12 replies to this topic

[jefequeso]

So I just built myself a shiny new computer running Windows 7 with a AMD 6870 GPU. Strangely enough, none of my Gamemaker games do pixel interpolation anymore. Even already-compiled .exes won't do it! Anyone have any idea why this is happening?

[jefequeso]

Nobody?

[RangerX]

I supposed you tried making a new exe while making sure the interpolation option is checked?

[jefequeso]

I supposed you tried making a new exe while making sure the interpolation option is checked?

yup. And I tried manually turning it on in code as well.

[RangerX]

I really don't know what else this could be.
Did you check for drivers update for your videocard? your OS?
Is your monitor set to at least 24bits colors?

[jefequeso]

I really don't know what else this could be.
Did you check for drivers update for your videocard? your OS?
Is your monitor set to at least 24bits colors?

yup and yup.
Well, my game was extremely reliant on interpolation to keep it from looking pixelated. Now it looks like absolute crap, and there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it. And from Google searches, it seems that nobody else has had this problem. Months and months of work down the drain. Wonderful.

I suppose it's time to take a break from game design anyway, seeing as how the last year has been nothing but one failure after another.

[RangerX]

There has to be reason. Have you noticed other graphical issues in other games (pro games)? Could be your graphic cards having issues.
Have you tried using a different videocard? What happen if you bring your game in exe form and play it in another computer that is completely differnt? Because you could tell if it's GameMaker vs your graphic card or computer that is the problem.
Whatever happens, there has to be a reason, your work isn't "down the drain".

[jefequeso]

There has to be reason. Have you noticed other graphical issues in other games (pro games)? Could be your graphic cards having issues.
Have you tried using a different videocard? What happen if you bring your game in exe form and play it in another computer that is completely differnt? Because you could tell if it's GameMaker vs your graphic card or computer that is the problem.
Whatever happens, there has to be a reason, your work isn't "down the drain".

You're right, of course. I was mostly just venting. As I said, things haven't been going well programming-wise over the past year or so.

No, apart from one freak glitch in Serious Sam TSE HD (which showed up after the last driver update, which happened after I noticed the GM interpolation issue), all my pro games run flawlessly. I haven't tried it on other computers, which seems like the obvious next thing to try. But even if it's a problem with my graphics card / computer (which does seem more likely than not), it still bothers me. What if other players have a similar issue, but chalk it up to shoddy art design? Likewise, it will be difficult to develop the game and judge how good new art looks when it all looks bad from lack of interpolation.

I did find this:

http://moacube.com/blog/professional-developers-look-at-gamemaker/

which says a little ways down:

"For some reason, GM gets lazy on Windows7 and doesn’t want to use interpolation for scaled image. It defaults to a basic nearest-pixel algorithm instead."

which might be the problem. I really really hope it isn't, though, because that really would be game-breaking. I guess the only way to find out is to test it on other computers.

[RangerX]

Keep me posted on this. While I am personally avoiding anything that isn't a 1:1 scale for my game, I would be interested to see the results of your tests.
Also, this is the downside of PC games development. You will NEVER be able to satisfy all the different configurations out there, you will have to choose. I am in a similar dilemna right now but regarding supported monitor resolutions.

[jefequeso]

Keep me posted on this. While I am personally avoiding anything that isn't a 1:1 scale for my game, I would be interested to see the results of your tests.
Also, this is the downside of PC games development. You will NEVER be able to satisfy all the different configurations out there, you will have to choose. I am in a similar dilemna right now but regarding supported monitor resolutions.

I will.

I suppose it's not as bad as it could be (first world problems and all that). It's still playable, and still looks somewhat good. And if you set your computer's resolution to 800x600, it does interpolate (although it runs slower, even on my powerful system), and in windowed mode it looks ok.

The trick now is to find some computers running windows 7 to test it on .

[jefequeso]

Update: It works on a different Windows 7 computer that's 32 bit.

[TheouAegis]

Try turning Interpolation off? :D Sounds stupid, but I've seen stuff like that happen (being on treated as being off).

Keeps throwing me off that it's AMD making the Radeons and not ATI. I look at a comp to see what card it has, see AMD only, and am like, "I don't care what processor it has, I wanna know what video card it has!"

Anyway, maybe you've already done all this, but since it is AMD/ATI we're talking about here...

My old laptops used Radeon Mobility cards. I didn't have Catalyst for the longest while and games looked like ****. Half-Life 2 (which I got for free with the laptop because, hey! ATI supported it!) had artifacts all over the screen (looked like mosquitoes) and lines between textures. I installed it on my Nvidia comp and was AMAZED at how beautiful the graphics actually were. Then I installed Catalyst on my laptop, dicked around with it, and suddenly HL2 was actually playable on my laptop as well! (now I have so much crap on my computers that I can't game worth squat without reformatting). So in summary, maybe your card is fine but the Radeon series seems to be to be very heavily dependent on Catalyst's settings. Did you look at AMD's support page for the 68 series? One of the articles is on scaling for older programs and whatnot.

[jefequeso]

Try turning Interpolation off? :D Sounds stupid, but I've seen stuff like that happen (being on treated as being off).

Keeps throwing me off that it's AMD making the Radeons and not ATI. I look at a comp to see what card it has, see AMD only, and am like, "I don't care what processor it has, I wanna know what video card it has!"

Anyway, maybe you've already done all this, but since it is AMD/ATI we're talking about here...

My old laptops used Radeon Mobility cards. I didn't have Catalyst for the longest while and games looked like ****. Half-Life 2 (which I got for free with the laptop because, hey! ATI supported it!) had artifacts all over the screen (looked like mosquitoes) and lines between textures. I installed it on my Nvidia comp and was AMAZED at how beautiful the graphics actually were. Then I installed Catalyst on my laptop, dicked around with it, and suddenly HL2 was actually playable on my laptop as well! (now I have so much crap on my computers that I can't game worth squat without reformatting). So in summary, maybe your card is fine but the Radeon series seems to be to be very heavily dependent on Catalyst's settings. Did you look at AMD's support page for the 68 series? One of the articles is on scaling for older programs and whatnot.

I'll take a look. Thanks for the suggestion.