tomb raider legend

[genetic]

Hello,
can anyone help me to get 3D working in this game when the next gen content is on?

An idea I read on stereovision.net was to turn off the AA in game and turn it on from the nvidia cotrol panel.

This fixes the Problem with the lighting where everything not near the camera has a light texture double.

The problem is that it also seems to turn off all lighting effects so that it just looks like a very dull lifeless game. Maybe this is an HR thing but it is so bad that the game without next gen content looks much better when using this fix.

My question is did this fix work for anyone else or did everyone see that it was working with the fix without noticing the lighting problem and then just played with next gen content turned off due to framerate? (it took me twenty minutes of play to notice)

The easiest way to prove what Im talking about is to zoom in on Lara?s face with aa turned on in game and you will see a far more sophisticated image along with the artifacts. Then turn it off in game and see an image that would not be fit for a PS2 game.

I tried nhancer and the demon fix thing but nothing good came of it.

The 3D is wonderful and I think Ill just play it with the next gen stuff turned off so that there are at least some lighting effects. Its just a shame.

Oh, I have the 94.24 drivers from mtbs. And tried the older ones too.

This is not a big deal but if you have the game and the time and for some reason like doing things like this than please take a look.

[Freke1]

I posted some 3D pics from Tomb Raider Anniversary demo yesterday.
I use 93.81 and Dragon 3D utility. I don't know if it is with or without next gen. Maybe You can tell.


Tomb Raider Anniversary demo
http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/3369/tra17503ti0.jpg
http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/5083/tra17504kk9.jpg
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/8330/tra17505rd5.jpg
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/7868/tra17506mx3.jpg
Best I can do.

[artox]

The demo of anniversary works great in stereo with the dragon utility.
There is no next gen in the demo, nor there will be any in the full game.
Which is great for me actually, because the game still looks great and runs great.
The only thing that doesn't appear ok in stereo is Lara's shadow which seems to be floating, much like the shadows from doom 3 before ini editing.

As for legend, I was the one that found out about the AA fix. I didn't notice any disimprovement of lightning however and am not sure if you are right on this matter, however I remember that with the aa it ran terribly

[genetic]

Yes, Hello! It was you wasn?t it. Sorry I didn?t give credit but I couldn?t check stereovision.net because its still down and I cant view cached pages on google when on my work computer for some reason. But Im a big fan. I use a lot of the game profiles that you made for the nVidia stereo profile editor including TRL.

About that, Ill try to post some pics when I get home but I haven?t gotten around to trying that yet. This is my 4th month with stereo.

It basically looks like a single shadow has been cast over everything and there are no other light sources.
It runs ok for me (7800 GTX, 800x600) but with a few stutters here and there. In the grey area between playable and not. Its to bad that we have to choose one way or the other and cant just tweak the settings in next gen content.

[artox]

Yeah but it looks much better that playing legend in dx7 mode, and runs as fluid as possible for me that is (6800gt).
The biggest loss, which is quite obvous are the shaders and the beautiful lightning which are gone in anniversary. At least Laras model is still high-polygoned.

Since you are just getting started in experimenting with stereo, I'll suggest playing 3rd person game with as much convergence as possible and fps games with as the highest level of separation.
That way in 3rd person games you will experience a pop-out effect which is really cool, considering you look at your character while moving and playing and minding the surroundings.
While in a fps game you are looking primarily at the surroundings and maybe at your gun (weapon) model, therefore you can get fully immersed when having the full amount of separation and not expecting too much popping out to happen.
A lot of people have made guides on the subject (me including), but always keep an eye open for the best stereo settings there could be for a game (separation+convergence), because it's different for each game.

[Freke1]

I tried the Next Gen demo and it ran fine except I had to disable "Shadows" because it didn't look right. I don't use widescreen but everything else in on.
I've posted some screenshots in:
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=17585&st=0

[genetic]

Hey! It works with shadows turned off. I think I also had to uncheck the ?enable?.? Button on the demon tool. Then it worked!

