[Mitesh]

I have a number of issues - if anyone can help I would be very grateful:

Far Cry - Patched upto v.1.33 (I have not applied the v1.4 patch as it only helps if you use multiplayer which I do not as I do not have the internet at home and nor have I ever attended a LAN party - although I did try to setup my own LAN business in Canterbury which failed (My budget was £100 and I did not conduct any market research to see if there was demand for such a servicee so.......).

I also have the 1.4 BETA patch which enables HDR and AA to be used at the same time however that patch provides infinite ammo, and since I have installed Far Cry on my new rig (All my components except the LCD screen and the case are brand new) I havenot applied the BETA patch.

I currently use the Nvidia 158.22 drivers and have installed Ntune so I can monitor the temp of my card.

1) Now the first problem is to do with Far Cry and Far Cry only.

When I shoot any most weapons, then pretend it says I have 300 bullets in total remaining underneath the 30 or whatever amount of bullets per clip.
When I shoot that weapon and reload the total amount goes down to 270 which is correct as I just shot 30 bullets or wasted them in a reload.
however that ammo count affects ALL the other weapons except one of them.
I have a video clip of it which is worth a million words - I simply cannnot explain it properly through text - watch it and you will understand the problem - ermmmm I dont know how to upload the video - Can anyone tell me how to do this - or I can send it via email.

I use only the official patches that come on the disc.
As you can imagine running out of ammo in all guns becasue of 1 is no small problem.


2) The other probelm is regarding AA (Anti Aliaising).
This affects ALL games such as Tomb Raider Legend, Call Of Duty 2, Far Cry, Tomb Raider Anniversary (I have only tried the demo - the full game should be with me on Monday), Fable: The Lost Chapters.

First things first - I have set the settings in my Nvidia control panel as such:

Anisotropic Filtering - Application Controlled
Antialiaising - Gamma Correction - On
Antialiaising Mode - Application Controlled
Antialiaising Transparency - Supersampling
Conformant Texture Map - Use hardware
Error reporting - Off
Extension limit - Off
Force Mipmaps - Trilinear
Multidisplay/mixed GPU accelaration - Single Display Performance Mode
Texture Filtering - Negative LOD bias - Clamp
Texture Filtering Quality - High Quality
Threaded Optimisation - Auto
Triple Buffering - Off
Vertical Sync - Force On

(I have missed out some setting as they are greyed due to settings I have chosen above)

I have it on the highest settings becasue that is exactly what I expect a £300 graphics card to cope with.
But noooooooooooooo............

Now Far Cry in game settings - all advanced settings set to FULL including AF.

V Sync is on, obvioulsy Full Screen and sound options are on there highest as I have a creative X-Fi with Logitech Z-5500 speakers.

With AA set to 2x in the in game menu, I played on the Pier level. I have played Far Cry loads so I keep my saved games - I have played it through using the command which allows you to save at any point in the game at any point using the console. So I loaded it from the point where you just shoot down 2 mercs from the tall sniper point place (1 guy is down by the generator and the other up in the tall sniper point place with the ladder on it. After that there is a jungle with a couple of mercs in it, afer which you then come out to the mercs camp where you then plant explosives in the weapon storgae block.
At the jungle bit it slopes downwards. I saved it at the top of that hill just before enetering the jungle.

I used FRAPS to record the FPS during these 30 seconds (All other settings to full using the in game settings).

Resolutin: 1280 x 1024

With 2x AA:
Min: 57
Max: 62 (??? VSync yet 62??)
Average: 60

Comments - Is very smooth, no signs of slow FPS.


4x AA:
Min:29
Max:61
Average:42.467

Comments: Most of the time it feels like I am playing in slow motion, especially when I look up at the leaves because obviously there are MANY leaves whi need to be removed of Jaggy's s.
When there are no trees and bushes (rarley seeing as alot of the time we are in the jungle) the FPS seems OK.

8x AA:
Min:13
Max:35
Average:21.9

Comments: Felt like a slideshow.

