i915_program_error

[snurfle]

just updated vs to the latest (0.5.0)... wont run at all... makes it past the ads, then to the main menu, but choosing "campaign" will bomb out after the "loading..." messages are done.
(ubuntu 9.10) terminal reports "Mesa 7.6 implementation error: i915_program_error: Exceeded max instructions

[klauss]

That's an intel GPU driver bug.

Do you have up-to-date drivers?

[snurfle]

As far as I know I do.
That hasn't changed since I updated VS.
How do I find out what my current drivers are and what the latest are?
I usually install all of the upgrades when they show up in the "software updates are available..." window.

[chuck_starchaser]

Intel GPU's are the worst of the worst, anyways; so if updating the drivers doesn't work for you, you're lucky; all the
more reason to get a videocard. Even something as old as a 6600GT, which you can probably pick up for $20 should
work with our latest shaders (though slowly). But intel gpu's are ENTIRELY worth-less for gaming.

[snurfle]

Well, I won't argue with your reply... however...
This is an integrated chip on my lappy, and VS worked pretty well prior to updating to the latest version.
I am a little feeble with my attempts to determine video drivers and how to update them... where and how can I find out what video driver I am using, or more importantly, how do I go about updating it?

[chuck_starchaser]

Well, the error says "Exceeded max instructions". I suppose that refers to shader instructions.
Did you try the lesser shader settings in vssetup? If you're at "Nicest Shader", try "Average Shader", or...
...all the way down to NO shader.
The fact that it used to work doesn't imply it should continue to work; as the graphics in vegastrike
have been evolving, and even the "average" shader now requires shader instructions only available
in ps3.0 (textureCubeLod()), so, time to get a videocard if you want to play this game with a decent
framerate and visuals. Sorry, but trying to support garbage hardware imposes heavy penalties on
users who do spend a little extra money on graphics hardware and expect decent visuals. To continue
support of intel gpu's that share memory with the cpu, in particular, would force us to supply smaller
versions of all the textures, or scaling them down at run-time on load.
But, every gamer out there knows not to expect to be able to game on intel graphics.
This is as common knowledge as it gets; I don't know why people expect Vegastrike to be different
from other games in this respect.
But anyhow, to upgrade the drivers, and given you're in Ubuntu, I'd fire-up synaptic and in the search
window enter "intel graphics driver" or some such; see what comes up; or check intel's website, see
if it says something about installing/updating drivers in Ubuntu.

[snurfle]

"This is as common knowledge as it gets; I don't know why people expect Vegastrike to be different
from other games in this respect."

Wow. take a breath, man.
I asked why it quit working, and I was told to check my drivers.
I didn't expect the game to be or do or act any way whatsoever.
I just thought it was kinda relevant to mention that it worked fine prior to upgrading and now not at all.

Maybe there's a minimum system requirement list I didn't see, otherwise I wouldn't've asked.

[chuck_starchaser]

Alright; never mind; I'm on edge lately about the goddam intel graphics chips. Nothing personal.

[klauss]

"This is as common knowledge as it gets; I don't know why people expect Vegastrike to be different
from other games in this respect."

Wow. take a breath, man.
I asked why it quit working, and I was told to check my drivers.
I didn't expect the game to be or do or act any way whatsoever.

His answer, though emotional, was sound though.
VS has been evolving more in its graphics than anything else, so it makes sense that newer VS versions would expose unseen driver issues.
And, indeed, setting "no shader" in vssetup should fix that particular problem - did you try in the end?

In fact, VS expects the drivers to report the error so it can fall back to simpler shaders - the drivers should *not* kill the application because of it, and if they do so it's a big bug on the drivers themselves. But you can bypass that problem by not using shaders at all.