No shadows is a bit sad but the ambient lighting looks a thousand times better than when one big shadow was over everything. It also brought my framerate up to more or less playable.

One other problem that has always been there when next gen was on is an odd little group of angry white objects that run along the left or right when I am in a particularly spacious looking environment. I have this to an almost unnoticeable degree in HL2 as well but it?s a bit of an eyesore in trl. But not so much that I will turn the next gen button off.

Thanks for your help everyone.

I have a decent (hacked from five other authors) wiimote script that im really happy with for this game if anyone wants me to post it.

[RAGEdemon]

Similar to other games, Anniversary "works" partially in stereo on a 8800.

The shadows and everything else is perfect and beautiful, but there is major random "blocky" texture corruption - same as titan quest and oblivion without SSFSAA.

Being a stereo addict, I am the playing through 3D regardless.

If I had the money Artox, I would send you an 8800 as "testing sample"

It's obviously a driver issue which will hopefully be fixed soon.

[artox]

Thanks Rage

I'm playing, or more likely will be playing the game right after I finish with my exams, however I myself am having a shadow problem ( just Laras shadow actually). As I said above it kind of appears closer to the screen that Lara herself. It's a little annoyning , therefore I have turned the shadows off.
I am not seeing the blockiness from legend though, which is good and proves that it is a driver issue regarding the 8800.
Btw I am playing the game with 93.71 forceware, so may wanna try them for anniversary, although with legend they definately have that problem.

I haven't done much game testing lately, partially because of lack of time, but mostly because my system is getting old and I need to upgrade it if I am going to continue contributing.

[venge]

Hello!!

I'm happy to tell you that i've made it with this game!! One of the best stereo games at all!! almost at oblivion level, I've got a 8800GTX and EDim shutter glasses, after hard working i've made it!!! and now for me Tomb raider's got an impressive stereo effect! (i'll post screens as soon as anyone tells me where are all the in-game taken stereo images!! , i've used ALT+F1 to take 'em)

Here's my setup for TRL:
173.68 ForceWare + 162.50 Stereo

from nhancer i've set:
multisampling 4x4
v-sync ON
compatibility to Oblivion AA&HDR
hdr activated

In game you've to set "Field depth" to OFF, if not stereo effect will look good only with NEXTGEN feats. disabled!!!
To play in stereo with NextGen ON you've to disable "field depth"!!!
One last thing: sadly i've not found a way to keep HUD inside my screen! with my settings it torns apart and you see just a piece not all of it, any hint is welcome!

As soon as I find my jps screens, I'll post 'em here!!

bye and thank you all!!

[LukePC1]

I've got a hint where to look for your screenshots:
C:\NVSTEREO.IMG

I hope you'll manage, to uploud them here - it's a little tricky. You'll have to hover about the @ symbol in the galery

[Likay]

I simply love the last two games in this series. I also set up the stereodriver so the hud is out of the screen but that's really no problem. It's way better than having those disturbing borders in the cornes of the screen during cutscenes and when you're close to water.
Have no idea of a fix since there doesn't seem to be any config files at all to tinker with.

When i take screenshots of Legend i rather use the IZ3D-driver since that one really works great with "next-gen content" on. I get a annoyingly lot of missing textures when running next gen and the nvidia driver.

cheers

[venge]

Well I've found the jps!! thank you, but... they're all messed up! i just can see colored straight lines... not of course my 3D scene... any idea on how to take jps screenshots with an nvidia GPU??? using ALT+F1 makes the screens but they're just a mess!

help!!

[Likay]

Sounds really strange. Might be that you have an 8800 and that something goofs up the ability to take screenshots. Could also be the driver itself. I run the 169.44fw+162.50stereo and the screenshots are fine. The card is 7900GT. A little tip: You can try alter settings for the jpegcompressionrate of screenshots in the registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\Stereo3D]

"SnapShotQuality"=dword:0000003b

If you like me have 0000003b then try to change value. Any decimal value between 1 and 100 will do. Living on the edges results in either crappy screenshots or insanely big pictures.

