To obtain the latest drivers for your hardware download the drivers from your card manufacturer's web site. See below for links to the driver sections of various hardware vendors' webpages.
Additionally, you may want to install and run a third-party driver installation program such as GLSetup (www.glsetup.com) which contains many OpenGL drivers for a variety of video cards. GLSetup version 1.6 is provided for your convenience on the Homeworld: Cataclysm CD to save you download time should your current OpenGL drivers not work with Homeworld: Cataclysm. Recognize that GLSetup is not supported by Sierra's technical support, however.
All compatibility comments below assume that you are trying to run Homeworld: Cataclysm with the Default OpenGL renderer as a first attempt. Depending on your chipset, however, it may be necessary to run using 3dfx OpenGL, Direct3D, or software. Homeworld: Cataclysm places labels beside available renderers in the Video Options screen that indicate the graphics API a particular driver uses: GL for OpenGL, D3D for Direct3D, and SW for software.
If your chipset is not listed below you should consult the documentation that came with your hardware to determine how to get updated drivers.
Some 3D hardware does not provide an OpenGL implementation and running Homeworld: Cataclysm with Default OpenGL selected as your renderer will then not be accelerated by your hardware at all. If Homeworld: Cataclysm pops up a dialog box informing you that the selected renderer is unaccelerated, try Direct3D next, then software if all else fails (the Homeworld: Cataclysm software renderer is considerably faster than OpenGL without hardware support). If you must use the software renderer, try running Homeworld: Cataclysm with the /rasterSkip commandline switch for a moderate speed increase; some people find this too visually distracting, so try for yourself and see.
Homeworld: Cataclysm also supports the /safeGL commandline option. You should run with this if any of the following problems occur when using OpenGL as your renderer: oddly colored backgrounds, no stars in the backgrounds, no background bitmap in the loading screens, or ship meshes that are missing polygons or are oddly colored.
Recent versions of Windows 98 provide drivers for certain 3D chipsets, but they generally do not contain an OpenGL ICD. GLSetup drivers or drivers from your vendor's website are preferred.
If you experience problems when testing a new display mode (new resolution or bitdepth), be sure to see if Homeworld: Cataclysm will run at 640x480 16bit. Some cards incorrectly report resolutions they cannot properly support, and Homeworld: Cataclysm may fail to recognize the problem. If you select a new display mode and Homeworld: Cataclysm appears unresponsive (i.e. black screen or garbled text) either wait a few seconds or hit the Spacebar to have Homeworld: Cataclysm restore the previous mode. If all else fails, try pressing CTRL-SHIFT-F12 to re-enable the default renderer (software, 640x480 16bit).
Note also that not all 3D hardware supports the same set of features as another, and some scenes and effects will appear differently on different system configurations. This is to be expected.
Users with an AMD K6 or greater processor with 3DNow! instructions or an Intel LX chipset on their motherboard may experience crashes or system lockups when using OpenGL with nVidia Riva TNT2, 3Dfx Voodoo Banshee or Voodoo 3, and S3 Savage3D boards. AMD users are encouraged to use Direct3D for hardware acceleration if this problem occurs.
Users with an AMD Athlon may also experiences crashes or system lockups using OpenGL or D3D with the GeForce video card. AMD is aware of a problem with compatibility between the GeForce video card and the AMD Athlon motherboard. Several utilities and mini drivers available at the AMD web site (http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/bin) may solve this problem.
Users running Windows 2000 on an AMD Athlon with a Voodoo3 video card may experience random system lockups using a Vortex sound card (support.aureal.com). The Vortex sound card appears to be the problem and recent drivers may solve this problem.
Most of the newer video cards have adequate support for Windows 2000. If you have any problems with your video card under Windows 2000 make sure to check with the card manufacturer to see if there is an updated driver. The ATI Rage 128 did not have proper drivers for OpenGL or D3D for Windows 2000 at the time of Homeworld: Cataclysm release.
Running in OpenGL, when moving the mouse pointer to the edge of the screen, the rest of the image may have a white border.
3DFX GL is not officially supported in Windows NT. Users may experience random crashes or lock-ups using this configuration. Software mode is recommended
Cataclysm does not support OpenGL in Windows 2000
Below are a list of known issues and driver recommendations that have been tested successfully with Homeworld: Cataclysm.
Cataclysm has been thoroughly tested with the latest driver versions. If you are having trouble running Cataclysm with your current drivers, we recommend updating your drivers to the most recent version
* Voodoo Rush - this chipset is not currently supported for hardware acceleration mode, but recent 3dfx driver releases may provide support
* Voodoo Graphics - this chipset is not currently supported for hardware acceleration mode, but recent 3dfx driver releases may provide support
* Voodoo 3 - Using the latest drivers, under Windows NT v4.0 with service pack 4 and Windows 2000, menus may be corrupted using 3DfxGL at a resolution of 1024x768 or greater.
