Dominions II: Technical/Hardware Issues

This is to keep track of all Hardware/Technical Problems that occur when playing, running, installing, patching Dominions 2. This thread will be cleaned and pruned regularly adding in Questions and Answers as well as linking threads that get made outside of this thread in order to keep up to date.

In order to better serve and find any issues with technical or hardware issues, please use this format.

Game Version: (Full or Demo) Patch Version
Operating System:
Hardware Specific Name: (Video Card Radeon 9800 or SoundbLaster 5.1 Audigy)
Driver Specific Name Associated with Hardware: (Nvidia 56.6 Forceware Drivers for WinXP)
Specific Issue or Problem:

Also please use this thread to respond in order to allow the Developers and other Technical/Hardware Guru's the chance to help you with your problem.

Q: I'm having problems with starting Dominions 2 with Win98 or WinME.
Q: I can't see my mouse cursor with a Voodoo Graphics Card.
A: Help! Mouse not displayed!

Q: My sound keeps skipping or stuttering or won't work at all (Windows).
A: Try changing the Audio Output in Dominions 2 to Waveout. Preferences > Audio Preferences > Waveout. Then quit and restart Dominions 2 to see the results.

Q: I'm using Linux or Mac OS X, I can't remember which one, but I really don't like the dominions2 folder that gets created in my home directory. Can I move it somewhere else?
A: You can set the DOM2_SAVE environment variable to point to where you want the dominions2 folder to be located. Default is ~.

The following questions are from Saber Cherry's newby guide

Q: Why is my game running at approximately 6.5 frames per second?
A: Try updating your video drivers. If you have a "Rage" or "Radeon" card, these can be found at www.ati.com ; drivers for "Vanta", "TnT" and "GeForce" cards can be found at http://www.nvidia.com. Before you install new drivers, be sure to uninstall the old ones (normally from the add-remove programs menu). For Nvidia cards, I suggest this utility: http://www.guru3d.com/detonator-destroyer/ after uninstalling the old drivers, to fully remove them, before installing new ones. Please note that some people have had problems using ATI's Catalyst 3.9 and 3.9 drivers, and find 3.7 work the best. If you're still having trouble, try a more complete computer tuneup that should fix most problems caused by software.

Q: I have an ATI Radeon card, I'm using the latest drivers, and the demo won't run at all!
A: Try using Catalyst 3.7 drivers instead of the latest drivers, or if you have Hydravision turned on, try turning it off. These changes solved the problem of the demo not running at all for a couple people... and whenever changing drivers, be sure to uninstall the old ones prior to installing the new ones!

Q: I have a laptop and I can't find any drivers. Help?
A: If you are using a laptop and the manufacturer is too lazy to provide recent drivers, try generic drivers from here: www.omegacorner.com . The drivers there are confirmed to solve this problem in ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 chips. Credit: Pocus

Q: Why is my refresh rate like 60Hz in every fullscreen resolution?
A: "This is not DOM 2 issue. Its windows issue. Windows will default to 60 Hz for every game/program that doesn't set its own refresh rate as some sort of protection from damage in case your monitor can't support it. There are some programs out there that help you set refresh rate for each resolution that will work in any game/program. One tool for NVidia graphic cards is NVRefresh and you can find it at http://www.nvrt.org/ (Credit: Daynarr). That worked for me. But, you can also switch to "windowed" mode and maximize the game window, in which case it will run at your desktop refresh rate. Plus you can quickly switch to a spreadsheet if someone comes by...

[Chazar]

[bug has been fixed in current Version]

[ July 06, 2004, 12:13: Message edited by: Chazar ]

[Marignon Zealot]

A great bug - somewhere in a mid-late game, especially on a large map with plenty of units and races, game drops to Windows without any message. This happens somewhere at the end of next turn generation. reloading the latest save doesn't help - the same drops at the same moments.

The only solution i have - to make back-up copies of save games and replace the latest one with some made several turns before.Only in this case it is possible to evade the drop.

Win XP; Full Version; GeForce4400Ti 64mb

[ March 24, 2004, 19:18: Message edited by: Marignon Zealot ]

[Johan K]

Zealot, you forgot to mention if you have patched Dominions to 2.08 yet. If you haven't done so then do so. Many crashing bugs have been fixed since the game was released.

[Aikamun]

Don't know if it was addressed by patch 2.08, but people are suffering through very low fps with Radeon cards. See: www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=74;t=001222

Thanks,
Aikamun

[Zapmeister]

I can't give a lot of detail, but I have noticed that in sessions (I reboot frequently) where I check my network games, and use other applications (NetScape 6.2, ICQ is about all) Windows 98 very frequently gets into a low-memory situation where it can't launch anything. That's with nothing running but the operating system.

I'm pretty sure this only occurs when I've been using Dominions on the net. I suspect that, in certain situations, Dominions is leaking memory under Windows 98.

[Ripcord O'Reilly]

From a post at Quarter to Three:

"Dom2 is a huge video hog, which is inexplicable considering the low quality of the graphics. Try hitting "W" at the start of the battle--that removes the 3D world background, replacing it with a wireframe view. That works for most people (the units are sprites)."

[Pirateiam]

I am having proplems with game freezing at the map view when I am panning the view around. This is a Hard lock up. I seems to happen when I get further into games (turn 40+) possible memory leak? Once it happens it seems to happen almost every other turn after reboot. Here are my specs:

CPU - AMD Athlon XP 2000+
256 MB Ram
VIA/S3 onboard graphics 32 MB
Windows 98SE
Full Game Version 2.11

[ April 23, 2004, 02:19: Message edited by: Pirateiam ]

[Psientist]

Some startup options for Dominions2 require parameters to be set while starting up from the command line. You can do this from Terminal, but I've provided an Applescript that can do this for you automatically without using the terminal at all.

1. Open Script Editor.
2. Paste the following script:

doshell script "cd /Users/Username/PathToDominions/Dominions2;dominions2.app/Contents/MacOS/dominions2 --badmouse"

3. Save as a run-only application, naming it whatever you want - I named my "Dominions 2 Startup".

You can then alias, or double click that applescript application to boot up Dominions 2 for you with whatever flags you wanted to set.

Some important points:
- The above example sets the "badmouse" flag; sometimes, when you play using the reduced window mode, the mouse coordinates are messed up, and this parameter will fix that. There are other options (I believe the "-w" mode will force the game to be played as a window instead of fullscreen).
- Be sure to replace the "Username/PathToDominions/" part of the script with YOUR login userid, and the path to wherever you keep the Dominions 2 application.

Good luck.

[Pirateiam]

Psientist,

Thanks for the ideas. I have already tried running it in a window, also I have tried everything under the sun with my grapics settings. I will try this badmouse command switch but during my hard lock-ups my mouse stays active but the screen and sound freeze. I will look at all the command switches and see if they help.