CATALYST™ v3.8 available! Feedbacks here please!

[jimbob0i0]

Downloading now....

Time to give this baby a whirl ;)

[Reaper106]

Damn wish I had an ATI card to mess with these:cry:

[CATALYST MAKER]

Hi there,

I am very proud to announce the most significant software update in ATI’s history. Today we are making available to all ATI owners CATALYST version 3.8. This version of CATALYST includes the following software updates:
· RADEON™ display driver 7.94
· MULTIMEDIA CENTER™ 8.7
· HydraVision™ Basic Edition 3.25
· Remote Wonder 2.1
· Linux driver update

Quick link to the XP driver <http://www.ati.com/home/online/CatalystXPdriver.html>
This is also the first web posted driver that supports the brand new RADEON 9800XT . As always CATALYST provides the ultimate in Innovation, Performance and Stability.
Innovation:
CATALYST™ 3.8 features upgrades, expansions and innovative solutions to 3D applications, multimedia, game play and home entertainment that deliver the ultimate in visual experiences. New features include:
· OpenGL and D3D tabs combined into one <C:Documents and SettingstmakedonLocal SettingsTempRar$EX00.135Output3.htm>
· Game Profile Feature
· CATALYST™ Uninstaller
· MULTIMEDIA CENTER™ Update
· New ATI 3D Tab Layout
· SMARTSHADER™ Effects
· VPU Recover
· ATI OVERDRIVE
· HYDRAVISION™ Basic Edition
· TV Overscan

Performance:
Although the focus of the driver release was features there were some performance improvements noted as follows:
As with most CATALYST™ releases, the performance has increased. The HyperZ enhancements in CATALYST™ 3.8 provide performance improvements to applications that use the Z-buffer in certain ways. Tomb Raider frame rates improve as much as 20%. Giants - Citizen Kabuto also runs significantly faster. Other titles may also be improved.

Stability:
As always CATALYST delivers fixes to stability. Some examples are as follows
· Setting the main OpenGL slider in the ATI 3D tab to quality no longer results causes games to run in 16bpp mode Setting (This resolved issue was placed first on the list at the request of the Rage3D moderator GI Bro - who insists that it is a rater significant fix ;-) )
· the Landscape details to Perfect in the game IL2 Stumovik Forgotten Battles no longer results in the system not responding during the track playback
· Playing the game Tiger Woods with the game options set to 1280x1024 32bpp and graphic parameters set to high, no longer results in the game failing to respond after the scorecard is displayed
· Setting the game Flight Simulator 2004 to display at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 followed by starting a new flight results in the menu being flipped just before the new flight is about to begin
· Setting the display to 800x600 32bpp 100Hz followed by enabling triple buffering no longer results in display corruption when playing CounterStrike
· The correct ATI board name is now display in the configuration window of the game Serious Sam 2
· A dark screen image and texture corruption is no longer seen when playing the game Project A3
· Running the game eRacer with clone mode enabled no longer results in corruption on the secondary display during the opening introduction
· Playing the game Midnight Club 2 with the default setting no longer results in the texture coordinated being corrupted. This issue occurred under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 7500 installed
· Fog issues have now been resolved in the game Neverwinter Nights
· Image corruption is no longer noticed in the game Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. This issue was known to occur under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 9000 series installed
· Playing the demo game Midnight Club 2 under Windows XP with the default modes enabled for the game no longer results in the fog being missing from the game
· Playing the demo game XIII under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 9500 or 9800 series card installed no longer results in texture corruption when moving the mouse around the game area
· When updating to current or future CATALYST™ releases your current color control panel profiles are no longer lost
· Setting the main OpenGL slider in the ATI 3D tab to quality no longer results causes games to run in 16bpp mode
· Disabling Extended Desktop when two display adapters are connected to four Displays no longer results in corruption on one display
· Help file is now available for brightness of TV under Windows XP with a RADEON™ 9800 series card installed
· The large desktop resolution setting are no longer displayed in the Setting tab once large desktop has been disabled
· Selecting the 3D screen saver during DVD playback when the display resolution is set to 1280x1024x16bit no longer results in display corruption being noticed on the overlay
· Repeatedly switching between a Full Screen DOS session and the window desktop no longer results in corrupt horizontal red lines on the CRT
· Entering the screen saver tab in the display properties and selecting 3D Flying Objects followed by entering standby mode no longer results in the Windows 2000 operating system rebooting
· The ability to extend the desktop while playing an MPEG file is now resolved
· The system no longer reboots when playing NEC dvd4 after changing the display from extended mode to clone mode
· The ATI Problem Report Wizard is now functioning properly under Windows XP
· The ATI RADEON™ 8500 no longer suffers from a Direct 3D performance decrease when the Windows XP desktop resolution is set to 32bpp
· Setting the display resolution to 1152x864 32bpp under Windows XP and playing an MPEG or AVI file no longer results in display corruption on the TV output
· Texture banding issues under OpenGL is now resolved



Thanks everyone and enjoy
Terry Makedon
Sr. Software Product Manager

[digitalwanderer]

Just for convinience:

Cat 3.8 98/me (http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/winme/radeonwdm-me.html?type=98&prodType=graphic&prod=productsME98driver&submit.x=14&submit.y=13)
Cat 3.8 XP/2k (http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/winxp/radeonwdm-xp.html?type=xp&prodType=graphic&prod=productsXPdriver&submit.x=12&submit.y=7)

[euan]

damm beaten to it!

