How do you check the framerates? Something in the options or in the command line?

Hit CTRL+F.  You might need to be on the star map for it to work.

Cari, however the HARDWAREVP trick works, it's absolutely amazing. I'm running beta 4, and now get an average of ~40 fps. This is up from ~4 with beta 4 before HARDWAREVP, and significantly faster than DA 1.5. For example, under 1.5 I would have been lucky to get 10 fps with one or two starbases on screen. Now I get this:



So 15.4 fps may not seem much, but for someone with a computer like mine (i.e., with 64mb of video ram) this is faster than DL or DA has ever run.

I can provide a debug.err if you'd like. Thanks Cari and Stardock folks!

Thanks Cari Also....

I tried the hardware vp trick, and went from 3 fps to 15 with a nvidea 5500.

I wonder why the card tries to use software instead of hardware?

When GalCiv2 is initializing Direct3D, it checks the capabilities of the video card to see if certain features are supported.  If any of these features are not supported, then the game can't start in hardware vp mode unless you disable those features.  The HARDWAREVP parameter forces the game to try and start in hw vp mode without checking to see if the features are enabled.

There is also a mixed vp mode which I have never seen in a debug.err, so there must be something wrong in the logic to pick which mode to use.  I am going to see if I can get that working as I believe that it would mean that the video card would use hardware vertex processing for the things that it can do and software vertex processing for the features it doesn't support.

Cari,

Just a quick test of mixed verses Hardwarevp, with the 5500 I get better frame rates with hardware, and I do get the background nebali and no background stars....while with mixed, just a blank background.

Well, I have a similar situation, but I like to play from the tactical view anyway so im sitting reliably at about 25-30 fps, when i zoom in to see the ships i get around 5-10 fps. I am playing through the DA campaign right now, and it is sitting on Large maps, i really hope that they dont get any larger in the campaign than Large, because after about 3 hours of playing I have to restart the game because of a CTD.

Oh wells though, I propose that people stop complaining and just play from the Tactical view unless they really have the urge to see the ships, and only do that in between when it really doesn't matter how fast it is refreshing...

GalenEvil

Galen have you tried the new patch in the stickied 1.6 Beta 5 thread?

no, i have not. The one that I have currently is beta 4.

Well, it fixed the framerate issues for me. Try it out.

I'm doing some extreme stuff (1000+ ships on the same square), but I actually get under 2 FPS in tactical mode on GC II Beta 5 with a 128Mb video card. I'll give this a shot and see if it helps.

I did notice one thing that I suspect isn't supposed to be happening though...

The indicator in tactical mode that indicates multiple ships on the same square seems to be getting drawn multiple times on my superstack. I suspect this may be what is dropping the framerate (for me anyway).

Has anyone read anything with regards to this issue? As I've stated elsewhere, the RAM use still seems erratic, and unless using a program that will 'free' the RAM up, the CTD seems most inevitable. I've still seen the typical example of starting up the game with about 1700 MB's available. On a medium, all abundant galaxy, just loading a new game uses up to 500 MB's. During play, I don't let my RAM get lower than 900 MB before autofreeing, which usually only adds about 40 MB's, taking me up to about 950 MB or so. The 'strange' thing is the RAM will rise steadily, about a meg at a clip, until getting up to over 2000 MB's before capping off and then steadily, but slowly, dropping back down. I've let it do this three times during one game and suffered no 'consequences' from doing so, but I was mainly 'testing' it to see if freeing up RAM would cause problems with the game running.
Like I said, I haven't really seen any more responses from the devs regarding this and after reading the mega events thread asking for some input, it seems to me that the vote I was holding might not have been counted. I could be wrong, but talking about mega event 'wants' and no more info on actual bugs/issues tells me that the 'fixes' are pretty much over and the additional content is waiting to flow down the pipes.
Someone correct me if I am wrong on this and for some of the more 'technical' players in here, has anyone else tried monitoring RAM (helps if you are also getting the CTD's)to see what the hell is going on? None of the other games I've tried for test purposes has demonstrated this 'erratic' RAM behavior... not even Civ IV.

Just to add, the framerates are still holding in the upper 60's to 75 for me, regardless of what's going on on-screen. I guess I'm 'lucky' in this respect.

I meant to say back to 1700 or so. Used to be over 2000 when I was running with 3GB of RAM, but I've since removed one gig because it was actually two 512k sticks instead of a one gig stick (plus I wasn't comfortable running OCZ RAM with factory shipped Samsung RAM, even though the cas latency's were the same, the specs were totally different otherwise). Plus, for some reason, I had to allocate about 36,000 MB's just to get 3 gigs of virtual memory. Now, this doesn't happen.

