New Utility - Graphics Checker

S

shaneturner12

Tutorial Creator
Moderators - if this is in the wrong place, please put it in the right place.

Hi Trainzers,

I'm pleased to announce my latest utility - Graphics Checker.

As the name suggests, this utility can help you check your graphics card (mainly against the T:ANE system requirements at this stage, but it can be used in other circumstances).

The utility currently only checks the DirectX side, but I am looking into adding OpenGL checks into it as well (I do have the necessary code available to do so but I've got to get the right code in the right place for it).

As mentioned on the download page (link below), this tool will require .NET Framework 4 to operate. There is a link to the .NET Framework 4 web installer on the download page.

More details and a download link are available on my main tutorial site at http://trainz.shaneturner.co.uk/tutorials/index.php/en/home/utilities/graphics-checker.

Any comments/suggestions welcome (please keep them constructive though). If the issue is relating to not being able to access my site, it's usually due to issues relating to the server the site is hosted on and usually sorts itself out within a few hours.

I have tested the program on my own machine, but there may be issues on other machines if the graphics card is not fully compliant. I have also checked it for malware and none is present.

One note though - when it checks the DirectX side, True/False is the same as Yes/No. For T:ANE, the DirectX 11 entry will need to read True in order to run T:ANE in DirectX mode, which is the default in the Community Edition.

Shane

EDIT: OpenGL support is now present as of version 1.1.
 
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Sounds like you've clicked the wrong link in that case. The link at the bottom of the page does point to the ZIP file (although the Microsoft link will help if you haven't got .NET Framework 4 installed).

Shane

EDIT: Looks like a link issue has happened. I'm currently in the process of re-pointing the link - copy and paste the address in the meantime.
 
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Thanks Shane, just what I wanted for Xmas.

Download of the zip worked and running the graphics checker.exe file also worked. Output looks like this;

Graphics Card DirectX Information
Generated by Graphics Checker by Shane Turner

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580
Graphics Card Dedicated Memory(bytes): 0
Graphics Card Maximum Shared Memory (bytes): 2684235776

Feature Level Support:

Graphics Card supports DirectX 11 :True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10.1: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 9.0C: True
Default Graphics card:True

What I can't read in that output is whether my card is good enough for T:ANE, or not. My (hopefully constructive) suggestion would be to include a clear answer to that question as part of the output.
 
Thankyou for your comment Deane. I will be adding that into the next update which I will hopefully be doing later.

To answer your question, yes your graphics card should run T:ANE in DirectX mode by the looks of things.

Shane
 
updated

Graphics Card DirectX Information
Generated by Graphics Checker by Shane Turner

Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 5800 Series
Graphics Card Dedicated System Memory(bytes): 0
Graphics Card Dedicated Video Memory(bytes - shared with processor): 1064120320
Graphics Card Maximum Shared Memory (bytes): 1878257664
Feature Level Support:

Graphics Card supports DirectX 11 :True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10.1: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 9.0C: True
Default Graphics card:True
The above graphics card meets the DirectX version requirement for T:ANE and should run in DirectX mode using this card.

Please note that this check does not check for multiple thread support. If you get an error in the log regarding multiple threads, please untick the option in Settings.
 
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I have just uploaded an update to the tool - the version number has not changed, neither has the file location. Please re-download the ZIP file and re-unzip it to get the updated files.

One question to others though - would you prefer a standalone program (as it is now) or one that's done via an installer? I can offer both if needed.

Shane
 
Shane,

thanks and cont'd happy holidays!

Graphics Card DirectX Information
Generated by Graphics Checker by Shane Turner


Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti
Graphics Card Dedicated Memory(bytes): 0
Graphics Card Maximum Shared Memory (bytes): 8568576000
Feature Level Support:


Graphics Card supports DirectX 11 :True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10.1: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 9.0C: True
Default Graphics card:True
The above graphics card meets the DirectX version requirement for T:ANE and should run in DirectX mode using this card.


Graphics Card: Microsoft Basic Render Driver
Graphics Card Dedicated Memory(bytes): 0
Graphics Card Maximum Shared Memory (bytes): 268435456
Feature Level Support:


Graphics Card supports DirectX 11 :True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10.1: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 9.0C: True
Default Graphics card:False
The above graphics card meets the DirectX version requirement for T:ANE and should run in DirectX mode using this card.


