Improving Intel On-board VGA Game Playing

Ok folks, it was a long time since my last post but it’s nice to have more than 500 visits to my blog. Sorry for the long layoff as I was quite busy with my dads website n some other programming stuff. Any way this is the second part of my Intel GMA game enabling article & on my endless journeys in the vast Internet Ocean I have found out a nice hefty tool which would help you to play games on your onboard VGA which was previously impossible. Now for years this process was a painful registry editing process.

Simply to explain what is happening here I need to tell you few more things. So take a deep breath 😀

What is vertex Processing Mode ??

Vertex processing is one of the fundamental parts of the Direct3D pipeline. The geometric information passed to the drawing calls is passed through several stages before it enters the rasterization? stage.

As the underlying hardware has evolved different routes through the pipeline exist. Originally all vertex data was processed by the CPU, then Hardware Transform and Lighting? moved the calculations over to the GPU. The latest set of revisions have enabled graphics programmers to write short “Vertex Shader?” programs that operate directly on the geometry.

What’s the difference between hardware and software vertex processing?

Hardware versus Software vertex processing applies to HAL? devices. When you push vertices through the pipeline?, they need to be transformed? (by the world?, view?, and projection? matrices in turn) and lit (by Direct3D‘s built-in lights?) – this processing stage is known as T&L? (for Transform & Lighting). Hardware vertex processing means this is done in hardware, if the hardware supports it; ergo, Software vertex processing is done is software.

The general practice is to try creating a Hardware T&L? device first, and if that fails try mixed?, and if that fails try software. If software fails, give up and exit with an error.
From – http://nexe.gamedev.net/directKnowledge/default.asp?p=Vertex%20Processing

I simply wanna tell you now in Intel GMA although some games require hardware vertex processing Intel is not supporting  this feature, So there is a way around it & simply what we do is that the games which require Hardware Vertex processing ( Which are unplayable ) we alter the registry settings come by default to Software Vertex Processing which would enable you to play the games. As an example following games which are by default unplayble on Intel GMA can be made playable through this registry hack.

• Farcry
• Call Of Duty 2
• GTA Saint Andreas
• F.E.A.R
• FIFA 2010
• GOD Father 2

So this is the way to do it

Download This Software – http://theprogrammingheaven.blogspot.com/2010/02/intel-display-adapter-management-tool.html

N Thanlk Isair for this software Ok.

Minimum requirtements to use the software

.NET Framework 3.5

Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package

Get Them n install them if you don’t have ok

Then follow these instructions

1)Double click the executable, it should automatically detect your display adapters.

2)If your display adapter’s vendor is Intel then go to the “Vertex Processing Modes For Specified Executables” tab.

3)Press “Add Executable” button and select your game’s main executable.

4)After adding it find it in the list, click it, then click on “Change Vertex Processing Mode” button.

5)There you go, your game should now use Software Vertex Processing instead of HWVP. If this doesn’t increase your

FPS then you should switch back to HWVP by clicking “Change Vertex Processing Mode” button again. Also you don’t

need to restart for your changes to make effect.

*** In this version Isair has added Bunch of games so just check before you play

How to improve Your On-board VGA’s (Part One Intel)

This is relevant to Intel GMA 900, GMA 950, GMA 3000, GMA 3100,  GMA X3000, GMA X3100, GMA X3500, GMA X4500, GMA 500, HD Graphics (GMA HD) ok.

Ok Now most of us do not have external High End VGA’s isn’t it ? But every now & again we would love to play a game or two. It makes us bit sad when we end up with a message saying that performance in the VGA is not enough for playing that certain game. Now here I am intending to help you to improve your INTEL on-board VGA to have some kind of a boost ( Pardon me for not using the term GPU or Graphic’s Processing Unit which was introduced by Nvidia OK .. I don’t consider Intel On-board VGA as a GPU )

Approximately if all done successfully you will get a 20 % boost to your video gaming performance . First let me tell you that the Intel on-board VGA packs quite a punch But what it lacks is the proper drivers to harness its true energy. This is quite pity for a VGA chip brand which covers almost 60 % of the VGA market. So let me take you through the steps OK.

** Install Windows 7 if your PC can support – What it does is that ( My personal Observation ) it enables AGP texture acceleration if it was not available in your PC previously. This is because of the new drivers . I experienced this on my Laptop where in windows XP this feature was not enabled thus i was not able to play Call of Duty 2 even. But with windows 7 this option is enabled & i can even play COD 4.

** Install Latest Drivers for Intel VGA’s – Even if you have the latest OS up & running without the latest drivers you will not get the optimum performance with out proper up to date drivers. So get the & install those ( Its a good idea to have all your drivers updated – Windows 7 will do this automatically if Windows update is enabled – But it is good to install drivers from the specific vendor OK )

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Default.aspx –> Download your drivers from here & there is a handy tool available in the site too (Intel Driver Update Utility).

** Now lets tweak a bit OK . So when you start up the computer go to BIOS & Find out where is the option to select DVMT – Dynamic Video Memory Technology & set it to the maximum possible (DVMT will dynamically allocate video memory from RAM depending on the application running )

http://www-dr.cps.intel.com/Assets/PDF/whitepaper/307508.pdf  — > Read More on DVMT ok its an interesting technology.

** Now since you have the latest Hardware up & running lets tweak the drivers a bit. You can search the internet for days but end up having no tweaks . But here i found this option works a bit to increase the performance OK.

Go to the Intel Graphic Properties( from the Task Bar Icon– > then go to 3D settings which will open the OPEN GL settings –> Then scroll down to find Driver Memory Footprint & Make It High.

Confused How to open it ..  Read this article from Intel http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/cs-022130.htm OK

**Finally Let us do some over clocking – ( Hope all know the risks of over clocking Ha )

To do that there is a nice application called GMA booster. It will increase the clock rate of your intel VGA thus resulting in 20 % increase in your VGA performance

You can download it from here ok http://www.gmabooster.com/download.htm

Unfortunately at present it only support Intel GMA 900 & 950 only

Features of it — >

• The boost in game “X” is about 25%, while in pure GPU tests (like 3DMark® ’05/’06 Pixel Shader or Texturing tests) I see a whopping perfomance increase, just as expected (I mean, as might be predicted with calculator) – up to 2.4x
• No hardware over clocking only software ( You have to run GMA booster every time you start the computer OK )

SO Happy Gaming People

In Next Article

How to tune your On-board Nvidia VGA

— > PS — If you are interested & I see any comments here I will post a list of games suitable for these Intel VGA’s & download links which i tested out personally  ( If I see comments Only Ok )