Matrox cards

[princec]

Ok, we did some more stuff and found out a couple more things:
1. We can get Alien Flux to run perfectly in a window but it won't run fullscreen. It actually gets a valid display mode, successfully changes the monitor to this mode, and successfully creates a fullscreen GL window on it, but nothing appears.

2. EXT_compiled_vertex_array is broken on Matrox cards; so I've removed use of it from my code. In fact it was a complete waste of time using it anyway, and it's a crap badly specified extension to boot.

So we're getting there. We need to try and get a fullscreen window working now and then that's a wrap. To this end I'll put up a tiny webstart test with the new DLL in it and you can tell me if you see anything.

Cas

[psiegel]

Cas -

I've been missing for a bit I know, and I still owe you some updates on the keyboard error I was having, but I just haven't had the time.  Perhaps in another couple of weeks when our own game goes live I'll have a second to breathe and run some tests.  However, I did feel that I should chime in here.

I've been using a machine as my "low end" test bed with the following specs:

Pentium III 500
64 MB Ram
Matrox Millenium G400 w/ 32 MB VRam
Windows 98 SE

I'm using whatever crappy version of the drivers that came with the card - I didn't want the latest versions to see how it would work.  Well, for my own game I seem to be having the opposite problem you are.  It will run just fine full screen, but it dies horribly when I try to put it in a Window.  Keep in mind also that I'm using LWJGL 0.6 - I haven't had the time to refactor all my code to the new standards in 0.7.  

So, since I noticed you talking about Matrox cards and here I had one, I thought I'd give Alien Flux a whirl and see what happens.  Well, one notable problem seemed that I would run out of ram and suffer a horrible blue-screened death (though this machine is known to be flaky about memory issues, and blue screen any time ram starts to run low.)  I then swapped the 64 MB chip with a 128.  Now Alien Flux ran, but it was a bit odd.

Many images seemed to be missing.  I could see the shadow of the ship, but no ship.  I could also see lazers shooting out from near the shadow.  The bump-mapped background also came in just fine.  But there were no fluffies.  And no aliens of any kind.  I shot around in circles for a few moments and realized the game was unplayable.

Oh, I also tried switching to 30 hz and use low res graphics, but that didn't help any.

Hope this info is helpful.  This machine is destined for a reformat, so if there's anything you want me to try on it, give me a yell asap.  I'll have it in front of me all day tomorrow.

Paul

[whome]

And that same happens on my machine, an older package of AlienFlux does work somehow. I can start it, mainmenu works fine, but then no sprites are drawn on canvas during the game. Sounds work ok and I can clearly move the ship and fire....but as blind.

I dont know the version of lwjgl 'cause dll dont have a "Version" tabsheet. File info is: lwjgl.dll 224 Kb 2003-04-09 22:00

I think .jar file should have a implementation version in a MANIFEST.MF file to track revisions. It does not have atm such info.

Soon as Cas can produce a webstart testbed for us to run we get more information. Maybe you could run a debug dll mentioned in this topic to see whether it dont start anymore.

[cfmdobbie]

This may be the same problem as my S3 Savage - were the graphics messed up, like behind the menus there were copies of the AF sprite sets?  Like this:

http://www.padcroft.org/cfmdobbie/images/AF%20Beta%20ss001.jpg

[princec]

That sprite glitch is a result of glLockArraysEXT simply not working. It might be what causes it on the S3 as well.

Cas

[psiegel]

Well, this machine purposefully does not have any JVM installed on it (except I suppose whatever crappy MS JVM comes with Win 98).  Its purpose in life is to emulate the minimum requirements for our game.

I do have a couple different video cards I can slap in it though.  (Which I have done to test my own software.)  Besides the Matrox, I've got an S3 Savage IX, and a Riva TNT2.  

Cas, let me know if there are any more tests you want me to try on this thing.  When it's done with its testing duties, it's slated to become a Linux firewall.  I'll hold off the reformat though if there's tests to be done though.

Paul

[princec]

s'ok, Sandy McArthur's helping me out (leknor) with his machine.

Cas

[princec]

Just a quick follow up:
has anyone got the latest Alien Flux to work on Matrox yet?

Cas

[whome]

See a coredump here. It did not work.
http://koti.mbnet.fi/akini/java/lwjgl/
http://koti.mbnet.fi/akini/java/lwjgl/test2003-09-20.txt

I downloaded it from this link. Could not find an experimental lwjgl_d.dll anymore.
http://www.puppygames.net/downloads/AlienFlux-full-1.4.zip

Drop me a note here if want an another testdrive.