Anyone experiencing issues with DirectX 9 Release Candidate?

[Messiah]

First, before anyone goes nuts, I know that it's a Release Candidate and I did the install realizing that a) there would most likely be problems and b) that I would be unable to uninstall it. I'm asking not to moan about DirectX 9, rather, I'm trying to troubleshoot some problems that I'm having since I installed a new ATI Radeon 9700 Pro and the DirectX 9 RC within days of each other. I'm hoping that the issue is the Release Candidate and not the new card. Anyway, on to the rest of the post...

I installed the Radeon 9700 Pro (have not overclocked it, installed in an Asus P4S8X which has been running wonderfully for me since Day One, running at AGP 8x in BIOS and ATI SmartGART) last week and was too tempted by the ATI DirectX 9 demos to not install the Release Candidate. I also installed ATI's DirectX 9 RCO Compatible Catalyst drivers. Immediately benchmarked and got 3DMark scores a few hundred points over my DirectX 8 tests (14300). Between the 1.2 patch and the Radeon I've, happily, been able to play Battlefield 1942 with the smoothest of framerates for the first time since purchasing it. However, in both Medal Of Honor:Allied Assault and Medal Of Honor:Spearhead I am having severe framerate lock-ups. They are frequent and largely random, though I have noticed that they happen more often when switching weapons and just after death. The framerate freeze occurs in both the single-player and multi-player games, so I'm sure it's not lag. Considering my GeForce 4 440MX card could play both games without these problems, I'm not willing to try knocking down in-game texture quality options, though I experience the same problems with anti-aliasing turned off or on via the ATI Control Panel. In theory, the Radeon 9700 Pro should be trouncing, at least, MOH:AA. Anyone else having similiar issues?

I'm going to start with a clean install, putting me back to DirectX 8.1. Both games seemed to be running great under DirectX 8, though I only played each a short time before installing the DX9 Release Candidate. If my problems still aren't resolved, I'll try kicking the AGP down to 4x and see if that helps. I'm reluctant to do so, however, since the mobo and card are _supposed_ to be capable of running at 8x.

For all concerned:

BIOS Shadowing: Disabled
AGP Aperture: Tried at 64MB and 128MB
Fast Write: Enabled in BIOS and in ATI Control Panel
AGP: 8x in both BIOS and ATI SmartGART
SiS AGP Driver 1.12
OS: Windows XP Professional SP1
DirectX: DirectX 9 Release Candidate
ATI Catalyst Driver: 6.13.10.6228 supporting DirectX 9 RC
Motherboard: Asus P4S8X (stable and running like a champ, so, please, no "It's the crappy P4S8X!")
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.53ghz 533FSB
Memory: 512MB Kingston DDR333/DDR2700 (again, please no blame on the Kingston, it worked just dandy with the GeForce 4 440MX with all options set to highest quality in most games)
PSU: Antec 430 TruePower

Any feedback would be appreciated.

-Messiah

 

[dave holbon]

There’s a wee bit of confusion over directX 8 (hardware standards) and DirectX 8 software standards. Search the MS Knowledge base for the hardware standard that DX9 supports both hardware and software, as opposed to the current software standards. I don’t know of any motherboards that support directX9 in hardware or even DirecteX 8.1.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

G'Day Messiah. There is a removal tool if ever you want it. Just let us know.

 

[BonyTony]

Just read you post and have noticed a problem i also get >>Quote" The framerate freeze occurs in both the single-player and multi-player games, so I'm sure it's not lag"

On Spearhead i get game framrate freeze (not on Mohas)every now and again so i thought maybe running settings to high so i turned them right down for testing (game dam ugly cranked down!)...but still got it so i checked my ping solid at 30-60 so its not that.

All my other games run fine and my system is fast enough to handle Spearhead but i put up with it for now (only random)till a patch is released .....looked on other game forums and not seen any fix yet.

Using Direct x 8.1 and GF4 Ti4400 Btw this game is Awesome by far superior to Mohas.

 

[avsdotcom]

I also get the odd frame rate lock up on Spearhead, but its not been too bad, so I persevered. Fine game, albeit far too short. Some of the levels are much better than the original but there are a couple of bits that are ,quite frankly, pathetic. Like shooting the bomber down with the AA gun at the end of the snow levels - u can totally miss it on every pass and it will eventually just crash - bit pointless I thought. And the lest level was a major disappointment ,won't say any more on that as I'm sure those playing it will find out for themselves soon enough.

 

[BonyTony]

Played single player a little but more intrested in multi-player amazing new maps....they have made the rocket harder to use and just general improvements...oh i forgot the slow upgrading of health is much better.