If you're familiar with dragons utility that small application manage it excellently. Just choose the driver tab and then alter setting for screenshot quality.

I'm absolutely not sure if this might help but it is a way to tinker with it.

By the way: What happens if you rename your jps-files to jpg for normal view?

cheers

[venge]

As i get some time i'll try your hint!! thank you!

I could try to post my results... but i don't know how to post images here!!!

anyway, renaming files result in 2 completely weird and messed up images (like it is when i look at 3d jps)! i can't even ditinguish anything, just straight horizontal colored lines

[nubie]

Can you set the 3D to dual VGA and use fraps, print-screen, or the game's screenshot function?

I might try it out later.

[venge]

Well here it is....

I've tried Dual VGA mode and it works, but stereo screens are again a mess, not different from before, I've tried:
- ALT+F1 from nvidia drivers, stereo image is a mess, but is double (when renamed to jpg)
- print-screen and pasting, but i get a single image
- fraps tool and i get the same, single picture bmp format.

I've tried to edit "SnapShotQuality" on the registry, nothing changed, the screens are taken in double mode (with ALT+F1), but they're always a mess, just straight colored lines, this both with oblivion, nvidiatest app, and TRL!!!

I've heard there should be a way to use iZ3D driver to take screenshot... but i don't have an iz3d monitor, i just have crt + edim shutterglasses, nvidia stereo driver... any way to do that???

any further hint is welcome!!!

[Likay]

You say it's "double" when you rename to jpg. Does that mean that you can view them using your standard jpeg viewer without problems (image is shown left and right image side-by-side)?
Then you probably have wrong inputformat in your stereoviewer. Choose jps-file format side-by-side (not interlaced as it seems like now). But this applies only if you can view pictures when renamed to jpg.
Regarding iz3d-driver: you don't need an iz3d-monitor to use the driver. It also has support for anaglyph 3d-mode (red/blue glasses) natively. Just be sure to deactivate the nvidia-stereodriver if you plan to use the iz3d-driver. No need to uninstall nv-stereo (i don't myself) but disabling it as a must.

cheers

[venge]

NO double images are still completely weird and impossible to understand...

this are my screens,
TRL next gen off (it's the same with NG on!)


Oblivion


please tell me how to change jps input format!!
I don't know how to make decent screens, I'd like to post my results so you can judge if they're real 3D

thanks again

[LukePC1]

Interesting screenshot... I don't get a clue about, how this was made...

May I ask you, which mode you did use? Was it Shutterglasses or interlaced or any other?
Maybe you have more luck with a different 'outputdevice' - at least with the shots.

I know, that Anaglyph gets saved as anaglyph .jpg'S
And I used planar and had one of the images mirrored.

[venge]

It was made with "DDC VGA glasses" mode, but stereo works also with, "dual VGA output" and "Direct 3-pin DIN vesa" (same result for screenshots), some other modes work but i get no stereo effect, others crash the whole system.

How can I make my screens visible??? maybe something to tune into registry?? or have i to change drivers??? I've got no idea on how this works, so i don't know where to start!!

One question for LukePC1, please could you tell me how could you've got those good screen for crysis, in the other post???, which stereo settings do you use??, i've got crysis working well with stereo and tuning but i can't get a good depth effect!!

Thank you for your support!

[nubie]

I just tried on my 7900GS and got some perfect screen captures. I purchased an 8800GTS 320mb on ebay, maybe when it arrives I can give it a try and see if I can take screenshots.

It looks like I am on Forceware 169.21, I am not sure of the stereo drivers, most likely 162.50. I did get a straight crash to the blue debug screen when I started anniversary the first time. So on reboot I double checked the setup (clone mode on the monitors), switched it to Planar, then I ran 3dmark2001 and grabbed some screenshots.

