ATI FireGL/FireProSoftmod - Discussion Thread for new members

I´ve opened this thread for the new members here that have registered for the reason of softmodding their Ati Radeon cards to to make use of the advanced opengl properties ( FireGL / FirePro) that all Ati cards have.

The new members here do have problems figuring out how softmodding works, and what needs to be done to have the softmod properly applied.

I´m already getting Pm´s of users with 0 (zero) posts here asking me for a guide on how to get their card softmoded. Just to make this clear, i simply don´t have the time and the nerves to explain it via pm to everyone that does not bother to read older threads how the patch is applied.

I´ll post the steps for accomplishing the softmod here in some kind of guide, so please discuss your questions / problems with drivermodding here in this thread.

One very respectable member of this board once initiated all this patching a few years ago, and explained and showed us how it is done. Since a lot of people bothered him because of this he decided not to support this kind of soft modding anymore, and i can relate why he simply could not answer those questions. For most of the questions a simple search in the forums would have been enough to get an answer.

so if you have a question like this :

please don´t use a pm for that. ask your questions here. Other experienced users can give a solution to your question. as a side effect the new people on this board can read the answers and solution also.


But now the procedure for the patch.

Things you need before starting to patch:

1. rivatuner ( it is needed to apply the patchcripts)
you can get it here at guru3d :http://downloads.guru3d.com/RivaTuner-v2.09-download-163.html

2. the latest patchscript ( watch for the driverversion it applies to)

3. the corresponding FireGL/FirePro driver from Ati
you can find those here :http://ati.amd.com/products/workstation/certified_graphics_accelerators.html

4. you need to figure out what the Firegl/Firepro Equivalent to your card is.
it is necessary for the diver installation. you need to use the install routine for the correct chip. if you don´t know, you should discuss this here with other members.
have a look at the device id´s of ati´s graphics cards :http://developer.amd.com/drivers/pc_vendor_id/pages/default.aspx

( eg. in the case of my notebook, i have the hd 2600 mobility. the chip used on that card is RV630, and the firegl-equivalent of that chip is the RV630GL. So when you browse the list of device id´s at ati you´ll see that the Firegl v3600 and FireGL v5600 do have that RV630 chip also)

please double check the device id. in your windows you can either find it in the hardware manager, or at the display properties ( adapter).

5. you need to get the atiogl.xml from here :http://depositfiles.com/files/nv8i5wcqj

this applies to xp32,xp64, win7/vista 32bit and win7/vista x64

recently there have been a lot of reports about missing viewport performance in maya. the problem was within the atiogl.xml which stores the workstation profiles for the opengl capabilities for programs like maya, ideas, solidworks, pro/engineer...
i have made some minor changes to the file, and now the viewport performance is back again in maya.
download the file and replace the one that comes with the driver, before you install it. you need to copy it here :FirePro_8.634_Win7x64_86103\Packages\Drivers\Display\W76A_INF\B_85955

if you already have installed the driver you simply can copy the file to c:\windows and once you start maya the performance is back again.



i´ll run an example here on how to patch a driver (version 8.634) for my hd 2600 mobility card ( chip RV630 , Device ID: 9581) in windows7/windows vista 64 bit:

the necessary steps are to modify the driver´s installation routine ( *.inf) and to patch the drivers kernel ( atikmdag.sys).

1. after you have downloaded the correct driver from ati, you need to run it. when the installation starts the driver first unpacks it´s files to C:\amd\
as soon as it is done with unpacking and the ati setup screen appears on your display you can cancel the installation, the files are now extracted,and ready to be modified.

2. edit the installation routine ( for win 7 driver version 8.634 you will find the installation routine (*.inf) here :C:\AMD\FirePro_8.634_Win7x64_86103\Packages\Drivers\Display\W76A_INF.
the file is called: C7_86103.inf )

3. open the file C7_86103.inf with the notepad and browse to this section :

i already know that my card is based on the RV630 and it has the device id 9581 and thus i can choose from these equivalents :

i´ll choose the fireglv5600 as the equivalent a want to use the drivers instalation routine for. so i edit the line as follows:

from:

to :

4. save changes of this file after editing.
now when the driver installs it will use the correct routines for the RV630, and the name of the card that will be installed is "ATI FireGL V5600".

Now the atikmdag.sys for win7/vista needs to be patched:

i have posted the scripts for driver 8.634 in the rivatuner advanced section
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=312673

get the script for windows7/vista x64 for the correct driver:

in the beginning of the script there are variables declared (in this case from DstVar0 up to DstVar10) that will be used to force a certain device id to the atikmdag.sys
E.g. DstVar0 = force ATI FireGL V8650 capabilities
the variables only represent different device id´s for patching the driver

at the end of the script you´ll find the code that is patched to the atikmdag.sys. corresponding to the number of variables (DstVar10)
you will find here 10 patch sequences with different device id´s.

Dst2_0 = BA 2E 00 00 00 48 8B CB E8 F2 A4 FF FF C7 03 0A 94 00 00 90 90
...
Dst2_10 = BA 2E 00 00 00 48 8B CB E8 F2 A4 FF FF C7 03 9F 94 00 00 90 90


5. editing the patchscript

you need to edit the patchscript and implement your graphics cards device id into one out of those 10 options.

let´s say the script looks like this :

lets say i decide to use the first variable (DstVar0) for adding my graphics card to the script, i would then need to implement the device id of my graphics card to Dst2_0.

this line would need to be edited:

in this line there are four digits that represent the device id of the graphics card.

the device id of my hd 2600 mobility card is 9581. coresponding to the script the digits would need to look like this 95 81. now i have two pairs of numbers that needed to be swapped from 95 81 to 81 95.

the edited line in the script would need to look like this now :

the script that i have adapted for my card must look like this now:

6. creating the patchscript

you should have edited this text in the notepad and after you save the patchscript as win7x64_8.634.txt you should rename it to win7x64_8.634.rts
if you already have installed rivatuner( you need to reboot after installation) you can now use the script by double clicking on the win7x64_8.634.rts


7. using the patchscript

now that you have the patchscript you will need to apply it to the atikmdag.sys. once you have started the script by double-clicking you can choose the name of the variable DstVar0. you can choose in the script window : force ATI Mobility FireGL V5600 capabilities

now you need to point to the file that needs to be patched. usually you would find it here :
C:\AMD\FirePro_8.634_Win7x64_86103\Packages\Drivers\Display\W76A_INF\B_85955\atikmdag.sy_

the filetype is *.sy_ not *.sys as it should be. this is because the file is still compressed. choose for the file to patch :atikmdag.sy_

this file will automatically be uncompressed to atikmdag.sys and then patched. a copy of the original will be saved as atikmdag.old.

at this point you should rename the uncompressed file again to atikmdag.sy_

that´s it. you´re done with patching

8. installing the driver.

since we only altered the installation routine for the device driver, not the whole setup you can´t use the setup.exe for the driver installation.
you would have to install the driver manually via the "have-disk" method.

for windows vista / windows 7 it is explained here how it works :

for win xp here´s the procedure :

if everything was successful you should have a fully working professional OpenGL-GPU.

note that especially for the x64 bit versions of Vista , win7 and server 2008 you will need to switch off the driver signature enforcement. since we just altered the kernel of the graphics driver it is not anymore digitally signed.



Driver Signature Enforcement for Win Vista, Win7 and Server2008 32bit and64bit

to have the 8.634 driver working without pressing f8 during every startup in win7 x64 or vista x64 you just have to download the nifty little tool(dseo 1.3b) from here :

http://www.ngohq.com/home.php?page=dseo

this applies to win vista and win 7 (32 bit and 64 bit)

before you start installing the modded firegl-driver you need to disable the driver signing in win 7. you have several options :

once you have disabled the driver signing you are ready to use the driver in windows vista and windows7 32 bit




this applies to win vista and win 7 64bit only bit)

for windows 7 and vista 64 bit you just need a few more steps to get this driver working forever :

note that this procedure is necessary for vista / win 7 x64 bit only. the 32 bit drivers install and work after you have disabled the driversigning.


to get rid of the watermark please have a look here :

Windows autoupdate

Now that you have got everything working you have to make sure it stays that way. but if you are using win7 or vista you will soon realise that the automatic update knows it has a better driver for your (radeon-)grapics card.
you should make sure you don´t have to reinstall and sign the firegl-driver all the time because windows update thinks a radeon driver suits your card better

please discuss your questions/ problems / succes stories / troubles in this thread. Don´t send any PM´s for things that should be discussed in public.
especially don´t ask me to patch your drivers....

 

Thanks Schoko for your great work!

I installed dseo 1.3b to sign the driver (8.634, v7700).. It runs and I have so uninstalled "Ready driver plus"! Very good.

I have a problem: regularly, after same reboots, Windows 7 reinstall default Radeon Hd 3870 drivers.. I try to change the configuration of system updating drivers in W7 with gpedit.msc, but without any success! I have the same problem described also with "Ready driver plus".. Someone has an idea to solve?
Thanks to every body.

 

The problem you are experiencing is caused by windows update. The automatic update recognizes your card as radeon 3870 and thus it wants to install a "better" driver for you.

to get rid of this you will have to set windows update to manual, or at least to check for updates, but let me choose to install. you will have to review your updates, and hide/deny the update for the grapics card.

 

Thank you.

 

Thanks schoko!

I tried to configure advance system driver update and other advanced configurations, but the solution is more simple!

 

Hi
I used the windows XP64 script from the advanced discussion board but i get a black screen after installing the drivers. After rebooting i also get a black screen in windows and occasionally just artifacts.

My cart is a radeon 3850. Older patched drivers are working fine.

Does anyone have the same problems with XP64?

 

Which script, there are several ones.. Take the script from this thread with 8.634 XP 64 driver and do the step by step tutorial also from this thread!

Steps needed:

- modify patchscript with your Dev ID
- patch ati2mtag.sy_ with RivaTuner (select correct mod)
- rename resulting ati2mtag.sys to ati2mtag.sy_ and copy over original file in driver folder
- edit line for your card to the *.inf
- install!

works great on XP 64 with HD3870 1GB..

greetings

 

Hi, first of all I want to say: Thank you very much Schoko for your great work!

I tried last script for Windows 7 x64 and according to SpecView Perf 10 the mod is successful.
My specs:
Intel Core I7 920@4200MHz
Asus Rampage Extreme II
6GB 1600MHz 6-7-6-18
HIS 4850 1GB@AMD FireStream 9250

And here are the results:
Viewset Composite Mulitsample Performance
3dsmax-04 69.78 no result
catia-02 59.72 no result
ensight-03 53.50 no result
maya-02 237.81 no result
proe-04 63.31 no result
sw-01 142.10 no result
tcvis-01 39.62 no result
ugnx-01 47.23 no result

These was the good news.

However, when I tested with Maya 2009 64bit and 4 scenes there was no improvements:

Here are the results:
AMD FireStream 9250 ATI Radeon 4850

Textbench ~ 20,2 fps ~ 22,5 fps
Mayascene 11,6-18,3 fps 11,7 - 18,5 fps
Bike ~ 27,5 fps ~ 29 fps
MayaCarBench ~ 7,8 fps ~ 7,8 fps

So, I expect your comments and suggestions.

 

Thanks Schoko.
I'm working in win 7 x64,the softmod run good, but i not able to run the control panel.
Any suggestions?

 

This problem already has been discussed here:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=307873

there seems to be a problem with the recent firegl drivers and the maya viewport performance. the specviewperf uses maya 6.5 ( i think?) for benching the viewport model.
autodesk has made changes to the viewport model and certain features in the last versions of maya. (8,9,10).
for more than two years there have been quite a few problems with the overlay features in the firegl driver.in the recent driverversions( i have followed this since driver version 8.391) there have been a lot of display corruptions and problems with the overlay feature.

i tested the bike bench myself with my hd2600 mobility, and the modded firegl driver only showed around 30% improvement. i had around 10 fps for the 2600 mobility and around 13 fps for the modded firegl v5600 mobility.
the missing viewport performance boost can have several reasons :

1. ati has quite a lot of problems with the overlay feature in maya, and thus they are runnning this app in some kind of compatibility mode.

2. maybe there is a bug in the drivermodel, and the automatic selection for the opengl profiles doesn´t work, or the appropriate profile does not work as it should. (the profiles are stored in the atiogl.xml in the driver)

3. autodesk made some changes to the viewport model, and ati is not able to get the acceleration working properly for the newer mayaversion.

...

there might be a bug somewhere in the driver, since several users claim to have much higher fps with their older geforce 8xxx series cards, than the original firegl cards and those based on the radeon 4xxx series. something does not seem right with the driver, and it could very likely be a problem with the overlay feature.

so if i understand you correctly you can´t install the control panel ? i the control panel cant´t be installed from the driver you have, you still can download the catalyst control center from ati´s radeon drivers. it as absolutely the same features as the ccc in the firegl drivers. you will have powerplay and the workstation features even with the usual catalyst control center. since the 8.634 driver is based on catalyst 9.8 ( i think) the ccc from 9.8 and above should work. you could try to install the ccc from 9.12. if that does not work simply download the ccc from 9.8 and install it.

