vertex and pixel shader 1.1

[alin90210]

Load up dxdiag.  Go to the "Display" tab.  Look at the top-left portion under the "Device" heading.  Tell me what it says for "Name", "Manufacturer", "Chip Type", and "Approx. Total Memory".  Hopefully with this info we can figure out how to get wlp2 to work.

[belleh]

Will "Wildlife Zoo" work on my computer if the "Wildlife Park 2" english demo doesn't?

:sign_help

[damien551]

Ok

Name-Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller
Manufactorer-Intel Corperation
Chip Type-Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller
Approx Total Memory-96mb

[Peacenote]

Unless you or someone you know physically installed another video card in your machine after you bought it, it is highly unlikely your machine came configured with an additional video card besides the onboard video, since the computer does not have an AGP slot.  Additionally, if there was another video card shipped with the machine, Dell usually covers up the video port on the motherboard to make sure you know to use the better card.  Also, since you mentioned your machine was new, unless you tried to reload your computer or had some type of software problems, it's also unlikely that your machine would have anything but the latest graphics drivers already pre-installed.  

However, if you want to be sure, you could also try going HERE and putting in your service tag (what other manufacturers call a serial number) and then clicking on the "Original System Configuration" tab.  It will list your entire system as it shipped, and if you purchased an additional graphics card when you bought this machine it would be listed there.  Your service tag can be found on the back of the computer (make sure you're looking at the computer, not the monitor) or it is usually listed in a little program you can run in the start menu of any Dell.  I think the program is called Express Service Code utility, and its only purpose in life is to tell you what your machine's Service Tag and Express Service Code are in case you need to call Dell for support.  :laughing:

Hopefully that helps.

[alin90210]

Thanks damien551 for checking the dxdiag.  Looks like you do have an 865G then.  So it's strange that the driver couldn't install.  Can you tell us what the exact error message was when the driver install failed?  You can also try Peacenote's suggestion of going to Dell.  Maybe Dell doctored the chipset and have some proprietary drivers that are different from Intel's.

I noticed another problem.  The requirements for Wildlife Park 2 is 512MB of system RAM and 64MB of graphics RAM.  Damien551's computer has 512MB of system RAM, but part of that RAM is shared by the video card.  So, at least on paper, you didn't really make the requirements.  And maybe the lack of video RAM is causing those pixel shader errors.  On the other hand, MM2 would work because it only requires 256MB system RAM and 16MB graphics RAM  That still doesn't explain why you cannot install the latest Intel drivers on an Intel video card though.

EDIT: As far as the Pixel Shader is concerned, Wildlife Park 2 only needs Pixel Shader 1.1, which should be supported by the Intel 865G since Intel labels it as a Directx 9.0 chip.

EDIT2: Doing some reading on Intel's site shows that the 865G does not have hardware pixel shader support (or hardware T&L), which means it must use software emulation.  This also means that games which specifically check for hardware pixel shader support won't work with the 865G.  Don't know if Wildlife Park 2 is one of those games.

belleh: Looks like Wildlife Zoo and Wildlife Park 2 have the same system requirements, so the answer is: probably not.