When that worked I fired up TR:Anniversary and took my screen caps. Due to the Planar setting I get a mirror image on one screen, if I open the file in an editing program and flip that side of the picture I get a proper one. I might try Dual VGA again, I think the crash was because I hot-plugged this second monitor, might have messed with the detection and support of multi-monitor.

Edit: Dual VGA worked in 3Dmark2001, will try TR-A again.

Edit2: crashed win32k.sys? Can't really read the bsod it as it is set to instant reboot, maybe there is a boot.ini switch to disable the auto-reboot.

This time I booted, ran the medical test image, chose yes, and start TR, that worked. (is the test app doing anything? maybe it flushes the buffers? If it is just setting the reg key every time maybe a reg file to enable it would be a quick way to run it. Is there any way to run the stereo test app directly?)

[venge]

I've found that my screens problem is due to the fact I''m using an 8800 series card!! that's it... i could never get any good 3d screenshot with this board... just using vista drivers and anaglyph mode... WTF!!!!

[distantreader]

My TR: Legend just arrived yesterday - I was expecting it to work in S3D as well as "TR: Underworld" and the success of Venge with Nvidia drivers (posted above) I thought this was a certainty. Alas, but it wasn't meant to be, I tried Venge nHancer settings (and afterwards experimented myself with several settings) however the results were always the same:

- The moment I hit Ctrl-T, the screen frozen
- and an Alt-Tab to desktop show a primitive display driver is in charge, NOT the advanced pair 180.48 + 162.50 pair that I installed.
- only a reboot at this point could restore the normal situation.

Anyone has any tips to solve this problem for Legend ?

System/Software used:

Core 2 Duo, XP, 1GB RAM, 8800GTS PCIE 640MB
Forceware 180.48+stereo 162.50, CRT, shutterglasses => Works well with TRU in S3D

Thanks guys.

[Likay]

I cannot really tell with the newer drivers from nvidia sorry. It works insanely good with the ordinary nvidia drivers+stereodrivers. Both TRL and TRA has significantly less flaws in stereo3d than TRU. But:
For legend: Turn OFF next gen content. It works enabled but looks plain wrong and lags worse than anything else.
Turn off fullscreen effects, water effects and reflections (looks wrong and some effects ruins stereo). Shadows are ok though.
Same settings for tra (except next gen cannot be enabled in tra).
I use/used winxp sp2 for this and had a 7900gt for the moment. Drivers that worked are 169.21+162.50stereo and 91.31combo (disable all but one cores).
The problem is your card. I also have a 8800gtx and gave up on nvidiastereo for that card a long time ago.
Try to start the nvidia testapplication and close it before running the game. Sometimes it seems to have a healthy "flushing" effect.

[distantreader]

Thanks for the quick reply.
I tried all what you suggested and still the same thing happened, frozen solid. Well, look likes I have to accept the fact that the 8800 card is the problem and that I can only play TRU at this time - Once done I can try other drivers combo or even reinstall the 7900 for Legend. TR Anniversary will arrive next week, will see whether it'll work with the current setup or not.

Again thanks, you have been very helpful with lots of questions in the forum. Much appreciated.

I cannot really tell with the newer drivers from nvidia sorry. It works insanely good with the ordinary nvidia drivers+stereodrivers. Both TRL and TRA has significantly less flaws in stereo3d than TRU. But:
For legend: Turn OFF next gen content. It works enabled but looks plain wrong and lags worse than anything else.
Turn off fullscreen effects, water effects and reflections (looks wrong and some effects ruins stereo). Shadows are ok though.
Same settings for tra (except next gen cannot be enabled in tra).
I use/used winxp sp2 for this and had a 7900gt for the moment. Drivers that worked are 169.21+162.50stereo and 91.31combo (disable all but one cores).
The problem is your card. I also have a 8800gtx and gave up on nvidiastereo for that card a long time ago.
Try to start the nvidia testapplication and close it before running the game. Sometimes it seems to have a healthy "flushing" effect.