[MUYA]

I am gonna sticky this so we can get feedbacks here.

[digitalwanderer]

Cat 3.8 98/me (http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/winme/radeonwdm-me.html?type=98&prodType=graphic&prod=productsME98driver&submit.x=14&submit.y=13)

For yea old dinosaurs like me.... ;)

[Skynet]

WOW released as promised to the second!!!!!! Amazing!!
Thanx very very much. ;)

[MUYA]

whoops made a booboo while merging threads :D

Anyways :P Forgive Oh Terry of ATI!

;)

MUYA

[DMA]

Weee! :D

Time to test these bad boys :cool:

[tomv]

Can someone tell me if the NeverWinter Nights alt tab problem is fixed. I'm not familiar with fog issues in the game or if they were related to the game crashing to desktop when you hit alt tab...

[-=DVS=-]

Installed them , SmartShader feature is fun :eek: , D3D tab merged with Open Gl and game profiler included , pretty nice , but there is small refresh bug in profiler when you change setting and save them to game profile , it woun't show correctly but by hiting Open Gl tab and back to D3D as example will correct it ;)

Now ot gameing testing :D

[Kickles]

I thought this game profile feature would at least have some kind of application detection, whats the point in saving a profile if you have to go int othe control panel anyway to swap them, may as well use rage3d tweak, at least you can work it in the systray. I thought wrong :( ohwell. At least the 16bit bug was fixed.

[russo121]

I want numbers..... :D

[EMunEeE]

Do not use SmartShader: Classic w UT2003....itll crash...then envoke VPU recover setting everything to software rendering....LOL...I would know.

[EMunEeE]

3D Mark 2003
1024x768 with 2xAA/16xqAF

Catalyst 3.7 - 2664
Catalyst 3.8 - 2660

[ChrisRay]

Hmm No Stylized Color in D3d? Good job. I just kinda like that Stylized Color

[extreme_dB]

Here's a detailed overview of the new features:

http://www.envynews.com/index.php?ID=569

I gotta say that I'm a little worried about the implications of SmartShader. It can potentially provide "enhanced vision" in certain games where visual settings like fog/night are used to add difficulty and variation to the gameplay.

Do these SmartShader effects only work with the DX9 Radeons?

[StealthHawk]

Originally posted by Kickles
I thought this game profile feature would at least have some kind of application detection, whats the point in saving a profile if you have to go int othe control panel anyway to swap them, may as well use rage3d tweak, at least you can work it in the systray. I thought wrong :( ohwell. At least the 16bit bug was fixed.

Yeah, I agree. I was hoping for application profiles that would automagically kick in when a game was launched :( Still, a step in the right direction :)

[CybrSage]

Anyone know how to mod these to run on a Mobility 7500? I have the Omega Drivers, but want to test these on my laptop...

[ChrisRay]

Originally posted by StealthHawk
Yeah, I agree. I was hoping for application profiles that would automagically kick in when a game was launched :( Still, a step in the right direction :)


Well it's still quicker IMO :)

[euan]

Cut from my other post:

I must admit the Smartshader feature is cool. Watch any scene demo, and it gives it a whole new slant!


Here's a normal 3d program with the green ascii shader enabled!!!

http://euank.users.btopenworld.com/asciishaders.jpg

Full size (http://euank.users.btopenworld.com/asciishader.jpg)

Farbrauch FR030 in Inverse color mode
http://euank.users.btopenworld.com/fr030invcolors.jpg

Full size (http://euank.users.btopenworld.com/fr030invcolor.jpg)

Movit in Sketch (outline) mode
http://euank.users.btopenworld.com/movitsketchs.jpg

Full size (http://euank.users.btopenworld.com/movitsketch.jpg)

[Shion Uzuki]

It seems like on DX8 class cards, a limited varieties of SmartShaders effects are avilible under OpenGL only, not Direct3D.

I got a limited amount of effects under OpenGL for my 8500, but nothing for D3D :(

[sxotty]

Thanks for your timely and quality releases ATI.

[ShoobyDooblyDoo]

Great to see the drivers released yet again as per schedule.

Overall performance wise is much the same as 3.7, then again, Terry did say it wouldn't be so much performance fixes, more a feature release. Nice to see the OpenGL 16 bit texture bug corrected too.

I think that the D3D/OpenGL ATI style profiles are utterly awful. What the bulk of users want is Per Game/App AA/AF/Vsync settings. Much like ChrisW 's seriously superior RadLinker program. Also SMARTSHADE is a nice toy for a bit, but really, in all honesty - it's a waste of a tab option!

Roll on the 3.9's ...