Northon on 26/11/2002 at 18:18
As all ATI Radeon owners know, Radeons (of any type) do not render fog in Thief2. Well I bring you the salvation you have been waiting for. There is a fix, that I just discovered! I have only confirmed that this works on my Radeon 8500 but I presume it will work on the others as well.
I request that this be added to the technical FAQ for Thief promptly so noone need suffer any longer the loss of atmosphere that comes with having no fog. A news post on Thief-TheCircle would also be good.
Steps to fix the fog:
1) Download the program available here: (
http://www.rage3d.com/r3dtweak/)
2) Install it
3) After the required restart, run the program and go to the Rage3D tweak tab. Double click "Direct 3D", then scroll down till you see the box "W Fog". Uncheck this box. Also make sure "Table fog", and "Z Fog" are both checked, and if they aren't, check them. Press OK.
As I understand it, the W Fog feature of the Radeon doesn't mesh well with Thief2, and when Thief2 tries to use it, the result is no fog. However if the feature is disabled, Thief2 recognizes this and tries another kind of fog, namely table fog, which happens to work fine.
taffersshadow on 26/11/2002 at 19:39
hmmm...I'll have to try that out. Dope! Now you all know I have an ATI! :eww: :).
madphilb on 27/11/2002 at 19:53
Tech support is so lame.... I e-mailed ATI just the other day about my Radeon (already have Radeon Tweaker installed) and got a standard computerised "did you try making sure it's turned on" type of message (you know, "Mr. Tech Support guy, my printer won't print" and he responds "Is it turned on?" and they respond "Doh! Thank you Mr. Tech Support Guy." Tech support automatically thinks that everyone is that dumb).
I'll give this a try tonight and see if I can post an Update tomorrow about it (now I've got to re-insall Theif 2, oh well), that way people with Radeon 32MB SDR's will know at least if it works for them :)
PHIL
Talgor on 28/11/2002 at 07:46
Please bear in mind that the vast majority of people who call tech support ARE that dumb, so their behavior is understandable... ;)
taffersshadow on 28/11/2002 at 08:05
Quote:
Originally posted by Talgor Please bear in mind that the vast majority of people who call tech support ARE that dumb, so their behavior is understandable... ;) Yeah, you just have to assume all people are stupid when your working in Tech support...though, that doesent mean that we on the other end have to be happy when we get stupid reply's...this is kinda off subject but I was in a small computer store the other day, with a friend, and we happened to glance apon this, (I'm still not sure what it is) this, thing that had this, weird shaped, funky blue box thing...it didn't look like any pc box that I had ever seen...and my friend, naturaly wondered aloud, "What is that!" And the guy behind the counter had the audacity to reply (with a snotty look on his face) "A Computer." Well, yes, I guess this is true, but, it was just the way he said it that made me turn around and walk out of that store...(havent been in there since).
I hate stupid answers...
madphilb on 28/11/2002 at 20:45
Well, I installed and checked it last night... indeed disabling the W_Fog and making sure Table fogs are enabled fixed the lack of fog problem with my Radeon 32MB SDR (PCI) card. I left all the other DirectX Fog options on, so it's only the W_Fog that's the problem.
As for the tech support issue.... last year when I converted my old Earthlink dialup account over to Cable (via Time Warner, the local provider for Earthlink) I had the hardest time getting things straight. The biggest problem being that every time I called them back (and I had to do it form a pay phone since I didn't have a home phone yet) they would start all over with the problem... now I'm getting the same thing via E-mail with HP over my scanner... sigh....
I think it's time to buy an XBox for gaming and just replace anything that doesn't work with new (or used).
PHIL
Lusorius on 29/11/2002 at 15:03
I just tried this and it worked great! Now I have fog! Bwhahaha!
I have a Radeon 9700, btw
Now if I can just get the cutscenes to work, I'd be a happy taffer.
Bumbleson on 30/11/2002 at 00:03
Quote:
Originally posted by Northon 3) After the required restart, run the program and go to the Rage3D tweak tab. Double click "Direct 3D", then scroll down till you see the box "W Fog". Uncheck this box. Also make sure "Table fog" is checked, and if it isn't, check it. Press OK.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(whacks himself on the head with his blackjack while balancing on one leg and repeatedly kicking his own ass with the other)Sorry, that was about my reaction when I read your post and tried it out! :o
Since I got my Radeon 8500 and had to learn that this expensive high-end card wouldn't render fog in a two year-old game, I kept downloading the newest drivers whenever they came out in the desperate hope that ATI would eventually include fog support, maybe by accident...
I even wrote to the Catalyst support, only to get the same machanical answers mentioned above.
My driver directory currently has a size of 122 MB. I even tried the XP drivers, hoping that they would behave differently. I downloaded several tweakers and tried all the fog settings...at least I thought so, because...
What I didn't try all that time was to simply activate table fog and disable W fog! I'm so f***ing stupid! :eww:
You can't imagine how much I thank you for that hint! :thumb: :thumb: :D :joke:
A happy Bumbleson loading Precious Cargo.....:)
Bumbleson on 30/11/2002 at 00:50
Short addition:
I tried the fog options with a tweaker and found out that I only get fog when table fog as well as Z fog are enabled (Z fog is disabled in my drivers by default).
My system:
Radeon 8500
Catalyst drivers 02.4
Win 98
Thief II 1.18
Northon on 30/11/2002 at 01:30
Quote:
Originally posted by Bumbleson Short addition:
I tried the fog options with a tweaker and found out that I only get fog when table fog as well as Z fog are enabled (Z fog is disabled in my drivers by default).
Even though I have basically the same configuration as you, my Z Fog is enabled by default. However, you are absolutely correct that if it is disabled, the fog fix won't work. I'll add that to my original post. Thanks for noticing it!
