1946 +4870 +water (help)
 

Hi, I've bought a 4870 2 days ago and I wanted to put water4 but each time it take it back to 1. the max water seeting I can get is 2. I'm in opengl and everything is maxed out... except water. If someone can help me, it would be appreciated:rolleyes:

E8600@ 3.8
4870
P5B
TX760w
4x1gb 5-5-5-15 @800 corsair

I think water 3 and 4 are still nV only modes. Water 2 is nearly identical and works on nV and ATI cards. Someone correct me if I'm wrong about this...it used to be the case because the 3 and 4 modes were rendering using a nVidia only capability...even when thats not supposed to happen these days.

ah ok... and if I put my conf.ini in there, could u plese tell me what can I changed to have a better image quality ???
Thx

[Render_OpenGL]
TexQual=3
TexMipFilter=3
TexCompress=2
TexFlags.UseDither=0
TexFlags.UseAlpha=0
TexFlags.UseIndex=0
TexFlags.PolygonStipple=0
TexFlags.UseClampedSprites=0
TexFlags.DrawLandByTriangles=0
TexFlags.UseVertexArrays=1
TexFlags.DisableAPIExtensions=0
TexFlags.ARBMultitextureExt=1
TexFlags.TexEnvCombineExt=1
TexFlags.SecondaryColorExt=1
TexFlags.VertexArrayExt=1
TexFlags.ClipHintExt=0
TexFlags.UsePaletteExt=0
TexFlags.TexAnisotropicExt=0
TexFlags.TexCompressARBExt=0

TexFlags.TexEnvCombine4NV=0
TexFlags.TexEnvCombineDot3=1
TexFlags.DepthClampNV=0
TexFlags.SeparateSpecular=1
TexFlags.TextureShaderNV=0

HardwareShaders=1

Shadows=2
Specular=3
SpecularLight=2
DiffuseLight=2
DynamicalLights=1
MeshDetail=2
VisibilityDistance=3

Sky=2
Forest=3
LandShading=3
LandDetails=2

LandGeom=3
TexLarge=1
TexLandQual=3
TexLandLarge=1

VideoSetupId=17
Water=2
Effects=2
ForceShaders1x=0
ForceShaders3x=1
TypeClouds=1

PolygonOffsetFactor=-0.15
PolygonOffsetUnits=-3.0

Water 3 and 4 were intended for Nvidia cards before the latest generation of ATI cards came out, as far as I can see they are disabled if you have an ATI card, even though technically the cards are capable of running them now.

If I am wrong, someone please let me know, as I would love to see water 4 on my 4850 as well.

Actually I would welcome any tuning tips, as I don't speak ATI real well yet.

Edit: LOL I type too slow

k, thx for ur answer. I'm gonna wait for BoB then....;)

The ATI cards are still likely not capable of rendering in the method used in Water=3 and 4. That was a nVidia specific extension. I don't think they ever added it later in the ATI cards. It was never part of the standard DirectX 9.0 package so it was never supported by anyone except nVidia. Stupid I know.

Water=2 is nearly as good and renders far faster.

As for the Config.ini...no I don't see anything that'd make a big difference.

What I'd focus on is your Anisotropic Filtering and Anti-Aliasing settings. See how high you can set both of those while still maintaining a high FPS. These are not game settings...these need to be enabled in the Catalyst Control Centre. I haven't used it in years so I can't tell you what its all about but I imagine there are application specific settings just like in the nVidia Control Panel.

The minute I put the 4870, I put the max AA on Il2... so 24x :grin: + 16As
And I noticed something.... for Il2 and Mass Effect (maybe other games but I didnt tes) There is new ligh effect with the 4870. My old card was a 8800 GTS and when I put the new one, if U fired in IL2, I can now see the light of the guns on the fuselage... I think it was there but not as much as with the 4870. It makes the game even more amazing. But it's my first ATI card and I found the Nvidia control center way easier than the CCC. Anyway, thx;)

EDIT: I'd like to say that BoB will be awsome. 2-3 years after BoB wil be so F**** CRAZY. Nothing to add!

I'm very impressed with the image quality on my 4850, but it's not particularly fast with the AA and AF cranked up, and the long sight distance too. Overall, I like the experience though.

Thanks for the info Ice, I thought it was just a shader 3.0 thing, but then again, special Nvidia only extensions don't suprise me either. Can't we all just get along?

Probably stating the obvious ....

But providing your not playing online upgrade to 4.09b will improve lots of visual stuff.

This is funny , a mate of mine has just renewed the guts of his pc with two new rad gc's, and graphics are top bananna , fps is better than mine , BUT , he cannot get water = more than 2, have tried several different roots but it just keeps reverting back to W=2 , I have Nv gtx.xxx and have no probs getting water = 3/4, anyone have a fix for this problem...?