Volari screenshots

[vnet]

I'm puzzled.
I mean lots of people say the image quality of the Volari is really horrible in every application but I have to disagree now after seeing some screenshots.

Look at the following 2 pictures and tell me which one is better? Examine closely the details of the stone and see which one looks more detailled, crispier.

(these screenshots were taken by XBITLABS)

As you can see, the stone on the FIRST picture is much clearer than on the pic (reference pic), you can clearly see the details on the stone whereas the stone is all blur on the reference pic.
Surprise, surprise, the first pic was taken on a Volari !

The image quality is in no way horrible as many people seemed to have implied as you can see for yourself, so what is this story of horrible image quality?
Having poor image quality in some games can happen to anyone - I mean just look at the Deltachrome : many people praise it yet it also has image quality problems (which some people conveniently prefer to ignore to)

Just a reminder: IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles and Final Fantasy XI Official Benchmark 2 were not included into the list of our today’s tests because of image quality problems. The same happened to the Highly Anticipated DX9 Game, where the image quality was simply terrible. Note that the results in the OpenGL games shouldn’t be regarded as final, because the OpenGL ICD from S3 hasn’t been finalized yet and even doesn’t have a separate page in the drivers, which makes it impossible to adjust any settings.

 

[tEd]

volari doesn't render all the shadows and also lacks HDR

with the cheats removed it renders the shadows now but still lacks hdr

 

[vnet]

what? where?
where do you see lack of shadows and HDR ?

Don't NV3x lack HDR too ?

 

[tEd]

what? where?
where do you see lack of shadows and HDR ?

look carefully , it's pretty obvious though

Don't NV3x lack HDR too ?

no

 

[Quitch]

Amazingly, you can make everything in a game crisp by giving yourself a negative LOD, this doesn't make for a good image though.

 

[Hanners]

Examine closely the details of the stone and see which one looks more detailled, crispier.

New Volari Duo. Now even crispier!


I would agree that Volari's image quality isn't all that bad in 3DMark03 (although not perfect), but I don't see why people keep looking at those shots and totally ignoring the shots we've seen in Halo and the like.

 

[vnet]

with the cheats removed it renders the shadows now but still lacks hdr

And the stone is blurry again.
And the screenshot you showed specifically says it is the "cheat removed version based on THE OLD DRIVER, not the newer one which I showed above which doesn't have cheats and is sharp.

I would agree that Volari's image quality isn't all that bad in 3DMark03 (although not perfect), but I don't see why people keep looking at those shots and totally ignoring the shots we've seen in Halo and the like.

I don't understand why people keep focusing on an issue specific to one game and generalize the situation to every game out there.
Yes, there are issues but give them time to remove them ?

Also, people flame XGI for the Halo bug but praise Deltachrome on the other hand when it has severe issues as well :

Just a reminder: IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles and Final Fantasy XI Official Benchmark 2 were not included into the list of our today’s tests because of image quality problems. The same happened to the Highly Anticipated DX9 Game, where the image quality was simply terrible. Note that the results in the OpenGL games shouldn’t be regarded as final, because the OpenGL ICD from S3 hasn’t been finalized yet and even doesn’t have a separate page in the drivers, which makes it impossible to adjust any settings.

 

[Hanners]

I don't understand why people keep focusing on an issue specific to one game and generalize the situation to every game out there.
Yes, there are issues but give them time to remove them ?

Halo isn't the only game with severe issues, it just happens to be the worst. The fact that it's an application-specific cheat doesn't exactly help XGIs ceredentials either.

Also, people flame XGI for the Halo bug but praise Deltachrome on the other hand when it has severe issues as well

That's because:

a. DeltaChrome hasn't shipped yet, Volari has.
b. XGIs drivers are more mature than S3s at this stage.
c. We've seen no evidence of S3 cheating.
d. DeltaChrome is targeted at the mid-range, and performs as such, whereas XGI are offering mid-range performance (at best) for a high-end price.

 

[tEd]

with the cheats removed it renders the shadows now but still lacks hdr

And the stone is blurry again.
And the screenshot you showed specifically says it is the "cheat removed version based on THE OLD DRIVER, not the newer one which I showed above which doesn't have cheats and is sharp.
it impossible to adjust any settings.

So if your pic is indeed without cheats , why are the shadows and hdr missing?

 

[vnet]

how and where do you see hdr ?

 

[Tagrineth]

So if your pic is indeed without cheats , why are the shadows and hdr missing?

The sky is indeed kinda dark, but there are indeed shadows in the very first screenshot of this thread. In fact, if I'm not mistaken every screenshot in this thread has full shadows.

 

[rubank]

Taggy,
look at the stones at the lower left and "small" stones at the center and you´ll see the missing shadows

 

[mczak]

how and where do you see hdr ?

Look at the sky between the trees in the right top edge. Thanks to Nvidia I spotted this in an instant, without even looking at the reference image 8). They really got my neurons trained to that issue (Nvidia has fixed this tough AFAIK, at least on the FX5600 and up, not sure about FX5200).

 

[Doomtrooper]

what? where?
where do you see lack of shadows and HDR ?

look carefully , it's pretty obvious though

Don't NV3x lack HDR too ?

no

HDR is not exposed in DirectX though, only OpenGL.

 

[OpenGL guy]

Don't NV3x lack HDR too ?

no

HDR is not exposed in DirectX though, only OpenGL.[/quote]
Note that 3D Mark 2003 does not use any render targets higher than 32bit, else results between different IHV's cards may not be comparable. The likely difference in sky rendering is from a lack of dynamic range.

 

[Ailuros]

I don't understand why people keep focusing on an issue specific to one game and generalize the situation to every game out there.
Yes, there are issues but give them time to remove them ?

Is it really just one game? They have all the time they can get, albeit I doubt it'll do them any good. It can't even come close in terms of anything of a more than a year older R300, let alone that both ATI and NV's current mainstream sollutions beat it senseless across the board. If XGi wants a fair chance they'd better deliver and for that not only image and driver quality would have to be on par with the competition, but also carry a highly competitive price/performance ratio.

Also, people flame XGI for the Halo bug but praise Deltachrome on the other hand when it has severe issues as well :

Well the V8 Duo has one major advantage over the DC: it knows how to consume an ungodly amount of power.

Pardon me for the overly sarcastic comment but ever time I hear the Volari name, I instantly think of flies desperately seeking for ointment.

 

[tEd]

So if your pic is indeed without cheats , why are the shadows and hdr missing?

The sky is indeed kinda dark, but there are indeed shadows in the very first screenshot of this thread. In fact, if I'm not mistaken every screenshot in this thread has full shadows.

there are indeed shadows but not everywhere

 

[Basic]

tEd:
Add another arrow with a new flashy color at (X, Y) = (850, 570).
That will point at a missing strand of grass. Not a big difference, but could be an indication of something interesting. Think of another company that removed stuff that wasn't visible anyway...

BTW, what's the two yellow dots in front of the butterfly doing in your image.

 

[Doomtrooper]

UFO ??

 

[vnet]

tEd:
Think of another company that removed stuff that wasn't visible anyway...

Hidden Surface Removal ?