New Monitor and no more GalCiv II

Please post the contents of your debug.err file.

jlgerre, your monitor is indeed the problem. GC2 is a graphics intensive game, your monitor is not able to handle it. I have a Syncmaster 150MP while playing GC2 the game would pause as if my video card or processor was having trouble keeping up. I later bought a ViewSonic VA912b 8ms gaming monitor and this problem went away. The game runs very smooth now. I looked up the specs on your monitor and it is a 25ms monitor. It doesn't refresh fast enough to keep up. You should get a monitor tht runs 12ms or lower. There are 3ms monitors on the market, these would be the best to have.

@Onikazi

Where did you find the specs for the 215T having a response 25ms ? All I can find is either info on the 215TW (8ms) or non english sites but those also mention that the 215T has a 8ms respose time.

As for not being able to keep up with 25Ms, that doesn't sound true IMHO, the monitor may "lag" but it should still show a picture. The "25ms" has been a "problem" for many 3D games since there are LCD screens.

It could be a problem if the game runs in a "refresh rate" of more then 75Hz. Tho an LCD screen doesn't "refresh" like an CRT it still needs to translate to a signal it understands. But if by Digital you mean DVI that shouldn't be the case, and Galciv doesn't have an option to set the refresh rate anyway.

One few things you could do, appart for posting the debug.err in case it does contain usefull info (If it's even there, as my understanding the game doesn't even launch;
> change the game resolution to 1280*1024 or lower, if need be backup and delete the prefs.ini in my documents\my games
> play in a window
> install the drivers for the monitor if you haven't allready (I don't mean the drivers for the GFX card)
> try to run GalCiv2.exe directly from \Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2
> look in te even log to see if anything is reported there

The response of LCD has nothing to do with the game playing or not. First I would check the frequency you have set for the game resolution as LCDs usually use 60Hz as it has no effect on them as on CRTs. Then try to set the game to the monitor's native resoluton. And as the seer recommends, check if the monitor driver is installed correctly.

Response time? Phooey! I'm running GC2 on an old Sony SDM-X82 18.1" LCD. It has a rated response time of 50 ms. The game runs fine (actually, beautifully). As smartwings said, check the refresh rate in XP's Display properties (I assume it's XP) and that both windows and the game are set to use the monitors' native resolution. Also, check that you've got the right monitor profile loaded under Display Properties | Advanced | Monitor | Monitor Type.

Debug Message: Version v1.2 Beta 1 last updated on: Fri May 26 19:38:18 2006
Debug Message: *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 5/29/2006, 09:33:58
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: PICARD
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: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
System Model: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
BIOS: BIOS Date: 05/04/04 12:25:45 Ver: 08.00.09
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.0GHz
Physical Memory: 2046MB RAM
Page File: 454MB used, 2974MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS


Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce 6800 GT
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0045&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_A1
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: SyncMaster 215TW/216TW, SyncMaster Magic CX213TW(Digital)
Monitor Max Resolution: 1680,1050
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.8421
Driver Date: 3/9/2006 15:29:00
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes



Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: SB Audigy 2 Audio [A800]
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0004&SUBSYS_10021102&REV_04
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
Provider: Creative
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.1162
Driver Date: 8/29/2005 19:46:14
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_4_SAMPLES
Debug Message: Could not create the render device using default format. Switching to 16bit
Debug Message: Using multilsample setting: D3DMULTISAMPLE_NONE
Debug Message: Could not create the render device.
Debug Message: InitializeDirect3D Failed.
Debug Message: Now Fullscreen
Debug Message: Shell initialization complete
Debug Message: WM_CLOSE message received.
Debug Message: GameUninitialize start

The 215T is NOT the problem. I play GC2 on my 215T without a single hitch or issue at 1680*1050 native resolution.

To all

Thanks for the advice and help. I got it fixed. I went into Prefs.ini in My Games and manually edited the file to set the resolution to 1680x1050. Once I did that, it came up fine. Thanks again!!


V/R

Jim Gerretson