ATI CrossFire Xtension v1.4 - A way to force crossfire w/ profiles

[king-dubs]

ATI CrossFire Xtension v1.4
by AgentGOD
-----------------------------
Home pages: www.epichardware.com & www.ultimate-filez.com
  Donation: www.ultimate-filez.com/?page=donate

Description:
	Ever ran into a problem where you could not use your big, multiple ATI GPU setup on a new game?
	Don't worry, many people have had the same issue, and up until now, the only solution was to
	wait for an updated build of the Catalyst drivers, which usually takes over a month! Now, that
	problem has a solution! ATI CrossFire Xtension allows you to create custom profiles that will
	force CrossFire (ATI multi-GPU solution) support on non-supported, or new, games and applications.

	Remember, this is only a temporary solution for CrossFire problems, as ATI themselves must update
	drivers to have true proper CrossFire support for new games. While you wait the month long period
	(or longer) for ATI to update their drivers, you can use this tool to use CrossFire without waiting,
	right now, on your new games.

	This program also allows you to force video quality settings, and CrossFire mode, such as anti-aliasing,
	anisotropic filtering, and AFR, SPR, ST, SPAA. These settings do not need "Force CrossFire" to be enabled.

Requirements:
	-Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0 (minimum)
	-Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Runtime (usually also required for CCC installation)
	-An non-CrossFire supported Direct3D/OpenGL game (usually)
	-Two or more ATI graphics cards (dual-GPU on single PCB counts)
	-Windows XP/Vista/Seven (32-bit or 64-bit)
	-ATI Catalyst 9.4 or above recommended!

Instructions:
	Extract the program to its own folder, then run the program. Add a game/application to the program
	to create a profile for that game/application. Be sure to select the correct rendering method! If
	you aren't sure which one your game uses, you can always check Google! Then, launch the game by
	selecting, then double-clicking the game, or click the Launch button. Your profile settings will be
	saved upon quitting the program, or you can manually save by hitting the Save button. The profile will
	be saved as "ATI_CF_Xtension.ini" in the same folder.

*Notes:
	- As of v1.1, you can now select which pre-defined CrossFire profile to use! If you aren't sure what to
          do with this drop-down list, leave it at the default name, as it should work fine in most situations.
	- As of v1.2, you can now pass arguments to the target application (optional).
	- If you do not know what you're doing with the "pre-defined profile" option, leave it at default, just
	  select the correct rendering method (Direct3D or OpenGL)!
	- As of v1.3, you can now force anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing on any specific application.
	- As of v1.4, you can now change CrossFire method!
	

Enjoy!


Credits:
----------
AgentGOD - coding the program
ATI/AMD - for the HD 4870 X2
TricksOfDeath - UI revisions
NickF - bug testing
psolord - testing with HD 4870 X2 on FEAR 2 (Catalyst 9.1)

Copyright © 2009 [E]pic [H]ardware & Ultimate Filez

Screen shot:

Note: In the screen-shot, I added a few games (some CF supported, some not) for demonstration (screen-shot) purposes. FEAR 2 official CrossFire support was just added by ATI in Catalyst 9.2. Thanks to psolord for reporting that v1.0 of the program worked flawlessly with FEAR 2 in Catalyst 9.1.

Download link:
http://www.epichardware.com/bin/ATI_CF_Xtension.rar

Changes in v1.4
- Added ability to change CrossFire method (Auto, AFR, SPR, Supertiling, SuperAA)
- Fixed program naming when "Force CrossFire" option is unchecked

This version brings back the ability to change CrossFire method! Some older games operate better with different CrossFire methods other than Alternate Frame Rendering (AFR), for example: America's Army. With America's Army, the latest ATI Catalyst drivers assumes AFR mode, and neglects the heavy flickering that occurs during gaming. With ATI CrossFire Xtension v1.4, you can now force the driver to use another method (such as Split-Frame Rendering, Supertiling, or SuperAA mode).

Enjoy!

Changes in v1.3
- Added ability to disable/enable forcing of CrossFire support
- Added quick-help button for the add/edit dialog
- Reworked the GUI a bit for user-friendliness
- Added ability to force anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing
- Added on screen display of current GPU and Catalyst Driver Version
- Enhanced compatibility with Windows XP
- Fixed a bug that caused profile-saving to function incorrectly on Windows XP

Changes in v1.2
- Added ability to pass command-line arguments to the target application
- Optimized file handling efficiency
- Added changelog
- Made some changes to the readme

Changes in v1.1
- Added selectable pre-defined profile list of CrossFire supported Direct3D and OpenGL applications
- Fixed a few GUI glitches

Source: [E]pic [H]ardware

[Soulfly76]

I just love this tool. It does what it promises

[genbrien]

-how do you know of a game is using both GPU ????
-can I start the program as usual or I must start it with the application???

btw, nice program

[king-dubs]

Originally Posted by genbrien

-how do you know of a game is using both GPU ????
-can I start the program as usual or I must start it with the application???

You can see if the game is using both GPUs with GPU-Z or with the "Enable CrossFire Logo" in CCC.

Originally Posted by genbrien

-can I start the program as usual or I must start it with the application???

You must start the game/application through ATI CrossFire Xtension.

[wekktor]

Hi

Do this tool work on counter-strike source too?

Im cant try it myself right now, but do you think it should work ?

/wekktor

[king-dubs]

Originally Posted by wekktor

Hi

Do this tool work on counter-strike source too?

Im cant try it myself right now, but do you think it should work ?

