New graphics bug?

[gfeier]

I just fired up Warlords after a long break due to relocating. Never had any graphics problems (except black ice, of course) before this. Suddenly, I'm seeing artifacts which mostly take the form of beams in the same color as the terrain which run straight up to infinity. I'm running a Mac Pro with the X1900 XT and I'm not having any other problems with the system. Anybody have any ideas?

 

[gfeier]

Problem pretty much solved. I called Aspyr tech support and they suggested it was a slightly toxic flavor of QuickTime 7.2 so I replaced it with a later version of QuickTime 7.2 and the artifacts are almost completely gone (occasional horizontal artifact, but not really annoying).

 

[AlanH]

Hmm. My Quicktime says it's 7.2.0, last modified 12/07/2007 10:59 (that's July 12, for those who insist on mm/dd/yyyy format). Where did you get the poison from?

 

[gfeier]

Hmm. My Quicktime says it's 7.2.0, last modified 12/07/2007 10:59 (that's July 12, for those who insist on mm/dd/yyyy format). Where did you get the poison from?

Mine says it was last modified today (no surprise there since I just downloaded it) but it has a created date of 20 June 2007. The one I replaced had an earlier creation date. What is the created date on yours?

 

[AlanH]

I was looking at About this Mac->Software->Frameworks->Quicktime.

If I look the properties of:

/System/Library/Frameworks/QuickTime.framework/Versions/A/QuickTime

I get:
- Date Modified: 01/08/2007.
- Date Created is the same.
- Size: 7.9 MB (8,297,008 bytes)

I'm on a MacPro.

 

[gfeier]

I was looking at About this Mac->Software->Frameworks->Quicktime.

If I look the properties of:

/System/Library/Frameworks/QuickTime.framework/Versions/A/QuickTime

I get:
- Date Modified: 01/08/2007.
- Date Created is the same.
- Size: 7.9 MB (8,297,008 bytes)

I'm on a MacPro.

Can't seem to find what you're seeing. The only date I can see in About this Mac is today. If you do a get info on your QuickTime application, what's the date created?

 

[AlanH]

Umm. I think that's what I posted last. "Properties" = "Get Info"

 

[gfeier]

Umm. I think that's what I posted last. "Properties" = "Get Info"

Great, but I don't have anything for QuickTime in my /System/Library/Frameworks folder. Anyway, this is moot. I replaced an earlier build of QT 7.2 with the current one and it fixed the problem.

 

[gfeier]

Great, but I don't have anything for QuickTime in my /System/Library/Frameworks folder. Anyway, this is moot. I replaced an earlier build of QT 7.2 with the current one and it fixed the problem.

Sadly, it didn't fix the problem entirely. It appears that QuickTime 7.2 is the problem and a downgrade to 7.1.6 will be required unless Apple fixes it. I did not see this problem until I "upgraded" to 7.2. At least Apple support was able to give me a link to 7.1.6 so I guess I'll have to reinstall 10.4 and update it when I get the time.

 

[AlanH]

My Quicktime Player application is 7.2, created 26/07/06, modified 18/08/07. However, QT Player is not what gets involved in displaying your Civ4 graphics, and my Warlords displays trees with no problems (MacPro + GF7300GT). So I think your issue is a combination of the latest Apple video drivers and your video card, not just QT 7.2

 

[gfeier]

My Quicktime Player application is 7.2, created 26/07/06, modified 18/08/07. However, QT Player is not what gets involved in displaying your Civ4 graphics, and my Warlords displays trees with no problems (MacPro + GF7300GT). So I think your issue is a combination of the latest Apple video drivers and your video card, not just QT 7.2

Could be, but the only change to my system between the last time it worked and now is the QT 7.2 update and 10.4.10 update 1.1 (10.4.10 came out while I was playing and had no effect). I don't see any driver updates in 10.4.10 (1.1), but I do see this:

"Addresses issues when rounding decimal numbers for display in certain applications."

Before I saw this, I was looking at the artifacts and wondering if it was a bug where zero wasn't quite zero any more.

 

[AlanH]

If it was not related to display hardware/drivers, my system would do the same as yours, no?

 

[gfeier]

If it was not related to display hardware/drivers, my system would do the same as yours, no?

Different graphics card. Maybe it handles numerical routines a little differently. Please note that the same problem has just been reported in this forum on a new iMac with the HD 2600 Pro. I expect we'll see more of this bug. It takes new users a while to find this forum.