Video Performance

[users]Inquisitor · Post by **[users]Inquisitor** » Sat Aug 14, 2004 8:08 pm

Hello,
I was wondering if there is away besides upgradeing a Vid card that whould get "Specular" and "Shadows" on video options to work. ive tried a few drivers microsoft and nvidia if you have any info please reply or PM me. thanks alot.

Danke · Post by **Danke** » Sat Aug 14, 2004 8:17 pm

What card do you have? What DirectX version?

[users]Inquisitor · Post by **[users]Inquisitor** » Sat Aug 14, 2004 8:45 pm

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420

Most latest Direct X 9.0 or whatever

EDIT: and im trying to find cheap way to do this withought getting a new card or something.

Danke · Post by **Danke** » Sat Aug 14, 2004 8:55 pm

Be sure and get updated drivers from Nvidia if you haven't. I have a 440, which still kinda sucks, but I get shadows and specular. Just no pixel shaders. So it should technically work. The nvidia drivers tend to update somewhat frequently so if you didn't do it this month, I'd recommend doing it again.

[users]Inquisitor · Post by **[users]Inquisitor** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 6:35 am

I Used http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_61.77 thats the only one i can find and it doesnt work. but its still good i just saw how it was on my friends comp and wanted to see if i could get it that way without buying a new card. ill break down sooner or later and buy a newer one thanks dan the man!

{GA}Ghost · Post by **{GA}Ghost** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 10:45 am

hey dude. to my knowledge, all you need to do is get more RAM, since you don't want to buy a new video card (same here), and also get the latest driver updates from Nvidia (but an odd thing is you said it is not working for you?). Me I have a Nvidia GeForce 4 MX 440 w/ AGP8X 64Mb, and I have 512 Mb of RAM, I myself do not have specular yet, that I know of I need 1Gb of RAM to have Specualr and Shadows. Everyone that I have asked so far that had a 32MB video vard and 1Gb of RAM said that they had specular and shadows and everything like that; same for 64Mb users (though some may only need 512Mb (not mine apparently).

Hey Dan you said that you have a Nvidia GeForce 4 MX 440 w/ AGP8X 64Mb card right?, if so can you please tell me how much RAM you have so I can better know what I need? Thanks

Oh and I have DirectX 9.0c (9.0b comes when you install Halo)

I hope I was of some assistance to you all and if any of you'll want to contact me you may IM me at any time.

kaptainkommie · Post by **kaptainkommie** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 12:36 pm

mx 420 does not support shadows or specular. There is nothing you can do, its a hardware issue. You guys should really search before posting.

{GA}Ghost · Post by **{GA}Ghost** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 1:54 pm

Actually, captainkommie, I just checked the config.txt straight from the Halo folder, I searched under the MX 420, it did not say //DisableSpecular nor did it say //DisableShadows. Yes, at the Nvidia site it says that it is not able to identify light source, but that is where the RAM comes in, my card is unable to identify the light source, but in the good ol Halo folder there is a file called 'config.txt' that tell that game what to disable to matter your processor speed, nor RAM.

kaptainkommie · Post by **kaptainkommie** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:49 pm

Try all you want. You won't get it working. Have fun.

Danke · Post by **Danke** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 3:36 pm

@Ghost: I only have 256MB of RAM (and 202MB more in pagefile) but the MX440 I have is 128MB, not 64 (and was only about $10 more, I think).

{GA}Ghost · Post by **{GA}Ghost** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 5:01 pm

Oh ok thanks. I never found the MX 440 with a 128Mb b4 thats interesting but thanks for tellin me.

dom · Post by **dom** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 10:36 am

I have a NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 w/ AGP8X 64MB and I have 768MB of ram. I cannot enable specular or shadows. Do you need a gig of ram for them to work?

{GA}Ghost · Post by **{GA}Ghost** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 1:23 pm

I can't 100% guarantee it, but by what people have told me and by what I have read, if you have 1Gb of RAM you can have Specular and Shadows enabled and it will run fine. Every 32Mb user that I have asked that has specular has 1Gb of RAM, some 64Mb users only need 512Mb (but not many) while most 64Mb need 1Gb. I have that same card and 512Mb of RAM (just to let ya know that I know something about this).

wilso · Post by **wilso** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 11:47 am

RAM has absoloubtly NOTHING to do with video performance or quality. Only new video cards that support directX 9.0 can use specular and shadows. My friend's computer has a 600 mhz processor and 64 mb of ddr ram, but he has the nvidia geforce fx 5600 or something. His computer plays halo a lot better than his other computer with 1 gig of ram but a crappy video card.

{XS} Shaggy · Post by **{XS} Shaggy** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 11:59 am

wilso wrote:RAM has absoloubtly NOTHING to do with video performance or quality. Only new video cards that support directX 9.0 can use specular and shadows. My friend's computer has a 600 mhz processor and 64 mb of ddr ram, but he has the nvidia geforce fx 5600 or something. His computer plays halo a lot better than his other computer with 1 gig of ram but a crappy video card.

Somehow I just don't believe that. The minimum processor speed is 733MHz, your friend has 600MHz. The minimum amount of RAM is 128, your friend has 64. So HOW does your friend play it? The only thing I believe is that the video card is better.

wilso · Post by **wilso** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 12:10 pm

It's possible. The Xbox only has a celeron 733 mhz cpu, 64 megabytes of ddr ram and a Geforce 3. The people at gearbox just assumed that you need something better than an xbox to play halo. My friend's computer is custom built though, so maybe he has some expensive parts or something.