DarkRadiant - No Camera View

[Arcady]

I've started tinkering with DarkRadiant and following the Beginner tutorial written out by Fidcal. I'm not experienced at all at any phase of this so some things that may appear obvious to most I may know nothing about. Right now, my problem is that I don't seem to have a camera view. I'm under the impression that when I open DarkRadiant, I should have a drawing grid taking over the right side of the screen, with a camera view top left and a misc toolbox lower left. The camera view (or what I'm assuming is meant to be a camera view) is always blank and never refreshes. Anytime I open a window over it, the image of my window remains there along with any other screen tidbits that happen to make their way into that area. What am I doing wrong or what do I need to do to fix this?

 

I'm running Windows XP SP1

I have DarkRadiant open on my primary monitor with a secondary monitor attached

 

What else would you like to know?

[Mortem Desino]

Try swapping what monitor DR starts on.

There's a check box that you should try toggling.

 

Edit -> Preferences

Multimonitor -> [X] Start on Primary Monitor.

 

On my computer, if I use multimonitor, The camera view only works one screen and the orthoview only works on the other screen.

_______________

 

And, seriously, you need to download XP service pack 3 (It's free, you'know). Your PC is very unsafe on the internet running SP1.

[Arcady]

Try swapping what monitor DR starts on.

There's a check box that you should try toggling.

 

Edit -> Preferences

Multimonitor -> [X] Start on Primary Monitor.

 

Well, that didn't do anything for me, but with you mentioning running different parts on different screens I started looking for some undock options to try that out. I found View > Window Layout > Floating, and now it seems to work just fine.

 

And, seriously, you need to download XP service pack 3 (It's free, you'know). Your PC is very unsafe on the internet running SP1.

 

I'll see what I can do, thanks for the note.

[Arcady]

After adding a light, my textures now morph when playing with the camera, does anyone know why this may be?

 

Morphing Textures

[Serpentine]

After adding a light, my textures now morph when playing with the camera, does anyone know why this may be?

 

Morphing Textures

 

I myself have the same issue, I havent found any way to fix it however... and I havent really looked very hard as I havent got to texturing yet.

[Komag]

That's a graphics driver issue/bug. I'm guessing you have an ATI card. I had the same exact issue a couple years ago, experimented with various drivers at the time, and found one that works best. If you have a relatively newer driver, you might consider rolling it back to an older one.

 

Just in case they help you at all, here are my old notes from around July of 08, with the numbers representing different sets of ATI Catalyst drivers:

 

-----------------

 

8.5 The worst problems (can't "fix" it by selecting and deselecting a brush) were with ATI drivers Catalyst 8.5. Previously (in Feb when I first reported wacked graphics) I'm not sure which drivers I was using, I think maybe 7.12

7.11 wacked has yet to show up, no problems for a few hours of work

(but with 7.11 I can't have dual monitors with the second monitor on the left, crazy)

8.7 works for my dual monitor again, that's good. Nope, bad bug showed up pretty quickly.

7.12 has the old minor bug that I can cure by selecting and de-selecting a brush. It shows up in around 10 minutes, (about as fast as the newer bad bug does in 8.5 and 8.7) but only if I'm selecting and moving around entities or lights.

 

SUMMARY

7.11 - no bug (not even lesser bug), but dual monitor problems

(no bug is GREAT, but want to put up with dual monitor issues?)

7.12 - old "lesser" bug (shows up with entities, lights, can be "cured" temporarily), dual monitors okay!

(lesser bug annoying but perhaps livable?)

8.5 - bug, dual monitors okay

8.7 - bug, dual monitors okay

--------------------

 

 

So, I would suggest reverting to Catalyst 7.11 if you don't have a dual monitor setup with the secondary monitor on the left. In case you haven't done much with drivers, here are a few pointers:

 

DOWNLOADS

- Download the "new" driver package ahead of time so you have it ready. You can find past ATI Catalyst sets for XP 32bit here: http://downloads.gur...nload.php?id=18

- If you have a laptop, you'll probably need to use Mobility Modder to be able to install different ATI Catalyst drivers. Download and instructions for that are here: http://www.driverhea...net/modtool.php

 

PROCEDURE

- First try the "uninstall all" file ATI includes in most driver sets. You have to manually browse to it, probably within "Program Files/ATI/Support/blah blah blah/UninstallAll" or something like that.

- If that's not available, do a basic uninstall from your Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs and uninstall ATI Display Driver, ATI Catalyst Control Center, and possibly ATI Software Uninstall Utility.

- Do a system restart

- Cancel any attempt by Windows to install a video driver.

- IMPORTANT - run Driver Cleaner Pro (there is a free version out there, I think on guru3d.com) or a similar program, to fully wipe out any remaining ATI driver files embedded within various Windows system folders

- Do another system restart (not sure if this one is essential, but it's a good idea)

- Again, cancel any attempt by Windows to install a video driver.

- Run the Catalyst 7.11 driver install file (probably following the Mobility Modder instructions:)

........(let files extract, probably to C:\ATI)

........(Cancel further driver install)

........(Run Mobility Modder program, browse to "C:\ATI\SUPPORT\7-11_xp32_blah_blah_blah" and do the modifying)

........(Browse to "C:\ATI\SUPPORT\7-11_xp32_blah_blah_blah\ Driver" and run Setup.exe)

- Do the required System restart

- DONE! Enjoy!

