Crysis Patch 1.1 "Finally" Available

Written by Kevin Alexander

Tuesday, 08 January 2008 06:09

Last week I purchased a second XFX 8600GT video card so that I could run SLI in my PC rig. Overkill? Sure, but dammit I wanted to run Crysis and I wanted it to look GOOD (plus it was on sale!). The problem is the Nvidia control panel recognizes that there are two cards and set to run in SLI but the games themselves don't recognize the SLI. I've confirmed this in 3D Mark 06 and Steam's system information. All the Googling and forum trolling haven't lead me anywhere and as far as I can tell everything is set up correctly. Anyone got any ideas what could be wrong?

Anyway, I picked up Crysis and spent about 30 minutes with it so far. The game does look sweet as all hell and today Crytek released patch 1.1 that the fans were promised and have been clamoring for ever since the game released. The game seems to run fine to me, I don't know what all the whining is about. Sure, they promised to release shortly after the game shipped but people can't seem to understand that shit happens. Would they rather have something sooner, but broken?

Since this post is already a bit off-topic, what the hell is with some gamers? It's like they feel entitled to a lot of things. For instance, Criterion is kind enough to give us a DEMO of Burnout Paradise and all people can do is bitch and complain that there's not enough to do. It's a fucking DEMO people, not the full game. Chill.

Anyway, the deetz on the patch directly from Shacknews after the jump:

The first Crysis patch is finally available, updating the game to version 1.1. A 139mb download, the patch offers bug fixes, gameplay tweaks and performance improvements for DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 rendering modes.
Fixes:
- Damage dealt to vehicles when shot by LAW has been made consistent
- F12 (screenshot) now works in restricted mode as well
- When player melees during gun raise animation, their gun will not be in a permanently raised position anymore
- Memory leaks and potential crashes
Updates:
- Improved SLI / Crossfire support and performance
- Improved overall rendering performance (DX9 and DX10)
- Enabled VSync functionality in D3D10
Tweaks:
- Reduced grenade explosion radius in multiplayer
- Clamped water tessellation to avoid cheating in MP
- Reduced LAW splash damage vs. infantry in PowerStruggle mode
- Slowed Rocket projectile speed down in MP slightly

[Shacknews]

Comments (5) Add Comment

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written by B, January 08, 2008

"what the hell is with some gamers? Itâ€™s like they feel entitled to a lot of things"

I've had those same exact thoughts. And the Burnout demo is a great example. I'm not even that much of a Burnout fan but when I read about all this whinning about there not being enough stuff to do, I feel that spoiled little rich girl in Gamer form is rearing her ugly bratty head all over the internet. Its a free demo. If I was a developer and I took the time to create a demo for my "fans" and they were unappreciative, I wouldn't make any more.

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written by Dan Zuccarelli, January 08, 2008

Seconded. If I were Criterion I'd never release a demo again. It's supposed to show off the game a bit and give you a taste of what the full retail game is all about.

For people to be upset by that would be laughable if it weren't so fucking pathetic.

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written by bdwilcox, January 09, 2008

Kevin,

nVidia's SLI only works on nForce based motherboards (nForce is nvidia's motherboard chipset) Most chipsets are made by Intel while other players are AMD, SiS, VIA, and ALi (who has been bought out by nVidia), and SLI won't work with them. This is nvidia's fault because they won't allow their video cards to link when the drivers detect a chipset other than an nForce; the two video cards will install fine, but only one will render 3D. In contrast, AMD's version (called Crossfire) works with either AMD or Intel chipsets.

To find out what motherboard chipset you have, in XP go to Start > Run and type devmgmt.msc to open Device Manager (In Vista, just type devmgmt.msc in the Start Search box). Click the plus sign next to System Devices and see what company's name pops up there under things like the "Processor to I/O controller". If you have an nVidia nForce chipset, there are a couple things that you have to check. First, make sure you're using an SLI bridge connector if your cards require one. (It's a small PCB that connects the golden contacts on the top of the cards). Second, some motherboards need you to flip a little card around on the motherboard if you use SLI. (It looks like a laptop SODIMM module and lays flat, usually between the two PCI Express 16x slots). Third, make sure you have the required power going to the motherboard if its requires an extra power connector for SLI mode (usually an old 4 pin molex or new 6 pin SLI connector). Fourth, look in your BIOS and see if there is a BIOS setting to enable SLI.

If you don't have an nForce chipset, all isn't lost, however. The 8600GT is a relatively slow card and putting it in SLI doesn't help much when rendering either Crysis at mid-level graphics or any DirectX10 games (plus the fact that SLI and Crossfire are overhyped, buggy technologies that usually don't produce much performance benefit). You would be much better served selling your 8600GTs and buying a single 8800GT 512 or 8800GTS 512. These cards will chew up and spit out an 8600 SLI setup for just a little more money and come close in performance to an 8800GTX or Ultra.

-Brian

P.S. More info can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Link_Interface

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written by Kevin Alexander, January 10, 2008

bd,

Holy cow! Thanks for the enormously detailed reply. Unfortunately, I've already checked all those things and the games STILL don't recognize it. I don't get it.

Oh, and the original board was bought on a shoestring budget. This second one simply matches it. I've been very happy with the performance so far.

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written by bdwilcox, January 10, 2008

If you've done the above, it's time to get your hands dirty.

Update your motherboard's BIOS and make sure to disable, in the BIOS, any on-board graphics you might have (make sure the PC is plugged into a UPS when you update the bios). Update your nvidia nForce chipset drivers to the latest version (if you're using Window's built-in nForce chipset drivers, you're not going to get SLI), uninstall nvidia's Forceware graphics drivers then install the latest video drivers while both cards are in the machine.

If this still doesn't work, check the motherboard manual to see if you missed a jumper on the board or a setting in the BIOS. Also, look in the Forceware control panel to see if it says SLI is enabled or not. To do that:

Right click "NVIDIA Settings" in your system tray (next to the clock), then left click "NVidia Control Panel".

Left click "Set SLI Settings".

It should tell you there.

If it STILL doesn't work I'm at a loss. I personally would get a spare drive and do a bare bones install of XP to see if could get it to work. But I'm crazy like that. You will not beat me! (points at quirky PC).