Legend Next Generation on older cards.

[Joseph]

Previously posted in this thread.

It is possible to "force" next generation content on older graphic cards that do not support shader model 3, but DO support shader model 2. It can be a nice experiment, but because your older card is only able to display a part of the content, the result is never better than a crippled next generation display. It is obvious why they disabled it.
Here is the hack method:
Open Registry, navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Crystal Dynamics\Tomb Raider: Legend
Right-click in the panel at the right, create a new DWORD value called "ExtendedDialog" (without the exclamation marks!) and give it the value "1".
Close Registry.

Click Start > All Programs > Eidos > Tomb Raider - Legend > Setup.
You will notice a new little button at the right bottom of the setup menu. Click that button to expand the menu.
Tick OFF "No Dynamic Textures"
Tick ON "Use D3D Reference Device"
Leave the rest as it is, click OK.

A failure! -message will appear. Click OK.
This brings you back to the extended menu. This time you will see that the option "Next Generation content" is no longer greyed out but enabled. Tick it ON.
You will see that this enables the option "Use 3.0 Shader Features" as well. I leave it ticked OFF because last night i could run that but today my Explorer behaves like it is corrupted, also today the 3.0 shader option will only result in dump to desktop with Windows error.
Select your own settings. I have these:
1024x768
85 Hz
All settings ticked ON including Next Generation Content, and VSync.
In the dropdownbox "Texture Filtering" -->2 x Aniso. [edit: hmm.. 4x works too. Even 8x, even 16X ! <-- that is because the 9700Pro supports 16x anisotropic filtering. Many other cards don't, so look into your card's properties, or just experiment.]

When you're done,
Tick OFF "Use D3D Reference Device" and click OK.

The game will start. This time with Next generation content enabled in Display settings.

BUT you will only see what your card can handle. Which means on my old Radeon 9700Pro that shadows are extremely simple and hard-edged. Also, although "water effects" is enabled, they are not fully displayed like on my other PC with ATI X1900XT, a real shader model 3.0 card.
Depending on the lightsources around Lara, but especially under the bright burning sunlight of the first level the shades on her in close up can look cheap and like cutout layers over eachother. Plus the game runs extremely slow. Not the optimal way of playing the game, and also NOT diplaying the Next Gen content as it is meant to be, namely with shader model 3.0 functions enabled.



But i imagine that a better non- sm3.0 card like a ATI X800XT will do better here than a 9700Pro.

EDIT: the game does not run slow anymore in 800x600. Very playable.
So, with 16x anisotropic filtering. Does not look always good, but still at some places pretty acceptable:




Let's take the discussion to here.

Originally Posted by Darth-MF

Yep, it looks a lot better, I posted shots from an ATI X850XT here. And it plays very smoothly at 1280x960 with no AA and 16x Aniso.

I keep leaving out my full system specs in case anyone needs them for comparison...

P4 @ 3.2 (800fsb)
ASUS P4P800
2GB PC3200 DDR400
2 - Seagate 80gb SATA
Orig. ATI Radeon X850XT (AGP)
Audigy 2
Nyko Airflo Analog gamepad

Originally Posted by Darth-MF

A few shots from Bolivia...

I noticed I haven't been checking the SM3 option... maybe thats why Im not having some of the problems others are. Would this mean I am only using SM2?

[Lord Icon]

I'll try it on my ATI X800 XT when I have a little more time (I'm re-doing my home office so it's a bit... cluttered).

[Lord Icon]

One more thing everyone. If you decide to "play" with the registry and hardware (graphics card) do a system backup in case that something goes wrong. Also do it at your OWN risk.

[Hybrid Soldier]

Originally Posted by Joseph

What are your computer's specs, and which settings run well and which don't? It's a matter of trying.
But what are your computer's specs?

I'm not quite sure of all my computer specs but i know i have a....

-AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3400+
-GeForce FX 5200(Adapter Information) Memory: 128 MB
- 1.79GHz
- 512 MB of RAM


Thats all i know. But i remember someone asking how to get all the specs of their computer and you posting some kind of link that helped them post all of their specs. Would you be able to post that, please? (If you know what i'm talking about).

[RFBcsa]

*

[Joseph]

I have done enough testing, taking screenshots, comparing... i'm tired of it!

Conclusion for now: it is remarkable what you can get on an old ATI Radeon 9700Pro. Not bad at all! Nice for taking screenshots. Not nice for trying to play the game because it runs much too slow (5 à 8 frames / sec).

First the PC specs:
PC 2: XP Home SP2
Pentium 4 ~2.66 Ghz / FSB 533 Mhz
ASUS P4PE / Intel i845 chipset
1 GB PC 2700 DDR RAM @ 333 Mhz buswidth 64bit
AGP 4x: ATI Radeon 9700 Pro / 128 MB
Creative audigy 2 ZS
hdd: IDE ATA-100
Logitech MX 518
Monitor: Iiyama VisionMasterPro512 @ 1600x1200

The settings:



If i tick ON "Use 3.0 Shader Features" the game will not launch, instead: dump to desktop with Windows Error. So i leave that ticked OFF.
I click OK.
Game starts.

Ingame settings:






Then i do gamma correction, more or less this:



Generally, this looks very good. Not really playable, but looking good.



There are problems too. Maybe because the 9700Pro has only 128MB DDR2 RAM: First this spot is perfect. After the boulder has rolled, first let Lara walk through, then return, and this is the result:

[Joseph]

At 800 x 600 it is almost playable (i guess some 12 frames / sec).
At 640 x 480 it is a little better of course (guess some 15 fr/sec), but still much too slow for good gamecontrol during fights.

Solution: disable Full Screen Anti-Alias. Then at 800x600 it is actually quite playable. With hard aliasing, but also with next generation content.

[tha_mattster]

Amazing! thanks for posting this. I get normal FPS with next gen at 800 x 600. It looks a lot more 3D! It does look a bit odd at times, and lara is mostly ginger too. In Nepal with full screen effects on with Next gen, it rains air bubbles instead of snow

Its cool to see how the characters are different too, the dancers in Tokyo dont look like freaky aliens in next gen and the henchmen are all different too.

[Lara Lover]

Yes, I found this out already Joseph

Very good though

[dark_angel_7]

I'm certainly going to try this out when I get Legend! Thanks Joseph!