windows 10 issue

[gdpsnake]

I just upgraded to the Windows 10 OS.

The game does not run smoothly on this OS. The scrolling is jerky and when you move units they move in 'spurts'. By that I mean, you click on a destination and the unit moves a few hexes, stops, moves some more, then moves the rest of the way. The fire routines are the same as if it's taking awhile to execute the code.

The game doesn't crash or fail; it just seems like the needed resources to run smoothly are being gobbled up by the Windows 10 OS.

Anyone else see this? Any work around to free up resources in the game or in the OS? It's very frustrating.

Just like Microsoft to sacrifice our memory to run their 'overhead' background crap. I've tried minimizing ALL the startup extras but it still gobbles up so much memory. Looking at the task manager, it looks like Win 10 uses 30% of my 6GB memory to run it's stuff. What's running in the background seems twice what Win 7 used. So many new routines I don't know. No, I'm not plagued with any virus stuff or malware, I checked.

Wave of the future? IS there a work around or do future machines need way more memory to run Win 10?

Thoughts?

[DRG]

This is what I posted on the MBT forum last night

Just installed win10. First thing I tried was both games and not only does it run perfectly on my machine in desktop windowed mode, fullscreen desktop seems to run a bit better than it did with win8.1.

So no, I don't see what you see, quite the contrary. From where I sit win10 runs the game better than ever.

Now........what you DON'T tells us is significant. You don't say what screen resolution you are using or if it's windowed or fullscreen or what your system specs are and we have no idea what your MISC settings are.

The only "issue" I found was an old one where1600x1280 does not run on my 1900x1080 monitor

Unfortuantely the geniuses at MS seem to have removed the ability to copy and paste system info.They have a unique talent for introducing "improvements" that just piss people off

Ah---here we go this is mine . I had to dig through the 'net to find the answer.....seems to me it used to be easier than this

OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version 10.0.10240 Build 10240

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2130 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3400 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)

Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 5.88 GB
Available Physical Memory 2.91 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.51 GB
Available Virtual Memory 4.48 GB
Page File Space 1.63 GB

and here's Task manager in the middle of an AI turn




......and here the report in the middle of a winSPWW2 AND winSPMBT AI turn both running at the same time





What excatly does " scrolling is jerky " mean ? Mine looks like it did with XP, and 8.1 , It sounds like you are running fullscreen ? Try windowed / DirectX desktop

Don

[Mobhack]

Yes - full-screen 256 colour mode is now an obsolete MSDOS format, which graphics card drivers now rarely support in any meaningful way. Perhaps those companies now give that one to the student intern to write, since there is no longer any need for it to be the red hot video mode of yore, just simply "supported". It is no longer faster than full-colour windows modes as it was a decade or more in the past.

With today's graphics cards centred on DirectX full colour modes, and shifting polygons in 3D modes and so on, its nowadays faster to convert each pixel of the 256 colour palette screen into a high colour palette and then render that surface. Modern video cards may use some of the 3D graphics engine to do this - perhaps with pixel shaders.

So ye olde 256 colour mode is therefore in the same place as the Dodo and the dinosaur - defunct. full screen mode is just a quaint relic of when we had to support the old MSDOS mode back in the windows 95 (and maybe XP) days, when it was faster.

If you have the full game, then you should be playing in windowed mode using the desktop resolution. It will then utilise the current monitor settings, and occupy the full desktop less the area for the task bar at the bottom of the screen. The game runs faster in this mode nowadays as stated above - and you can task switch out to other windows applications with no palette distortion problems when switching back to the game, unlike in full screen mode.

[tlscales]

Tried running winSPWW2 on Win 10 (just upgraded from Win 7).

In Full screen with either DirectX or GDI, Desktop as the screen size, I get the game to load, but it plays slow and jerky (a lot worse than Windows 7). Behavior with other resolutions is the same, but with ugly aspect ratios

In Windowed mode with either DirectX or GDI, also using Desktop as the screen size, the game displays a strip about 1/3 the height of the screen, and none of the buttons work, so I have no idea how it plays (and the scenario selection is pretty much unreadable due to the weird aspect ratio). Only way to close the app in Windowed mode is using the task manager. Behavior with other resolutions is the same, but the strip is a little wider or thinner.

This is not the kind of performance improvement I was hoping for.

Are there any other settings/tweaks that might get the game working better?

[Mobhack]

Did you remember to set the taskbar autohide to off, as detailed in the game guide section Game Installation - the big red box with the flashing heading in yellow text "PLEASE READ THIS NOTE!") in the next section entitled Running WinSPMBT from the GameOptions Programme. It's supposed to be rather hard to miss.

Having the taskbar in autohide mode sends the wrong screen info to the application. (Nothing I can fix - its part of the legacy graphics engine library).

[tlscales]

Yeah, that was it. Forgot to turn off autohide in Win 7 and it always worked fine, so I didn't even think about that. Thanks for the reminder.

[DRG]

Taskbar Autohide worked with the game in win7 for you ?? That's a first. I'm not aware of anyone else being that lucky

Don

[gdpsnake]

I was running my game in full screen mode with win 7. My taskbar auto hide option was not selected; however, the locked taskbar option was selected.

I changed to running in windowed mode and the problem seems to be abated though I have not played for any length of time. Thank you for that suggestion - I never had any problem in full screen in Win 7 so I never considered that was a possible issue.

Question, does direct x or GDI selection have any impact either way? I can't see one but I would like to ask.

I stand by my earlier comments that Win 10 is a memory hog - I guess I will need more RAM to do all the wonderful things I want - LOL.

Part of the problem, based on my research, is that Win 10 currently has a memory leak issue which basically means the longer you run a win 10 session, the more resources are used up.

There is some speculation as to the cause of the memory leak but the general consensus is it resides in the Win 10 tutorial 'hint' process. The current recommendation is to make sure you select 'settings' : 'system' : 'notifications and actions' : 'show me tips about windows' to OFF. Microsoft is looking into a fix.

I don't know if that memory leak affected the game or not but it sure did mess up my computer sessions the longer I was browsing or working which lead to slower and slower responses and eventual freezes.

I believe I know enough about computers to be considered 'stupid'; I'm no means any kind of nerd or techie. I went to College with slide rule in hand (ouch! I'm old). So please check it out for yourselves. I think it worked for my sessions.

[Mobhack]

The Directx/GDI toggle is another throwback to MSDOS days. If there is a difference in speed these days, then its hardly noticeable on modern equipment.

[DRG]

Originally Posted by gdpsnake

Part of the problem, based on my research, is that Win 10 currently has a memory leak issue which basically means the longer you run a win 10 session, the more resources are used up.

There is some speculation as to the cause of the memory leak but the general consensus is it resides in the Win 10 tutorial 'hint' process. The current recommendation is to make sure you select 'settings' : 'system' : 'notifications and actions' : 'show me tips about windows' to OFF. Microsoft is looking into a fix.
.

I've now turned that off. I'll keep an eye on memory usage. Thanks

Don