ati - Deleted old beta drivers to shorten table

If you have an AMD/ATI graphics card then you may need to do these steps (ATI drivers don't seem to support OpenGL graphics very well, and SL viewers use OpenGL, as opposed to DirectX).

Furthermore, other types of graphics cards also require that the first step here be done; VBO is known to cause crashes in multiple different scenarios. So one thing to try:

• Disable VBO: Run the viewer and before logging in, press Ctrl-P to bring up the Preferences window. Then click on Graphics → Hardware Settings tab. Make sure that “Enable OpenGL Vertex Buffer Objects” is not checked.

If you are seeing everything pink, the issue is the graphics card driver. The best solution is to update the Catalyst driver (which may imply reverting to an older version than you currently have); links are provided in the section "Known Good ATI Driver", below.

If for any reason, this is not an option:

• Enable the Advanced menu with Ctrl-Alt-D, if it isn't already
• Then Advanced → Debug settings → RenderMaxTextureIndex → Set this to zero
• This should fix the pink textures but may also cause a drop in your FPS (Frames per second)

Alternately, you can go to Preferences→ Graphics -> Hardware Settings→ Enable OpenGL Vertex Buffer Objects - and disable that.

If rigged mesh goes invisible when worn the issue is, again, the graphics card driver. In this case, several Catalyst drivers are known to cause this problem. Refer to FIRE-14871 and here, where it is also evident that the same problem occurs with the official SL viewer. ¹⁾

The best thing is to uninstall the graphics card driver you have, and install 14.4, or the latest 15.x driver instead. More on this below.

If for any reason this is not an option, then a work-around is to disable Preferences→ Graphics -> General→ Basic Shaders, or Hardware Skinning.

Here are some work-arounds to solve the problem:

• disable Render Glow in Preferences → Graphics -> Rendering
• disable Vig. Amount in Phototools -> Gen. (if Advanced Lighting Model is enabled in Preferences → Graphics → General)
• disable Basic Shaders in Preferences→ Graphics -> General

Windows: Updating the graphics card driver (which may imply reverting to an older version than you currently have) is likely a preferable solution; links are provided in the section "Known Good ATI Driver", below.

Mac: The issue has only been seen on Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6.8) so far. Since drivers are tied into the operating system on Macs, you would need to upgrade to Mountain Lion (OSX 10.8.3) for a permanent solution at this time. If that is not an option for you, then use the workarounds above.

This is a known issue with ATI Catalyst versions 12.2 through 12.4. If you have one of these versions, then you should update the graphics card driver; see below for more.

Temporary work-arounds:

• Disable Preferences→ Graphics -> General→ Basic Shaders
• Turn off “Enable highlighting of selected prims” via Preferences→ Firestorm → Build

Ref.: FIRE-5569 - VWR-28607 - MAINT-825

This has been reported with ATI Catalyst 12.6 and 12.8: Ref. FIRE-6957 and the LL JIRA VWR-29208. The solution is update the graphics card driver as described below.

This is usually due to using outdated ATI video drivers. Refer to this SL JIRA. Disabling Aero may also help solve this. Information on how to do that is given here.

See below for how to update Catalyst, the graphics card driver.

Some have reported all manner of graphics glitches, including:

• water is totally transparent
• sky and water Windlight don't work
• the horizon is blurry
• shadows give strange effects when enabled, or a black screen; or shadows don't render at all
• inability to see glow
• no clouds
• prim faces illuminated in unexpected ways

These can often be solved by updating the ATI driver; see below.

Please refer to this page for more on that issue.

These issues have been reported with Catalyst versions 12.11 and 13.01. See if any of the following suggestions are helpful:

• Preferences → Graphics → General → Basic shaders - disable;
• Preferences → Graphics → Hardware Settings → AntiAliasing - disable.

Updating the driver is a preferable solution; see below.

Windows 8.1 may install its own driver for ATI/AMD graphics cards. This does not work well with Firestorm. You will need to remove the Windows driver, then install the appropriate driver from the ATI/AMD website.

This page gives guidance for Windows 7; more information is here.

Another good reference is the table on this page. However, sadly, AMD have not kept it up to date. The drivers missing are:

Catalyst 15.x drivers have been solving the “invisible rigged mesh” bugs which have been a major problem for many.

• Catalyst 15.7.1 ³⁾ appears to be working well.
• Rather than relying on the built-in Windows driver update function, visit the AMD site directly and update from there; click here to locate the drivers for your system.

If Catalyst 15.x is not available for your card, Catalyst 14.4 is believed to be a good driver version to use; it seems to fix all (or most) of the problems described on this page. This may imply rolling back your current driver to that version.

• To find Catalyst 14.4, do not use the autodetect feature; instead, on this page scroll down to “Manually Select Your Driver” and supply the required information. Then download.
• If 14.4 is a downgrade for you, please make very sure that you remove whatever driver you currently have installed before installing 14.4