dark avatar choppy even with graphics all the way down

catphive

Join Date 03/2006

dark avatar choppy even with graphics all the way down

I'm running on a 1.5 ghz pentium m with integrated graphics (intel 850).

I found death lords to be very playable on my system even with graphics turned all the way up. Moving and rotating space when zoomed in on the map didn't result in spectacular frame rates, but it wasn't that bad at all. Now when I launch dark avatar, I find that there are long pauses when I try to move, rotate or anyting, and that it's completely unplayable. These problem persists with all graphics options turned down to zero, which is ridiculous, since textures aren't even being displayed.

I should mention that when I zoom out to the point where all the planets and ships become just icons, all of a sudden the framerate becomes perfectly smooth.

I've heard other people complain about DA running much choppier than DL even on pretty decent systems, does anyone know any fixes, or anything to help alleviate the problem? Why would there be such a change during the upgrade? Is the DA team aware of the choppyness and looking into performance problems?

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Tried the new beta 2 and did see about 4 fps increase. But like Cari said, it's really isn't bad at all below 30 fps. Also, those weird minimap lines at 300 zoom are gone. Thanks for the continued support and feedback.

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You might have different and or other issues. With this new beta, my frame rate went from 10 FPS back to 75 FPS. Just a thought.

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The beta 2 did indeed fix my problem (Vista x32, GF 7800 GS, 158.42 drivers). Everything's nice and smooth again now.

Dread Lords is still choppy, though. Will the fix that's been applied to Dark Avatar be rolled back into the original release as part of the next update?

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i am totally confused. i was able to run Dread Lords without a single crash. This expansion pack crashes like crazy... typically when i am saving. And... if the game DOES crash even after i have saved then the games that i have saved do not appear when i restart the darn game! The game crashes when i disband fleets by choosing the "x's," it crashes when i create fleets, it runs out of memory when i am attempting to save if i have a lot of star bases... it just crashes all the time on anything... utter unreliable. Why is this? Why would Dread Lords be so completely stable and Dark Avatar be utterly unstable? Can i have my money back?????!!!! Although i am running this game on a Mac, with Windows installed... again, i had ZERO problems with Dread Lords... or any other game i play. i have 5gb of RAM and have virtual memory set at 3046 GB. i think more time should have gone into the development and testing of this expansion pack. i have wasted hours of my time with it... just when things start to get good... the thing crashes. Here is my debug log... i can't make any sense out of it.

Debug Message: Version v1.6 beta 5 Dark Avatar last updated on: Wed May 23 12:40:53 2007
Debug Message: Checking DX Version.
Debug Message: *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 5/28/2007, 19:30:31
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: GENEPC
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Apple Computer, Inc.
System Model: MacPro1,1
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU 5160 @ 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
Physical Memory: 2026MB RAM
Page File: 420MB used, 4499MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS

Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: Radeon X1900 Series a
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip Type: Radeon X1900 Series (0x7249)
DAC Type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7249&SUBSYS_72491002&REV_00
Display Memory: 512.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Dell 2005FPW (Digital)
Monitor Max Resolution: 1680,1050
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6631
Driver Date: 3/21/2007 19:12:36
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes

Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: Realtek HD Audio output
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0885&SUBSYS_106B0C00&REV_1001
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: RtkHDAud.sys
Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Driver Version: 5.10.0000.5319
Driver Date: 3/21/2007 19:13:46
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 3
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0

Debug Message: *********END dxdiag info.*********
Debug Message: Entering WinMain
Debug Message: ******* Starting Game Shell *******
Debug Message: Going Fullscreen
Debug Message: Preparing to change display settings.
Debug Message: Using multilsample setting: D3DMULTISAMPLE_4_SAMPLES
Debug Message: Game Resolution: 1024 x 768
Debug Message: Running fullscreen.
Debug Message: HAL (hw vp): Radeon X1900 Series
Debug Message: D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL_DEFAULT
Debug Message: Refresh rate: 60
Debug Message: Bit Depth: 32 bit.
.......

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I'm also experiencing more choppy-than normal gameplay. It also occured in the vanilla game (probably since my specs aren't too hot), but at a much later time when many many ships were onscreen. Now it occcurs much earlier in the game, sometimes when only one ship is visible. Sometimes I experience none at all. It seems mostly random. Here are my specs and debug; (EDIT: I really think I posted too much. Sorry, first time with the debug and all... feel free to prune it mods

)

Pentium 4, 2.0 GHz
512 RAM
All in wonder 9000, 64 mb

Debug Message: Version v1.6 beta 1 Dark Avatar last updated on: Tue Apr 3 16:54:35 2007
Debug Message: Checking DX Version.
Debug Message: *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 5/28/2007, 19:15:51
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: RHINEVILLE
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: IBM
System Model: 8311KHU
BIOS: PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0 for IBM NetVista.
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.00GHz
Physical Memory: 510MB RAM
Page File: 269MB used, 1980MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS

Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: ALL-IN-WONDER 9000
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip Type: RADEON 9000 PRO AGP (0x4966)
DAC Type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4966&SUBSYS_4F721002&REV_01
Display Memory: 64.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 960 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Resolution: 1600,1200
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6505
Driver Date: 11/30/2004 23:13:41
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes

Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: SoundMAX Digital Audio
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24C5&SUBSYS_02671014&REV_01
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: smwdm.sys
Provider: Analog Devices
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.3511
Driver Date: 6/17/2002 16:43:14
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 3
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0

Debug Message: *********END dxdiag info.*********
Debug Message: Entering WinMain
Debug Message: ******* Starting Game Shell *******
Debug Message: Going Fullscreen
Debug Message: Preparing to change display settings.
Debug Message: Using multilsample setting: D3DMULTISAMPLE_NONE
Debug Message: Game Resolution: 1024 x 768
Debug Message: Running fullscreen.
Debug Message: HAL (sw vp): ALL-IN-WONDER 9000
Debug Message: D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL_DEFAULT
Debug Message: Refresh rate: 60
Debug Message: Bit Depth: 32 bit.
.....

