How do we install this? Do we just run the program, or do we need to extract it somewhere in DA's files? (Or even in SDC's files perhaps?)

JubJub15,

If you have the latest build off of SDC, just extract this zip file to your GalCiv2\DarkAvatar folder.

 

W00t! DA seems to be running smoothly, atleast through the infamous pop-up tech tree. I'm surprised that the slowdown was killed in one build. Good show!  

I sometimes wonder what this game would be like if you never updated it as frequently as you guys do....or if you never updated it at all!  

For the most part, the lag is fixed.. However, sometimes it goes into its old lag-act.

Some kinks:

-When a asteroid miner lands on asteroid
-When you double click on a ship to give it orders, such as "Auto Survey"
-When the survey vessel lands on an anomaly
-Haven't tried this one, but I would suspect constructing a starbase would also slow the game down

The last build has helped, but still not that great. I think it's really my computer mostly. But in the version you just posted, Cari, the two new options come up as "String not found" in the game.

Latest update: GC2:DA, framrates as low as 0.9 (Shader). This is on a huge map and happens after I get Eyes of the Universe. Older versions of DA never had this bad of a performance hit. Literally, you can hit turn and watch one of your fleets get auto selevted and take 10 seconds to go 4-6 moves. THen pause then go to the next fleet - in other words, I cannot even play any more. Specs: dual Opty 280's. 4 GB memory with 3.25 available to XP PRO. My saved game eats up 1.5-1.6GB of RAM. It takes forever to load up and is now unplayable - I know you are working on these problems but hurry because I am engage in a galaxy wide war and am eager to beat into submission those pesky ALtarians and their stupid power giving artifact.

Maurice

Mo2K, you have the Enhanced Ship Rendering option ON, don't you?  Can you please send in your debug.err to [email protected] and copy the text from your post into the e-mail body?

 

 

Um ... hate to sound stupid but there is no debug.err file found on my hard drives. Is there a debug option I must enable or a program I must download?

Yikes - Enhanced Ship REndering was on. Switched it to OFF and framrate began at 10.4 (shader) then dropped to 1.4 then settled to 0.1 with brief lapses up to a speed 0.8 - I think it actually made it worse. I pressed ESC to quit and that menu took 4-5 seconds to even register the keypress. Truly slow - if you can tell m e how to obtain a debug file for you please do so or any one else on this board so I can email the file. My poor 6800GT card will thank you.

Side note - I never got it this slow before when I had 2 GB of RAM. It would just eventually give me errors on no memory before crashing or not allowing saves. With more memory I can get farther but the slowdown is really bad.

Cheers,
Maurice

Have you mixed memory sticks from different manufacters? If it is the case, you may find the reply #43 in this thread very instructive.

Unfortunately no. Took out the olds memory 4 sticks of 512MB ECC REG and replaced with 1GB ECC REG. Everything runs well - office, quickbooks, NOF, Fireworks, Elements, etc. GAmes: FL, SFRU, EA, X3, GC, etc. I got the slow down before but the game would run out memory so no use continuing. Now I get further but man the slow down is harsh. Never happened with previous versions. Ran quite zippily.

Cheers,
Maurice

Mo2k, the debug.er is supposed to be in the same directory as your GC2DarkAvatar.exe, unless you were running vista, and then it would be in your Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar folder.  Are you running in a limited user account?

jubjub15 if you still want to know how to uninstall and install without the beta go into stardock central click so there is no tick on show pre-release versions and auto archive oon application update. i think thats how i did. sorry it took so long to rply i have been really busy.

Doh! - sending now.

Maurice

Maurice,

Does running in fullscreen make a difference? Are you spanning or mirroring your monitors? You should have the Enhanced Ship Render option ON, also, so go ahead and turn it back on.

I disabled ship textures my framerate jumped to 15.9 (TnL) then when I hit turn it dropped down to 0.9 (TnL)

Guess its not the ship textures.

Maurice

Fullscreen about 0.8 (shader) with ship textures back on and enhanced ship render option ON. I am neither panning nor mirroring. One runs at 1600 x 1200 the other at 12809 x 1024, both 32 bit.

