Software Update: RivaTuner V2.0 RC10

Anonymous: 25643 informed us that there is on Guru3D a new Release Candidate from RivaTuner is available for download. With RivaTuner nVidia cards that use the Detonator drivers can be tweaked. The improvements in RC10 are the following:

[Minor bugfixes]

• Fixed strap based AGP/PCI bus type detection for TNT based boards.
• Fixed display mode switching routine. The previous code failed to switch display modes on dual head display adapters (eg GeForce2 MX and Radeon 8500) under Windows 9x.
• Fixed the RTPachesFix patch script for Windows 2000/XP.
• Fixed the bug, which caused a crash after attempt to dump IDirect3D8 HAL capabilities on the OS with no DirectX 8 installed.
• Fixed SoftQuadro detection algorithm for pre-10.xx Detonators under Windows2000/XP.

[What’s new]

• Full Detonator 27.xx support.
• Both overclocking and gamma managers have been almost fully rewritten (especially Windows 9x code) in order to make them Detonator 27.xx-compatible.
• Detonator 27.xx-compatible texture format settings (the problem with the 3DMark2001/’Pixel shaders’ is fully addressed now, you may find detailed info on this problem in RivaTuner’s FAQ).
• Added ‘Enable 32-bit bump normal map textures’ and ‘Enable FOURCC NVCS textures’ texture format options for the Detonator 27.xx/GeForce3 and higher.
• Added OpenGL texture sharpening option for the Detonator 27.xx and higher. This option allows the OpenGL driver to lower mipmap LOD bias when FSAA is enabled and helps to avoid image blurring (especially with the Quincunx / 4x 9-tap modes).
• Added OpenGL mipmap LOD bias slider for the Detonator 27.xx and higher.
• Added Detonator 27.xx compatible LODBiasFix patch scripts for both Windows 9x and 2000/XP.
• Disabled the ‘Enable early Z-occlusion culling’ option for the Detonator 27.xx and higher. New drivers ignore this setting and always use early Z-occlusion culling on GeForce3 and higher.
• Added NvIoControl-based driver communication module for Windows9x. This allowed to implement SoftQuadro detection for Windows9x.
• Added new powerful features to the built-in registry editor, which can greatly simplify the work with encrypted registry entries on the Detonator 23.xx and higher:
• Name/Alias ​​toggle allows you to switch between the real name of a registry entry and its’ alias. Now you don’t must be an extra experienced user in order to read the encrypted registry entry names. You can just press the button to switch to the Alias ​​mode and built-in registry editor will show decrypted names instead of encrypted.
• Value/Analyze toggle allows you to switch between direct value editor and value interpreter. The value interpreter mode is a feature, which brings the built-in registry editor’s possibilities on the new level. It allows you to select one of the predefined values ​​(eg true/false) instead of entering the encrypted values ​​directly. You can also enter the value directly then press the button to switch to the entertainer and see how the driver treats the value you’ve entered. Currently only the enum type interpreter is implemented, bitmask and range interpreters will be implemented in the future versions.
• Added databases for the Detonators 23.11, 27.00, 27.10 and 27.20 for both Windows 9x and Windows 2000/XP.
• Added 27.xx-specific options (OpenGL LOD bias and texture sharpening mode) to the presets.
• Renamed the ‘2x + 1 x 2 supersampling’ Direct3D FSAA mode to ‘4xS’. It’s fun that this mode was available in RivaTuner on GeForce3 boards before GeForce4 announce, but it is very pity that NVIDIA promote this hybrid FSAA mode as the novelty of the GeForce4 boards.
• SoftQuadro scripts are no longer supported and will not work with the Detonator 27.xx. The reason is that NVIDIA has implemented SoftQuadro protection again and I do tired of endless protection/antiprotection chase and it eats a lot of my time. Probably I’ll bring you SoftQuadro 2.0 scripts once againg, but now I’m concentrated on adding ATI Radeon 8500 support to RivaTuner and it is the primary task in my plan for today.
• Removed 16-bit Z-buffer forcing option from the ‘High performance’ presets. This setting can boost performance by saving videomemory bandwidth on low end systems, but it can give negative effect on high end systems.
• Added support for 27MHz reference frequency to the low level hardware overclocking module. This allows RivaTuner’s low level overclocking module to work with GeForce4 boards (thanks to Andrew Worobyew for testing RivaTuner with GeForce4 Ti 4400).
• Added fake DDR problem workaround for GeForce4 MX boards (thanks to Hilbert Hagedoorn for testing RivaTuner with GeForce4 MX 420). It is pity, but this problem (double displayed memory clock frequency), which is widely spead on GeForce2 MX with 4Mx16 memory modules, also appears on GeForce4 MX boards. To address this issue RivaTuner just halves displayed memory clock frequency on GeForce4 MX boards when SDR memory is detected and the MPLL coefficients are programmed to 300MHz or above.
• Added GeForce4 support to the built-in 60Hz refresh rate fix for Windows2000/XP.
• Revised AGP diagnostic code. Now RivaTuner doesn’t use lookup tables and finds AGP capabilities header directly via the PCI configuration space’s capabilities lists. the [VGAAGPStatusPCR] and [NorthbridgeAGPStatusPCR] sections are obsolete now and removed from the hardware database.
• Extended ‘Northbridge info’ diagnostic report category. Now RivaTuner can detect old northbridges and show that AGP is not supported instead of showing that it is disabled.
• Extended ‘Display adapter info’ diagnostic report category. Now RivaTuner uses vendor-independent AGP/PCI bus type detection and dumps bus type to the ‘Display adapter info’ diagnostic report category (strap based AGP/PCI bus type detection is also available for NVIDIA adapters). RivaTuner can also dump up to 6 IO/MMIO base addresses.
• Added ‘Skinned controls’ mode for Windows XP, which allows RivaTuner to use themed XP-styled controls.