Error Creating Effect: Shadow Receive Directional Grass

[awais_98]

Hi
I bought this new G3 from tower hobbies. I registered online too. But whenever Im trying to start the simulator,during G3RF loading a window appears saying: "ERROR CREATING EFFECT: SHADOW RECEIVE DIRECTIONAL GRASS" . And I press ok and then that error is reported to Microsoft.
Thats it and then it closes!
I tried to upgrade the video card driver, i did it, but still no use. its the same!
Im getting frustated, been waiting 10 days to receive it here in Kuwait and now it wouldnt start!! what to do!
please help me with that.
Thankyou
Awais
PS:
Attaching the system information

[vitek]

Card name: S3 Graphics ProSavageDDR

The graphics card you are using is not on the supported/tested graphics card list.

Travis

[terryj]

I have the same problem. I'm a little ticked. All of the lit. says it will run on the card that I have. Once purchased, the manual says you need at minimum a card that costs a couple $100-- The "better" card is $500+. And I can't return it 'cause I've cut the seal on the box.

[treym7]

What card do you have? The box plainly says that you must have a video card compatible with DirectX9 (or above) and at least 32mb or video ram. As long as you have those covered you should not get the "Error Creating Effect: Shadow Receive Directional Grass" error. I bet that your card has the 32mb+ but it does not support DirectX9.
As far as the manual saying you need a really expensive card, not so. I was planning on upgrading my video card anyway, G3 just made up my mind to do it sooner. I spent under $90 for a brand new card that works great!
Trey

[terryj]

It's a Creative Labs Riva TNT2 something or other (I'm at work so I can't double-check). It IS a 3D accelerator. It has 32 megs of RAM. Just installed latest driver and re-installed DirectX. Running Windows 2000. Card pass ALL DirectX diagnostics. After updating driver and directx it crashes more politely anyway. Big help. Worked fine with RF classic. In fact rated one of best cards at the time.

RF manual says you need higher perf. card-- period. Other diaglog pertaining to cards of this vintage says forget them.

Tower WILL NOT take it back. What ticks me off is all of the OBVIOUS literature says it works with a 32MB 3D accelerator.

The manual sort of says it will work with certain ATI cards in the $300 range but recommends a Nvidia card that goes for close to $600.

Anyone recommend a card that costs less that say $250 THAT WORKS?

Thanks

Terry

I have a friend that is a lawyer...

[Airnut]

Terry

Three cards that I know definitely work are XFX 6600GT, Radeon 9600XT, and the Radeon 9800XT. These cards here in Canada retail for about $300.00 Cdn, so you should be looking at somewhere around the $200-$250 US cost wise. Hope that helps

Rene

[TDistortion]

Just bought a ATI All-in-wonder 9600XT for US $190 and it works great (besides letting me watch TV, edit videos, etc).
If you got the non-All-in-wonder version it would be considerably cheaper. Go to www.pricewatch.com and you can compare prices for online sites.

[terryj]

Rene,

Thanks for the input. I'll go shopping and see if I can find something. I've checked online and your prices seem about right.

Appreciate any second opinions on this cards.

Terry

[treym7]

As I said, the box, and the OBVIOUS literature, says it has to support DirectX9. If you check out Nvidia's site, you will see that the TNT2 would only support up to DirectX6.x, and I believe that it did get up to 8.x with updates, but that was the upper limit of this card, I know as I had the NVIDIA TNT2 M64 32mb card. I found that the GeForce FX 5200 with 256mb was going for around $90 or a little less if you shop around. It will not be the fastest of the bunch, but for the price it is a good card. You can expect to see around 25-30+ FPS with this card. This is what I am running now and I run G3 at 1280x1024 and I don't see any problems. Think about it, when you watch NTSC television, that is 30FPS, looks pretty clear huh?
Trey

[terryj]

Trey,

I know you're right regarding DirectX 9. My TNT2 card passed all the DX 9 diagnostics but I know that some functions were being emulated in software. Worked fine with RF Classic.

Anyway, I bought an ATI A-I-W 9600XT w/ 128 MB as well as a cheap PCI sound card so I got hardware sound buffering. Both work great. My native resolution is 1600x1200 and G3 runs just fine. Smooth as glass. I had a TV/video capture card which I took out cause the ATI does it. Don't use it much but occasionally I watch the news in a small window will working.

Card cost me $179 after rebate at Fry's. Only place I could find this EXACT card. I'm sure the had others but this was recommended earlier in the thread.

Thanks all,

Terry

[terryj]

All,

I checked the frame rate using the Nav aid doo-hickey.

45-55 fps at 1600 x 1200 x 32-bit. Pretty impressive. Running only AMD Athlon (xp) 1900+ w/ 768 megs of PC-2100 DDR RAM. ECS K7S5A mother board. Several years old. ATI AIW 9600 XT. Under Windows 2000 (up to date). Other than a couple of "stutters" on the very first takeoff each time the program is launched, everything runs very smooth. Onces in a while something a little strange happens with the scenary but the planes are fine.

Most of the planes are a little fast for my taste. As a first attempt to tone them down, I increase the physics scale to 110-125% and the visual scale to 200%. Ultimate, Cap, and Yak. Much better for my kind of flying. On the other hand, the P-51 seems a little slow. The F-86 is awsome! Now if I can just remember to put down the gear...

ATI AIW 9600 XT seems like a good card.

[Airnut]

Terry

Glad to hear that you have resolved your problems. I think the stuttering when you first launch G3 has to be a little bug which I am quite sure will be resolved with future updates(can"t wait).

Take Care

Rene