What do we use our cards for?

splenda20 · Nov 27, 2003

It seems all anyone discusses here is the technology of vid cards. Well what about what they are used for (other than bragging about 3D Mark scores, lol).
I'm a bigger fan of games than the technology that drives them.
So I was just wondering which games do people here play?
Also, what graphical features to find to be the coolest, or most impressive?

Games I play are:
Halo
Tron 2.0
RTCW
Max Payne 2
Star Wars Galaxies

I think the night vision, and blur of Halo's sniper scope is cool.
Tron has really cool translucent textures and the colour scheme is awesome.
Forgot to add: RTCW has incredible fire effects with the flamethrower
Max has awesome bullet-time effects and incredible physics
SWG has really detailed character models, especially the faces (great bump-mapping)

All powered on my Athlon 2100+, 512 RAM and Sapphire Radeon 9500 Pro

Edited by splenda20 on 11/26/03 09:31 PM.

lhgpoobaa · Nov 27, 2003

R9800pro 128mb

Freelancer
Serious Sam 1 & SE
Willrock
proly halo and HL2 when they come out in full.

Most impressive feature are the shader effects and being able to run for the first time with 4x AA and 8x Ansio on ALL the time.

Lead me not into temptation.
I know the way myself. :evil:

Regards,
Mr no integrity coward.

coolsquirtle · Nov 27, 2003

I've try eating it...... not a good experience

RIP Block Heater....HELLO P4~~~~~
120% nVidia Fanboy
FX5700Ultra, the next Ti4200? seems so

lhgpoobaa · Nov 27, 2003

surely the chips taste nice though?

Lead me not into temptation.
I know the way myself. :evil:

Regards,
Mr no integrity coward.

Vimp · Nov 27, 2003

The one game moving me to want a new video card is Planetside.

Games I play most currently:

Planetside,
SimCity4,
Civ III,
Battlefield 1942 Secret Weapons Demo,
and of course
Transport Tycoon Deluxe

Only Simcity4 and Planetside out of those don't run unconditionally smoothly on my Geforce GTS/Pro. Infact more ram may be all I need.

coolsquirtle · Nov 27, 2003

noo~~ it was a Trident Riva 128 or something

RIP Block Heater....HELLO P4~~~~~
120% nVidia Fanboy
FX5700Ultra, the next Ti4200? seems so

GeneticWeapon · Nov 27, 2003

I swear I think I have crabs.....

I help because you suck

GeneticWeapon · Nov 27, 2003

Riva 128 <-- nVidia

I help because you suck

GeneticWeapon · Nov 27, 2003

It seems all anyone discusses here is the technology of vid cards

Thats what this forum is for. If you would rather talk about games, there is another forum dedicated to that topic.
We're more interested in visual discrepencies between floating point render targets of different bit values, or the use of proprietary ARB_EXTENSIONS as peronal weapons of war between IHV's and the game houses they cater to. I dont expect you to be interested in such things due to your self proclaimed love of console games and all the boringness thereof, but please dont try and drag this forum back to 1999 when knowledge wasnt king and all of the drivel that IHV's spewed forth to us was accepted as correct and eaten with a silver spoon.

I help because you suck

splenda20 · Nov 27, 2003

Of course this Forum is for Graphic Cards and that's all everyone talks about here, as expected. But what's a graphic card without a game to play?
I was just wondering what features everyone likes from their cards and what games they have that feature them. I love the technology part of it too, but I like games more. If you don't wanna post what games you play, then don't.

I'm just wondering for what games did everyone buy their card for. I personally got mine (Radeon 9500Pro) in March for SWG, when it was supposed to launch on April 15th. I love the pixel shader effects used for the water in that game and as I mentioned before, the bump mapping on the characters. I couldn't of seen that with my old Radeon 32meg PCI card.

Woodman · Nov 27, 2003

I'll sound like a fool when I say this, but I got an entirelly new system, with a fast (at the time) GeForce4 Ti4200 card, back in June 2002. I too was waiting for SWG, but not for the release, just for the very first beta

.

I didn't get in, and it wasn't until another year had passed before I finally entered beta. That's the last time I'll wait for a game before it's released :lol: .

Hardcore movie, not for kids:
<A HREF="http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avp/featurette/" target="_new">movie</A>

splenda20 · Nov 27, 2003

Don't feel too bad, by the time the game did come out, I could've gotten the card for about 75 bucks less (Canadian)than what I paid. I did manage to get into Beta 3 though, so it wasn't a total loss.

Wolfy · Nov 27, 2003

currently wasting my life on:

call of duty (amazing game)

max payne 2 (just finished not bad)

Halo (pants but im playing for the sake of it)

medieval total war (go on the brits....)

hostile waters (which i found on bargain shelf)

c&c generals (not bad once u get into it)

RoN (also not bad but gets repetitive)

Apart from the above add just about any and every great FPS game from HL to AvP2 to Unreal2 as thats my fave genre and its easier to say that than to sit here remembering what i have...