[Likay]

No problem as long as i'm around. If you look around you should be able to get a used 7900gt/gtx for a really cheap sum. Then you'll have a real goldmine with older games to play in stereo3d.

[distantreader]

UPDATE:

I ended up with Forceware 180.48 and Stereo 162.50 just like at the start, however this time Legend goes stereo 3D but with white squares running around, very distracting. By using convergence + separation adjustments these white squares can be managed down to an acceptable level for playing.

What I found interesting is that TR Underworld also suffers this malade but by toggling in game "Vsync" (and possibly with the "volumetric" switch) those nasty white squares were completely gone in S3D - Now the question is how do I access this in game "Vsync" (and "Volumetric") in Legend ? The only place I see Vsync in Legend is at the setup screen and there is no "Volumetric" at all anywhere. Anybody knows how ?

[Likay]

Check this thread about stereo on the 8800: http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1072" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This seems to work only for shutters and not all the time. When i tried i couldn't manage it to work with dual projectors (flickering like shuttermode was enabled). The success maybe for the square issue is enabling antialiasing and having oblivion mode (subtle guess from my side ). Nevermind the pinconfiguration talk because that is only for getting past the hardwarelock of newer nvidiastereodrivers.

Good luck!

[distantreader]

Agreed. 8800 is going to be glitchy in S3D for me, I don't see a way out at this point.
Anyway, I'll stop with the driver experiments (Just tried 180.60 and 180.70, still same herd of squares going nut in S3D). Back to certified 180.48 for the moment.

[SPOILER]

Code: Select all

I'm presently stuck at the timed bike racing track in Mexico (puzzle of the unamed day), the control is too twitchy, anyone has tips of how to do this part ? 

[/SPOILER]

Check this thread about stereo on the 8800: http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1072" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This seems to work only for shutters and not all the time. When i tried i couldn't manage it to work with dual projectors (flickering like shuttermode was enabled). The success maybe for the square issue is enabling antialiasing and having oblivion mode (subtle guess from my side ). Nevermind the pinconfiguration talk because that is only for getting past the hardwarelock of newer nvidiastereodrivers.

Good luck!

[Likay]

Spoiler TRU. (you asked)
Hm. Where exactly are you in mexico? Is it where you have to set the mayan calendar, seing all those statues rise. etc?
Place your bike at the right direction from beginning (to make the best start), as close at the mayan calendar as possible. Remember: You need to solve both "mayans" before the "timer" starts!. Then race to the big arena with the bike. Race a few times so you learn the track to the big arena and you get a hold on when to jump/steer away. Time is not really critical for as long as you manage to get there without being killed.

[distantreader]

TRU SPOILER:

Yep, that's where I'm.
I actually did place the bike "strategically" closed to the exit heheh...but the bike control is too twitchy I have made more than 10 practiced trips and still failed (and alive). I'm now sliding with three fingers like nuts and hoping after another few hours put in will be proficient enough to make the time. Damn with this rate I won't finish this puzzle for another few days ....part of the fun I guess.

Spoiler TRU. (you asked)
Hm. Where exactly are you in mexico? Is it where you have to set the mayan calendar, seing all those statues rise. etc?
Place your bike at the right direction from beginning (to make the best start), as close at the mayan calendar as possible. Remember: You need to solve both "mayans" before the "timer" starts!. Then race to the big arena with the bike. Race a few times so you learn the track to the big arena and you get a hold on when to jump/steer away. Time is not really critical for as long as you manage to get there without being killed.

[Likay]

Lol. Tip: Take it easy and concentrate to learn the track and do it without mistakes. The speed isn't that important since i experienced you actually have plenty of time. You absolutely don't need full throttle all the way so slow down when the slight tricky parts come.