Shader 1.4

[Nickenstien]

Hi.

We are getting some error reports from people trying to play TGP (mainly on laptops) with D3D enabled.

The error is:


There was a problem initializing graphics mode 800 x 600 (32-bit).
(Problem: 'Graphics card does not support Pixel Shader 1.4')
Try to correct the problem, or seek help from AGS homepage.


Is there a specific need for shader 1.4 support? As most cards support shader 1.1 and this could be making any AGS game fail to work with D3D on lots of older cards. Cards which should be able to handle AGS/TGP just fine.

Strangely, this error was generated by a laptop with shader 2.0 support.

Cheers,
Nick

[Snake]

Eh, what I don't understand is why this is even popping up. Pixel shading with AGS?

I get the same error except it's saying that my video card (the new one I bought for Christmas) doesn't support 320x200. Now I've got all these funky lines shooting through my screen unless I change from DirectX to Direct3D9... if the option is available in the WinSetup,  that is.

[Electroshokker]

Hi.

We are getting some error reports from people trying to play TGP (mainly on laptops) with D3D enabled.

The error is:


There was a problem initializing graphics mode 800 x 600 (32-bit).
(Problem: 'Graphics card does not support Pixel Shader 1.4')
Try to correct the problem, or seek help from AGS homepage.

Most likely it's got to do with the low resolution not being supported by their screen (flat screens are set to an optimal screen resolution and don't support most other resolutions, while CRT screens (the old, bulky things) can actually switch to any resolution you can imagine, with less limitations).

Have them try to set the filter settings in the config utility to scale 2x or 3x. That should resolve the problem.

The pixel shader shouldn't be the problem.

[lemmy101]

"The pixel shader shouldn't be the problem."

Hi, well that is the problem according to the error message: Problem: 'Graphics card does not support Pixel Shader 1.4'

In a test on my laptop, the game is running in windowed and is running on a PC that only supports Pixel shader 1.1 and I get the same results, as you would expect. 1.4 shader model is one of these less supported and less used shader models so as in Nick's stated case you'll get some graphics cards that'll support 2.0 and 1.1, but not 1.4 (laptops mainly) and others like mine only supporting 1.1 that would probably be fast enough to cope with AGS and Nick's particles. I guess we were just curious as to why the 1.4 was a requirement for AGS DirectX setting, there's probably a good reason but just on the off-chance it was a quick flag change in DX it's worth asking.

[Pumaman]

AGS uses a D3D Pixel Shader to do sprite tinting, and the complexity of the shader code means it requires PS1.4.

On older PCs, you can just use the DX5 driver instead.

[Nickenstien]

Okie dokie.

Any plans to change the sprite tinting to not require S1.4?

As this means anything using D3D (which some plugins will require, mine for instance) will simply not work on rather a lot of laptops.

[Pumaman]

No, there are no plans to change this. Older PCs can use the DX5 driver.

[SSH]

I've often thought, though, that any D3D problems should make the engine automatically fallback into DX5: would that be a possibility?

[JMonkeYJ]

Hi, I was the one who started this thread at the Zombie Cow forums.

For what it's worth, I thought I'd point out that pixel shader 2.0 was a minimum requirement for Aero (Windows Vista UI). because of this, pretty much any computer made since mid 2006 supports pixel shader 2.0. unfortunately, PS 2.0 doesn't appear to be backwards compatible with 1.4, so these computers don't necessarily support PS 1.4.

The pixel shader effects might not be a high priority, but I would suggest targeting 2.0 for better compatibility.

[Pumaman]

2.0 should definitely be backwards compatible with 1.4 -- at least, AGS just needs 1.4 or higher, which includes 2.x.

It would be possible to change AGS to use software-based tint effects if PS1.4 is not available, but this isn't something I'm planning to do because the DX5 driver is there as a fallback.

I've often thought, though, that any D3D problems should make the engine automatically fallback into DX5: would that be a possibility?

That's a good idea yeah, it's probably worth doing that.

[lemmy101]

Yeah obviously from your perspective I can understand that changing it would be a super low priority, as it doesn't really effect most users of AGS as DX5 is a fallback, though the one problem is it cuts down the potential for D3D AGS plug-ins as obviously they are not ever going to be compatible with DX5. Especially if Nick intends to release the effects system plug-in for others to use and it ended up being in more games than TGP.

About the 2.0 / 1.4 thing, it's more that 1.1 and 2.0 are the two most standard used shader versions, and some NVidia cards in particular (especially the models found in laptops) have poor or non-existent 1.4 support. And most cards that do support 1.4 tend to support 2.0 as well, so ironically it may actually work on more machines on 2.0 than it does on 1.4. Nuthin' to do with me like, at this rate people will be in holodecks playing TFE so just throwing in some of my past experiences on it though I can't confess to being 110% confident in that it's what I'm lead to believe...

[JMonkeYJ]

My graphics card is the Intel GMA 950 (part of the fairly common Intel 945 chipset). And while I certainly agree with you that it *should* be backwards compatible with 1.4, unfortunately it doesn't appear to be. I've been looking for a way to determine exactly which shaders my card can support, but so far to no avail.

Lemmy - do you know for a fact that some NVidia cards were also having trouble?

[lemmy101]

Intel GMA 950 has Shader 2.0.

Can't give you any specific cards, I just think it's generally a laptop thing. Conserving space on the graphics chip, stopping it overheating, who knows why, but they sometimes skimp on all but the major versions...

[Pumaman]

My graphics card is the Intel GMA 950 (part of the fairly common Intel 945 chipset). And while I certainly agree with you that it *should* be backwards compatible with 1.4, unfortunately it doesn't appear to be. I've been looking for a way to determine exactly which shaders my card can support, but so far to no avail.

Do you get an error with D3D AGS games saying that it doesn't have PS 1.4?

[JMonkeYJ]

Do you get an error with D3D AGS games saying that it doesn't have PS 1.4?

That's a very good point. The error I started getting when I tried it on the Intel 950 was actually different. It is:

There was a problem initializing graphics mode 800 x 600 (32-bit).
(Problem: 'Failed to create Direct3D Device: 0x8876086C')
Try to correct the problem, or seek help from the AGS homepage.

I have checked that my computer supports 800x600 resolution (it does) and even tried switching to 800x600 before playing the game. I have also tried playing in windowed and non-windowed mode. None of these worked. But perhaps I was being sidetracked by the pixel shader thing and this is something totally different.

Oh, also I am using Windows 7 RC. I've tried many different combinations of compatibility modes with no success.

I see some other people have reported this problem in the forums, and it looks like they also had the Intel 950s. I have the latest drivers for everything. It seems like AGS and Intel 950 do not play well together for some reason...

[Pumaman]

Ah yeah, that's not the PS1.4 problem. That has been reported before with some notebooks, I think it's where the graphics card on the notebook doesn't support some 3D features like Pixel Shaders at all, thus causing the game to fail on startup.

If you google for 0x8876086C Intel 950 there are several reports of getting this error with various different games; I don't think there's much that can be done unfortunately.