okay, i've noticed a lot of people on the boards complaining that the latest catalyst drivers won't do certain things with kotor's graphics. well, i have a good solution, that gives you the stability of the latest catalyst drivers and the full graphics capability of the catalyst 4.3 driver.

the idea is that since kotor runs on a combination of directx 9.0b and openGL 1.4, you can use the openGL catalyst drivers from an earlier catalyst release. so i did a bit of research, and sure enough, its possible:
For one reason or another (for example, to correct CounterStrike problems) you may find youself wanting to use, say, Catalyst 3.5's OpenGL driver with the Catalyst 4.4's. This is possible - Although note that it is NOT possible to mix and match DirectX drivers.

How-To

1. Install any driver, whichever one you prefer, if you've not already done so. We'll change it's OGL driver in a bit.
2. Download, but do not install, the Catalyst driver that contains the desired OpenGL driver. You can find previous Catalyst driver versions here (http://ati.com/support/products/radeonwinxppreviousdrivers.html). Save whichever driver you downloaded to the desktop.
3. Download and install WinZip.
4. Use WinZip to open the Catalyst driver with the desired OpenGL driver. To do this right click the Catalyst package (which should be on the desktop, as I told you), select WinZip, and then "Open With WinZip".
5. Search for the file atioglxx.dl_ - Double click that file.
6. A new iteration of WinZip will popup. This is normal. Highlight "atioglxx.dll" and select "Extract" from within WinZip. Extract it to the desktop.
7. Highlight atioglxx.dll on the desktop and cut it (press CTRL + X) - this puts it onto the clipboard so we can move it.
8. Browse to C:\Windows\System32 and paste the atioglxx.dll file there (Press CTRL + V). Confirm file replacement. If nothing happens, then you did not cut correctly the atioglxx.dll file as, I told you to in #7.

There, you're done! Go ahead and delete the driver you downloaded to the desktop, since it is no longer necessary.

This can be done with any OpenGL driver on any card with ANY Catalyst as many times as you want - just remember to CONFIRM file replacement in the System32 folder!
url source: http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33738545)

just to add a bit to the info:
1. you need winzip, even if you already have winrar. winrar won't extract the file properly.

2. make sure you extract the file from the catalyst 4.3 drivers. kotor still won't run correctly if use another version.

okay, i took the time to test the idea myself, and it worked!! i used the 4.3 catalyst drivers to get the correct .dll file.

oh, and the best part of it is that you get the frame buffer effects along with the stability of catalyst 5.1. so, if you have a radeon and you want the full capabilities of your card, i highly recommend that you do this little tweak. :D

Thank you Stingerhs!:lando:

The Thing is though, you shouldn't need to do this, ATI should have gotten off their asses to fix the problem.

Same as Kotor1, everything runs perfectly except that there is no lightsaber, mines and surrounding GLOW. Desperate to enable them.

I'm using catalyst 5.2 drivers (downloaded recently) and an ATi card.

Say, I transfer the GL driver from catalyst 4.1 ... will I get the glow back?

I'm really desperate ... please help.

well, this fix works for kotor 1 to an extent. from what i can tell, most things that glow will glow and frame buffer effects do work. however, i did notice that hk-47's eyes no longer light up...... :rolleyes:

however, i know for a fact that this trick will not work for kotor 2 directly from experience. this trick will crash TSL. period. but, then again, you don't need this trick with TSL: all the glows and frame buffer effects work properly. :)

sad to say, it doesn't work on mine. What are your system specs?

Everything else works fine except the glow ... really sad. I dun really know what's the problem.

what are your system specs? Does the Catalyst Control Panel have something to do with this?

Btw, the glow, what does it depend on?

Really ... thanks a lot.

stingerhs, i did what you recommended. transferred the atiodlxx.dll file from an old driver and put it in the win32 folder.

Good news: the GLOW is back.
Bad news: the frame rate drops from an average of 40 to an average of 25.

Other than that, things are pretty ok.

Thanks for the opengl info!

my system:

athlon 3200xp
radeon 9700 pro (5.2 catalyst drivers)
1024 MB RAM
integrated sound (nForce2 chipset)

and no, the catalyst control panel shouldn't have anything to do with it unless you have a really wierd setup in all the options available.

as for the fps drop, it didn't happen on my machine as far as i'm aware. to be honest, i haven't been on kotor 1 since i got TSL, so i don't know exactly what works and what doesn't at this point.

I think my motherboard is worst. I've got an intel d865perl with a p4 3.0Ghz