 

[avsdotcom]

I tried multiplayer, but only having a 56K it was way too laggy - totally unplayable for me I'm afraid. Shame because I've heard good things about the multiplayer. Have to wait till broadband or cable is available round here

 

[Messiah]

Re: DirectX 9

Dave,

My apologies, but I'm not sure what your intended meaning was. I'm not sure how the DirectX hardware and software standards come into play here as seperate entities. DirectX was, to my knowledge, an API supported, as you said, by certain software and hardware standards. The Radeon 9700 Pro is compliant to DirectX 9 hardware standards. The Catalyst drivers that I have installed support the DirectX 9 software standard. I understand that some games _may_ require patching to work with the DirectX 9 API and I understand that the MOH series games may require patching at some point. My question was really an attempt to determine whether or not others had experienced the same framerate stuttering that I have with similiar hardware and software configurations.

Hipster,

I tried the DotNet DirectX 9 uninstaller in Safe Mode and it did not work. I'll probably end up doing a clean install just to be completely sure that I'm cleaning everything up, including any remnants of the old Nvidia Detonator drivers that may still be around.

BonyTony,

Strange. I had poor overall framerate when running MOH:Spearhead on my GeForce 4 440MX with high settings, but nothing like the framerate stuttering that I have now. When the framerate isn't locking up for a few seconds the game plays beautifully, smooth framerate, wonderful details, etc. It's just that I get relatively frequent frame pauses for 2-4 seconds, i.e. the image in a single frame freezes on-screen, I can hear background audio, and then after a few seconds everything returns to normal with the on-screen action caught up to whatever has happened in the few seconds that the framerate locked.

-Messiah

 

[DirtyJoe_58]

The frame rate freezes you guys are having has nothing to do with hardware, or even motherboard support... It is just simply the fact that DirectX 9.0 is very very unstable... Setting the detail to the lowest settings will not solve anything.. you will stil have glitches... The best thing to do if you have XP is to do a system restore to a point before you installed it.. that will solve all your probs and fix the freezes.. if you dont have XP, there are tools you can use to get rid of it..

 

[jumpy]

Originally posted by Messiah
If my problems still aren't resolved, I'll try kicking the AGP down to 4x and see if that helps. I'm reluctant to do so, however, since the mobo and card are _supposed_ to be capable of running at 8x.

No offence but 8x agp is just a lot of marketing hype, most new cards have enough memory and so this bandwidth is not utilised anyway. Even when bandwidth is utilised, 1.1gb/s is still quite enough. Dont be reluctant to turn it down to 4x, you won't see any difference in gameplay.

Jumpy

 

[neo]

hey, I was having the same problem with MOHAA-Spearhead. I tryied everything I even called customer support, they were no help either at last I checked the bios in there the agp memory setting was 64 insted of 128. I changed it and wallah the game was giving me like 35 to 40 fps. I have Radeon 8500LE and I was blaming directX 9 for it. I am sure we don't have the same rig but just have a look in the BIOS more carefully every now and then small things like this get left behind

 

[jumpy]

Originally posted by Messiah

AGP Aperture: Tried at 64MB and 128MB

He already tried that Neo

 

[Messiah]

Re: Framerate Stutter

Replaced the Radeon 9700 Pro with a newest revision ATI card running on it's own PSU lead. Still experienced significant framerate stutter in MOH:AA and MOH:S, particularly when changing weapons and/ro just before and just after death.

Did a clean XP install putting me back to DirectX 8.1. Framerate stuttering still there in a few games (MOH:AA and MOH:S, for instance), but not nearly so pronounced.

After some experimenting I determined that ZoneAlarm Pro 3.5 was causing the framerate stutter in particular D3D games. With it on, serious framerate stutter in a couple of games. With it off, everything ran smooth and happy at AGP 8x, Aperture 64 or 128, etc. Since I don't plan on being online without a firewall, no matter how good the game(s), I switched over to Norton Personal Firewall 2003 in spite of having hated it back when I tried it in 2000-2001. After switching to Norton Personal Firewall, I'm able to play all my games at full framerate, no stutter, all in-game quality options cranked. And, I must admit, that Norton Personal Firewall has come a very long way. I have two licensed copies of ZoneAlarm Pro, but decided to switch the other PC over to Norton Personal Firewall as well after being so impressed with the initial install.

I'm glad I decided to stick the Radeon 9700 Pro out in spite of the initial problems. Amazing card and so many games are now actually playable (Battlefield 1942, etc.). I'm excited to get home and try out the new 2.5 Catalyst drivers as I hear these have provided even better stability and performance and a refresh fix.