Wether TANE is good enough for this card Deane we will see on upcoming Feb. 28th the latest.
Should be enough room for them to sort out things before letting users nibble and tear in pieces so to speak.
 
No problem Roy - glad to see the tool is helpful for you.

I'm hoping the tool will reduce the amount of people trying to work out why their game will not run in DirectX mode if they get the Engine Startup Failure message when launching. (and yes, the information it gathers is direct from the graphics card itself and does not make any difference in terms of what DirectX version is actually installed in Windows.

Shane
 
Graphics Card DirectX Information
Generated by Graphics Checker by Shane Turner


Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
Graphics Card Dedicated Memory(bytes): 0
Graphics Card Maximum Shared Memory (bytes): 12879568896
Feature Level Support:


Graphics Card supports DirectX 11 :True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10.1: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 9.0C: True
Default Graphics card:True
The above graphics card meets the DirectX version requirement for T:ANE and should run in DirectX mode using this card.


Graphics Card: Microsoft Basic Render Driver
Graphics Card Dedicated Memory(bytes): 0
Graphics Card Maximum Shared Memory (bytes): 268435456
Feature Level Support:


Graphics Card supports DirectX 11 :True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10.1: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 9.0C: True
Default Graphics card:False
The above graphics card meets the DirectX version requirement for T:ANE and should run in DirectX mode using this card.


Please note that this check does not check for multiple thread support. If you get an error in the log regarding multiple threads, please untick the option in Settings.
 
Looking good there.

As an aside, it's interesting to see how many users that have posted their reports on this thread have shared memory cards.

Shane
 
Code: 
Graphics Card DirectX Information
Generated by Graphics Checker by Shane Turner

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Graphics Card Dedicated Memory(bytes): 0
Graphics Card Maximum Shared Memory (bytes): 2952671232
Feature Level Support:

Graphics Card supports DirectX 11 :True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10.1: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 9.0C: True
Default Graphics card:True

Graphics Card: Microsoft Basic Render Driver
Graphics Card Dedicated Memory(bytes): 0
Graphics Card Maximum Shared Memory (bytes): 268435456
Feature Level Support:

Graphics Card supports DirectX 11 :True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10.1: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 10: True
Graphics Card supports DirectX 9.0C: True
Default Graphics card:False

I haven't downloaded your update yet, Shane. Not that I need it, but can you put in OpenGL numbers too?

Andrew
 
Shane

in relation to your question, I think an installer/uninstaller would be a better way to receive the utility. It's common practice and a nice tidy way of directing the program files to a folder of the user's choosing and to create the expected icons and shortcuts at the same time. It also allows users to keep a copy of the installer separately from the program itself in case it needs to be installed again later.
 
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Thankyou for your response Deane. Luckily, my development environment allows me to create installers at the same time so I will look into doing that for the next update.

Shane
 
Shane,

I will try your nifty utility when I have a chance.

Regarding the shared memory issue, this is common thing with the newer video cards as they all report shared memory. I have noticed that your utility is not reporting the dedicated memory. You should be able to pick this up from the WDDM interface, or through hooks into the operating system. Roy's video card is the same as mine - a GTX780Ti and his report is incorrect.

According to the NVidia Control Panel I have installed, the values are as follows:

Dedicated video memory: 3072 MB GDDR 5 (3 GB)
System Video Memory: 0 MB ---- Used by integrated video and there is none.
Shared system memory: 16366 MB (16 GB), or 1/2 of my 32 GB of installed memory on my system.

This is reported under Windows 10, and the information was the same on Windows 8.x

John
 
I will investigate the dedicated memory issue, as there are two types of dedicated memory my program can pick up and it may be that it's not picking up the right one (I will be able to check on the next update) - either that, or the graphics card is misreporting it's memory.

Shane
 
Hi Shane,

My info and understanding confirms John's.

The data concerning dedicated memory may be a bit confusing.

To my way of thinking Dedicated is video memory. In other words what's on the card.

In my case for a GTX 780Ti is:

Total available Graphics - 19436 MB consisting of

Dedicated video memory -3072 MB GDDR5

and

Shared system memory 16364 MB.

Incidentally I have dual GTX 780Ti and 32GB of RAM so presumably each card has dedicated on board memory plus can use half of my available RAM.

System video memory - 0 MB appears to be what you are calling dedicated. This I think means there is no RAM set aside for purely video purposes.

The above data is available in Nvidia Control Panel\Help\System Information.
 
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