Unable to access low Resolutions

[oneeyedhobbit]

Ok, I'm probably jumping the gun by opening a second active thread, but I'm pretty well stumped, and the other thread has been activity free.

So I came looking for a good driver that would allow me to play a bunch of older PC games on my laptop. Things like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I and II, Baldur's Gate II, Neverwinter Knights, Age of Empires, Max Payne I and II, etc. I initially installed 84.25, but decided to move back to an older driver (67.66) for two reasons: first, I was told I might actually get slightly better performance with an older driver; and second, I can't get KotOR to run very well at 800x600, but apparently 84.25 doesn't go below this.

I've since installed 67.66 with Larry's homegrown INF for the Inspiron 5150/60. The only game I've been dabbling with as a sort of test and for kicks has been KotOR I, which has been an abysmal failure so far. I've got the card set for "high performance" and all of the options on KotOR set as low as they'll go (no shadows, low detail textures, no AA, etc.) at 800x600. I recall in the past with a modified driver from laptopvideo2go that I was able to run fairly well like this, but for some reason its really dogging it right now. Not even caring to be that aggresive in pursuit of a fix to run at 800x600, I figured if I could run with moderate settings at 640x480 I would be a happy camper. No such luck, however. For some reason, resolutions below 800x600 do not want to be accessed. I can't swich to them by left-clicking the nVidia icon in the toolbar or right clicking and going to properties on my desktop. If I use the nVidia display menu and select the "Resolutions and Refresh Rates" tab, I can use that to force it down to 640x480, but the resolution still isn't available in KotOR, and as soon as I switch to something higher I can only access 640x480 by once again forcing my machine to run in that resolution via the nVidia tab. Now I also very clearly recall running KotOR at 640x480 in the past, so it isn't an issue of KotOR not supporting the resolution. Any help or suggestsions? I'm happy to try other drivers/infs, I just want to get it resolved in a timely fashion so I can enjoy my computer again!

[Fabrice Roux]

No that I doubt your memory but could you try to:

1- switch your desktop to 640x480. If yes your "custom resolution" works correctly. Switch back to native resolution.

2- download the Physics demo it's a small file 5.5Mb and runs a perfect OpenGL that can be either in a windows or fullscreen with resolution from 640x480 and up. If the demo works at 640x480 in fullscreen OpenGL... it means that if KOTOR doesn't support 640x480.

[oneeyedhobbit]

Hey Fabrice,

You might be correct to doubt my memory.

1. I can switch my desktop to 640x480, but only in the very specific way I mentioned above, it doesn't appear as a normal options through the Windows Display Property Settings.

2. Downloaded it, and yes, it ran fullscreen at 640x480.

Assuming that you are correct that KotOR doesn't run 640x480, what would be the best method to boost my performance? This is even more troubling to me in a way because (although my memory might not look too credible right now) I swear that in the past I played it on the lowest available resolution with moderate settings perfectly fine, and even one level above the lowest resolution (meaning at one point I could do 1024x768 with low details and no shadows). Why is it so terribly laggy now, and is there something I'm doing wrong thats costing me performance like this?

[Fabrice Roux]

I was just friendly tickling you about your memory... :)

I went to KOTOR support site... it looks like the game only use standard resolutions which caused a problem with the common but NON STANDARD 1280x1024 found on LCDs. I was never a Lucas fan... mainly because of head bobbing... when I walk or run the most stable part of my body is probably my head.

So I never even run KOTOR once... from what I see in the game requirements... it should run like a rocket on your PC. So I believe there is an issue between KOTOR and something in your PC... XP service pack 2???

And there you go... the known issues:

Unable to select certain resolutions

KotOR PC supports the following resolutions: 800X600 1024X768 1280X960 1600X1200

Also, the only valid refresh rate selections are:

60 70 72 75 85

If you are using any sort of utility to force certain refresh rates, you may not be able to select that resolution in KotOR and you should disable such utilities before trying to play.

[oneeyedhobbit]

Well thanks for the help at any rate, especially going to KOTOR's support site (which should have been my job). I'm not doing anything contrary to their resolution/refresh rates. I'll try to get in touch with them, but if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears. I was reading something about overheating, so I'm also going to pick up some compressed air and see if cleaning out the fan ports helps any. Like you said, it should not be performing this terribly.

[oneeyedhobbit]

So, maybe this is entirely uncouth to ask here, but what about Omega Drivers? Good results? I'm kind of at a loss right now.

[Fabrice Roux]

Installing Omega driver will unleash the power of your graphic card... it will allow to boost your performance by about the HUMONGOUS 1%... Your graphic card is not brand new, all the possible optimizations are already in the drivers.

If you believe that Omega will bring a 100% performance boost... go ahead.