Gaming with Netbooks Presents: The Many Bugs of the GMA 3600

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Published on April 23, 2013 3:53:05 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm7JKG-h17k

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Civilization IV (2005)

Duration: 9:42

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Just how bad is the GMA 3600's driver? In one word, terrible. It's riddled with gamebreaking, annoying, and downright frustrating bugs, not to mention poor performance. I've put together this little video to show both Intel and my viewers that this problem can't be put off any longer.
Here's a list of the bugs, in case you missed them or want a more technical description.

Star Wars Battlefront: I've touched on this one before, and nothing's changed. Artifacts appear occasionally on certain surfaces, command posts in particular. Enabling VSync helps reduce the number of occurrences at the expense of performance.

Civilization 4 Warlords: It's hard to see because of the low framerate caused by FRAPS, but the problem here is the polygon flickering around the foreheads on the 2 leaders shown. No other leaders have this problem. Without FRAPS, the bug looks like a big shimmering caterpillar stuck to the men's heads.

Postal 2: In certain situations, all actors (Unreal-speak for characters) turn black, making it a bit difficult to discern between an average Joe and a belligerent terrorist. I think it has something to do with the lighting...

Uberleben: No explanation from me here. It's no fun to play when visibility is 1/3 of what it should be, I'll give you that.

Civilization 4 Colonization: There's no need to tell you what happens in this game, but why does it happen? I suspect it has something to do with the Pixel Shader 1.1 the game requires.

Genetos: Look at that pixelated texture on the ground. It morphs. It shouldn't do that.

Halo: Not only is there bad polygon flickering, but incorrect textures get mapped to some surfaces. Not cool.

Team Fortress 2: Believe it or not, TF2 runs quite fluidly in DX 8.1 mode. Too bad DX 9 doesn't do the same. DX9 mode is exponentially slower, and comes with blacked-out ground, free of charge! Quite a deal, isn't it?

Lego Star Wars: Turning on bump mapping causing strange flickering on affected surfaces. Pausing the game while standing in some places results in some objects turning black. Why? Who knows?!

Motocross Madness: The polygon morphing is obvious. However, you may not notice that the scoreboard and computer-controlled racers' nametags have invisible text.

Motocross Madness 2: In addition to the bugs you see here, there's a lot of flickering in the menu that FRAPS can't capture. Often, the cursor turns invisible, making it nigh unto impossible to click on inconveniently placed items.

Midtown Madness 2: In hardware T&L mode, there are fewer bugs (none of which will ruin your game), but the framerate is horridly low. In software T&L mode (shown in the video), oodles of bugs will invade your screen and pretty much destroy your sense of direction if you happen to be driving through a grassy park.

Project64: DX6 or DX8, it doesn't matter, that *expletive* polygon morphing keeps coming back.

Moon Tycoon: More polygon morphing. Also notice the flashing green triangle in the lower-right part of the screen and the poor framerate.

V-Rally 2: This one isn't as bad as the others, since flying by at super-high speeds makes the polygon morphing look more like tearing (you know, the kind you get when you play an old game without VSync).

RCT3: I have no explanation for what happens here. Sorry.

Rigs of Rods: In DX 9 mode, the character is rendered very oddly, and, if not for the shape of its 3D model, would look nothing like a human. OpenGL mode renders him correctly.

Re-Volt: In addition to the polygon morphing, mipmapping has major errors, the severity of which varies. It's not too bad in the video, but at other times, it looks horrible, especially the game's logo.

Music: greatgigantic.ogg, from the SuperTux beta soundtrack

Update: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Graphics&ProductLine=Netbook+and+Tablet+Graphics&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+Graphics+Media+Accelerator+3600+Series&ProdId=3468&LineId=3332&FamilyId=39
Get the latest driver here.

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