As can be seen from the above results, I can only game at 2x AA - although this is not a prblem sice I am only gaming at a resolution of 1280 x 1024 and you only need 4x AA when you reach 1920 x 1050.
However the reason why I uprgarded from my X1900XT to this card was because that card had the same problem.
Now my concern is - if at this resolution it struggles with 4xAA, then what aou when it is on a larger resolution?
I thought (and reviews prove this) that this card is quite capable of upto resolutions of 1920 x 1200 with 4 x AA.(This result is from a review using F.E.A.R).

Now I left it on 8x AA and put all other graphics options (in game) to there lowest setting as well as turning VSync off.
Here are the results:

Min:16
Max:35
Average:24.867

Comments: The graphics looked absolutley terrible, it looked like the first tomb raider game ever released! It was still a slide show.

Now with COD2 it is the same thing and in Tomb Raider Legend, if I enable Full Screen AA from the in game menu (dont forget you cant really tweak TRL) then FPS falls down to roughly 19 FPS. If I enable Next Gen (HDR) then it preety much becomes unplayable.

Anyone have any ideas? I thought a 8800 GTS KO 640MB could easily hande this lot - but nooo.

Also why hasn't Nvidia released any more drivers since its 158.22 release (I know they updated it to WHQL).

[Advertisements]

Just curious, are you running Vista or XP?

[Titan8990]

Just curious, are you running Vista or XP?

[Troy]

If you want to upload a video for us to watch, you could try http://www.youtube.com this is a good website for video uploading. You would need to sign in (maybe make an account) and then once you have followed all the instructions, you can post a copy of the link for us to watch.

[Mitesh]

I am running XP - and of course I know of youtube -- I dont live on some far away island!
Ermmmmm is that all you lot have to say? No repsonse to the other queries????

I will see what I can to about uploading hte video - as I have limited access to what I can do as I do not have hte internet at home - I am typing from a library. I think that speaks for itself.

Update* Just typed in youtube - 'The Websense category "Streaming Media" is filtered.'.
Lol they filter youtube? They also filter play.com and other shopping sites - this public library is trash.

Edited by Mitesh, 31 July 2007 - 06:50 AM.

[Troy]

If your system runs completely fine other than the problems you are describing here, you might be better off posting this in the Games section. Anyway, here's some more thoughts I've had on the issue. I do not have your game, so just bear with me.

I'm not sure what the numbers are for the drivers of your card (I have an ATI), but are they the latest? You might want to update to the latest if it isn't, and if it is the latest, then try rolling it back to an older release. Sometimes this can sort out some problems.

I strongly suggest you update your game to the latest non-BETA patch. I get the impression from your first comment that there is a 1.4 patch and a 1.4 BETA. You have commented that the non-BETA 1.4 only does the multi-player update, but it might also help out. If I have understood you wrong, then it might help to explain this a little better. You have mentioned only using patches that come on the disc. You should try visiting the manufacturer's website, there may be a newer "official" patch for download that fixes this problem.

Another suggestion I can think of is the installation might be in need of repair. You could try saving all your game files (saves), and then uninstalling the game, rebooting and reinstalling the game.

Ahhhh, good old YouTube. My local library has also blocked this out, it is a bandwidth killer. I only suggested this because there is no option to upload videos on this forum. And I do live on some far-away island!

Once again, there may be someone in the Games section who might know a bit more about this. I hope what we have offered has been some help, at least.

Cheers

[Mitesh]

No let me explain. Far Cry is quite an old game now. (about 2-3 years I think). Howver the patches avaialable only go upto v1.44. V1.44 Is ONLY for multiplayer - no other fixesa are included. I bought this game last year so the CD comes with all the patches except the 1.4. The BETA 1.4 is for enabling HDR and AA at the same time. Think about it it cant be a driver problem since I have the latest drivers (As I speak I haved discovered there is now a newer version which was released 2-5 days back) however this issue was also there when I had my old rig which had a P4 an X1900XT nad PC3200 1GB RAM - so it canno be the games fault nor driver faults as the probelm with anti - aliasing is with alll my games.
So............

[Troy]

Are you able to test a different card in your rig?

