Enable Ripple water and Bump Mapping are grayed out

how do i set about un graying them? i have 2x GeForce 8800 SLI's both 768MB

You must have the "Avatar Vertex Program" option enabled before you can select either of those two options.

Edit: Found on the same page in Preferences.

~Jessy

Thats grayed out aswell

Then "Enable Vertex Shaders" above that setting.

~Jessy

it is enabled but it doesnt make any difference, i've tryed all the obvious

All I know that effects that. Might be other Prefs that do, but none I'm aware of.

You might try the setting to let SL scan your graphics hardware at startup if you haven't already.

Past that, I'm afraid you're waiting on LL Support.

~Jessy

When I put in my new card (GeForce 8800 GT 512 mb), the 'Enable Ripple Water' greyed out for me also. Additionally, for Avatar Rendering, the only option now available to me is 'normal' - both the 'Bump Mapped' & 'Bump Mapped and Cloth' are now greyed out.

Strange thing is, in the prefs for the Release Candidate version, while the 'Enable Ripple Water' box is greyed out, it is actually checked. And it stays checked regardless of how I set the two options above it. I still only get 'normal' for Avatar Rendering though.

My view of waterfalls and rivers seem to be the same for both the Official Release and the Release Candidate, even though one of those viewers doesn't have the Ripple Water option checked. I've jumped around and looked at a lot of different Water stuff and just cannot see a difference.

And a side note, in the Windlight version, I have all options available to me.

On my laptop, if I UNcheck the autodetect box (under the window size option I think), then Ripple Water opens up and can be checked or unchecked as desired. This does NOT work on my Mac Mini, though, even though it is technically more powerful.

This is the exact same circumstances that happen to me. I use a GeForce 8800 as well. Seeing as it happened to the OP as well with the same card, this seems to be a universal issue with 8800's.
At least windlight doesn't have this bug

I'm using a 7800GS and having exactly the same problem. Bump Mapped & Cloth greyed out, Avatar Vertex Program greyed out etc
Forcing these settings via the debug menu fails and/or even crashes SL.

just to throw it in, im using a 512MB 8800GT also and i am experiencing the same problem.

googling around revealed it to be some sort of compatibility problem between the SL client and the video card drivers.

i didnt google enough to find the exact cause because i could really care less, as i prefer having all the settings in the SL client at their lowest setting, id rather have the video card power towards the draw distance instead as its nice to see way far out and in the sky.

i have 30Mbit download so i max out SL's server (about 5Mbit) when it begins to download the objects and textures in the sim.

Add me to the list... with my 6800 i could activate and use everything just fine in the graphics settings (usually ran maxxed everything, 512 view distance)

Upgraded to an 8800GTS 512 and half the options are greyed out.

Not sure it's a driver issue as i've used the same drivers for both cards

Are any of you reporting this in a JIRA? Linden Lab do not read these forums, so the only way you can get this documented in a place where it might be fixed is by opening a JIRA. If you do, or if you find it's already been opened, help everyone by posting a link to it here so that others can add their config and comments.