[Arcady]

I do in fact have an ATI card (9800 pro AGP to be exact). I appreciate all the notes you've provided me on the drivers there. I'll play around with that in a few days, maybe this weekend, and see if I can get something working. Unfortunately my secondary monitor is on the left so I'll likely have issues with 7.11 as well. I'm currently using 8.53. I'm also installing SP3

 

I'll report when I get something done.

 

In other news, I used to use solely NVidia and decided to try an ATI for a change. I have to say, I've never had any issues with my NVidia cards, they've always just worked. That and driver installations are usually easy which can never be said for ATI. I still wonder why AMD picked up ATI...

[Komag]

I haven't tested any drivers sets since the 8.7, so perhaps some newer ones would work well, but I have no idea

[Arcady]

Well, I ran the UninstallAll utility and removed my old driver components. I then rebooted my computer only to be presented with a completely black screen and no pointer. After waiting awhile to see if it would actually do something, I booted into safe mode. While in safe mode, I attempted to install the newer driver (9.11) and restarted again. Again just a black screen. Booted back into safe mode where it asked me again to install drivers for my unknown video device. I attempted to install 9.11 again (in safe mode) and did another restart. Still just a black screen that doesn't go anywhere. I don't like trying to install drivers in safe mode but I guess I'm going to go back and see if I can't install an older one and get some function back. Wish me luck... I certainly hope I'm not forced into installing windows all over again...

 

I love you ATI...

[Mortem Desino]

Well, uninstalling your video drivers will certainly give you minimal video support. Ordinarily, one should try to upgrade rather than install drivers from scratch, but you're in a kind of unique position. I used to have a Radeon 9600 Pro AGP, which was quite finicky. If you've got the original software CD, first use that to reinstall your drivers. Best of luck to ye.

[Serpentine]

Just a reminder, make sure you are trying to install the legacy driver.

Normal Cat's wont work.

[Arcady]

Well, uninstalling your video drivers will certainly give you minimal video support. Ordinarily, one should try to upgrade rather than install drivers from scratch, but you're in a kind of unique position. I used to have a Radeon 9600 Pro AGP, which was quite finicky. If you've got the original software CD, first use that to reinstall your drivers. Best of luck to ye.

 

Uninstalling the video drivers is a required step for ATI though. All attempts to bring back something other than a black screen at boot up have failed. At least I have safe mode though...

[Serpentine]

Ummm, I dont see why it would be black screening, at worst it should revert to vesa without a driver. Looks like you've managed to half install/remove it.

 

• I'd go get drivercleaner or whatever its called these days
  
• go to device manager, uninstall the display devices there
  
• then run drivercleaner and delete whatever remains.
  
• since you're on XP, go to system32, delete all the files starting with ati*.* (yes, so long as they are only starting with ati its safe)
  
• then nuke the ReinstallBackups folder in system32, it keeps backups of drivers and automatically installs them, which is somewhat really annoying.
  
• reboot and try normal mode
  

 

Failing that, I have no idea.

[Arcady]

Ummm, I dont see why it would be black screening, at worst it should revert to vesa without a driver. Looks like you've managed to half install/remove it.

Failing that, I have no idea.

 

Agreed. I'll get it fixed eventually I'm sure. I do appreciate the advice here and there though. At this point I'm just sharing my story as it unfolds. It helps keeping me from getting so frustrated if I at least share what I'm about. You could probably stick this one in an off topic thread by now

 

Now it's getting even more interesting however. I followed my golden rule "When in doubt, pull it out". I physically pulled the card and reinstalled it. I was then able to boot normally, welcome screen and functional. It asked me about hardware again which I canceled. After a lot of activity from the computer (ZoneAlarm was going nuts for awhile) I again attempted to install the 9.11 driver and rebooted. Again a normal boot but it's *still* asking me for a driver for the display. I went ahead and did whatever windows wanted to do about it and installed 8.23 via windows update. This is the fun part right here It was able to install the driver for the secondary half but it couldn't find a suitable driver for the primary. Now what's up with that?

 

After a reboot, I again have a welcome screen but after logging in I'm back to a black screen again, though this time I get a pointer as a consolation prize

 

Anyway, back in safe mode trying to get something working.

 

 

If anyone is getting annoyed with this thread, just let me know.

 

Edit: Forgot to include my picture

 

Edited December 9, 2009 by Arcady

[Arcady]

Well, several restarts, driver removals, and installs I've manged to make my pc functional again. It even appears that my texture problem is gone. Secondary isn't up yet though, I'll check that tomorrow I sincerely hope I can consider this issue closed and move on to the real reason I'm here. Thanks for all the help and suggestions for sure.

 

I've played through the available FM's over the last few days, and I'm really excited with what I see. I'm really glad to see the Thief genre brought back to life and so well done at that. There are issues yet, but you guys are obviously still hard at work making things even better. The only real game building I've done so far myself was for Morrowind and this editor is quite a bit different. Let's see if I can make something useful, eh?

 

Edit: FYI, 8.23 via Windows update

Edited December 9, 2009 by Arcady