[Mitesh]

Oh come on - I had the same problem with my old components and the same problem now. I can only think of one answer - the screen or the DVI cable - both seem like they could not possibly be the cause to me.

And in short the answer to your question is no I cannot test another card - becasue I do not have another card and nor do I know anyone who would lend me there's.

[Troy]

Oh come on

We are just trying to help. Like I have said, you may have more luck with this in the Games section of this forum.

In your signature, the monitor is a brand I have never heard of before, and 10ms response time is not that great for gaming. It might be worth a try testing your system with a different (better) monitor if you are able.

Other than that, I am clear out of ideas. I strongly recommend going to the games section where some of the staff who hang in that section are likely to have more of an idea of things to try.

Cheers

[james_8970]

Can you post your full system specs.
The most recent drivers I can see were created on the 26th, driver 162.18.
DVI cables and the monitor will not be the cause of this issue.
James

Edited by james_8970, 08 August 2007 - 12:09 AM.

[Mitesh]

That screen is of a very good manufacturer. Back in 2004-5 it was the best 17inch LCD panel money could buy.

My full system specs are in my signature james.

[arito]

I have the same problem as you with the ammo count. I already reported it to Ubisoft's tech support, but only advice I have got so far (in three weeks) from there is to update my graphics card driver and lower the refresh rate :-/ I'll quote here what I have told to Ubisoft until now:
......................

"I have this persistent problem with Far Cry. When I shoot with a gun, the ammo count (on full clips) goes down on another gun too and the amount of ammo left (in full clips again) is always the same with both guns. This happenes at least with the combinations of P90 SMG and MP5 SMG, and M4 and OICW. The sniper rifle and the pistol are not affected.

I bought the game about four months ago, but the problem appeared only perhaps two weeks ago. I can't remember if I did (or had just done) anything special when the problem occured. The problem can't have been there from the beginning, because I have played the game all the way through to the end at the hardest level, and I should have noticed then - I can't imagine that I could have pulled that off with only 300 rounds in use (think about the catacombs :-)

The patches I have installed or tried:
1.1
1.3
1.31
1.33
1.4
1.41 (unofficial)
FC 64ecu to 32os conversion

The strange thing is that there seems to be no way to fix the problem. I have unistalled and re-installed the game. I have tried with and without all the available patches. During re-installations I removed the patches complitely with Windows Installer Clean Up Utility. I used EasyClean software to remove unused things from the registry. I even used regedit to search and remove everything that had string "far cry", "farcry" or "ubisoft" in it. Ofcourse I deleted the savefiles too. So, even after complitely fresh re-installation (to my best understanding) this problem still exists, even though it wasn't there for a long time after I started to play the game !?

My Windows installation is just for gaiming, othewise I use Ubuntu linux. Because of this the installation is very simple - just a few games and tools. The Far Cry CD is in perfect shape externally - no scratches or other marks.

I search the internet for anyone else with the same problem, but found only one."
......................

"I just borrowed my brothers Far Cry CD to try if I get the same problem with it. And I do, even though I re-installed the game from his CD. He bought the CD some two years before me (don't know if that means anything).

I can't think of other explanation for this than that the game leaves something behind it after it has been removed, and this something has become corrupted somehow. Then again, I'm just a user - not a game developer :-)
.......................
.......................


I haven't reported this to Ubisoft yet, but I re-installed Windows XP and Far Cry a couple of days ago. In addition to Far Cry I straight away installed patches 1.4 and farcry_x64ecu_for_x32os before playing. Previosly I have installed the community patch 1.41 too, but left that out this time. I also didn't install my old save points or other back-up files because I thought they might have something to do with the problem. To my dismay the ammo count problem was still there! I couldn't believe what I saw. Despite the fact that I completely wiped my hard disk and re-installed everything. Nothing from the previous installation was present.

The only thing that I can think of now that could cause the problem is the patch farcry_x64ecu_for_x32os, because when I started to play far cry I had the patch 1.40 installed from the beginning (much before the problem appeared to my remembering anyway), but farcry_x64ecu_for_x32os I installed later - perhaps around the time when the problem occured (but I can't be sure of that). On the other hand, if I understand right, you haven't installed the patch x64ecu_for_x32os?