Judging from the lack of response, I guess no one really cares about this eh?

They're still working on the memory issues, Stormbringer. Patience.

My above post, I meant 2fps in strategic, not tactical view...Late night.

Evil,

I run maxed out games. I don't check very often, because RAM and CTDs haven't been problems for me, but when I have checked, I am almost always right around 1 GB of RAM used by GC II. I do have all the extra video stuff turned off though.

CTD that happen after hours of play time is usually related to heat of the electronics causing a weak transistor to fail.

Aww, an interesting change you made to your system, one that after making the change, you have had less problems...Mixing memory is always a good way to cause CTD. The faster the machine the more important the memory, all the memory is exactly the same. A timing error, or refresh error, and Crash, and since you had mixed memory, a good area to look at. Just because the latency was the same, all the other specs being different was causing problems for you. SO it was your machine.

Cari is working on the issues that you are so vocal about, current work. Asking for input on future mega events is future work.

Besides this thread is about older video cards, and frame rates, could be why nobody answered your wine.

Hey, an unsolicited comment from a fraktard! Well, to answer you anyways, the change was more than documented by me on this forum, and the reason I made the change was due to CTD's, so I figured more RAM, less chances of CTD. Therefore, the upgrade was a result of trying to fix the issue. I tried to run with the 'extra' gig just because I wanted to. Didn't have a single bit of problems, other than the virtual memory setting being 'screwy'. Once again, you wish to call me out and **** with me over things which you know nothing about yet I have plainly typed for all of the forum to see. Get over yourself old man and find a new hobby. My 'whine' as you put it was a call to others who are going through the same issues, and hopefully others who are trying to get info on this problem to better aid the devs, somethings you blatantly accuse me of not doing... so again, if this gets me banned then by all means, ban away... piss on you, keep your comments to yourself, mainly when feeling the need to address ANYTHING I might say on here because guess what, regardless of being the internet, none of what I say is meant for you to respond to, use, listen to or adhere to. "Go play in traffic" to quote someone I know... Seriously, go join your imaginary wives and leave your unsolicited responses at the door.

Oh, and thanks for the reply there Purge. I'm trying to get specs together, that's all.

Hey Braddock, so when you use the MIXED mode is there still graphical glitches, like missing stars and stuff?

Yeah. I said so in the other thread.

Braddock8,

Did you turn off the point sprites at some point? If so, that would account for the missing background stars. 

I know you've seen plenty of cases of low framerates, but here's another debug if you need it. On the home screen with the home system, starting ships, and asteriods, I get about 10 fps with any beta of 1.6 released so far. HARDWAREVP hasn't worked on my computer, and turning off all graphic options with the latest beta actually decreased framerates down to about 4 fps (possible?)

Debug Message: Version v1.6 beta 5e Dark Avatar last updated on: Tue May 29 13:42:13 2007
Debug Message: Checking DX Version.
Debug Message: *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 5/30/2007, 18:13:28
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: D24PDCB1
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_qfe.070227-2300)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: ME051
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A08
Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.60GHz
Physical Memory: 760MB RAM
Page File: 226MB used, 1628MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS


Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset Family
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip Type: Intel(R) 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset
DAC Type: Internal
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2592&SUBSYS_01C91028&REV_03
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 800 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Resolution: 1600,1200
Driver Name: ialmrnt5.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.4410
Driver Date: 10/14/2005 22:06:58
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes



Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: SigmaTel Audio
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_8384&DEV_7690&SUBSYS_102801C9&REV_1022
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: sthda.sys
Provider: SigmaTel
Driver Version: 5.10.4995.0001
Driver Date: 3/25/2006 00:34:30
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: Failed to find a device that can start with hw vp mode. Trying mixed vp.
Debug Message: Failed to find a device that can start with mixed vp mode. Trying sw vp.
Debug Message: Using hardware vertex processing
Debug Message: Using multilsample setting: D3DMULTISAMPLE_NONE
Debug Message: Could not create the render device using default format. Switching to 16bit
Debug Message: Using hardware vertex processing
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: GalCiv2 is activated.
Debug Message: WM_CLOSE message received.
Debug Message: GameUninitialize start

It looks like we both have laptops with integrated Intel cards.

No, point sprites are not disabled. I don't see background stars, but I can get nebulas.