Running all these on these on a ti4600 which when i bought it meant i had the fastest card available for like... a week... i hate the graphics card market

ps im trying to spread the word about the greatness of Call of Duty... everyone should play it...

"I'm the dog from the advert. Would you like to stroke my coat?"

cleeve · Nov 27, 2003

I just finished

Tron 2.0
Max Payne 2

... beautiful titles, both. I think Tron was a much better game. Max was gorgeous, and the physics rocked, but there's really nothing amazing about it. It's Max Payne 1 all over again.
The 9500 PRO did an awesome job, by the way.

Now I'm playing:

Knights of the Old Republic
Lock On: Modern Air Combat
Star Wars Galaxies
Need for Speed Underground

Knights is the best RPG IO've played in years. Much better than Galaxies IMHO, which is quite a different title being a multiplayer RPG, but still...
Haven't played Lock On much, it's got gorgeous graphics though. It'll take some time to learn the controls. Hardcore flight sims are a bit$h that way.
Need for Speed underground rocks, although I haven't played it much. It's got a great multiplayer component, and it's the best implementation of drag racing I've seen yet. The blur and speed shaking effects are amazing, too.
Once again, the 9500 PRO is stepping up to the plate nicely. I'm very happy with the card... I run everything with AA and ansio and it eats it up.

As far as apps:

Photoshop 7
3dsMAX 6

Get the most use. The 9500 PRO gives great display quality in Photoshop.
It does a passable job in MAX, although I haven't used a professional card since an Oxygen I used to have at work, so I don't know what to expect from professional cards in 3d applications nowadays...

And what I'm looking forward to in the near future:

Deux Ex 2
X2: the Threat

X2 has gone gold, it looks very promising as a privateer-type open ended space simulation.
And Deux-Ex 2 just plain looks cool.

------------------
Radeon 9500 (hardmodded to PRO, o/c to 322/322)
AMD AthlonXP 2400+ (o/c to 2600+ with 143 fsb)
3dMark03: 4055

lhgpoobaa · Nov 28, 2003

X2 like an open ended privateer huh?

Sounds VERY interesting...

have you played freelancer? Thats a bit the same really.

Lead me not into temptation.
I know the way myself. :evil:

Regards,
Mr no integrity coward.

Spitfire_x86 · Nov 28, 2003

I love Serious Sam game engine (and the game (both 1/2), of course).

It can render countless monsters without dropping fps below 30 in my rig (extreme quality, 1024×768×32bit, no AA/AF), which is incredible compared to other equally good looking fps games.

I wonder why there is no other game made with Serious Engine.

----------------
<A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86" target="_new">My Website</A>

<A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86/myrig.html" target="_new">My Rig & 3DMark score</A>Edited by Spitfire_x86 on 11/27/03 08:15 PM.

TheGreatGrapeApe · Nov 28, 2003

Then there's XXX-2, which is about private-rears in space.

:evil:

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! - RED GREEN GA to SK :evil:

<A HREF="http://www.lochel.com/" target="_new">-NEW PIC IN THGC ALBUM-</A>

TheGreatGrapeApe · Nov 28, 2003

Still all time Fav:

Morrowind, love the open end aspect. Love the graphics (that still push most systems to stress with everything cranked). Game Play is great. And 2 Expansion packs plus all the Players add ons, like the CastleVania quest.

Halo's multi-player demo has my attention right now, and I will likely get the full version once I am done with Exams (otherwise I would play it too F'in much). Still a little worried about what appears to be auto-aiming by some players [anyone know if there are known cheats?]. The effects are nice, but is still plays like a DOG as a first player shooter when compared to the X-box version IMO. I also miss co-operative play.

MAX Payne 2 Demo: Dead Man Walking, some nice QUICK mayhem before bed, school or work. Graphics are sweet (I am ahppy playing at 1280x1024 with 4XAA and usinf AF), physics aren't bad. 4:09 minutes current max.

NHL 2003: Still love it and it still plays smooth as silk. I'm still amazed at how good it is for a sports sim. I will not buy (ahem-hum) NHL 2004 because of EA nV-specific tweaks.

X||| Demo, was interesting, but it's a novelty that wears off quick.

MATLAB, err oops that's not a game. School creaping in.

That's about it for games (I haven't felt the need to buy a new game except for HALO Multiplayer, which I will if I know more about cheating issues). I have alot more games, but I just don't have time to play them.

What else stresses my rigs? VIDEO. I download a ton of movies and clips (mainly of skiiers making/missing a trick [oh yeah and PORN of course :evil:

]).
I also do some work with Photoshop and Premiere, and love GOOD 2D quality. I don't have a single complaint of either the R9000 or R9600Pro in either of those areas. And the Fullstream makes somewhat blocky home video look great.

