Halo has black screen when DisableAlphaRenderTargets is in config.ini file

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What did the Exception Report say (if this was on Windows)?
No exception. Nothing renders and everything is black except the UI

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Editing the Config.ini file in the Halo directory to add the line 
"DisableAlphaRenderTargets"
2. Run Halo with OS

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
The expected output would be to see the game fully rendered. Instead absolutely 
nothing renders and everything is black.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
I am using v3.0.0 on Windows 7 64-bit

Original issue reported on code.google.com by as7ra...@hotmail.com on 20 Jan 2012 at 5:34

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P.S. My hardware might be relevant to the issue:

GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6870 1gb
RAM: 8gb of DDR3
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2ghz

Original comment by as7ra...@hotmail.com on 20 Jan 2012 at 5:42

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Don't use that line in the config. It does not improve the rendering and 
probably conflicts with OS's new rendering edits.

The actual description from config.ini

"Do not allow render targets that require an alpha format"

So just try running the game without having that line in the config.ini. ;)

Original comment by jazpub...@gmail.com on 20 Jan 2012 at 5:48

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I'm going to assume you mean config.txt, which is a HaloCE file, not an OS file.

I tried running the game with "DisableAlphaRenderTargets" and there were no 
issues. I tested in both a regular map and a yelo map using various new 
postprocessing shaders.

I'll let FS chime in before closing this issue as "External" though

Original comment by kornma...@gmail.com on 20 Jan 2012 at 6:41

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This is easy to reproduce on my ATI card, and is probably due to Halo's primary 
render target being an a8r8g8x8 due to that config flag (havent confirmed this) 
which prevents one of the post processes from working correctly. But before I 
look any deeper in to this, what was the purpose of setting that flag? I see no 
reason to spend time on a fix if there isn't a very good reason for setting it.

Original comment by TheFieryScythe@gmail.com on 21 Jan 2012 at 12:53

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[deleted comment]

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The purpose of "DisableAlphaRenderTargets" is to get rid of scope blur. I know 
that many competitive players use it.

Yeah, I did mean txt. Too used to it being an .ini from playing other games. :P

I already removed the line before issuing the report. It isn't that big of a 
deal to me, but I do know that it would effect competitive players with ATI/AMD 
cards.

Original comment by as7ra...@hotmail.com on 22 Jan 2012 at 4:26

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Fixed in revision 548fabedeb48e3ab7a83834220e790d9a46fc282 (269).

When either DisableRenderTargets or DisableAlphaRenderTargets is set, both the 
post processing system and GBuffer are completely disabled since they both rely 
on render targets with alpha channels.

Original comment by TheFieryScythe@gmail.com on 22 Jan 2012 at 2:01

• Changed state: Fixed