Dominions II: Technical/Hardware Issues

[B0rsuk]

Hey

I have two 3.5 questions. I didn't find answers in stickies/FAQ's (or perhaps I didn't search too well ?)
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1. Is there any way I can run Dominions2 on machine without hardware acceleration ? I can run (demo) on my home machine, but I have reasonably good, if somewhat old, video card.
The situation has changed and I no longer have internet access on my own machine. Here, there's no opengl, and I don't have root password.
Is there any hope for me ?

It would make sense for Dominions2 to run without hardware acceleration. After all, it is used in 3 cases, If i remember correctly.... Title screen, laboratory (pretty!), and battles.But I tried to run Dom2 with opengl disabled and it spat out some kind of error message.
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How about Dominions3 ? I didn't buy Dom2 mostly because of annoyances associated with purchasing online (Poland). And once I decided the games IS worth buying, Dom3 was already on the horizon.
So I'm going to buy Dominions3, but will it work on machine without hardware acceleration ?
I could play it on my own machine, which is not connected to internet, but that would basically mean no multiplayer, or terribly slugish game pace.
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3. Me and my friend are interested in Dominions3. But he's not so excited about it, so we'll probably buy one copy first.
What is Dominions2's threshold when it comes to IP's/cdkey ? How many IP's can be used before copy protection kicks in ? (I presume Dom3 will use similar mechanic)

[magnate]

B0rsuk said:
1. Is there any way I can run Dominions2 on machine without hardware acceleration ? I can run (demo) on my home machine, but I have reasonably good, if somewhat old, video card.
The situation has changed and I no longer have internet access on my own machine. Here, there's no opengl, and I don't have root password.
Is there any hope for me ?

Not sure - if you set all the graphics settings to lowest, I don't think it needs hardware accel, but if you're in Linux you do still need the opengl libraries (libmesa). You need them even if you run a graphicless server.

I can run Dom2 on an old 500MHz Celeron with an old 4Mb RageII video card, at the lowest detail settings.

What is Dominions2's threshold when it comes to IP's/cdkey ? How many IP's can be used before copy protection kicks in ? (I presume Dom3 will use similar mechanic)

Now this I do know. Every player has to have a unique CD key - but if you run a separate server, it can have the same key as one of the players.

CC

[Endoperez]

Try running Dominions with a command line parameter -a. This should set all animated background off. In Windows, make a shortcut and chance the 'Target' line like this: C:\YourDominionsFolder\Dominions II\Dom2.exe" -u This will remove the animation from the main screen and laboratory. In battles, you can press 'w' to chance the background into black void. If the grid isn't visible, press 'g' to have some impression of the battleground.

Dominions III will most probably just add things but use (mostly?) the same engine, so you can assume that anything that Dominions II works with, also works with the sequel.

Regarding multiplay with only one copy of the game:
When playing on the same computer, any number of human players can be present. Also, if you open the turn sent by your friend on your computer, and then finish without editing anything, those unchanged orders will be counted as if they were done on your computer. It works that way, but doesn't work that well when playing *against* your friend...

I would recommend having one of you play with the demo against other's full version, but the demo is of an old version with a nasty bug on one of the Jotunheim themes.

[Zen]

Ydirbut wrote in another thread:
When I right click on a unit or enter a battle, Dominions 2 sometimes, but not all the time, just closes and I have to go back and do that turn over again. Has anyone else had this problem

[Beorne]

I have WinXP, and my HD crashed.
I have reinstalled Dom2, all ok.
When I install the lastest patch appears an error:
"sdl.dll: unknown version"
I've never had problems installing and patching Dom2, my old installation had the latest patch.
What's happening?

[Beorne]

I was installing a wrong patch version ... sorry.