Wednesday, October 29th 2008
![ATI Catalyst](https://tpucdn.com/images/news/catalyst-v1723408558483.png)
AMD Releases Newer Hotfix Driver, Addresses Far Cry 2 and STALKER: Clear Sky Issues
AMD updated the graphics driver hotfix titled, 737-38664: Far Cry 2 and Stalker Clear Sky HotFix. The hotfix aims to address issues with the two game titles and improves performance. Highlights include:
- Performance improvement for the DirectX 9 version of Far Cry 2 on CrossFire installations
- Performance improvement for the DirectX 10 version of Far Cry 2 on single GPU and CrossFire installations
- Improves performance for the DirectX 10 and DirectX 10.1 version of STALKER: Clear Sky on both single and CrossFireX configurations at higher resolutions
63 Comments on AMD Releases Newer Hotfix Driver, Addresses Far Cry 2 and STALKER: Clear Sky Issues
and what bug did they fix?
here it is www.alienbabeltech.com/?p=890
Does the new rivatuner have 4800 series support yet?
EDIT: Rivatuner 2.11 doesn't support this driver BTW :(
Just tried ati tray tools 1.6.1328 beta and that wont work either.
Thank you ATI :toast:
More drivers...dammit, I'm using ATi now, not Nvidia... I thought this would end! :0 Erm, there they go again, another review using driver forced AF. I don't understand, why are people forcing AF in Far Cry 2, it seems to do nothing for the image quality. I got the impression it was built into the engine..
I thought that review was trash. They're using 178 for Nvidia, they don't test the X2 AND the screenshots they give to represent AA and AF are some ground shot at close distance where no AA would be seen anyways.
What did I miss?
Anyways, DX9 is still the way to go.
DX10 continues to present a micro stutter, crash, and it's IQ is in no way justifying it's performance hit.
The best way to play I've found, is in DX9, 4xAA, All Ultra or Very High (where applicable), Vsync, with Geometry on Medium(which vastly improves performance. The IQ lost, is that things like trees are less dense, but you can rectify this problem for the most part with a console command).
The console command in question is the gfx_LODScale. By default it's at "1" Moving it to 0.5 should have little performance impact when your Geometry is at Medium, and it fills out the trees and other objects a lot 'fuller' than having Geometry at High/VHigh/UHigh, and a default LODScale of 1. You can also afford to run shadows at Ultra, which is key when using the config listed below, as with those shadow settings, your shadowing filter is increased, so you no longer see that ugly texture drawing / film line, but shadows up close lose some of their resolution quality. With Ultra applied, most of that returns, and you retain the distance settings as well.
Gfx_HemiQuality 1 (Barely noticeable atmostpheric effect, primarily on tree trunks when faced with sun shadows)
Gfx_LeavesShadowRatio 1 (Increases the shadows cast by trees in the immediate vicinity; no performance impact, nice IQ gain)
Gfx_SunShadowRange0 10 (Increases range for the shadow filtering line for close distance shadows)
Gfx_SunShadowRange1 40 (Increases range for the shadow filtering line for medium disatnce shadows)
Gfx_SunShadowRange2 130 (Increases range for the shadow filtering line for medium to long disatnce shadows)
GfX_Lodscale 0.5 (Increases density of all objects, sprites and etc. as well as creating a more 'plush' environment; also highly recommended if you use Geometry on Medium, as doing so can 'thin' out textures for tress and other objects).
You could go on to add
Gfx_KillLODScale 0.7 (Increase range at which relevant objects pop/spawn onto the screen -only applicable beyond a certain range)
Gfx_LODClustersize 0.6 (Reduce the amount of close and medium range sprites popping into view i.e. grass thickness is more consistent)
This new driver does allow for a few more frames here and there, but nothing to write home about and I also don't see any improvement for DX10.
Results with settings above (DX9)
# Average Framerate: 57.54
# Max. Framerate: 82.08
# Min. Framerate: 48.62
Results with DX10 (either default configuration, or manual settings above)*Note that there is no option to run Geometry at Medium in DX10 mode. It's easy to assume that performance would rise noticeably, but the overall weight of the DX10 bearing down on the results would be unavoidable and probably negate whatever was gained my moving down to Medium.
# Average Framerate: 46.61
# Max. Framerate: 61.55
# Min. Framerate: 30.72
I have a feeling that all of the reviews revolving around the original hotfix, and their ATI results, especially for the X2, were wrong (or misleading in two ways)
A) When they said 'average' they meant 'high' and when they said minimum they meant 'average.' I.e.
B) They are using Medium Geometry for their DX9 results, but are not stating that.
Thanks :toast:
But the dx10 stutter you mention, i saw it with ATI cards, not with Nvidia. Been using 9800GT 1GB and playing at >30 FPS all the time with Vsync On .
Where is the full list of those commands and what they do ?
If you want to see a list of commands and what they do, with recommended settings; it was in the Far Cry 2 thread. It's in my second post on the page.
forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?p=1031158#post1031158
If you think I should start a new thread for it, let me know.
I know Koroush is working on his guide as we speak, though I suppose two opinions is better than one..well not if they are wrong :)
Thanks newconroer. :)
:o
:toast: