This is my first post, but I want to make it a good one. I don't exactly have the money for upgrades, nor do I really need them right now, but I'm running on what you would call a low-end system at it's specs right now. Rofl. But, I've got myself knowledge on the D3 engine, moddifing textures abit, and making custom made config files to run on a low end system. Now, Quake 4 only supports the Radeons 9700 and up, but I've got it working perfectly on this system.Quake 4 also requires a 2.0 ghz CPU.Again, no problem with that. Quake 4 needs 512 mb.That, I agree with.Won't lie on that. But now, the rest of the topic. ATI Catalyst settings. AA-Let App decide AF-Let App decide Texture Preference-Quality MipMap Detail Level-Quality Wait for Verticle Refresh-Off, Unless APP specifies QUAKE 4 settings Graphic settings-High Quality Specular-On Bump Mapping-on 640x480(Thought it was 800x600, but it's not.) Right now, the only problems I'm facing, are minor. 1.The D3 engine is unstable, and sometimes when it starts up, textures are rendered wrong and look terrible.(Which I still don't understand how, since it should be rendered automaticly to what I set)D3 engine problem.Not Q4.Does the same with D3. 2.Lighting.When you flash the light on your allies, their face just looks pale and no detail.When you are outside and you look in certain directions, the ground gets really bright.I'm working on a patch to fix that. I tried premade config files, and they didn't work for me. So, I altered the textures alittle, and made a config file.So you won't get as good performance as me. Here is my config file. To use this CFG file, open up a new notepad, copy and past this into your notepad, save it as autoexec.cfg and put it in the q4base folder.THIS CFG file is made for Radeon 9000, and 8500 models.You can use this for the Radeon 9200-9500, BUT you can get way better performance on them on a tweaked CFGs.NOTE-THIS ISN'T MADE FOR NVIDIA USERS.I haven't had a chance to pick up a nvidia MX series card yet, so this CFG is made to take advantage of the ATI rendering system, mostly the low default rendering system,Not the Nvidia system.Expect problems if you try to run it.(Tried it on a friends computer.Didn't work so well...) However, if anyone with the Nvidia card does have good luck with it without modding it at all, then horray for you. If you want to show the FPS, you'll have open the console and type in com_showFPS 1, as in the CFG file. My next project is to get the lower Radeon cards working on the ARB2 rendering system without the green models, and textures.
*totally off topic* @vbetts, i like ur power supply - "Austin Power supply" (yes i kno it should have an 's' at the end of 'Power'...but still, i found that kind of funny
Quake 4 will run natively on any DX9 card, so that means the 9500 series is the minimum, not the 9700 series. Quake 4 is using theD3 engine, but it's littered with fragment_shaders throughout. Doom3 made use of these shaders in the "heat haze" effect, but their appearance was slim. Non directX9 cards could play Doom 3, and with minor patching, Q4 can be played on non DX9 cards as well. The radeon 9000 supports pixelshader 1.4, and I know there are programs that will force games to run with that ps. version.
Well from what I understand Quake 4 requires Pixel shader 2.0, but makes no sense at the same time because the Geforce 6800 I think has Pixel shader 1.8.Correct me if I'm wrong though with that. But, from what I've read up on, there were still shader problems below the 9700, which the 9600 having the worst, making the D3 engine unstable, rendering the textures wrong, and making it look horrible. But, the D3 engine will become unstable randomly, and is not caused by any hardware, but the 9600 makes the D3 engine less stable under Quake 4, but Prey runs PERFECTLY on my Radeon 9000 so far. You said there are programs to make games support Pixel shader 1.4, would you mind telling me what programs? 3D analyze is one of them, but I need more.
Alright, thank you. But, I've been trying with 3d analayze just to test it out, and so far it seems that this project is gonna be more hell then I thought it would. I tried to force it to Pixel shader 1.4, but everything is still green.Anyone have any advice for me?
Well, I'm glad you guys are atleast supportive about it. I've posted this on rage3ds forums, and all I got out of it is saying how much my hardware limits me, and I should upgrade. None of them were atleast happy to see that Quake 4 CAN be run on older systems. Hell, A voodoo user has gotten Quake 4 running on their Voodoo 5 6000(Or 5500.I forget which model it is.) and that card is older then mine.
your old 9600xt had pixel shader 2.0, Quake 4 need's pixel shader 2.0 to run and look good...with my old 9550GU(SM 2.0) there where no problems in quake4 but with a 9200(SM 1.4) quake 4 look like ****... PS:there is no pixel shader 1.8
UPDATE Well, I've been messing around with 3d analyzer, but the problem is I can't seem to get passed the green textures.I've told it what pixel shader to use, and it doesn't really change anything at all. I need help with this part though. I need someone to use 3d analyzer, or another program that forces it to use a lower pixel shader, and try to get Quake 4 to look normal on the r200 rendering system. On other terms, seeing that there is no pixel shader 1.8, then that's why it wouldn't make sense on the 6800.
Because Nvidias rendering is not the same as ATIs rendering, as well as Nvidia has way better support for Open GL.
UPDATE I don't know what I did, but while running 3danalyzer, I had everything looking normal on the R200 rendering system! During which, it crashed so I could not see what I did to get it work sadly... But, I still need help on this.Please run 3d Analyzer, or a program like 3d analyzer and tell me your results.
bah They have gotten Doom 3 to run on (a pair) of Voodoo2's so i think Quake 4 could do the same on almost any chip if tweeked enouth lol.
The Voodoo 2 SLI was patched by someone who is a Voodoo lover, and want better things for old Voodoos. The chips weren't tweaked at all, but the glide engine basically was installed on Doom 3, and textures lowered down. Quake 4 now runs on a Voodoo 5 5500 thanks to a patch, and better drivers. But, I need to get passed 3d analyzer, then I can work on a patch or exe file to get Quake 4 running good on the older Radeons.
MAJOR UPDATE!!! It works.There are a few bugs in the system, but it works. HOW TO RUN QUAKE 4 ON RADEON 8500, AND 9000 Reccomended resolution for this is 640x480. 800x600 is supported with it, but horrible FPS.Update you Quake 4 to Quake 4 1.2.This fixes the green texture problem, but still has horrible performance.To fix this, you need 1 thing.3d analyzer.SETTINGS FOR 3D ANALYZER PIXEL SHADER AND VERTEX SETTINGS force max pixel shader version 1.4 skip pixel shader version 2.0 force low persision pixels HARDWARE LIMIT SETTINGS Turn all on HARDWARE LIMITS Emulate cube maps emulate DXT textures(DXT meaning Direct X textures, but yes a few textures in Quake 4 are ran by Direct X) ANTIDETECT SETTINGS Turn both on ATI CATALYST HAVE DRIVERS 6.5 FOR THIS Texture Preferance-Quality Mipmap detail level-Quality Bugs are randomly some textures will turn purple, and once in awhile it will crash. DO NOT USE THE AUTOEXEC FOR THIS QUAKE 4.I made a mistake, but that autocfg file is only for arb rendering.