Note: 3dfx fullscreen-only devices (Voodoo Graphics, Voodoo 2) must use the 3dfx OpenGL renderer for hardware acceleration. Other 3dfx chipsets (Banshee, Voodoo 3) can use Default OpenGL, or Direct3D if problems occur with GL. The 3dfx OpenGL renderer will only be available if you have a fullscreen-only Voodoo card in your system. If you have a Voodoo Graphics or Voodoo 2 card, it is highly recommended that you run GLSetup for driver setup; there are known problems with Diamond's Monster II drivers that GLSetup corrects.
* Riva 128, 128ZX - text may appear blocky or blurry, but gameplay is unaffected. The drivers that come with windows ME for the Riva 128 will not run Cataclysm in OpenGL. The renderer fails to switch. You must install the latest Nvidia drivers version 3.37 (dated 3/22/99) in order for OpenGL to work
* Detonator 2 - if you see an nVidia logo at the bottom right corner of the screen, the solution is to:
1. Go into your video options
2. Choose the settings tab
3. Choose Advanced Options
4. Choose the tab with the name of your card
5. Press the "additional properties" button
6. Choose the Direct3D Tab
7. The "Show logo when running D3D applications" box should be unchecked. Check that box.
8. Apply the changes and exit the video options
9. Run Cataclysm
10. Exit Cataclysm
11. Repeat steps 1-6, except this time, uncheck the "Show logo when running D3D applications" box
3DLabs (http://www.3dlabs.com/drivers/index.html)
* Permedia 2 - does not support OpenGL. Users should run with Direct3D.
* Permedia 3 - texturing is not currently supported by drivers in Windows 95
ATI (http://support.atitech.ca/drivers/drivers.html)
* 3D Rage 2 - OpenGL is unaccelerated. Direct3D has limited display mode support, but no known problems
* Rage Pro - Select Direct3D for hardware acceleration.
* Rage 128 - recommend D3D mode or for OpenGL use driver included in GLSetup.
* Rage Turbo - Explosions and other translucent effects may have black trim. Gameplay is unaffected with no other known problems.
* M3D (PowerVR PCX2) - this chipset is not supported
* G200 - Text in build manager may appear blocky for short intervals. If you expereince problems running in D3D, make sure to use the latest G200 drivers (version 5.25.019). We do not recommend using GLSetup with this card.
* G400 - OpenGL choice is available, but we do not recommend using GLSetup with this card.
* Verite 2100 - select Direct3D for hardware acceleration. Some driver versions may occasionally display backgrounds without smoothing, leading to a very polygonal look. Effect is intermittent, and gameplay is unaffected
S3 (www.s3.com)
* Virge - OpenGL is unaccelerated. Direct3D has limited display mode support, but no known problems
* Savage 3 - Software support only.
Diamond (www.diamondmm.com)
* Fire GL 1000 - Text and textures may appear blocky. Explosions and other translucent effects may have black trim. Sensors spheres may look jagged when blob alpha is enabled. Disable blob alpha in video effects options. Gameplay is unaffected with no other known problems.
Windows NT 4.0
If you own an older video card, you may experience video problems playing the game under Windows NT.
Some of the cards and issues are:
- nVidia Riva 128 - Lens flares are black in OpenGL. Explosions and smoke effects may look "washed out".
- Diamond FireGL Pro - Effects such as smoke and explosions come out of colored square blocks in OpenGL. Performance may be slow. Software mode is recommended.
- Permedia2 - Lens flares are black in OpenGL. Effects such as smoke and explosions may have multi-colored square textures around them. Software mode is recommended.
- ATI Rage Pro/All in Wonder Pro - OpenGL is not supported for Cataclysm in NT with this card. There are major texture anomalies and mouse cursor problems. Software mode is recommended.
- ATI Rage 128 - No hardware modes are supported. Software is the only rendering option.
- Hercules Terminator Beast/Savage3 - This card will not run Cataclysm in NT.
- Voodoo2 - Cataclysm will run in 3DFX GL *only* in 800x600. The game will crash in any other resolution in 3DFX GL.
- Diamond Viper II - OpenGL causes severe problems and is not supported for this card in NT. The game must be run in Software mode.
- Matrox G400 - There are some known issues with resolution switching in OpenGL mode. If you encounter any strange anomalies while switching resolutions in OpenGL, restarting the game will fix them.
- Matrox Millennium II - Supported in Software mode only.
- Voodoo Banshee - OpenGL runs as an unaccelerated renderer under NT for this card. 3DFX GL works only in 640x480 resolution. Software mode is recommended.
- Graphics Blaster Exxtreme - Lens flares are transparent black in OpenGL. Explosions are blocky and sometimes have blocky checkered textures. Smoke and Ion Cannon effects also come out of large colored squares. Gameplay is unaffected.
- WindowsNT 4.0 w/ service pack 4, latest drivers from Creative
