Good point Quadraxas. It's one of those pain in the butt problems to figure out.

The only thing we really know for sure is that Shader 3.0 runs on this machine with everything but 3DGS engine for some reason, and it is either the Ati HD drivers (or 64 bit drivers) or Vista 64 bit system that doesn't want to run correctly with 3DGS for some reason.

I still think we will test XP on the system (seperate hard drive, which he has available) with 32 bit drivers for the Ati Hd cards first, unless Conetic has some insight on the matter. If the Ati HD cards work with XP, then it almost certainly the Vista 64 OS (or 64 bit drivers, something 64 bit, sigh) 3DGS is not liking with Shader 3.0.

If that doesn't work, then we will try a Nvidia card with the Vista 64 bit OS after that, since the person with the machine has no Nvidia card at his disposal atm. After that test, if Shader 3.0 runs on a Nvidia 64 driver and not the Ati HD 64 driver, then we would have narrowed it down to the Ati 64 bit driver 3DGS doesn't like with Shader 3.0. If it runs on neither Ati 64 bit or Nividia 64 bit drivers, then 3DGS probably just doesn't like running Shader 3.0 with Vista 64 bit OS (or any 64 driver) as it is right now. Gotta love GameDev.

And the person doing the test is going to love us when he has to re-install Windows after all goes awry and go through that horrific process again, lol.

I hate being the ones doing these test for Conetic, but if we are going to realease a game, it has to work on both Vista 64 bit and Ati HD video cards, which ever one (or a combination of both) is not liking 3DGS at the moment for whatever reasons.

It's not like this system is having any issues with any Shader 3.0 games or applications other than 3DGS, which gives me a headache and the person whose system it is a migrane, since he has to do all the footwork to narrow down what the problem is by messing around on what is for now, a stable system. We will get it so he has to re-install Windows from scratch before it is all over I am sure, but hopefully not.

I have not read about anyone having Shader 3.0 shader problems with Ati HD video cards, but maybe no one has tried them on 3DGS with Shader 3.0 yet, but I am guessing it is more likely that someone has tested Shader 3.0 with a Ati HD video card on a 32 bit OS than someone testing Shader 3.0 with Vista 64 bit OS, but who knows.

It all gets back to the question, "Has Conetic tested Shader 3.0 on a Vista 64 bit OS (or any 64 bit OS) with 3DGS yet?" That would narrow things down immediately if they have and it is like working on a Nvidia Card with 64 bit drivers or something, then we would know it's probably just the Ati 64 bit drivers 3DGS is not liking. But if Conetic has never tested Shader 3.0 on any 64 bit OS with 3DGS, we know absolutely nothing at this point. If Conetic hasn't tested the latest hardware/software developments on the 3DGS engine, such as Shader 3.0 on a 64 bit OS, I would recommend they do so, the industry keeps moving forward, it would behoove them to keep pace.

Maybe Conetic has already done test also, which is what I am waiting to hear a response to before out team waste our time and money trying to resolve something which should have already been tested for with this product. I just don't like when I hear, "Well, there is no reason 3DGS shouldn't work with Shader 3.0 on a Vista 64 OS." I always think, "Well, have you actually tested it to make sure?"

Sorry, just venting now. I just get frustrated when everyone's modern hardware/OS always work on every other application/engine except with the engine we are creating our game with. We are probably just trying to push this engine father than what it is currently design for, but hopefully in the end our struggles will help keep 3DGS up to date also.