Difference between software & hardware?

[jimmymac]

I'm one of the unfortunate people who owns an ATI graphics card right now and am suffering the same problem as many seem to be (glitched graphics and multiple crashes). It's a bit of a sickener seeing as I have just built myself a new rig, specs are as follows:

Intel core 2 duo 2.4 Gig
ATI HD 2900 XT graphics
2 Gig Ram
1 Tera HDD
Vista Ultimate 64

I know that the graphics issue is being caused by the ATI drivers, but the crash to desktop is getting annoying, it happens when I zoom out to the last 2 zoom settings, this is especially annoying as I was running this game just fine on my old machine using the same O/S.

Now being a lecturer in computing I have already tried all of the basic things like setting compatibility modes and processcor affinities (sometimes when I set the game to cpu 1 it runs and runs and runs for ages before a graphical glitch takes it down, but when set to cpu 0 it runs for mere seconds before going down and not getting back up).

My biggest question is what is the actual difference between software and hardware rendering (I know that hardware rendering will use the card over everything else) but it doesn't seem to actually have any real difference in game.... is this the case?

[Shadow Assassin]

Actually it will run better in hardware mode, but not in software mode.

That's funny - I have an ATI X1650Pro, and I haven't had any graphical glitches and CtDs. I'm using the latest drivers. Try software rendering (the game won't look as good, but it should be stable), instead.

[jimmymac]

It seems the CTD was linked to the dual core proc, once I set affinity it works fine, but I still get the graphics problems, seems it's related to the 2900 cards, so I'm assuming that because the cards utilise DX10 properly then it's probably not agreeing with SC4 that much.

I dont mind running in software mode, but sometimes I get texture glitches, I might end up just going back to hardware and put up with the glitches.

[jeronij]

Are you using Datpacker ?¿

I have an ATI Mobility Radeon X1400, 256MB, and my game runs fine with 1.7GB plugins folder and in a big city tile. I do also own a dual processor computer and 2GB RAM, and I never had to change anything for the game to run, except using Datpacker....

[Rayden]

I also have a dual core and 2 gig of ram, and since I started using SC4DatPacker, I never had any crashes again while zooming in and out I used to have a lot of crashes and some lag, because my plugins folder is 3,94 Gb size. Over 14.000 files and 3.800 folders.