Preferences & air sorties & flickering & crashes

Mobhack · #1 September 2nd, 2006, 12:26 PM

Quote:

When I go into the mission map there is a lot of flickering as the mouse flits about. The entire screen trembles.
When I am rolling the numbers to increase the number of battles in a (generate or) long campaign the screen flickers each time I raise the number. Is this a game problem or unique to my computer?

That will be a unique thing to your computer, since only you are reporting this.

I would check your video display settings, including hardware acceleration and also ensure that you have the latest drivers for your video card. Check the user manual, and experiment with its settings.

Plus - see if it happens in both full screen and windowed mode. See if using GDI instead of DirectX makes a difference etc.

On reading the Dell website - the Inspiron has a "shared memory" graphics adaptor, and not a stand-alone video card with at least 32MB of dedicated video RAM, as we specify as a minimum requirement in the GG. That could be your problem - you dont have a "real" video card. As you cannot fix that (since it is a laptop) - see if changing the amount of shared system RAM assigned to the card to a larger amount helps.

You do not specify if you are trying to run in full screen mode or windowed. As the Inspiron has a "wide screen" 1280 by 800 screeen, then you may also need to set some sort of switch to tell the thing to use a standard Windows full-screen mode (800 by 600, 1024 by 768, etc standard aspect ratio).

Cheers
Andy

Noah_Vaile · #2 September 2nd, 2006, 02:36 PM

Thank you Andy. I am running full screen at 800 x 600. The flickering only occurs when I am increasing purchase points or some other 'housekeeping' task. It never happens in game play. I haven't had a crash now in several hours of play. Perhaps the game is "settling in"?

I am playing on a lap-top that is only tenuously connected to the outside world, and then via CDs downloaded to a completely different type of o/s. It is unlikely that I am going to be updating anything and adding much, unless it is a particularly useful patch or brand new game.

Noah_Vaile · #3 September 3rd, 2006, 08:12 AM

My hardware acceleration is at "full". Should I cut it back? Or just not worry about it?

Mobhack · #4 September 3rd, 2006, 02:20 PM

Feel free to experiment.

Allocating more shared RAM to the video card may be your best bet.

Cheers
Andy.

DRG · #5 September 3rd, 2006, 03:38 PM

"Flickering" is not "an artifact of the game". My game doesn't flicker, neither does Andy's neither do any of the playtesters. Also there is no "settling in" of the game. Likely what is happening is you have been lucky or more likely, not running other things at the same time.

SOMETHING you are running is interferring with the game . It could be a background program you are not even aware of or perhaps some CODEC in your machine that is causing you grief. There are threads on the MBT forum that deal with that. You're machine specs, aside from the notebook issue, are very similar to my specs ( but it's a desktop and I'm running a PentIII at ~800mhz but with only 128MB or Ram ).

Try checking the Direct X functioning in your machine ( type in DXDiag to the "RUN" line of the Start menu and have a look at what's happening there.) Also, try running windowed for awhile and let us know if that changes things for you. It might be a bit small on your screen but if it plays clear then that might be the only way your notebook will properly play the game. However, you problem is NOT common

Don

Helm · #6 September 4th, 2006, 07:53 AM

I get a flickering when my virus runs but if I minimise with ALT TAB then maximise it stops doing it

Noah_Vaile · #7 September 4th, 2006, 08:52 AM

Allow me to (perhaps) clarify. The flickers occur only when I am doing something in the (generate-, long-) campaign set up window. Each time I change the month/year/decade, country flag, number of battles, etc. the entire window flickers. So far all I have played is the long and generated campaigns. This does not happen in the actual game play.

When I am in the (individual) battle-map edit window (View Map) and I go to the "Set OBJ" window and move my 'flag-icon' objectives about the map the entire screen, map and 'view obj', jumps and flickers with each movement of the map screen and anytime the mouse pointer touches the edge of the screen the entire screen trembles (its like an eight on the Richter scale) and flickers.

None of this happens during actual game play or in any other screens than the 'view map', 'set obj' and 'game set up' screens. As far as my limited experience goes anyway. I have done the DXDiag and have no idea what is going on in it. I don't know what it 'should' tell me and no idea of what it does tell me. I am not sophisticated enough to recognize problems that do not hit me upside the head with a 2x4. Again, I don't even know if the flickering and trembling are problems or simple artifacts- of the game or my computer.

I had to erase the hard drive on this computer several months ago and re-install Me. There is nothing on it but a few games: winSPWW2 1.01B & SPWW2 7.01, winSPMBT, SPWAW, Pz General-2, Peoples General and SP-3. The only other programs are the basic Windows Me o/s. It has never been hooked up to the internet since the re-install.

This is in no way a significant, important or in any way debilitating problem and I mentioned it out of 1) curiosity, to see if other people are experiencing it and 2) to see if it might be an early symptom of a more significant problem, either with my unique download or somewhere else in my (closed) system. I know there is no "settling in" of these programs, that was an atempt at anthropomorphism/humor.

Helm: What do you mean by "when my virus runs"? Do you mean your anti-virus?