RAGE: That's actually what you do when trying to get the PC version to work

ehart said:
I've seen a couple questions and misconceptions, that I thought people might like cleared up.

First, on the OpenCL port issue, the post at Shacknews was a little mistaken. GPU transcoding in Rage was implemented in CUDA, because OpenCL didn't have the necessary features at the time the work began. (the spec wasn't finished) OpenCL was considered later, but the code relied on a feature that only CUDA had at the time to improve performance by 20+%.

As for supported GPUs, it is everything newer than an 8800 GTX which is supported (8800 GTX lacks one necessary feature). The amount it helps depends on how fast the GPU is and how high your resolution is. The 8800 GT mentioned above can actually help somewhat if the rendering resolution is modest, like 1280x720. At the end of the day, it is a decision of how to allocate GPU power. FWIW, an 8800 GT can reliably accelerate vt_maxPPF 16 (a recommended setting for a Core2Duo) on my Core2Duo at 720p and still reliably get 60 FPS. Putting something new and middle of the road like GTX 560 or even a GTX 550 can typically provide more transcode HP than a Core2 can keep up with. (unless the resolution is really high)

In case people are interested, there was actually a presentation describing some of this work and the associated challenges at GTC in 2010:

http://nvidia.fullviewmedia.com/gtc2010/0921-a1-2152.html

I might answer a couple other questions to help clear things up, but please don't be offended if I don't. Also, I'm not here to get into any favorite IHV arguments. I just wanted to help you understand some (IMHO) interesting tech.

Not speaking for my employer, or any partners, yada, yada.
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Thanks Evan, for clearing up some misconception about the CUDA implementation.

And feel free to emphasize any specific technical point you'd like to. Technical trivia about new engine technologies are always appreciated 'round these parts.
 
Well that lays the blame at rest. Fairly damaging for id imo, I'm sure there were considerable lost sales due to the AMD issues.
 
HMBR said:
I'm also running a dual core CPU, it's awful, but on XP it's MUCH, MUCH better than on Windows 7 for me, but the CPU usage is always 100%.

apart from the freezes the FPS seems good on XP, but the pop in is terrible, even if I turn around quite smoothly (I'm not just moving the mouse quickly to cause that, I'm trying to play at a natural speed) I can still clearly see the textures being loaded some x00ms later...

how can I disable AI? I can only set to performance, high and so on,
edit: tested it with AI off, and while it seems to have a positive effect on the freezes, pop in stays the same and now there are some "boxes" on some textures
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100% usage here too. But same problem with some quad core users as well.

http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.ph...fied-driver/page__view__findpost__p__18763632

AI off gives texture artifacts but not on 11.9 in Win7 (tried 11.6 as given in this thread, and about the same results as with 11.9)

HMBR said:
the new driver seems to be exactly the same thing as the earlier Rage performance driver,
the difference now is that it's available for XP to, and includes the BF3 improvements....

I tested it and... it's the same thing, a lot of freezes, unplayable... 10s frozen, 2s gameplay.
forcing AI off solve this, but then it creates some texture problems, and the awful pop in is still there, with some extra commands this can also be improved, but the texture problems caused by the AI off can't...
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same. The freezing is a little better on winxp than win7 with the new driver.
 
I played it for a bit with this new AMD driver on my 6950 and it worked great for awhile but then when I did a quickload the vsync freaked out and it started stuttering and tearing big time. Fun. An 8800GT runs it better than this.

Back to the GTX 560.
 
Malo said:
Well that lays the blame at rest. Fairly damaging for id imo, I'm sure there were considerable lost sales due to the AMD issues.
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Is it possible that a better openGL driver for games could lead to better professional series drivers? If so AMD has some incentive, otherwise they probably don't care to work on it.
digitalwanderer said:
Plays smooth, some texture pop in the corners of the images but it seems to get better once the textures are loaded. The game looks gorgeous and the combat is truly awesome. The story/NPCs could use some serious work, but they got an awful lot righter this time around. :)
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I am glad you are enjoying it Digi.

