Robert

I just started playing the game and the water and grass does not materialize when move into it. Specifically, when I first move into the open area after the first checkpoint, the ground and water appears black. I adjusted the settings to "High" but that just caused my computer to freeze.

I don't have that Nvidia GeForce FX GPU(at least I think I don't) and I really hope I don't have to buy that in order to see 100% of the graphics.

OS: Windows XP
2.6 GHz
512 RAM
80GB

Edit:
It appears the game will crash even if the video settings are on "low". I guess I need a real state-of-the-art computer to handle this game. I figured my computer was powerful enough could handle this type of game but I guess I was wrong.

cartman

What video card do you have?

cubanx

Did you download and install the Patch which addresses many issues?

Robert

I have the video card that came pre-installed. Its called "video codecs" according to the device manager. It automatically installed the DirectX 9 video card. I don't have the video cards mentioned in the other thread. I installed the 1.1 patch but it didn't have any effect.

flashburn

Right Click on desktop.
Select Properties
Select the Settings tab


it should say something like "Monitor Name" on "Video Card name". Let us know the name.

If it is an ATI or NVIDIA card, get the latest drivers at www.ati.com or www.nvidia.com .

Robert

Compaq 7550 Color Monitor on an Intel Graphics Controller. Looks like I need to invest in one of those video cards.

Trigger

yup... just so you know - Final Fantasy won't work on your system either. You have an AGP slot though, so just pick up one of the sub-100 dollar video cards discussed in the tech forum.

nickdawgy

Yeah, you really should. You'll notice the difference immediately, even with a cheaper card. Check your local Best Buy. I got my video card cheaper then normal because it was open box, and it works great. I just found out I can even run Far Cry on maximum detail, and it looks awesome.

flashburn

I suggest getting a Radeon 9600 Pro. I use one at work on one of my machines and it works great. I am able to run Far Cry at max settings with a decent resolution and it runs fairly well. I can also run UT2003/2004 at max settings at 1280x960 with no problems.

I am not sure what the price on an 9600 is, but it shouldn't be too expensive.

Robert

Thanks for the advice.

I have a few questions: what kind of installation is required for these high-end video cards? Do I have to physically attach it to something or does it install itself through a cd? Also, what will happen to the video card that is already on my computer?

Abranut

You have to physically stick the card into the AGP slot, but it's not that tough.

Then you can install the drivers via a cd or file from the internet.

If you're not too computer saavy, I would take care when dealing with new video cards and drivers, as they can sometimes become a nuisance if the installation is done incorrectly.

Once it's all done you can disable your on board video controller (the Intel one).

Ginsu

Try and a find a buddy that knows a little bit about computer hardware. Here is a quick rundown though. Although this is "at your own risk" , it is really pretty simple.

Make sure your PC motherboard has an AGP slot. It will be the highest up and be offset from the PCI slots. If not there are still good PCI gaming cards out there.

Buy a new AGP card from Nvidia or ATI both have good budget cards to choose from. Look for Geforce or Radeon in the title, the higher the model number the better and more expensive the card.

Disconnect the power from you PC, open the case, ground your self to the case, insert card into AGP slot, connect monitor to new card.

Reconnect power, hold down delete while booting to enter motherboard "bios". Be careful in here to not change anything other than disabling your onboard video. Save changes and exit.

After boot go to Nvidia or ATI's website and get the newest drivers for you card and operating system. Install then and reboot again.


Play Far Cry and marvel at the pretty water! Go into the video settings tab and raise screen resolution and other options until you get a good blend of image and performance.


Hope this helps, your PC is plenty fast but onboard video is junk for gaming.

There are lots of tech sites for you to browse like Tom's Hardware, Sharky Extreme, anandtech etc.


Good luck.

BizRodian

You can find pictures online easy. It's not difficult, but you'll probably feel a little nervous opening up your computer at first.

flashburn

Also, if you do decide to go ATI make sure it isn't one of the 'Non-Pro' variants. In otherwords, make sure the words XT or Pro is in the title.

BizRodian

Oh, and I can't believe no one posted this yet...

