Please go to your 'control panel' in your windows start menu. Now find the "Administrative Tools" option. Double click it, and then double click on the shortcut to "Computer Management".
Once that is done, click on "Device Manager" - you should see it in a sub tree off of Computer Management/System Tools
Click on Display Adaptors so that it opens the sub tree - and then click on the device you have installed (your radeon).
Now right click on it, and select 'properties'. Click on the details tab, and you should see a whole ream of numbers - like this:
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4E48&.........
That beginning bit is all we are interested in! Forget the PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_ part - we want the FOUR numbers after that. They should be something like the 4E48 above...
Once you have done this, you can note that number down. Now go into your Freelancer Directory, and then into the EXE folder. Find a file called flconfigdatabase.txt - and open it.
Its one HECK of a big file to look through - so your best bet is to just search for Radeon...
Here is a sample:
0x514c = "Radeon 8500"
0x514e = "Radeon 8500"
0x514f = "Radeon 8500"
0x4966 = "Radeon 9000"
0x4e44 = "Radeon 9700"
0x4e48 = "Radeon 9800pro"
if os > win2k
if driver < 6.14.10.6430
UnsupportedDriver
endif
endif
if os == win2k
if driver < 5.13.1.6166
UnsupportedDriver
endif
endif
if os < win2k
if driver <= 4.13.1.9069
UnsupportedDriver
endif
endif
break
You will notice that I have already included the 9700 and 9800 pro into mine, slap your 9600 in there too. Note the way its done though:
0x4e44 = "Radeon 9700"
0x4e48 = "Radeon 9800pro"
Its 0x followed by those four numbers you found earlier...
so something like
0x4e41 = "Radeon 9600"
There we go. You will notice the drivers version that should be installed - you can check your driver version is more modern than the ones its looking for:
if os > win2k
if driver < 6.14.10.6430
UnsupportedDriver
endif
endif
if os == win2k
if driver < 5.13.1.6166
UnsupportedDriver
endif
endif
if os < win2k
if driver <= 4.13.1.9069
UnsupportedDriver
Its saying if your OS is greater than win2k (ie XP)- you'll need that driver number, if it IS win2k - thats the driver you need, and if its less than win2k - then you will need 4.13.1.9069 or greater.
The <= just means less than or equals too... - returning unsuported driver if it is.
You can subsitute your new drivers numbers in there if you really feel flash, although its completely un-necessary.
It appears that Radeons will support the game to its fullest capability. Others will find that it may contain things like this below their graphics cards entries:
UnsupportedHardware
BrokenAlphaTest
TextureOffset
break
The break literally means 'stop' - end of section etc.
Those unsupportedhardware entries means that you cannot have textureoffset and other stuff. To see what it means - the top of the file says this:
// Freelancer Config Database
//
// SceneRenderer // Scene based renderer (eg: PowerVR, Kyro etc...)
// NoAlphaTest / Disable alpha test (conflicts with other modes)
// oTriLinear // Do not attempt trilinear filtering
// NoTripleBuffer // Do not attempt triple buffering
// DefaultBltNotFlip // In full screen mode, use BLT
// NoFog // Do not attempt fog
// TextureOffset // Texel offset for fonts is done on x,y's not u,v (eg: Riva128)
// BrokenAlphaTest // Cards that cannot do Alpha test without ALPHABLEND being enabled (eg: ATI Rage)
// RenderEqualZ // Render bit depth must equal Z bit depth (eg: nVidia cards)
// NoParallelism // Lock the back buffer after rendering (eg: Voodoo3 - queueing up too many blits)
// BadMouse // Card can never use GDI mouse (eg: Voodoo)
// NoMipMap // Disable mipmaps
// Bad4444 // Disable 4444 textures (eg: Chromatic Mpact)
// NoDisablePerspective // Disable disabling perspective correct texturing (eg: Voodoo cards)
// LimitTextureSize // Limit texture size to 256*256 to correct bad caps
// ForceSquareTextures // Do not allow non-square textures
// NoStretchTexture // Force system memory stretch blit to square up textures
// SlowDisplayModeChange // Prevent video drivers that take a while before sending the WM_DISPLAYCHANGE msg from getting stuck in an endless loop of display mode changes (eg: Savage 4)
// Bad8888 // Disable 32 bit textures (eg: Voodoo)
//
// Disable1600x1200
// Freelancer specific:
// FL_BAD_WFOG // card doesnt work well w/ freelancer's w-fog
// FL_BAD_ENVMAP // card doesnt work well w/ freelancer's envmapping
// FL_BAD_MOD2X // card doesnt work well w/ freelancer's detail mapping
// FL_BAD_DXTN // card doesnt work well w/ freelancer's dtxn texture loader
Hope that helps you out, until someone who is better at this thing than me comes along instead. Oh yeah, please post your number up as well
That four digit number cheers
Sun Apr 24, 2005 8:34 am