Re: Demo is out
 

Oh I also found some stderr.txt file in the dir that reads "Fatal signal: Segmentation Fault (SDL Parachute Deployed)". Maybe this is related, since the window was titled SDL?

Re: Demo is out
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">There is a clean and efficient way to make your OpenGL apps run 10 times faster and your other 3d apps will most probably benefit as well. The trick is to go to www.ati.com , download and install their latest driver for your card. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well, it seems I have exactly the same problem. And it isn't solved that easily. You see, ATI doesn't support their mobile family, because laptops are too customised, as they say on their web pages. And the Fujitsu-Siemens (my laptop is from their product line) has Last driver update from 2002. And that seems to be the only one that works...

(sorry for the grammar errors and not being clear enough, just came from bar. And why I was in a bar on monday - don't ask)

Re: Demo is out
 

I see, well if they don't supply a driver with accelerated OpenGL and you can't find one then I guess you will have to run a very slow Dominions II.

The -x switch might help if it runs too slow for you.

Re: Demo is out
 

Can DOM-II be run in window mode? - similiar to DOM-I?

Re: Demo is out
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes

Re: Demo is out
 

Downloading it right now! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Demo is out
 

The "intro" and quit screens are really nice http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Demo is out
 

Is there a some way to slow down the turns, to read the tips? (i know, probably a stupid question, but would still like to read them, as they are now, I barely am able to read the first word...not a fast reader)

Re: Demo is out
 

Turns will take more time after a while. And you can always add many computerplayers if you want a slower game.

Re: Demo is out
 

ok, thanks...oh, so far, it is much prettier than Doms1

Re: Demo is out
 

sorry to be a nuisance (it start to be a bad habit I know), but there is no manual included in the demo. Is it on purpose?

Re: Demo is out
 

I've seen the screenshots and the game looks like it will be pretty good.
I am new to this forum and to Dominions... I have looked around for the new DEMO... but no luck.

Can someone please provide the link for where us newcomers are able to find it. Not all of us are long-time fans of this game.

Re: Demo is out
 

MUST....TAKE......ASTMA......MEDICINE

Re: Demo is out
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It should be available at http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Illwinter/d2/6.htm

[ October 27, 2003, 12:28: Message edited by: johan osterman ]

Re: Demo is out
 

Nothing at this location except for :

Demo coming soon.

Re: Demo is out
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Try to update the page. It works for me.

Re: Demo is out
 

In fact I already played with it a few mins.

I am really impressed, the new gfx + UI is very good! I love the demo so far. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Demo is out
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">There should be an update or refresh button on your browser to tell it "no I dont want to see the Cached copy, I WANT you to go get a fresh copy". Its one of those "user friendly" (user obnoxious) things

Re: Demo is out
 

I think my work computer definitely needs a video driver update for OpenGL programs! 550MHz computer, ATI 128 graphics (I think on-board video...), and I get about one or two frames per second, in theory, even running at all the lowest settings.

Well, I'll be more productive at work! ;-)

Seems like the Shrapnel "Requirements" page may need some more detail.

PvK

Re: Demo is out
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I was going to post that you didnt read my post to the end Johan, but somebody cleared the issue.

So some of us are stuck with ATI 2002 drivers. Do you know some other tricks :

open gl generic drivers for example?

if I install a linux partition, which driver will it use? the ATI provided one, or something delivered by the linux install?

if I use a linux install, AND I run WINE to run the windows Version of DomsII, which driver the emulator use? A proprietary one, or the one used by linux?

I'm searching for work around solutions... As of now the tactical battle are barely viewable (6 FPS and 3 seconds delay between each spell casting)

Re: Demo is out
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Why don't you try downloading the Catalyst 3.8 (which is supposed to support the whole Radeon family)? Try installing it, and if it works, great... otherwise, it should detect during installation that it does not support your chip, and refuse to install. Worst case scenario, you have to go into safe mode to reinstall the 2002 drivers.

Re: Demo is out
 

what really p... me is that at work I have a windows 2000 station with an old nvidia vanta card, and without any update it manage to run at 14 fps. Thats too injust http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Demo is out
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Why don't you try downloading the Catalyst 3.8 (which is supposed to support the whole Radeon family)? Try installing it, and if it works, great... otherwise, it should detect during installation that it does not support your chip, and refuse to install. Worst case scenario, you have to go into safe mode to reinstall the 2002 drivers. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">been there done that. The catalyst will tell you that it dont support your video card (the mobility sub family of radeon family). We are not that simple to not have tried...