Robert

Best Buy has this Geforce video card on sale: eVGA e-GeForce4 MX 440-8X 64MB DDR PCI Graphics Card

Would this be the right card to operate the game or is it not powerful enough?

flashburn

I would stay away from the MX variant of Nvidia cards and the Non-Pro ATI cards.

edstein

Here is what I am using:



Product Link

Can be found for $150.

eXcentris

I had the same water/black ground problems. Tried it on a new Dell with on-board vid card, no go. I went "hmmm on-board vid card no good...". Then I tried it in my old PC which has an older Radeon 7200 DDR64. Same problem. Tried new ATI catalyst drivers, same thing. Tried Omega drivers, same thing. Fiddled around with AA/AF settings, still looked like crap.

After spending hours messing around, I remembered how much I like my Xbox. You just insert a game in it and magically it works!

Not sure I wanna spend $200 just to play one game...

Ginsu

eXcentris

If you bought your consoles like you buy your PC's you would be trying to get your 3DO to play Halo.

Buy a PC cause you need one, then put the right $200 video card in it in the first place.

eXcentris

Tss tss, my company sent me that Dell PC because I work from home, I didn't buy it, it was free. I didn't really expect FarCry to work with that on-board vid card but it was worth a shot.

However, there is NO good reason why it shoudn't have worked in my older PC with that 7200 Radeon DDR64 with the most recent drivers. It's not that old a vid card. And if you visit FarCry forums there are plenty of people with brand new ATI cards bitching about FarCry not working. This isn't anything new, PC game manufacturers have been releasing buggy games forever...

That's one reason I bought an Xbox, I got tired of upgrading my PC every 6 months and even then crossing my fingers everytime I installed a game hoping it would run without problems.

Frigging gamer nerdz think they know everything, sheesh...

Ginsu

I held off on buying an ATI card for a long time because I heard of buggy drivers being a problem. However I broke down and bought a 9800 pro and it has been completely trouble free. I have a LOT of PC games from the last 4 years and it plays everything on my hard drive with out a hitch, including Far Cry.


I would even go so far as to say it is better than any of my Nvidia cards. I am a gaming nerd and go through hardware fast, including consoles. Once it slows me down I kick it to the curb.

PC gaming is not buggy or difficult. Also the games are cheaper, which helps offset hardware cost.


Good thing you put a smiley on there or I was on my way to Montreal to learn ya some!

Trigger

The Radeon 7200 is a 3 year old video card. It can provide playable framerates for Serious Sam, UT2k3, Unreal 2, Quake 3 Arena, and other older games. 3 years is not the same as 6 months and you shouldn't be expecting it to work with new games featuring high-end special effects. There's plenty new games coming out that your card will handle, but don't expect Far Cry to work.

And there's no need to turn this into a "consoles are better than pcs" thing - consoles release buggy games all the time too... only, you can't patch a console game. Far Cry isn't all that bug-ridden. I had a sound glitch with it when I first installed it, but they had a patch out and it fixed it. I don't see what the big deal is anyway - especially since Far Cry is so unbelievably awesome.

Midrange and budget video cards should provide at least 2 years of PC gaming goodness... top end processors/mobo/ram should keep you gaming for at least 4 years. I mean - even people who just "use the internet and type things up in word" should think about buying new PCs every 5 years or so. I guess if PCs were only useful for playing games, I could see the argument that console gaming is cheaper and easier... as it stands though, PC gaming could cost about 400 bucks or so spread out over 2 or 3 years... sure that's more than console hardware, but console games pretty much average around 40 to 50 bucks while PC games average 20 to 40 bucks. Since you buy more software than hardware, I'd say it about evens out. You should be fine with 80 dollars worth of video card upgrade.

BizRodian

Rule of thumb is that every single offical message boards for a game is going to be full of people who can't get it to work. Every single game is going to look like the buggiest game ever if you judge by offical forums.

But yeah, your computer is old now There are many games that'll still play, but the more advanced ones won't. I upgrade my PC every couple years.

eXcentris

And now I get a lecture from Trigger, sheesh...

Ok ok, didn't mean to turn this into a PC vs console thing and I fully realize what the "gaming life" of a PC is.

Alright now how about this:

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...8&WLBS=fsweb13

Or one of those in the same price range:

http://www.microbytes.com/products.php?cat=202