CW3 1.79 doesn't start

[johno]

It's been a little while since I've played CW and when I fired it up today it said a newer version was available. I think I was running 1.04. I installed 1.79 and now I get:

Failed to initialize player
Details:
DirectX9 GPU (Shader Model 2.0) is required.
Your GPU (NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X)
only supports Shader Model 0.0

I know, old card old computer. It used to work fine. What happened?

[pawel345]

I think there was an engine update between 1.04 and 1.05 and then another 1.61 and 1.62. So maybe the newer Unity engine is the problem.
But you might want to wait till someone more competent answers your question.

[knucracker]

The unity engine version did get updated...
Here's one thing I found that probably explains the issue:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/210411-Unity-4-3-install-message-that-shader-model-not-supported

So unity is dragging me along and getting rid of support for CPU's older than around 10 years it seems.

[Michionlion]

Although later on in the thread somebody posted that in Unity 4.3.1, if you card was incorrectly labeled, the issue should be fixed.  It would be incorrectly labeled if it did not fit these criteria: NVIDIA GPUs before GeForce FX (2003), AMD GPUs before Radeon 9500 (2002) and Intel GPUs before GMA 900 (2004).  Sadly, it seems as though your card may fit these, as it was made in 2002.

[johno]

I tried to emulate the shader with 3d analyze but the best I could get was a black screen at startup. Guess I'm one step closer to a new linux box. Thanks for the help.