ATI has today announced the the introduction of a CATALYST Control Center, a new innovation in driver usability. The product is based on the Microsoft .NET framework, and is a modular suite of applications designed to simplify driver configuration and customization. The driver control panel is available for all users currently with ATI DX9 Cards.

Read about this.....looks really cool.

For those who are on dial-up this essentially offers nothing (settings wise) that isn't already available in the current control panel. HardOCP indicates its pretty buggy as regards the Profiles feature.

I was really looking forward to this, and finally it's here! Downloaded it, installed it, and got it the hell off my system pretty quickly after that. This thing is a useless, bloated, buggy, resource eating piece of garbage. Nice try ATI.

What exactly is .NET Framework? I have yet to install it and the one time I did I had problems =\

You can think of it as being similar to the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). It is a runtime environment for all future windows software. Everyone running windows should have it installed, as many current applications already require it. I have installed it on literally hundreds of PCs and never seen a single problem. It does do much more than the JVM, as it takes care of much of the plumbing (network code etc.) that developers would previously have had to write themselves. Also, program crashes won't cause your PC to reboot, as the runtime will trap them. Software written in .NET can also be run under different OSes, such as Linux (providing there is a virtual machine available for that OS - see Mono project). In all, a much superior way of working. If you haven't already installed it, then you should do so now.

What's in that brown envelope sticking out of your pocket Nic?

I wish ...

I am a .NET developer by trade, and I really like the direction that Microsoft has taken with .NET (and its next generation products). The best development platform I've come across so far in my career (developer friendly, and powerful). Just giving credit where its due.

i and a few friends i know have all had trouble with . net . i'd avoid it if u can

How do we know if .net is installed?

So much for that, after installing the control panel, any attempt to go to video properties>advanced results in a BSOD,..lol
guess I'll give ATi a while to work out the bugs

Only the GUI (Graphical User Interface) is .NET. The rest is C/C++.

If you are having trouble with .NET, then it seems likely that your Windows install is either misconfigured or defective (perhaps by a previous software installation). Users have problems with all types of software, even games, and installs of seemingly harmless apps can cause major problems for some users. Don't blame .NET for any bad experience. I've still to see any PC that has had issues with .NET installation, so its pretty rare (win2k/xp only, I can't speak for users of win98/ME systems).

And yes the new drivers still have some bugs to iron out, but that will happen in time. Bugs are expected whenever new software is released.

You can tell if .NET is installed because you'll find it mentioned under [Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1]

I'll be joining you shortly in the .net world Nick.
Just installing Visual Studio .net professional right now.
Going to be interesting after my last piece of work (Apache/MySQL/PHP/XML).

I'm trying to figure out if it is .NET or CCC which is giving me performance problems every time I play a game.

The game will run as it should, then I get a message "Connection problems" (or similar) in BF1942. This goes on for a short while, and then everything is back to normal. But a bit later, it happens again.

It started after I installed CCC & .NET, so there is only those two which can be behind it (I know it's a local problem).
But if it is the garbage collector in .NET or sloppy coding of the CCC I can not tell... So I guess I'll just have to uninstall it again

(It's a bit boring to freeze when playing a match/during a training session when you're just about to cap a flag, only to find that when you unfreeze you've been killed...)

MrGaribaldi - .NET is only used for the GUI that is used to make driver settings. It is NOT used by the driver so it has no effect while playing the game. Your problem may be due to a driver bug, or to misconfigured driver settings. There has been some trouble with ATI's CCC custom game configurations, so they have some bugs to iron out. It might take them a while ...

Arris - Nice of you to join me :=). ADO.NET you'll find quite different to anything you've used before, but once you have some experience with it you won't like working with anything else. Microsoft did a really good job with .NET. Enjoy ...

Mr. G, that Connection Problem message can be fairly common in '42. I see it probably 5 to 6 times per 2 hour session playing the game (or it's many incarnations). Usually, the cause of that is somebody with a bad ping just joining the server, a bad admin trying to play the game or some other app on the server itself or just an intermittently bad connection on either your end or server end.

Ok, my bad.
Guess it's just some of my old prejudice against .NET which is shining through...

I will have to do some more extensive testing then...

Masque> The strange thing is that I haven't found anyone else having a problem when I freeze. And since it didn't happen on the server before I installed CCC, it does look like the culprit. But as I said above, I'll have to do some more extensive testing.
(But I might wait until my A64 3k+ arrives tomorrow )

And I guarantee you'll like it. My 64-bit 3200+ has been rock-solid.

Hehehe, looking forward to installing it.

I'll do a bit of testing with my current setup, when I've installed the A64 3k+ and Neo Plat and then when my X800Pro ViVo arrives a few days later.

Yeah, I went a little nuts and decided to upgrade my vid card too. (At least I didn't buy a full XT, but I will flash it to one)