What's wrong with my Dominions?

[Rasit]

NTJedi said:
[...]so HALO_3 and maybe DungeonSiege_3 probably won't work on older operating systems unless cracked.[...]

They are way ahead of your. Microsoft made sure you can't play Halo 2 on XP, despite using it using DirectX 9...

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

So, any luck getting this up and running? I've picked up a similar laptop, esp. with regards to the intel graphics 950. I intend to turn it into a triple-boot linux web/work machine, but it would be nice to get Dominions III on it.

If I get it up and running, I'll share what I did.

As it is, I don't have the graphics yet, and my computer freezes when autoupdating (gotta love vista) or manually installing drivers. That, and the link from the 950 chip product page takes me to 945 drivers. I'll need to get familiar with this.

If I need to, I can play Dom3 on another computer, but I'm going to bash my head against this for a bit. Its fun.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Sorry for being a bit snide the first time around... I've made some progress in getting the game to play, I'll share that- but I haven't tested it extensively yet. If you want a starter point to look at, though...

Windows XP Service Pack 2 compatibility mode on (though I don't think it has any effect, though I'll find out as I test)
And I modified the shortcut with the following commands
-w (closes easier upon failure, since the X button is still there).
Disabling visual themes, desktop compostiion, display scaling- all semi-useless.

Update: Unless there's a more specific option I can turn off thats the source of the problem, -a --noanimback is essential. Though windows xp compatiblility isn't looking to be that way.
-a --noanimback (got me past the start menu- through the start menu, and all the way into pretender design. It stopped working though once I tried to close the two messages that show up at the beginning of the game)
-f --nofade (now I can see the world map)

I haven't tried entering a battle yet, or disabling some of these tweaks to see if they're unnecessary, but I've made significant progress in getting the game to show up.

So, the shortcut running in windows mode is Code:

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 "blah balh \dom3.exe" -w -a --noanimback -f --nofade 

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If it really is working, I'll find out what exactly is necessary and try and write some clear instructions for you to try. If you're around, let me know?

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

With my current config, it seems to be playable. As long as you don't try to watch battles. I'll try a couple more switches and get back to you.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

One particular switch seems to be all thats needed, allowing you animated backgrounds and watching battles.

That's --noglext . If you've tried the other switches, you may need to renable/restore default setting in the video section for as full an experience as possible.

Try it and let me know.