Wierd Problem

[geoffwilliams]

Have come across a problem not encountered before.
I have a new computer running Windows 7 64 bit with an nVidia GT545 3Gg video card.
Have installed both TS2009 and TS2010 and both run very well.
However if I open an asset such as a Locomotive for edit in the Content Manager, it losses some or all of its texturing. I don't even need to touch the files just the operation of opening and comitting causes the problem and it is quite reproduceable.

Examination of the folder does not show anything amiss, but the assets are modified by something, as importing them into Trainz on another computer still shows them untextured.

I have done an extended database repair - no change
I have re-installed both Windows and Trainz and the problem remains.
Would appreciate any ideas.
Thanks
Geoff

 

[lorenw]

Have you tried switching from DirectX to OpenGL, or vice verse?

 

[shaneturner12]

If the texture colour is black, turn off hardware acclerated compression.

(File>Settings>Miscellaneous)

Shane

 

[clam1952]

The hardware compression problem was fixed in TS12 or rather it now isn't a problem on the Nvidia 200 and 400 series cards. No problems with editing anything here, Win7 plus GTX460, worth trying the fix though.

Drivers up to date? as the latest had some fixes for the 500 series cards.

Not running as Administrator? as that may be the cause if Trainz is in Program Files as the OS may be preventing certain files from being saved copied altered etc.

 

[ColPrice2002]

Hi,

I installed TS12 with hardware compression ON - my GT 550i nVidia card blacked them all out!

Maybe it's not yet solved on the series 5xx cards...

Cheers,

Colin

 

[geoffwilliams]

Thanks to you all, got it working now, it was the hardware compression issue.
Shane, your'e a star, I would never of thought of looking there, worked straight away and saved me anthother 2 days frustration.
Geoff

 

[shaneturner12]

I thought I recognised the issue - just to let you know, I also have the instructions for turning off hardware accelerated texture compression on my tutorial website.

Shane

 

[stouthm]

I have a GTX 460 card with the hardware compression turned OFF. Are you stating that it's now ok to turn it ON? Did NVidia fix the problem? I'm running with the latest drivers installed. Thanks.

 

[Euphod]

If the texture colour is black, turn off hardware acclerated compression.

(File>Settings>Miscellaneous)

Shane

No, no I don't think that's what was stated...

 

[shaneturner12]

The OP has already stated that turning off hardware acclerated texture compression has solved the problem.

Shane

 

[clam1952]

I have a GTX 460 card with the hardware compression turned OFF. Are you stating that it's now ok to turn it ON? Did NVidia fix the problem? I'm running with the latest drivers installed. Thanks.

I have a GTX460 and a GTS450 both of which are running TS12 with Hardware Compression on since it was released, well before actually.

If the 500's are playing up, it's begining to look like is was an Nvidia driver problem.

 

[NikkiA]

I have a GTX460 and a GTS450 both of which are running TS12 with Hardware Compression on since it was released, well before actually.

If the 500's are playing up, it's begining to look like is was an Nvidia driver problem.

Just checked the items I committed to my TS12 yesterday, no black textures here on a GTX570*. So if there are problems with the 500 series, they're not a blanket problem across all cards.

I'd be willing to bet that it's one of two things:

1) people not installing actual nVidia drivers, and thus using the MS provided drivers that don't actually support OpenGL properly, and fall back to software OpenGL if you're lucky - they lack the OpenGL extensions required for DXT texture compression (it's not a standard OpenGL feature). They quite probably run trainz itself in DirectX mode, because 'OpenGL mode was hideously slow'. This is usually more of a problem on XP, as most reference drivers on Vista/7 don't even offer software OpenGL.

2) People following 'cargo cult' practices from support forums (likely other than the trainz forums) where someone will often say 'to get game X working, I had to disable W, X, Y and Z in the nvidia settings', where one of the listed features disabled was the GL extensions system (actually an option to enable in the nvidia settings, called 'GL Extensions Limit'. Often such forums will continue to suggest disabling a wide swath of features rather than pinpointing exactly which feature is the problem, and then setting up an application specific rule to disable it. (Such problems are almost always the multiple display optimisation setting anyway)


* While I've installed new assets since upgrading to the 570, I hadn't actually attempted to *use* one of the new assets, only assets that were previously committed on my 8800GT