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I am tempted to buy this game as it is only $40 for the next 4o hours on Steam. I am aware of all the bugs and that a patch and driver have improved things but is this game "fixed enough" yet to be worth my hard earned money?

There are very few programming bugs in the game. The two major issues: a) lack of advanced video settings, as a result I had to hunt for a custom config on internet and b) poor driver from ATI (not sure about nVidia).

Strengths: many different characters, locations, good AI, unique environmental art work, weapons variety, ambient sounds and gorgeous graphics.
Weaknesses: a bit short, low resolution textures, clunky and disconnected from main story vehicular combat, way too easy even on nightmare difficulty.

The animation of the characters is really awesome. But what he said about shortness and a story that's a bit handlebar-ish.

michael_d wrote:

poor driver from ATI

That summarizes the entire "bug" debacle right there. ATI's driver was the "bug", and so were the PEBKAC ATI users. Driver bugs != game bugs, and you have to troubleshoot things when that occurs. Which tends to drive whiny incompetents frothing with rage.

michael_d wrote:

a) lack of advanced video settings

Latest patch addressed that. Custom configs are no longer necessary, but kudos to anyone who made an effort to implement them.

matdem1 wrote:

is this game "fixed enough" yet to be worth my hard earned money?

It is for me @ $40. I don't have to worry about ATI's driver either, being that I'm using a 470. Muwhahahaha. Thanks for the heads up on the sale.

michael_d wrote:

There are very few programming bugs in the game.

l33t-g4m3r wrote:

michael_d wrote:

a) lack of advanced video settings

Latest patch addressed that. Custom configs are no longer necessary, but kudos to anyone who made an effort to implement them.

The latest patch adds 3 more options: AF, Texture Cache and GPU Transcoding (nVidia only). One can hardly consider them as advanced options. Having said that, it did not resolve my problems nor did it resolve problems for many others. The configuration below was provided by a GTX 570 user. It resolved texture streaming issues, visual fidelity improved greatly but introduced another minor problem which is mild stuttering.

Rage\Rage.exe +seta com_AllowConsole 1 +seta com_SkipIntroVideo 1 +seta mem_phymemblocksizem "2048" +exec "autoexec.cfg"



and autoexec.cfg
Quote:
seta fc_maxcachememoryMB "2048"
seta com_videoRam "1280"


//Virtual Textures

seta vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly2 "16384"
seta vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly "16384"
seta vt_pageimagesizeunique "16384" <<< might want to use 8192 here
seta vt_pageimagesizevmtr "16384"
seta vt_qualityhdplossless "1"
seta vt_qualityhdppower "0"
seta vt_qualityhdpspecular "0"
seta vt_qualityhdpnormal "0"
seta vt_qualityhdpdiffuse "0"
seta vt_qualitydctpower "100"
seta vt_qualitydctspecular "100"
seta vt_qualitydctnormal "100"
seta vt_qualitydctchroma "100"
seta vt_qualitydctluma "100"
seta vt_usecudatranscode "2"
seta vt_cudaBudget "256"
seta vt_maxppf "512"
seta vt_maxlockedpages "1024"
seta vt_maxaniso "12"
seta vt_uncompressedvmtr "1"
seta vt_preload "1"
seta vt_vmtrcompression "none" //HDP DXT DCT
vt_restart

//Renderer



r_gamma "0.87"
seta r_shadows "1" //default
seta r_displayRefresh "0" //default
seta r_multiSamples "4"




//Image

seta image_preload "1"
seta image_blend "GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR"
seta image_filter "GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR"
seta image_anisotropy "12"
seta image_usecompression "0"
seta image_screenshotquality "100"
seta jobs_numthreads "2"



vid_restart

Finally!!!!!!!!!!! a working Radeon driver for rage

Catalyst 11.11 will fix Rage issues

michael_d wrote:

The latest patch adds 3 more options: AF, Texture Cache and GPU Transcoding (nVidia only). One can hardly consider them as advanced options. Having said that, it did not resolve my problems nor did it resolve problems for many others. The configuration below was provided by a GTX 570 user. It resolved texture streaming issues, visual fidelity improved greatly but introduced another minor problem which is mild stuttering.

The new options resolve exactly what they are there for, you even admit it. The stuttering is a driver issue. I've had some stuttering after upgrading to .79, so I'm back to .62 which worked fine. The stuttering may not be 100% a rage problem, as I've had terrible stuttering with darksiders using older drivers. I think it could be an issue with the driver that it needs optimizations to work with new games. Screwed up config files will also cause stuttering.

So far, I'm enjoying the game a lot. I love the racing, the monsters, the ai, the characters, building stuff, etc. The only thing I'm disappointed in is texture resolution and compression artifacts, but it's not something I notice when shooting enemies.

I've heard rumors about vsync not working correctly with drivers, so perhaps turning it off could help, and perhaps lower/tweak the AA/AF settings. Also, that config file listed raises the texture cache size way too much. That could very well be causing the stuttering too.

edit:
.79 sucks. I had to do a clean install and use driver sweeper, and I think that fixed it. .62 runs really smooth, and I'm using 8x CSAA w/ 2x supersample. The only downside is that the graphics might be too clean on that setting, and it brings out imperfections more than the lower settings. These settings seem to be the overall best though.

edit: do not implement strange config tweaks. Most are unnecessary and can even make things worse. First set the graphics within the game's control panel. Second, do not force AF above 8, as that can cause artifacting. Third implement these tweaks in rageconfig.cfg:
seta com_allowconsole 1
com_skipIntroVideo "1"
seta image_lodbias -1
seta vt_lodBias -2
seta vt_minlod -1
seta vt_feedbackLodBias -1
//seta jobs_numthreads 4 //THIS YOU MAY WANT 4 ON
//seta vt_cudaBudget 16
//seta vt_maxPPF 64

The LOD tweaks are what actually fix the blurries, as the game is too aggressive with mip mapping. Do not change the FOV, as that will make pop-in a lot worse. Also, do not mess with uncompressed textures unless you have lots of memory.