The strange thing is that when I tried to track down the problem earlier, I removed Far Cry and all the settings files, and even cleaned all the related items that I could find from the registry, and after that installed Far Cry without any patches - but the problem was still there. This made me think that there was something screwed that I had missed still left in the registry and I would just have to re-install Windows and everything would be fine again. But now after re-installation I know that the problem must be elsewhere.

The common factor for us are the patches up to 1.33 (which is included in the 1.40, which I've been using) and possibly the installation disk. An error on the installation disk sounds unlikely, because then quite a many people should have the same problem we have. On the other hand, thinking of patches, to my remembering I started with the patch 1.40 straight away, which you haven't been using at all. This means that if the error is in a patch, it propably would have got in in the hands of Ubisoft, because the same error would be present both in patch 1.33 and 1.40. Again, a large group of players should have been affected then. And even if the problem is in a patch, it would have to be something that's left behind when the game is uninstalled and the settings files removed, because I have tried those things.

Maybe I should re-install Windows and Far Cry one more time leaving out all the patches to see if the problem is on the installation disk after all. It's just hard to believe that, because then I propably would have had the problem from the beginning. And as I have told, before noticing the problem I played the game to the end at the realistic level, and it's just hard to believe I could have done that with just 300 rounds of ammo available at a time.

I'll see if I have the time - and stamina - to do the re-installation again.

[Mitesh]

Dam!!!!! Jesus you have alot of stamina!! That many reinstallations?? I was thinking - perhaps we both bought the game around the same time therfore that particular batch of games had this problem so perhaps it is the particular version of the game we bought (I bought mine around 1 and a half years ago or something).
I am about to reinstall windows. I will try it without any patches or saved games - just the raw installation. See how that goes. If the problem persists I will try borrowing someones older and newer versions. Other than that this is a serious issue which Ubisoft are overlooking becasue we a re a minority.
Ill keep in touch.

[arito]

Dam!!!!! Jesus you have alot of stamina!! That many reinstallations??

Perhaps I'm a little stubborn some times :-)

I just got my hands on a third Far Cry disk and used it to install the game on a fresh Windows installation. The ammo bug was present! What on earth is going on here? I have tried three different Far Cry installation disks now and all of them have the ammo count bug.

Now it's indeed clear that the problem is not in the patches - it's in the installation disk. There must be many more people than us two that suffer from this bug. Well, actually, it's at least three. One of the discs I tried is my brother's, and I just checked it out and he has the bug in his installation as well (earlier he said he doesn't have it, but I checked it out my self and noticed that he has it too (he has hardly played the game - that's why he didn't notice)). I borrowed the third disk from another brother of mine (I still have a couple of more brothers :-), but he is just in the middle of building a gaming rig for himself and can't play at the moment. When he's ready, he'll see if the bug affects his system too. It propably will, but it's good to find out for sure that this isn't in any way machine specific.

I was thinking - perhaps we both bought the game around the same time therfore that particular batch of games had this problem so perhaps it is the particular version of the game we bought (I bought mine around 1 and a half years ago or something).

Two of the disks that I have tried were bought recently, and one was bought about two years ago. The disk covers aren't identical either; one of them has some Dutch in it in addition to english, the other has a French contact address and the third has a different cover layout. This propably means that there's not just some small batch of disks that have the bug.

I am about to reinstall windows. I will try it without any patches or saved games - just the raw installation. See how that goes. If the problem persists I will try borrowing someones older and newer versions. Other than that this is a serious issue which Ubisoft are overlooking becasue we a re a minority.

I'm also starting to think that Ubisoft must be aware of this issue. Anyway, I'm going to send my findings to Ubisoft support again (from whom I haven't heard anything for a long time). It might be good if you did the same thing. The more they hear of a problem, more effort I hope they'll put into resolving it. I have reported my findings here

Ill keep in touch.

Yeah, me too :-)

Edited by arito, 20 October 2007 - 06:29 PM.