What I'm looking forward to in the Future. A multi-player version of Morrowind (not that it's even being developed, but that's what I'm looking forward too).

Current titles in development that have me looking ahead. D]|[ and even more so HL2 (the Demo at E3 was quite impressive). Also the possibility of running HIGH FPS on a Surround Setup with next gen cards (if they add support).

MY personal Fav. devlopment in recent history. Shader Effects. Who gives a Crap? Well It's not a major selling point but it's nice, and since D]|[ is OGL, I'm thinking that the ASCII-GREEN effect with a Next Gen Card and D]|[ will look kinda SchweEet, but that just my felling.

What features am I looking for in new cards. Massive Multi-Monitor Support, High Res w/ High Detail w/ High AA/AF and High FPS, MO POWA!

What is the one thing that would make me say, 'NOW I have exactly what I want in THIS application'? A rthdribl style visualization for WINAMP running SMOOTH with any music! I want that even more than phot-realistic games. Sorry Folks!

There hasn't been a point yet where the R9600Pro has failed me in my expectations (don't want to sound like an ad, just my experience). The R9000 isn't run in a gaming environment so it's not really stressed in the same way.
I just got the COD demo yesterday, and considering all the problems people have had with it I'm very interested in seeing how the R9600P holds up.

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! - RED GREEN GA to SK :evil:

<A HREF="http://www.lochel.com/" target="_new">-NEW PIC IN THGC ALBUM-</A>

splenda20 · Nov 28, 2003

FYI: Halo's Multi-player is awesome!!! as for cheats... it seems to me that the aiming doesn't have to be perfect, just in the targeting reticule means you'll usually hit your target. Some weapons are less accurate than others, so you can hit a target even if you're not aimed right at them, and that may be why it seems players are using auto-aimers. The single player part of the game is only average if you've played it on Xbox. It's obviously alot easier, i never could beat it on legendary on Xbox by myself, but i'm almost finished it on PC cause it's soooo much easier to aim.

I also really recommend Call of Duty, i've played both demos many times through and a bit of the game at a buddy's house. Definately my next purchase will be COD. BTW, a R9600 Pro will play the game with all settings maxed no problem. It has awesome fire and smoke effects too.

cleeve · Nov 28, 2003

Freelancer was cool, but the story was pretty linear, and after that you could go around shootiung things and stuff but there wasn't really any point to play other than upgrading your ship.

in X2, you can fight, buy space stations, and build factories that produce anything from ships to missiles.

But the really cool feature is that the universe is supposed to live and breathe. If a space station needs a resource and sends a freighter to aquire some of it, you could destroy that freighter and increase the market price of that resource... things like that. Kind of neat...

------------------
Radeon 9500 (hardmodded to PRO, o/c to 322/322)
AMD AthlonXP 2400+ (o/c to 2600+ with 143 fsb)
3dMark03: 4055

TheGreatGrapeApe · Nov 28, 2003

Yeah Freelancer.... Looked GREAT, hated playing it. Very dissapointed after all the hype when it came out.

As for X2, MMmm cartel action anyone? Economics.... in SPACE!

Just as long as it's more open ended and somewhat 'endless' then it will work. Also Get better F'in Dialogue than Freelancer!

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! - RED GREEN GA to SK :evil:

<A HREF="http://www.lochel.com/" target="_new">-NEW PIC IN THGC ALBUM-</A>

ytoledano · Nov 28, 2003

SimCity 4 is a game for tomorrow, if you have a large enough city, NO system will be good enough for time to run as fast as you'd wish!
I just downloaded a mod that makes sims take a better transport route but strains the CPU even more, so you can see that the developers had to make compremises.

----------
I'm a nuclear reactor cooling system programmer, if you see me running, it's probably already too late.

daddywags214 · Nov 29, 2003

Hell, even websites are getting graphically pretty intense. Nothing really card-pushing these days, but soon they will be, I'm sure.

AMD 2500+, 1gb DDR333, Radeon 9800 Pro, Audigy 2. Yummy...

daddywags214 · Nov 29, 2003

Man Max Payne 2 is gorgeous, yet it runs so well. I run it at 1280x960 (my 19in monitor is broken) 6xAA/8xAF with no problems. That's good programming, even though I have a ballsy card.

AMD 2500+, 1gb DDR333, Radeon 9800 Pro, Audigy 2. Yummy...

mrface · Nov 29, 2003

I run it at 1280x960

Thats what i run mine at.

awesome shaders done with minesweeper. i cant believe the detail.

my r9800pro gets awesome fps in minesweeper and freecell.

<A HREF="http://www.cameronwilliamson.com" target="_new">-={Apostalic Alcoholic.}=-</A>

What do we use our cards for?

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