ZBuffer on Frank Herberts Dune

[Nick]

Im running Frank Herberts Dune on a Athlon 2000+ with a Geforce 4 Ti4200 under windows XP. I cannot run the Zbuffer at 32 bit of I get a renderer intialisation failed at the start, does anybody know how to allow me to run it at 32 bit? :(

[Dunenewt]

At what point do you get a renderer intialisation failed at the start

[Nick]

My monitor switches to the correct resolution and then comes up with the error straight away with a black screen and quits out..

[Terror]

hmm, i have no idea yet... but let me look for it on the web. perhaps it is a common problem.

[Gobalopper]

Does it work under 16 bit? Because it probably won't make that much of a difference.

[Terror]

it does work in 16 bit right? Ofcourse, it's cooler if it works in 32 bit. Haven't found anything so far.. Widescreen games has no info on it at all. And there's not much info on it online. But the web is big, and i'll keep searching

[Terror]

well i got some success, read this:

1: When launching the game I receive an error stating, 'Renderer Initialisation Failed'

A1: The Video card on the system cannot support the current Video settings for the game. Using the Video Mode configurator, (Found by clicking on START then PROGRAMS then DUNE then VIDEO MODE) lower the settings for Video resolution, colors and Zbuffer

for more info on problems.. look here:

http://www.adventurecompanygames.com/tac/support/dune.html#Q2

[Nick]

Wow, thank you for finding some info, i tried to all resolutions with 16 bit colours and it still give me the same error when i had the ZBuffer on 32bit. Guess the old Geforce 4 just doesnt like it *sigh* ill look thru that link you gave me, thanks :)

[gryphon]

Do you know if your Zbuffer is enabled ?

It should be in the properties of your grafics card software. If there is a nice GForce4 icon in the taskbar you can get it by right-clicking on that.

edit: do you know the directX version you are using by any change ?

[Nick]

I cant see it in the option menu of my graphics card, well if it is i cant see the "Zbuffer" anyway, being unsure on what it does means i cant figure out what else it could be called.

I just updated to DirectX 9.0 about an hour ago but that didnt fix the problem

[Nick]

Do you know if your Zbuffer is enabled ?

It should be in the properties of your grafics card software. If there is a nice GForce4 icon in the taskbar you can get it by right-clicking on that.

I looked up the FAQ at the NVIDA website, looks like you can change the Zbuffer if you can get at the Advanced Properties but it wouldnt let me click it for some reason, does anybody know how to enable to the advance properties (are the not avaliable on a Geforce Ti4200?)

[gryphon]

If you right click your desktop and select "properties", then on the most right tab there are 3 options at the bottom [ if a advanced menu isn't displayd at first ]. Take the most right one. It's settings, advanced or properties if I'm correct.

Did you install seperate nVidia drivers or stayed with the origionall WinXP drivers ?

[Nick]

I looked up the NIVIDA faq and found that the Zbuffer option did not appear for me, i downloaded a program that could allow me to change more options called RivaTuner, that allowed me to play with the ZBuffer but no matter what setting i had it at it still would give me the error ive been having, ive tried many different graphics card drivers, now using the NIVIDA Detenonator 43.00

[Nyarlathotep]

As far as I know is zbuffer by default enabled on software request on the Nvidia cards. If I'm not mistaken, the default setting is 16bit. One hardly sees the difference in detail when 32bit is enabled and I honestly don't see the reason to enable 32bit, unless you want to play around. Besides, cards chipset need to support 32bit in order to enable it.

By default, Nvidia drivers won't allow you to change zbuffer settings. Like Nick experienced, you need to donwload a tool in order to that. Some software programs or games like Serious Sam will allow you to change zbuffer settings within the software/game itself.

Looking at your problem Nick, I'm wondering what your reason is to put it to 32bit and what the problem was when it was set to 16bit.

[Terror]

yeah, normally i do like to put things on 32 bit colors in the case of some very nice special effects. but in the case of FH's Dune, you'll hardly notice it

[Nick]

Looking at your problem Nick, I'm wondering what your reason is to put it to 32bit and what the problem was when it was set to 16bit.

Was just trying to get it too 32bit, it seems obvious that this graphics card doesnt like that :), and i dont think its worth playing around with it anymore.

yeah, normally i do like to put things on 32 bit colors in the case of some very nice special effects. but in the case of FH's Dune, you'll hardly notice it

Ive never had it on 32 bit Zbuffer, so i will never know the difference :). I can always use the Antialasing or something anyway!

But thank you for all your help, everybody has been really helpful. First time ive actually posted here, think i should more. Are really nice people. Thanks everyone! ;D

[Nyarlathotep]

No problem Nick :)

Btw, you know that if one tries to use 32bit zbuffer, you also need to set the colors to 32bit ;)

[Nick]

Wow acutally i didnt know that, I had tried all combonations of colour setting and resolutions and my desktop is set at 32bit so that shouldn't have been a problem. Thank you tho, been interesting to learn about it :). Interestingly playing Frank Herberts Dune used to play under 640 by 480 and i didnt realise until i checked the monitor. Turns out you need to run compatabilty with XP or it will give you the wrong resolution lol. Wonder if anybody else got that too... Theres no patch for Frank Herberts Dune is there?

[Nyarlathotep]

Well, I'm not familiar with the game itself, so I can't tell you if there are any patches, but I'm sure others could answer that question for you :)

[Terror]

unfortunately there are no patches for FH's Dune. So no help there