Re: Demo is out
 

The other possibility is to find other laptop makers that aren't lazy bums, and actually support their products... find one with a Mobility 9000... and try their drivers, if they are more recent. When I had an Ensoniq sound card, I used drivers from various places... and with my Gateway Riva 128, I used Dell drivers once, and it worked fine...

Mostly, I think ATI is protecting itself legally, and any drivers will work with any Mobility 9000. But, I've never had a laptop.

Re: Demo is out
 

not a bad idea, worth the try anyway.


--- launching a pack of sleuths thru the internet http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Demo is out
 

it worked! I fetched a generic (laptop related I mean) driver for mobility radeon

omegacorner.com

posting in a brand new thread for those which have the problem!

Thank Saber for pointing me on this solution. I will offer you a brand new wakisashi.

Re: Demo is out
 

I am grateful for your generous offer, but actually it is very dangerous to be near me when I'm armed so you'd have to send it in the mail, and then make sure the delivery person left it on my porch rather than handing me the box. Bladed weapons just bring out that killer instinct, you know... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Demo is out
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I can understand why you're not giving it away, but I hope you consider some sort of streamlined "quick start" rules, so that people aren't simply overwhelmed by what this complex game. This is even turning off some of the normally hardcore gamers on usenet...

All you'd need would be some brief blurbs walking new players through getting a game started, and their initial first moves. A stock tutorial would do the trick.

Re: Demo is out
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I can understand why you're not giving it away, but I hope you consider some sort of streamlined "quick start" rules, so that people aren't simply overwhelmed by what this complex game. This is even turning off some of the normally hardcore gamers on usenet...

All you'd need would be some brief blurbs walking new players through getting a game started, and their initial first moves. A stock tutorial would do the trick. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">There is that quick start PDF in the doc directory of the demo but its awfully bare-bones. Plus Im not a big fan of having such a small file be a PDF.

I think that alot of complaints could be cut off if there were default gods made and provided, plus a game in progress. That way if they start on the wrong button (not the Create God button) they still have a choice there and can get in to look.

The default game might be an Ulm player on simple settings. Slight learning curve on that one.

Re: Demo is out
 

quite right. A quick start less meager, perhaps 4-5 pages, along with default gods (can be made in half an hour), and a sample Ulm game would do much for newbie friendliness.

All these cant be detrimental to the game, and can be wrapped in 4 hours max. Good return to investment I would say.

Re: Demo is out
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I missed that, although I didn't really go looking for it. It would be a good idea to provide a link to it from the installer, and include a text Version.

Re: Demo is out
 

Hmm. Speed is acceptable but not really very good on my 1.4 GHz Athlon with GeForce 4 card... so... how is a person supposed to find better OpenGL drivers?

PvK

Re: Demo is out
 

www.nvidia.com http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Demo is out
 

Oh, make sure your windows is updated... you never know. Also, install Direct X 9.latest, because even though the game uses OpenGL, sometimes the latest drivers require the latest DX to install or function properly.

Re: Demo is out
 

No improvement from latest nVidia drivers. 9.5 FPS at 1024x768, Normal detail, no filtering. Usable, but not very good. I must need some sort of OpenGL driver.

PvK

Re: Demo is out
 

Try disabling sound, or updating your sound card drivers. I have a GeForce 4 4200, Athlon XP 1700+, and 512 MB DDR ram. I'm running XP Pro with all the latest updates, and... hmmm, several-month-old video drivers.

Basically, it sounds very similar to your system, but it flies on my computer. But then, what kind of GeForce 4 do you have? There are some discount models that have reduced functionality, and narrow datapaths...

At any rate, I suggest running scandisk, updating Windows (through Windows Update), defragging, updating your sound drivers, changing the sound mode (in the game) to waveout, possibly turning off the sound, and possibly disabling some features in your video card driver control panel. In that order. Good luck!

Re: Demo is out
 

No luck. Turning sound off even doesn't help. It's actually not really bad in practice - just the benchmark still shows 9.5 FPS, so I guess just the combat replays will be choppier than they should be. This system performs excellently with all my other 3D games. My video card is a pretty good GeForce 4, I think: Ti 4200 w. 64 MB VRAM, on AGP bus. I think all the games I usually run use DirectX rather than OpenGL, though.

PvK

Re: Demo is out
 

PvK, what else is on your system? I have pretty much the same setup, only with a 128MB card (its actually slower than your 64MB one though), and get around 50 FPS in the benchmark.

Re: Demo is out
 

This is weird. I have just an old GeForce 2 in my older machine, and I can get 15 fps even with the settings on the high side of neutral. I'm just using the vanilla drivers and everything too.

Could it be a sound issue? Do you get any oddities out of the audio, and have you tried benchmarking with sound turned off? (pondering)

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<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What's the benchmark command?

