nVidia GeForce4 MX4000 & 3DAnalyze

[srk123]

Ppl,

I got a nVidia GeForce4 MX4000 card that doesn't have pixel shader support. Well I have updated the nvidia drivers to 91.33. I am now trying to get the game up with 3D-Analyze, but haven't succeeded.

I get to a black screen with a 'hand' cursor. Nothing else is displayed.

I just wanted to ask, if anyone out there has succeeded in getting the demo running using 3D-Analyze? If yes, with what settings?
Also, if some technical person here knows what features are missing in MX4000 card to run Caesar4, so that I can emulate those features in 3d-Analyze.

Thanks for all the help

[Deaghaidh]

This is wierd, I'm having the exact same problem with the same card, same drivers, same results and all.

I don't know anything about 3d analyize, though I'm kind of curious. If it was as simple as emulating then why would anyone upgrade their cards? If it can be done with software what do we need the shiny new hardware for?

[srk123]

3D-Analyze can be downloaded here

Yes it can never match the performance of real gfx cards, but still run games.

I used to play only games of RTS genre, RPG and simulation with simple gfx. I never go for the FPS genre. These days even strategy simulation games come with overloaded gfx that makes computer systems obselete, really fast. I don't want to keep upgrading all the time whenever new games come in. Thats why the tools such as 3DAnalyze are so useful (if they work )

[Need_Help]

For my opinion (I don't know is it true), I think driver is used to make some new programs run on a 'outdated' graphic card, but won't give something like the video card memory, the graphic quality (even its maximum). The newer driver also fix the previous driver's bug, maybe improved options for the settings.
For the new video cards, of course better than the old (I mean, some old video cards won't be able to run certain game maybe because of the code that the game uses, the 3D engine is too new for it.) For your problem, are you sure its the video card problem? Or is it some other things that will effect it? For example, maybe some other application may effect it? Or maybe the other hardware (like RAM, processor....) If I had not mistaken, I think I'm having the same problem like what you said and I don't know how I fixed it....

Thanks

[srk123]

The basic configuration of my system is...
Pentium Celeron 2.26 GHz
~1GB RAM
Geforce4 MX4000 Card - 64MB memory (no pixel shader)
And I've got enough harddisk space.

[srk123]

Originally Posted by Need_Help

I think I'm having the same problem like what you said and I don't know how I fixed it....

Thanks

You fixed the problem

[Keith]

I don't know why you have so many partitions on such a small drive but most of them don't have enough space to run the game and the one that does just barely has the necessary room. The demo requries a minimum of 2GB free space.

For cards that don't support TNL (T&L) you should set the 3D-analyze program to Force Software TNL and emulate Hardware TNL CAPS.

You may have to set it to Force max pixel shader 1.1 for your card and possibly emulate pixel shader caps. You should ask for help on their forum.

Even if you get it to work with the demo you'll probably have very poor performance, because your forcing your main processor to do the work of the video card as well.

[mouse]

As Keith say you have way too partitions with too little space on any of them. You'de get better perfomance with at least 15gb partition for your operating system and no partition on the drive of less than 15gb. The bottom line is even if you get that card to run the demo it will never be able to run the full game which will have bigger maps than the demo.