Odd question about slow graphics

[Saxon]

I recognize this is an unusual question, but the graphics in battles are really slow…

Let me explain. I bought the game several years ago and played happily for some time, then moved on to various other things. We recently had our first baby and I was looking for a game that was turn based and I could come and go from quickly, at the drip of a dirty diaper shall we say! Dom II came to mind and it has been great.

The only thing is that I have re-installed it on a newer computer with a much better graphics card. But the battles are very slow. I played with frame rate, with little success. I will play with the “f” key tonight, but can anyone suggest why it might be slower than on the older machine?

Many thanks!

[Gandalf Parker]

It might have made better use of the graphic card it knew, than the newer ones.

It has alot of things you can try though. Lower graphics settings and such. Look in the file about command_line switches and edit the icon that calls up the game

[atul]

There was (is?) a problem with some graphics cards having a really low frame rate. At least I had a frame rate of around 2-3 fps with card's (Radeon something) manufacturer's drivers.

Tried some third party drivers and the frame rate went up to 50+ fps. Worth a try if you haven't already.

[Agrajag]

Doesn't Dominions use OpenGL?
And don't most Radeon cards have problems with OpenGL?

Atleast, so I've heard.

[capnq]

On my aging system, which seems to barely have the specs to run Dominions, I have to turn off the background wallpaper ('w' key) to get the battles to play at a tolerable speed.

[Saxon]

Thanks for the ideas, I will give them a try. Wallpaper is already off and yes, I have a Radeon. Off to search for third party drivers. I will try that before messing with the command line. It is no secret that the graphics are fair and I have no desire to lower them further...

My heavy infantry got eaten by a dragon last night. No need for suggestions on how to fix that one, stupidity can not be cured on the forums!

[Chazar]

I 'upgraded' to a new ATI graphics card as well and could not play Dom2 anymore! I had to wait for a couple of month until ATI provided a newer driver, which supported Hardware-OpenGL and now it runs fast...

Although, I am referring to running on Linux above, I tried it on Windows once, too. The results are the same: The native Windows does a bad job, but the drivers that you can download from ATI's website worked well enough for me.

Otherwise, quite a while ago on this board, someone recommended the "Omega"-drivers. They worked with my old ATI card well enough, but for my new one the drivers from ATI's website were good enough as I said. Try google on "ATI Omega Drivers"...

[Saxon]

Thanks for the pointer, I had not had much luck with searches for "third party drivers." Over the weekend I took to using the w key, which turns off the back ground. It runs a lot faster, but is pretty bland.

Also, it did not stop my lab from being overrun and losing all my research... I seem to have forgotten a lot about playing this game.

[Makinus]

What are the command line switches for best performance? I want to dump all graphic details possible for a better strategic game...

[Gandalf Parker]

A list of all available command line switches in Dominions II, ver 2.09
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

-v --version Print version number and exit
-d Increase debug level
-g --host Generate new turn and exit
--verify Verify all 2h-files and exit (creates .chk files)
--statfile Create a player info file after each turn (stats.txt)
--scoredump Create a score file after each turn (scores.html)
--finalhost Generate new turn, send out final score msg and exit

******* Network Options *******
-C --tcpclient Connect to a Dominions multiplayer server
-S --tcpserver Start a Dominions multiplayer server
--ipadr XXX Use this IP-adr when connecting to server
--port X Use this port nbr
--preexec CMD Execute this command before each turn generation
--postexec CMD Execute this command after each turn generation
-t --hosttime X Y Host on day X (0=sunday) hour Y (0-23)
--minutes X Set host interval in minutes
-h --hours X Set host interval in hours
--pauseday X Stop timer on this day (0=sunday)
-q --quickhost Host as soon as all turns are done
-n --nonationsel No nation selection when resuming a network game
--noclientstart Clients cannot start the game during Choose Participants
--uploadtime X Nbr of minutes before game is created. (default off)
--closed X Nation is closed X=nation number (0-16)
--easyai X Nation is ai controlled X=nation number (0-16)
--normai X Nation is ai controlled X=nation number (0-16)
--hardai X Nation is ai controlled X=nation number (0-16)
--impai X Nation is ai controlled X=nation number (0-16)

******* New Game Options *******
--mapfile XXX Filename of map. E.g. eye.map
--research X Research difficulty 0-3 (default 1)
--hofsize X Size of Hall of Fame 5-15 (default 10)
--indepstr X Strength of Independents 0-9 (default 3)
--magicsites X Magic site frequency 0-75 (default 40)
--eventrarity X Random event rarity 1-2, 1=common 2=rare
--totalvp X Vic. points available in the world 0-25
--capitalvp One extra victory per capital
--requiredvp X Vic. points required for victory (default total/2)
--richness X World richness 1-3 (default 2)
--masterpass XX Master password. E.g. masterblaster
--startprov X Number of starting provinces (1-9)
--renaming Enable commander renaming

******* Video Options *******
-w --window Run Dominions II in a window
-u --fullscreen Use the entire screen
--bitplanes X Try to use a color depth of X bits per pixel
-T --textonly Use this with --tcpserver to get graphicless server
--gamma X Set gamma function (brightness) 0.1 - 5.0 (default=1.0)
--opacity X Set gui opacity 0 - 100
-r --res X Y Set screen resolution / window size (default=800 600)
--animback Use animated backgrounds
-a --noanimback Don't use animated backgrounds
--fade Use fade effects
-f --nofade No fade effects
--nopopups No helpful popups
--fps X Maximum nbr of frames per second (default=50)
--filtering X Quality of OpenGL filtering 0-3 (default=2)
-x --fastgrx Faster graphics (use 3 times for best performance (-xxx))
-p --perftest Run a performance test and exit

******* Audio Options *******
-s --nosound No sound effects
-m --nomusic No music
--musicvol X Set music volume, 0-100
--clickvol X Set mouse click volume, 0-100
--arts Route sound through aRts (default) (Linux only)
-o --oss Use direct oss sound output (best quality) (Linux Only)
--defsound Use default sound device (Windows only)
--directsound Use direct sound (Windows only)
--waveout Use waveout for sound (Windows only)