unable to start game on windows 7 x64 *solved*

[CBMFreak]

I have a HP pavilion zv7 with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4530
and 6 GB memory that is running Windows 7 64-bit version.

When I try to start the game, then I get the outline of a window and then the game quits.

stderr.txt
ERROR: You don't have an NVIDIA or ATI/AMD card. This game may not run correctly or at all.

stdout.txt
INFO: Starting VDrift: 2010-06-30-full, Version: , O/S: Windows
INFO: Home directory: C:\Users\Thomas Jensen
INFO: Settings file: C:\Users\Thomas Jensen\My Documents\My Games\VDrift/VDrift.config (does not exist, will be created)
INFO: Data directory: data
INFO: Log file: C:\Users\Thomas Jensen\My Documents\My Games\VDrift/log.txt
INFO: The last VDrift startup was unsuccessful.
Settings have been set to failsafe defaults.
Your original VDrift.config file was backed up to VDrift.config.backup
INFO: SDL initialization successful
INFO: SDL video query was successful
INFO: Disabling antialiasing
INFO: Display change was successful: 800x600x16 16z fullscreen=0
INFO: Video card information:
Vendor: Microsoft Corporation
Renderer: GDI Generic
Version: 1.1.0
Maximum texture size: 1024
Maximum varying floats: 0
Using GLEW 1.5.4
INFO: Your video card doesn't support multitexturing. Disabling shaders.

I have the newest catalyst driver for my graphics chip installed.

[joevenzon]

You might want to try the solution here:
http://vdrift.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=1503

I know the thread says you should be fine with a 4xxx series, but try that anyway -- if it works I'd like to know.

[NaN]

Vendor: Microsoft Corporation
Renderer: GDI Generic
Version: 1.1.0

No graphics card driver installed?

http://www.hp.com

or

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

[CBMFreak]

You might want to try the solution here:
http://vdrift.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=1503

I know the thread says you should be fine with a 4xxx series, but try that anyway -- if it works I'd like to know.

Unexpected end of archive

[CBMFreak]

Vendor: Microsoft Corporation
Renderer: GDI Generic
Version: 1.1.0

No graphics card driver installed?

http://www.hp.com

or

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

I have the latest ATI catalyst graphics driver installed and I have no issues running other 3D games with hardware accellerated D3D or OpenGL graphics.

[thelusiv]

Unexpected end of archive

your download failed, try re-downloading it

[CBMFreak]

Unexpected end of archive

your download failed, try re-downloading it

I have no problems downloading the file. But the file is still currupted each time I try to open a downloaded copy of the file. I have tried to download 10 copies of the file already and every single time, the file is currupted.

Normally I don't have any problems downloading files.

[fudje]

This may seem a bit dense (I haven't done anything with Windows since nt4), but does the AMD Catalyst driver package for 64-bit Windows include 32-bit drivers? Only AFAIK the precompiled VDrift binaries are 32-bit, and probably need 32-bit drivers.

[NaN]

VDrift binaries are 32-bit, and probably need 32-bit drivers

Nope. 64bit version is 32bit compatible.

The problem is that OpenGL is reporting GDI Generic(software fallback) as device on CBMFreak's machine. This usually means that the driver is missing or broken, at least the OpenGL part. I am not sure how to help as he means he is able to run other OpenGL games.

CBMFreak do you mind to run (Portable version of GPU Caps Viewer 1.9.4): http://www.geeks3d.com/20101105/gpu-tool...0-support/

Your reported OpenGL version should be at least 3.3.

[NaN]

I've re-uploaded the patched exe: http://www.filefront.com/17842390/vdrift.exe/

[CBMFreak]

I've tried the patched exe but it fails just as the original exe.

The GPU CAPS program reports that the opengl version is 1.1

But the odd thing is that it type n.a. in the GPU window and
types GDI Generic as opengl renderer even after I replaced the
graphics card driver with the newest from HP's website.

I will try to use the newest ati mobility driver instead
(unpatched Catalyst 10.12 mobility)

I just tried running a more demanding 3D game and it was very slow,
so I think that OpenGL is somehow not working on this laptop.

I am just not entirely sure how to fix it.

*** update ***

After completely uninstalling the driver and then installing the
unpatched Catalyst 10.12 mobility, then vdrift works, both the
regular exe and the patched exe.

This is puzzling though, since AMD/ATI graphics chips in HP Pavillion laptops
shouldn't be able to use the AMD/ATI drivers, only the HP drivers, because
HP wants to be the only driver provider for their laptops.

That is the reason I used a patched catalyst 10.10 driver. But apparently the unpatched 10.12 driver works fine.

It is fairly recent that I installed the patched catalyst 10.10 driver, so I was under the impression that it was the latest.

If I use medium graphics settings and don't enable to much then I get around 80 FPS in VDrift in-game. The "dirt smoke" looks very odd though...
Like big white boxes. Usually that is not a good sign.

------------

Thanks for all your help and feedback.

But I must admit that I feel slightly embarrassed that
I didn't just try the newest catalyst driver right away.

The GPU information program is really great by the way.

[thelusiv]

The "dirt smoke" looks very odd though...
Like big white boxes. Usually that is not a good sign.

This is a known bug with the 6-30 release, but I thought the patched exe should fix this problem.

Thanks for posting. Your information helps us to help others troubleshoot, even though your problem was not from VDrift but your graphics drivers.

[CBMFreak]

The "dirt smoke" looks very odd though...
Like big white boxes. Usually that is not a good sign.

This is a known bug with the 6-30 release, but I thought the patched exe should fix this problem.

Thanks for posting. Your information helps us to help others troubleshoot, even though your problem was not from VDrift but your graphics drivers.

I'm glad if this thread will help others troubleshoot aswell
And thanks again for all your help and support.