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Rhamiel,

This is our return policy:

https://www.stardock.com/stardock/sds_returns.html

If you would like to work to resolve your memory problems, I may be able to help. Are you using any mods? Have you downloaded the heightmaps module?

Rhineville,

Your issues will likely be taken care of if you update to 1.6 beta 5 which is available on Stardock Central.

Also, if you keep an eye on this thread, I will be posting another test build today.

https://forums.galciv2.com/?forumid=421&aid=153501#1221745

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Just did and... now the game won't start up (black square on screen for a good while, but no startup)

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Try following my instructions for starting with a command line parameter and use the command line parameter SOFTWAREVP. I am trying to track down an NVidia 5200 FX so that I can figure out why it's failing in all processing modes now.

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I just updated the link to http://sd.stardock.com/carielf/da_1_6_b5d.zip which should let you start the game normally

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Awesome, thanks for everything you're doing

EDIT: unfortunately, the new beta makes the problem even worse for me.

In the above image, I was experienceing an FPS of 1. Now, there are 6 ships on screen as far as I can tell, as soon as there are less the problem gets better. If there are none it runs smooth as silk. Is my system not beastly enough to handle six ships, or are there still some kinks in the whole thing? (Im running XP btw)

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Rhineville,

It's something to do with the fact that you're running in software vp mode. We're still working on the problem. You may be able to run in hardware vp mode if you update your video drivers from

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

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Out of curiosity, does running with the MIXEDVP command line parameter work or does that also fail to initialize?

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Ok, long story short I'm an idiot and can't read. The beta 5e (mixed vp, was it?) did the trick, along with 2 gigs of virtual memory. Before when seeing 5 mini freighters and one scout ship I was reduced to 1 fps, I churned out 11 new scouts at the beginning of the game and had over a dozen ships onscreen at once, with no visible framerate hit. I'm cautiously optimistic

Thanks for everything.

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I was reading along in the posts here and didn't see any mention of using the "throttle frame rate" option in the menu ... would that help at all?

Also, I noticed for the first time (I'm bad about details sometimes) that my ships seemed to get slower all of a sudden, and they were ... when they got outside my zone of control of a forward military starbase, with or without influence in the area, the speed/moves allowed would go from 16 to 3 ... thats a big slowdown. I suppose it's because the warp engines don't work a without being within a certain distance of my base or something (???). When I got the ship back close to a base, or within whatever circuit was controlling the warp engines performance, the moves went back up to normal.

I'm not having problems running the gigantic maps anymore, since I am using amd 6000+ cpu on crosshair mobo, with nvidia 7950gt, windows XPp without any updates.

I upped the recommended size of the page file in windows virtual memory settings to 53somethingsomething and that helped too.

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

when they got outside my zone of control of a forward military starbase, with or without influence in the area, the speed/moves allowed would go from 16 to 3 ... thats a big slowdown. I suppose it's because the warp engines don't work a without being within a certain distance of my base or something (???). When I got the ship back close to a base, or within whatever circuit was controlling the warp engines performance, the moves went back up to normal.

The Yor's super ability reduces all enemy ships to speed 3 when they enter Yor space.

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I'm still concerned to know whether there will be a fix for the "poor framerate unless mini-map is minimized" issue for the original Dread Lords game.

I only bought this game a week ago (Gold Edition) and I'd obviously rather start with the original release rather than the expansion. However, for now I find it unplayable, and all the discussion on this forum seems to be about Dark Avatar rather than Dread Lords.

Also, the latest release on Stardock is marked as an "RC" (I assume Release Candidate) which is worrying as it suggests to me there is no intention of fixing this problem in the original game.

Could someone please confirm that they are aware that the same framerate problem exists in Dread Lords under Vista, and let us all know if a fix will be forthcoming? At the moment I'm not even able to play my new purchase.

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Garwoofoo,

Yes we are aware that it exists. I would like to backport my changes to Dread Lords as well, but I had not even asked about this yet because we've been trying to nail down the issues in the Dark Avatar betas first. It wouldn't make sense to have both of them in beta; this way I only have to worry about one at a time.

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Fantastic - thanks for the quick response. I guess I will have to be patient then.

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Thanks Kyro.

Perfect example of how I don't pay attention to details sometimes ... (mumble mumbel ... now where are my Huggies)

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Hi! I have stuttering all the time, too. The 3D Models in ship view, espionage view or just the whole galaxy map are "stuck" for a moment every few seconds. Never had this problem in the Betas or Galciv2 and/or DA. Only with 1.91.

I use WinXP on BootCamp on my iMac 24" with Intel Core 2 Duo 2,4 GHz, 2 gig RAM, ATI Radeon HD 2600 with 256 MB RAM.

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