Our friend Kyle deleted the thread where people said they enjoyed the game and liked it :)
Then he posted an old interview on the page where Carmack said he was a bit dissapointed they did not target PCs more since it released later then they thought it would and the gulf between PCs and consoles increased. The explanation of the clusterf*** and AMDs role is studiously absent. He really has a strong agenda it is pretty funny.
 
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Sxotty said:
Our friend Kyle deleted the thread where people said they enjoyed the game and liked it :) He really has a strong agenda it is pretty funny.
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What's ridiculous about it all is I've played plenty of worse games this year alone. In fact I'm pretty sure I prefer this game over the endlessly lauded Borderlands. I suppose part of his childishness is rightfully fueled by launch incompetence (that's apparently mostly AMD's problem) but still. Some people need to step back and get some perspective on gaming and stop taking stuff personally.
 
Sxotty said:
Is it possible that a better openGL driver for games could lead to better professional series drivers? If so AMD has some incentive, otherwise they probably don't care to work on it.


...
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They might actually be at cross-purposes*, as the pro stuff is more about fidelity and consistency on arbitrary data sets in arbitrary viewports. It certainly seems like both branches would be better for sprouting from a nice sturdy trunk though.

Edit: *to some extent
 
gamepad

Am I the only one who can't get a gamepad to work in this game? I tried a PlayStation 2 controller (via USB adapter) and a Saitek P880 USB gamepad. They both show up fine in the Control Pannel, but RAGE doesn't recognise either one.

Steering the car with a keyboard is a pain in the A$$ :(
 
swaaye said:
I played it for a bit with this new AMD driver on my 6950 and it worked great for awhile but then when I did a quickload the vsync freaked out and it started stuttering and tearing big time. Fun. An 8800GT runs it better than this.

Back to the GTX 560.
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I'm happy to report that the latset ATI drivers have fixed everything onmy PC (i920, 4GB Ram, 5970 w\1GB)
 
Ike Turner said:
I'm happy to report that the latset ATI drivers have fixed everything onmy PC (i920, 4GB Ram, 5970 w\1GB)
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Do you know if they work for other stuff as well? I saw some people complaining that lots of other openGL stuff is broken (like furmark etc). Of course some people always find ways to break things. After this debacle I won't be surprised int eh future to see absolute crap videos on any new releases. Someone installing drivers from 5 years ago and complaining vociferously :) I mean people here got lots of front page coverage and attention for using the old incorrect AMD drivers even after AMD posted the better ones (that still apparently had some issues). Anyway I am glad AMD has finally got all this sorted out, but they have cost id a lot of sales and a lot of money. I bet they are pretty happy that the consoles were the lead platform after this. Hopefully it won't make them rethink doom 4 as well.
 
Sxotty said:
Do you know if they work for other stuff as well? I saw some people complaining that lots of other openGL stuff is broken (like furmark etc). Of course some people always find ways to break things. After this debacle I won't be surprised int eh future to see absolute crap videos on any new releases. Someone installing drivers from 5 years ago and complaining vociferously :) I mean people here got lots of front page coverage and attention for using the old incorrect AMD drivers even after AMD posted the better ones (that still apparently had some issues). Anyway I am glad AMD has finally got all this sorted out, but they have cost id a lot of sales and a lot of money. I bet they are pretty happy that the consoles were the lead platform after this. Hopefully it won't make them rethink doom 4 as well.
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Id on't have any other OGL app/Game installed riht now but will try out later. IE9 GPU acceleration is still busted though ( and that's a Direct2D thing...weird..).

BTW the game rocks (aleast for me..) Just finished the prison break mission and the ennemy AI/death reactions etc is simply awesome. Only downside of the game right now (besides the heavily compressed textures etc... and lack of dinamyc lighting etc..) is the horrible shader aliasing. There's no way to get rid of it.
 
AMD did measurable damage to the PC gaming industry with this IMO. At the very least they did some damage to id's bottom line.
 
What's wrong with the second video?

I think it says a lot about the two video card companies when you think about how an 8800GT runs the game pretty well but a 4850 doesn't. The 3000 and 2000 series have apparently been shown the door. Great support.
 
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