that did while on x86 XP. The game is much happier with more ram.
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If my box didn't have the power to run everything at high, I'd lower everything else just to leave the shader at high. It makes a huge difference.
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Originally Posted by Stardrive
Give it a try, everyone. Some if the textures at that level are absolutely amazing. It looks like a totally different game vs the lower settings.
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Not a bug, just a question here... I'm one of the lucky ones who's going to college at a Microsoft Certified college as an IT student, so I already have a final retail release of Windows 7.
As a side note, I absolutely LOVE it too. For me, COX is A LITTLE less stable than on XP, but that's the only knock I have for it.
ANYWAY, back to the topic at hand. Running CoX on Windows 7, I've noticed a HUGE improvement in graphics quality in the game vs playing it on XP. A few examples:
Shields and Arachnos helmets & shoulder armor have a great lookeing highly polished metal look to them.
The Rikti and Positron have lighted effects on their power armor.
The Arachnos flyers have large sections illuminated with strobing red lights.
Those are just the biggest examples. I'm noticing improved textures in alot of other areas too; costume pieces, Arachnos bases, etc...
So what I'm trying to figure out here is, is this due to something unique to Windows 7, or is it something other players can jump on to improve their game play as well, like Direct X 10? I have a dual boot system and tried playing on XP last night, and the game looked like crap by comparison. And no, I don't have Direct X 10 on my XP partition yet.