ATI's FireGL™ cards are designed to accelerate 3D workstation applications based on OpenGL and Microsoft DirectX 9.0. With full certification on the leading computer aided design (CAD), architecture/engineering/construction (AEC) and digital content creation (DCC) applications, ATI FireGL™ is the high performance choice for graphics professionals working in Windows. These release notes provide information on the ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver version 8.391.2.1.1.1
These release notes provide information on the following:
- API and Operating System Support
- Minimum System Requirements
- ATI FireGL™ Product Family Support
- Software Overview
- Summary of Resolved Issues
- Open Issues Report
- ATI Customer Care
API and Operating System Support
Note: The ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver does not support the Intel Itanium 2 processor based server platforms.
Note: Linux users can obtain the software display driver at: http://www.atitech.com/support/driver.html
Caution: Pre-unified drivers (7.88 or older) should be un-installed before installing the ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver.
Minimum System Requirements
This section provides information on the system requirements for successful installation and operation. The following is a list of minimum system requirements:
- Intel Pentium 4/Xeon™, AMD Athlon/Opteron™ or compatible CPU
- PCI-Express x16 Bus for PCI-Express products
- AGP bus for AGP Products
- 128MB of system memory (256MB or more recommended)
- Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
- 300 watt or greater power supply (recommended)
ATI FireGL™ Product Family Support
The ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver version 8.391.2.1.1.1 is designed to support the following ATI FireGL™ product family:
Software Overview
The ATI FireGL™ family of workstation products provides the performance, quality, and stability that is required for the most demanding projects.
The ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver provides users with a stable, user-friendly, and flexible software experience. Some of the features of the ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver include:
- Overlay/Theatre Mode Controls
- Additional Default Profiles
- Quad Buffer Stereo Sub Options
- Shared Front/Back/Z Dual Screen Mode Option
- ATI 3ds Max Maximum Driver
- Automatic Application Detection When Using the Default Profile
Overlay/Theatre Mode Controls
This release of the ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver introduces an Overlay option in the ATI Control Panel. The Overlay option allows users to control the brightness, contrast, gamma, and other options of video playback when using a Media Player. The Overlay option provides sliders that automatically become active when playing a video file that supports overlay adjustments. Otherwise the sliders remain grayed out. In addition, there is a Theater Mode option (full screen video) when using a secondary monitor with clone mode enabled.
Additional Default Profiles
Three new default profiles are now available in the Configuration tab of the ATI Display Control Panel (and the Workstation page of the Catalyst Control Center). The new profiles are:
If users encounter performance or other issues with applications not specifically listed in the Profiles list, they should select and use whichever of these default profiles most closely matches their application.
Quad Buffer Stereo Sub Options
The Enable Quad Buffer Stereo option is available in both the ATI Control Panel and the ATI Catalyst Control Center. The Enable Quad Buffer Stereo sub-buttons provides two options:
- Stereo Sync - Select this option if a display device is attached to the graphics card's stereo sync connector.
- Auto-Stereo (Vertical Interleaved) - Select this option if an Auto-Stereo (vertical interleaved) flat panel is connected.
Quad Buffer Stereo is available when using either a single display or when Extended Desktop Mode is enabled (multiple displays with the taskbar being display on the primary monitor only). Quad Buffer Stereo functionality is only available on the primary display regardless of Extended Desktop Mode being enabled. Quad Buffer Stereo support is not available in Span Mode (dual screen with both displays using the identical display resolutions and the operating system taskbar is running across both displays). When using Span Mode, the Enable Quad Buffer Stereo checkbox is greyed out and is unavailable for selection.
Shared Front/Back/Z Dual Screen Mode Option
The ATI Control Panel and the ATI Catalyst Control Center provides a Shared Front/Back/Z Dual Screen Mode checkbox option. This option is available when extended desktop mode is enabled. Enabling the option allocates a shared primary frame buffer surface for both displays when they are set to the same resolution. This allows the OpenGL driver to use a shared front/back/depth frame buffer layout which can enhance performance when using multiple OpenGL windows.
ATI 3ds Max Maximum Driver
3ds Max is a professional 3D modeling, rendering and animation software. The ATI 3ds Max Maximum Driver provided with the ATI software driver package allows for impressive hardware accelerated rendering in the 3ds Max viewport. To successfully install the ATI 3ds Max Maximum Driver, the 3ds Max software application must be installed first, and started once. Failing to install the 3ds Max software application prior to the installation of the ATI 3ds Max Maximum Driver will result in the ATI 3ds Max Maximum Driver not installing to the appropriate directory.
Automatic Application Detection When Using the Default Profile
When the Default Profile setting is selected, the driver will automatically attempt to recognize the application upon its launch; and if the application is recognized, the driver will use the Profile settings defined for that application instead of the actual Default settings. Users will no longer need to manually select the application specific profile for recognized applications to obtain the full optimized driver performance for the application. In addition to this, users can now obtain the full optimized driver performance for multiple recognized applications that are running simultaneously, by simply using the Default Profile. This allows for each and every recognized application to use the Profile settings defined for that particular application. When the Default Profile is selected, the Default Profile settings are used for applications that are not recognized.
The tables below lists the professional applications and OpenGL games that are automatically recognized when using the Default Profile.
Table 3: Recognized OpenGL Gaming Applications Chronicles of Riddick Doom 3 Jedi Knight II Quake 3 Quake 4 Return to Castle Wolfenstein Summary of Resolved Issues
The following is a summary of the issues that have been resolved in this release of the ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver.
- I-DEAS: Viewport corruption no longer occurs upon redraw after mouse click
- UGS FEMAP: polygon should be rendered in wireframe.
- CATIA V5 : Crash when loading a file containing CG shaders.
- Solid Works 2007 / Cannot disable MultiSample with glDisable(GL_MULTISAMPLE_ARB).
- XP and Vista: CCC Missing "All Settings" Page Under 3D Menu.
- [Vista 64bit] - [FGL V7350] - Blue Screen after driver installation when more than 2GB RAM installed.
- Maya: overlay bug with dualscreen and single and span mode.
Open Issues Report
The following is a summary of open issues found in this release of the ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver.
- ReproORL: Maya: When in Span mode bug with time slider on second screen.
- CATIA V5 : Huge fragmentation of Virtual process memory when creating many small VBOs.
ATI Customer Care
ATI Customer Care website provides a high level of technical support and easy of navigation. The ATI Customer Care website provides accurate and up-to-date product support for optimum usability and performance. Technical issues are categorized and personalized to enhance user experience. The ATI Customer Care Website can be found at: support.ati.com
To view a known or resolved issue, do the following:
- Go to: support.ati.com. The ATI Customer Care web page is displayed.
- In the top left hand pane, click Advanced Search. The Advanced Search pane is displayed.
- Under Search Type: Select the By: ID option.
- Enter the Topic number.
- Click Go.
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