A couple of simple ways to make it more friendly - Page 3

Loren · #21 November 25th, 2006, 02:55 PM

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alexti said:

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Loren said:
The problem is that Dominions isn't recognizing that it's been switched away and releasing the video. I think it's not monitoring the message queue while it's thinking.

You don't need to monitor message queue to get hidden or brought to the background. I could see why there might be a problem bringing Dom3 window in the foreground in this situation, but hiding it should be working. And when you refer to 10 minutes, is it just 'AI thinking' phase or total turn generation time? I'd imagine some combination of map and nation may produce longer 'AI thinking' times, but 10 minutes seem to be way too much from my experience (for me vast majority of turn generation time is spent in 'resolving battles').

What I think is going on is that while it technically goes into the background, if it doesn't monitor the message queue it doesn't see what happened and know to release the screen.

And I do mean 10 minutes of AI think time--this on a 3ghz processor with oodles of ram. Admittedly the memory is currently in single-channel mode. I've been having trouble getting a response out of Corsair about the memory chip that died--I've come to suspect that something is wrong in their e-mail and I'm going to call them again Monday and try a different e-mail address.

alexti · #22 November 25th, 2006, 03:04 PM

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Epaminondas said:
If my recollections of Dom II is correct, you can't really get to the late spells and summons unless you play on a big map.

That's wrong - size of the map doesn't affect anything in game mechanics. On a huge map you could finish research at about turn 65, on a small map it would be more like turn 75-80 (but you'd spend much less real time to get there on small map). So if you want to see late spells and summons, it's better to play smaller maps.

alexti · #23 November 25th, 2006, 03:08 PM

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Loren said:
What I think is going on is that while it technically goes into the background, if it doesn't monitor the message queue it doesn't see what happened and know to release the screen.

It shouldn't need to do anything explicit. OS should be able to take the screen over (or shouldn't allow an application to monopolize it).

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Loren said:
And I do mean 10 minutes of AI think time--this on a 3ghz processor with oodles of ram. Admittedly the memory is currently in single-channel mode. I've been having trouble getting a response out of Corsair about the memory chip that died.

Oh well, maybe that's a reason somehow. Btw, does it happen in one particular game or you have it in every game of comparable size?

Shovah32 · #24 November 25th, 2006, 03:22 PM

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Epaminondas said:

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Shovah32 said:
Lower settings does speed it up and annoyed you will probably be. The turn gen time can be ignored using various methods such as: having 2 game running at once, playing one while the other hosts. Browsing the internet while it hosts. Remembering to breath during play ect.

LOL, Shovah. I will have two computers once my new one arrives, but the old one has busted CD-room drive. Perhaps I should fix that, get 2 copies of the game, and run the game on two computers!

You can run the game in multiple windows on a single computer.

Epaminondas · #25 November 25th, 2006, 05:21 PM

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Shovah32 said:

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Epaminondas said:

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Shovah32 said:
Lower settings does speed it up and annoyed you will probably be. The turn gen time can be ignored using various methods such as: having 2 game running at once, playing one while the other hosts. Browsing the internet while it hosts. Remembering to breath during play ect.

LOL, Shovah. I will have two computers once my new one arrives, but the old one has busted CD-room drive. Perhaps I should fix that, get 2 copies of the game, and run the game on two computers!

You can run the game in multiple windows on a single computer.

In my current crappy computer, Dom III screen becomes garbled if I alt/tab out. Same goes for windowed mode.

But I suppose this has to do with my current computer, not Dom III.

Agrajag · #26 November 25th, 2006, 05:57 PM

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Epaminondas said:
LOL, Shovah. I will have two computers once my new one arrives, but the old one has busted CD-room drive. Perhaps I should fix that, get 2 copies of the game, and run the game on two computers!

My CDROM (well, DVDROM, but irrelevant) is busted as well, I just installed the game on the other computer and copied the game folder to the computer with the busted CDROM.

Epaminondas · #27 November 25th, 2006, 06:04 PM

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Agrajag said:

My CDROM (well, DVDROM, but irrelevant) is busted as well, I just installed the game on the other computer and copied the game folder to the computer with the busted CDROM.

But don't you need the physical CD in the computer to play Dom III? Most games won't let you play without a disc or so I thought.

If that is not the case, then I suppose I can run it on two computer with just 1 disc, since I have multiple monitors, keyboards, and mice.

Esben Mose Hansen · #28 November 25th, 2006, 06:16 PM

No need for a physical CD (well, at least not in the linux version, but I think this is the case for all platforms.)

alexti · #29 November 25th, 2006, 06:51 PM

You don't need physical CD other than for the installation. However Dom3 license limits you to a single concurrent copy on a computer storage medium (aside of backup). That sounds curious because I don't see any straightforward way to play it without having one copy on the hard drive and another copy in RAM

Gandalf Parker · #30 November 25th, 2006, 10:28 PM

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alexti said:
You don't need physical CD other than for the installation. However Dom3 license limits you to a single concurrent copy on a computer storage medium (aside of backup). That sounds curious because I don't see any straightforward way to play it without having one copy on the hard drive and another copy in RAM

Really? I should read that since Ive always put it on my windows desktop machine and my linux server, with full knowledge of the devs.

Im not sure how thats worded but the game is purposely setup to allow seperation of client and host. The host copy doesnt check its own serial against the players to specifically allow that.