Water?

Sorry...this is somewhat of a repeat of a post I made in the "issues/problems/questions/help" thread, but it was buried pretty deep so I thought I'd give it one more shot...

I'm having a video issue where I can't place, or even SEE, water. Granted, I'm using far from a high end video card (it's an Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME 64MB) in my Gateway laptop. However, all the other graphics seem ok, and game play/speed is fine. All of my drivers are up to date. (I made sure of that before I even bought the game.)

In scenarios where there is already water present (like "go with the flow" or whatever it is called) there are "holes" in the ground where the ponds should be, but they're not filled with water. When I try to fill with water in the sandbox, the droplet appears but nothing happens when clicked (or clicked and dragged, or double-clicked, or right-clicked, etc., etc.). There's also no visible water in any of my fountains.

Any idea of any fixes for this? I realize that this may just be an abnormality of my video card and I'll have to live with it, but I'd like to know one way or another. I've scoured the posts on the Atari forum and haven't found anything hitting on my specific issue.

Thanks...Joel

Hi Joel,

Correct me if I'm wrong all you techie peeps!

As far as I know, the texture/reflection techniques used for the water effects in RCT3 are part of a reasonably recent graphic's card 'native' technology - older cards (including mine) have grief with it and simply ignor it when requested - try turning down the detail level and see if it makes a difference, and also the old cliche, try downloading the latest graphic card drivers.

Hope that helps!

Barry

You need a new video card. simple as that.

Thanks for your input, guys.

I'll try turning down some of the detail to see if that makes a difference.

Unfortunately, I believe my video is integrated into the motherboard (it's a laptop), so that's probably more effort than I'll put into a 18 month old system. I'll probably get a new desktop after the first of the year, so I'll build "dry" parks until then. Everything else looks good and works fine...

I have to agree with Ross. According to Intels website, your particular graphics chip does not have a hardware T&L (Texture and Lighting) engine. Without this, all graphic processing is done on the CPU. Complex calcualtions, like water ripples, use a lot of CPU power. Most game engines check for a T&L engine and, if none is found, will disable advanced graphic features. It sounds like this is the case here. It's time for an upgrade my friend.

I have the same problem... but if you look REAL close, when you move your cursor over these 'holes' you'll see little ripples. I'm guessing its just that my/your graphics card can't handle the water, so its there, you just cant see it. Try building some water ride, like the jet skis over the hole, my guess is it will work.

ZNitroMan-- You're right--I DO see some blue "wisp" when I try to place water. I hadn't noticed that before. (Maybe paddle boats and jet skis over a bottomless hole will have its own allure...)

Joel