Re: Demo is out
 

Psitticine, yep I tried turning off the sound and it didn't affect the benchmark speed.

Saber Cherry, benchmark is a button available from the Options/Graphics/Battle Detail menu - press it and wait a few seconds for the FPS measurement to appear.

Phoenix-D, my system has a Sound BLaster Live Value sound card, a joystick, a printer/scanner, and a network card. Laser mouse. 256MB DDR system RAM. 1637 MB page file, mostly not used. I shut down practically every process besides the game before running. Windows reports 92-94% resources free. Runs practically all graphics pig games quite well. The machine isn't busy doing anything else - it's just taking forever to render these graphics, as if it is using a lame driver and/or not using 3D acceleration properly, or something. I notice too that the graphics of the magic swords and spears are "wiggly" - off every six pixels or so - does it look that way on your system?

PvK

[ October 30, 2003, 02:48: Message edited by: PvK ]

Re: Demo is out
 

I'm not having as much trouble but I still wonder why my radeon 9600 pro runs normal battle detail at 14fps. This number doesnt change with changes in filtering or resolution strangely enough...but I can run Unreal Tournement 2003 at 45 fps max settings so I'd surely hope I could get a little more from dominions 2, seeing as how other people are getting 50 fps.
Low detail gives 25 fps and to get 50 i need very low detail.
I've got newest drivers and all that so it eludes me what the problem is. I blame opengl. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Demo is out
 

I got 33 in normal, 50 in lowest, and 15 in highest. I'm running high quality now at 25. Do the battles take longer at lower framerates, or do they take the same time but play more choppily?

Re: Demo is out
 

"Phoenix-D, my system has a Sound BLaster Live Value sound card, a joystick, a printer/scanner, and a network card."

About the same as mine, except my stick isn't plugged in.

"Laser mouse. 256MB DDR system RAM. 1637 MB page file, mostly not used."

Close enough.

"I shut down practically every process besides the game before running. Windows reports 92-94% resources free. Runs practically all graphics pig games quite well."

Ditto..

"The machine isn't busy doing anything else - it's just taking forever to render these graphics, as if it is using a lame driver and/or not using 3D acceleration properly, or something. I notice too that the graphics of the magic swords and spears are "wiggly" - off every six pixels or so - does it look that way on your system?""

No, it doesn't seem to. Hmm..I assume you're using the latest drivers. Other than that, I'm stumped.

Re: Demo is out
 

Hmm, I'm running old Radeon 7200 64MB on Athlon 800 with 256 RAM, maxed filter and normal detail, and the battles run at 14-15 fps - pretty decent. Don't Nvidia drivers have something to balance out the OpenGL performance, like choose between picture quality and performance? Maybe you can tone down something like that? Is there a way to adjust the hardware acceleration through software for Nvidia cards? Maybe this is toned down?

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">On low framerates (such as 4-5) they become choppy, but the difference between 14 and 30 is only in speed - arrows fly longer, e.g. but everything is still smooth.

Btw, filter affects the look of the unit sprites, while the detail level refers only to the background viewing distance, as far as I was able to tell. Is this true? If it is, than I don't mind running lower detail, since the units will still look their best with maxed filter.

Re: Demo is out
 

If your framerate is low like mine is, you can use the w key as a battle speedup of sorts. They tend to run faster at 50fps.

Re: Demo is out
 

before installing a new driver, be sure to desinstall the old one, then reboot. Windows should switch to standard vga display then.

after doing that, install your new driver. If your official driver dont fix your problem, take an unofficial one at omegacorner.com

if fixed the problem for me, I downloaded an unofficial ATI driver, and now I have FPS wich shoot thru the roof!


edit :
http://www.omegacorner.com/index_nvidia.html

can do the trick

[ October 30, 2003, 06:27: Message edited by: Pocus ]

Re: Demo is out
 

Thanks Pocus. I saw your post in the sticky thread about that site, and visited but haven't tried it yet.

Phoenix-D, what Version of DirectX are you running?

I figured out the wiggly swords problem. I had the "filter quality" video preference set to "None", in an attempt to improve frame-rate. It actually has no effect on my frame-rate, and when I turn up the filter quality, the wobbly swords smooth out nicely.

PvK

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<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Your performance is defenitely lower than it should be on a system like that. Maybe it is some timer error, try to start the game with the --fps 100 switch and see if it makes any difference. My bet though is that your driver from nvidia hasn't been installed properly.

Re: Demo is out
 

I should mention that the Nvidia drivers are hard to remove fully. Try this utility:

http://www.guru3d.com/detonator-destroyer/

It is designed to fully remove Nvidia drivers, and I always run it before I install new ones.