Video Card and frame rates

[Darryl]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
No, that should be fine, those are more modern than my video card. The only thing is this: Did you update the drivers? First, go to www.ati.com and download the latest drivers (probably Catalyst 3.9), then uninstall the existing drivers, reboot (it will probably install default VGA drivers), and then install the new drivers.

I'll try that.

1) Run scandisk (in XP, c: drive > properties > tools > check for errors)

Do this a couple times a week. No problems as of earlier tonight.

2) Defragment (same location)

My drives are pretty carved up (drive letters go up to "L") for optimization of the hard drive. The most fragmented any drive is is 1.7%.

3) Go to www.windowsupdate.com, and fully update your computer.

Always been pretty wary of this one since things have spontaneously stopped working after this in the past. Plus I'm using Win 98 due to a pro soundcard that STILL has crappy drivers for XP.

4) Install new motherboard drivers. I assume you have a Via-based motherboard?

WAAAY to lazy right now to go and turn the computer on it's side, although I'm not sure this is the issue. TV works fine (got a separate TV Tuner card) and other 3d games (like NBA live) work just fine.

5) Install new video drivers: First, go to www.ati.com and download the latest drivers (probably Catalyst 3.9)

I'll try this.

6) Install new sound card drivers. If you use onboard sound

I despise onboard sound. Got 2 sound cards, a SoundbLaster Live and a Delta-44 (for pro audio recording). Both work just fine. I also run Dominions with sound turned off, so this couldn't be slowing the game down if sound is off in the demo preferences.

7) Run scandisk again.

Granted, haven't run scandisk in a few hours...

8) Try playing the game.

Haven't tried the new video drivers, but one thing worked...sort of. Pressing "w" in the replay gives the "wireframe" and takes out the background, but the battle speeds up. I'll try the drivers and let you know.

Darryl

[Saber Cherry]

The motherboard drivers are very important! I would say... that's the second most important step, after video card drivers.

To check, just go to device manager: right-click on My Computer, and under one of those tabs, it lists all the hardware in your computer. It's different in 98, and I forget the exact wording of the tab.

In the list of hardware devices, expand "System Devices" and there should be things like "VIA AGP to CPU bridge", on a VIA chipset. For an AMD chipset, it might say "AMD Irongate 751 AGP bridge" or something. And, if you have a VIA chipset, I strongly suggest you update the drivers - even if it doesn't help the game, it prevents things like HDD data corruption... quite important! But these drivers are integrally linked to AGP and PCI bus efficiency, as well.

-Cherry

[Darryl]

Ok, updated video driver for the Radeon 9200, updated the driver for my VIA motherboard, ran scandisk over a dozen times (I run it everyday anyway) and updated with Windows update. I'm up to 1.566fps, and I think that's because I set the frame rate to "low as hell" or whatever the Last choice is in the demo.

Is there something I'm supposed to set in the "OpenGL" tab of the display for my video card? Or am I the only one that has it running so slow? The only way I can get a decent battle going is to press "w" in the battle screen, which gives me the wire frame. Of course it's extremely difficult to differentiate the units with a black background, but it does run faster. I end up toggling back and forth with the4 background so I can either differentiate the units OR see them move normally.

Anyone have any other suggestions? Other drivers maybe? I'm using Windows 98 if I didn't mention that before. Anyone have it running ok on 98?

Darryl

[Saber Cherry]

You can try the omega drivers... ( http://www.omegacorner.com/ ) since it is possible that ATI stopped updating its 98 drivers when XP arrived, and thus, has no good 98 drivers for the new 9200 series. That's speculation.

I suggest you PM Johan. I would have thought what you've done had a 95%+ chance of resolving the issue, and since it didn't, I can only speculate that the problem is Windows 98.

[ December 10, 2003, 03:20: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

[Johan K]

I don't know anyone else who has this problem, anyway I think Cherry is the expert when it comes to fixing Dominions frame rates. A Windows reinstallation might help, especially if it is another Version. Does your other OpenGL games (if you have any) run properly?

[Daynarr]

Originally posted by Psitticine:
I have a worn old Voodoo 2 card in my older machine. The framerates are just fine (15+ fps with fairly good quality settings) on that, so I don't think you need anything high-end. I don't know what the problem is!

If you have Voodoo 2 card you should also have a secondary card since Voodoo 2 did only 3D rendering and other card was needed for 2D. I'm just curious which other card you have.

Also, Voodoo 2 is far superior in 3D to any S3 Trio card no matter what Version of S3 Trio you have. Voodoo is created strictly for 3D while S3 Trio is basically 2D card that can do 3D but is not biased toward it. Even though they called that card S3 Trio3D/2X don't let that 3D in its name fool you - Voodoo 2 can beat S3 Trio with its hands tied behind its back.

[ December 10, 2003, 14:20: Message edited by: Daynarr ]

[Psitticine]

My really old machine (a dusty 300 mHz P2) has just onboard graphics backed by a PCI Voodoo 2. There's no 2D acceleration on it. Dom II runs slower on it than it does with either of the machines I didn't drag out of the closet to test with, but it still runs OK.

That one isn't even used for rendering. I keep a desktop with a GeForce 2 around to render my work with while I'm using an infinitely newer laptop as my do-everything-else-with system. I only gave Dom II a quick test on the really old one mentioned above, but it ran OK. I didn't hit any huge battles during my brief test though. Maybe next time I hit a super-battle, I'll take the saved game and test it on the ol' beastie.