Windows Vista, new video card... game just dies
 

So I recently installed the Windows Vista beta on my machine... also had to replace the video card, since the old one died on me... well, I tried to run Dom2 again just for fun, and when I run the exe the screen just goes blank and then the game exits (even after applying the 2.16 patch)... Any idea what might be causing this? My new video card is a PCIE nVidia 7300 series with 512MB of RAM (don't remember the board manufacturer, but that I found for the wondrously low price of $100US... perhaps there was a reason it was so cheap for such a card... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Windows Vista, new video card
 

I haven't had that problem with Dominions II, but have had a similar thing occur with other software. It was suggested to me to update my video drivers to fix this, but I haven't actually gone through with doing it. (I haven't done it because I don't have a working CD-ROM drive at the moment to restore the original drivers if I botch the install.)

Re: Windows Vista, new video card
 

1) AFAIK, the 7300 isn't that good.
2) Doesn't Dominions use OpenGL? Doesn't Microsoft hate OpenGL? I can see why they wouldn't hurry to include full OpenGL support in their beta version of Windows Vista. (its just a guess though)

Re: Windows Vista, new video card
 

The 7300 sucks? Crap, I knew it couldn't be that cheap for no good reason http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif
Dom2 uses OpenGL? Funny, I thought you could set it to use DirectX... I know there's a setting for DirectSound support at least... does it use OpenGL by default? Is there any way I can get into the config files and change that setting without actually running the game, because I can't even get the main menu to appear!

Re: Windows Vista, new video card
 

Switch Dominions to DirectX?

No way to do that.

Dominions uses the SDL library which in turn uses OpenGL - with DirectX there wouldn't be any way to get it to run on Windows, Linux, Mac and Solaris.

Btw., why do you use a beta version of a product that might become usable with the first service pack in 2008?

slashdot: Windows Vista May Degrade OpenGL
http://slashdot.org/articles/05/08/06/177251.shtml


edit: spelling

Re: Windows Vista, new video card
 

Window$ Vi$ta...nothing can stop the Micro$oft steamroller. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Windows Vista, new video card
 

Um, how exactly will Vista become "unusable" when a service pack is released??? Aren't service packs supposed to ENHANCE software??? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: Windows Vista, new video card
 

I have pretty extensive usage with the Vista beta since I am helping develop some games for it. And from that I can say that Vista beta is very "beta". I would not even concern yourself if something doesnt run on it. Wait another 6mos or so and if it still doesnt work maybe worry then.

Re: Windows Vista, new video card
 

Hehe http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
I've actually found it to be quite stable so far, but maybe I haven't pushed it enough http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
Anyway, I got the game to run by running it in windowed mode, so that issue seems to be resolved http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Windows Vista, new video card
 

Ed, he said, "usable" - the last versions that MS put out that were semi-usable on first commercial release was Win95, maybe Win98. No one should ever get the latest "greatest" version of Windoze until _after_ the first service pack.

Programmers who've been developing for Vista (like the lead guy for Stardock) are likewise very dubious about it.