/wekktor

It should work with the params:

-game cstrike -steam

[Iarwain]

This program makes me wish I still had crossfire.

[PR-0927]

Just wondering - I had Homeworld 2 installed on a quad-core, Vista 64-bit system, with an HD 4870 X2. It would load a game, then crash the moment you started clicking. Is this a CrossFire-related issue, or is this something else entirely?

- PR-0927

[Psychlone]

^ Couldn't tell you since I never played Homeworld, but I can tell you that I've followed this since it was just a little Beta boy, and it does indeed fix issues just like that. Mercenaries2, Legendary and Dark Sector required nothing else to work on my machine, where none of them would work right after install. (nothing worse than paying between $30 and $60 for a game, getting it home and installing it, only to have to sideline it because it CTDs or BSODs instantly, or simply just refuses to do anything!!)

Only other thing that I can say about the Homeworld2 problem, is faulty install, missing DX or borked driver...failing those, this will fix it.

Psychlone

[Sneakers]

Awesome tool.

5/5

[notyou]

After trying this, GTA IV will not start. It just keeps trying to start & loads up the processes menu with GTA IV.exe's After a short time, there are 15-20 GTA IV exe's I have to close out.

Going to try & reinstall GTA to see if it'll actually work again.

[wekktor]

It's a really nice working tool. I tried Colin mcrae dirt demo, and when I first played the game normal without this tool I got at highest 40FPS and was very unsmooth. Then I tried this tool and get 88FPS at highest and lowest 79, yes over 100% and it was really smooth .

But one game I want you to add if possible is: Counter-strike: source(hl2.exe), now there is only hl.exe

/wekktor

[damien666]

wow first time ive seen or heard of this app how oild is it and are their any issues with it

[walp]

Oh my!








Pandoras box or whaaaaaaat!?!


Man I wanna order a second 4890 and overclock the **** out of them both!

[rogue221979]

I have a few games with steam.

How do I get it to load them? I'm not sure were to guide the ATI extentsion too.

[JonasBeckman]

Start the program and create a new profile, browse to the EXE file and give the profile name the title of the game (Or whatever).

Then decide if you want to attempt forcing AA/AF (Usually not recommended unless title doesn't support AA/AF normally.)

Then select between D3D and OpenGL, it'll decide which profiles you have available to choose from.

After that browse trough a list of "profiles" or game names (EXE file names) for your profile to "load" when the game starts, it'll create a copy of and rename the EXE to this name so make sure you take the correct profile.

Normally you would take a profile close to the game you want to force Crossfire in as taking a random one can introduce artifacts and other problems as the ATI drivers and monitoring services thinks it's running that game instead and will apply profile specific settings via CCC for that game which might not always work.
(IE Last Remnant uses UE3 so best to take a UE3 engine title.)

This is best used for titles were Crossfire doesn't scale well, not all titles will show improvements, depends on other limitations such as GTA IV mainly hitting the CPU.

Lastly choose which mode to scale via, AFR is the most common one as of the latest ATI drivers and means frame 1 is done by GPU 1 and frame 2 by GPU 2 and then frame 3 back to GPU 1 and so on whereas the other modes use other means of Crossfire scaling to divide the workload, might improve performance to use another mode or reduce stuttering (micro-stutter) as frames are handled differently by each GPU.

Hope this explains a bit of it, refer to the readme and use google for terms in the program you're uncertain of (AFR rendering for example and so on.)

[CPC_RedDawn]

This just goes to show that ATI can release something like this. I mean this has come from the mod community and it seems to work great already. Heck ATI need not even include this in the actual driver package. Maybe as a separate download which has updates released for it to add more profiles. This would be better. But I have not idea what ATI are playing at.

[WhiteLightning]

Originally Posted by CPC_RedDawn

This just goes to show that ATI can release something like this. I mean this has come from the mod community and it seems to work great already. Heck ATI need not even include this in the actual driver package. Maybe as a separate download which has updates released for it to add more profiles. This would be better. But I have not idea what ATI are playing at.

indeed, it really is one of my reasons to go to the green team when im buying my next cardl wont be sometime until the end of the year or so, but still.
i really miss the profiles, and nhancer

[rflair]

nhancer is a community mod also. Just took someone in the ATI community to make something like this for X-fire users, the guy should be commended.

[KillerSneak]

Or people can be less lazy and find the registry:
MVPUMode
3100 - AFR
3200 - scissor
3300 - super tiling
3400 - super FSAA

and there's AFR_Friendly.exe for renaming

ATi did include this and games get added each month (Catalyst AI) so I really don't see why someone should go GREEN (green indeed as they still need 47395047329085543085032 beta drivers a year and maybe if it's a good year they can release 5/6 WHQL drivers)

[king-dubs]

Originally Posted by KillerSneak

Or people can be less lazy and find the registry:
MVPUMode
3100 - AFR
3200 - scissor
3300 - super tiling
3400 - super FSAA

ATi did include this and games get added each month (Catalyst AI)

Problem is, those things apply globally to everything. This program allows you to control the settings for individual programs.

[HaZe303]

Great peace of software! Keep up the great work! Hope you continue support and add more and more games each version? Thx

[klexical]

anyway to use this with warhammer online?

[PDOstrander]

I'd be interested to know if this can be made to work with Warhamer Online as well. I know the app launches a pather program, which in turn lunches the actual game exe. Anyone have any insight...?

[Iarwain]

You would need to use the actual .exe. So, when you launcher Warhammer, wait for the game itself to come up, minimize it, go to the task manager and find the .exe it is running from. Use that one, not the launcher.