 

maya acceleration is working again....

@ all

well, i have played around a little bit with the atiogl.xml and installed maya 2010, and now guess what happened....

the framerate, and thus the performance for the the bike.ma went up by 400 %.

before i had 13 fps for my hd2600 mobility @ v5600 at maya 2009 (no sp1)


and now i have a steady 50 fps in shaded mode in maya 2010

will have to to check now what the problem was. either maya 2009 was responsible for the slowdown, or the settings for maya in the atiogl.xml helped.

will keep you updated.

// edit, just tested again with maya 2009 and i have 40fps for the bikescene.compared to my previous results (13fps) it is still 300% better, but compared to my result in maya2010 still 10 fps slower ( probably due to the missing sp1)


Edit 2.



I can confirm this now... the problems with the low performance most of you experienced in maya seemed to be related to a compatibility setting ( or maybe just a mistake) in the atiogl.xml



i have just replaced atiogl.xml that i altered and copied to c:windows with the original one from the driver, and the performance dropped back to 13 fps.
as soon as i replaced the original atiogl.xml with the one i altered and restarted maya the performance was again 50 fps.

 

the problem with the missing viewport performance in maya seems to be solved now.the problem was within the atiogl.xml, where the opengl profiles for the different applications are stored. since a few driver versions the autodetect feature of the firegl driver´s control panel does not let you make any changes to the profiles used for a certain application.

i have made minor changes to the atiogl.xml, and now the viewport performance is back to normal. since i only have tested performancein xp64, i can´t tell if overlay is again responsible for other problems in maya. please test this and report back if it works flawlessly.

the modified atiogl.xml can be found here :

just replace the atiogl.xml in the driver, or if already installed just copy the file to c:\windows.

 

Schoko, please upload the atiogl.xml again, because when I tried to download it, received this error: "No such downlodable file or incorrect removal code. "
Thanks!

 

my bad...
i have posted the wrong link. the one i posted was the actually the removal link for the file... :bang:

this should work now :

please test this and give some feedback on the performance.

 

Bingo!!! Schoko you are the man!

Here are the results with the new atiogl.xml:

Bike: 85,1 fps
Textbench: ~63,5 fps
MayaCarBench: ~13,5 fps
Mayascene: no cnange

So, improvements are really noticeable.
Thanks a lot!

Soon I'll publish results from SPECapc Maya2009.

 

good to hear it is working....

i guess i must have ****ed up my xp installation now... i guess i have played around too much. i experience some strange things here. i have maya 2009 and maya 2010 and i start them alternativly to test the performance. and now upon ever 2nd or 3rd start of the programs the performance is gone... i think i will have to clean install the driver and maya again... but if this is working for all of you it might me be worth it

 

@ veselinbg

since my system seems to be fu**ed up now.. i have to ask you this :
do you experience inconsistency in terms of performance in maya ?
is the performance always the same ? have you closed and restarted maya several times ? not drop in performance ? and how about usability, does something not work in maya ?
how about hardware rendering, visor, hypershade ... everything ok there ?

it is bugging me... why ati did not use other settings for the workstation profile...

btw...
my results for the modded mobility hd2600 in xp64:

bikescene (shaded): 50 fps
carbench (textured) : 7.9 fps
mayascene2 (smooth shaded - hardware texturing): 5.9~9.8 fps
mayascene2(wireframe) : 17~25 fps

remember guys, this is just one old hd 2600 mobility with 256 mb ram

 

Yes, I restarted Maya 2009 several times and I didn't notice any performance degradation.
Sorry, but I can't answer to other questions, because I'm not so experienced with Maya. You can explain me what to do in order to check all these features.

Regards.

 

that is good to hear... basicly it just means my system is really fu**ed up
it was time for a reinstall anyway. i´ve been running this xp64 installation for 2 years now...

no need to do that. i´m quite sure there will be a few others around here soon to test all that. for now i´m just happy to have the viewport performance working without any drawbacks. let´s see what others have to say about this solution.

thanks for your help, since you were the first testpilot..

 

I'm open to do more tests, with different applications and benchmarks.
I'm very happy that I can help with something.