I will tujrn off one screen and run in single screen for giggles.

Maurice

Maurice,

Hmm...well I didn't really see anything obvious in your debug.err so I forwarded it to our 3D engine guru to see if he can find anything. 

You don't have anything running in the background or systray that could be causing constant refreshing, do you? Or if you have any anti-virus or internet security programs running, try excluding the GalCiv2 folder and binaries.

 

single display mode makes no difference. I can disable every video option possible and as soon as I hit turn it slows down and takes forever. Mind you, when you begin a game all is fine. Once you are in the middle phase of gameplay and wars are starting and what not it begins to bog down. Get the Eyes of the Universe and forget about it.

M

Turned everything off. If it could be terminated it was. SAme.

M

I will try setting proessor affinity. If it makes a difference I will report.

Affinity makes no difference, seting the 6800gt card to fully performance settings made no diff though turning off threaded optimization brought the frmarate up to 1.0 (shader) an increase of 33%!

M

Guess I will play something else this weekend until a solution is found.

With my NVidia GeForce FX5200 and all video options enabled, I was getting ~8 fps when zoomed in and ~12 fps zoomed out when including HARDWAREVP on DA 1.6 beta 4. With the last beta this dropped down to 1-2 fps when zoomed in! I'm happy to report with the final 1.6 DA, it is using MIXEDVP rather than SOFTWAREVP and I'm seeing ~15 fps when fully zoomed out and ~30 fps when fully zoomed in!

Well, after careful and patient testing - I get 15-20FPS but as soon as I select a ship or fleet then the FPS drops to 0.9 or lower and the selection process takes about 5-10 seconds. Planets are no big deal and select with ease. I am not sure this is the graphics issue causing the low frame rates and advise stardock to look at other avenues. Ship battles are nice and clean at close to 30fps. But ship selction whether manual or auto via "turn" as the AI moves ships and the game moves your auto pilot and attack ships it bogs down completely. After the moves are over the fps jump back to normal. This is consistent from zoom in to zoom out views. I believe this is why changing video options and what not are not affecting some of us in gaining our fps back from the older rev's.

Thoughts CariElf?

Maurice

PS I can start a new game and FPS are between 65-47 and ship selection is normal and everything is cool. But once the mid game starts and ships and fleets are flying and more and more things are visible in the FOW then watch out ... sssslllooooowwwwww ddddddooooooowwwwwwwnnnnnn

I just tried the 1.6a test build to see if it helped with my slowdown - no dice, I started a new game that was buttery smooth (gigantic map, full opponents and minors, abundant everything, superslow research rate - makes for long long long games as in 2230 we are still fighting with lasers/mass drivers/stingers). Slow down was beginning to show its face and finally got the eyes of the universe and fps dips to 0.1 -0.3 but the new 1.6a build picks it up to 1.6-2.8 now and then. Ship/base selection is still horridly slow and ships move ploddingly along. PLanet selection is still uber fast and ship selection within planets still uber fast. Combat and ship designer still good.

Playing a little longer and this is what I notice with the test build: a ship gets selected during auto pilot movement and it pauses (say a constructor with a movement of 8/8). It's movement pauses at 7/8 for a few seconds then finally it does the remainder of its movements at a faster pace than the 1.6 release and betas. This is where the fps went from 0.3 to 1.6-2.8. But its that inital selection that bothers me the worst. It's almost as if the database is so big it has to search for a while to find the right ship and that pause just kills gameplay as a single turn can take ages with all civ's going to war against someone and me building up the minors into minor empires like in good old gc 1 (makes for fun when a small major takes on a minor and the minor responds with frigates and transports from all directions).

1.6a = good try, solved some memory issues but we still need that slow down that wasn't there in the first release of DA.
Maurice

Mo2k, do you have the follow autopilot ships option on? If so, turn it off.

Just tried follow auto pilot off - 7.3-3.9 fps. Hard to know what is going on aa huge map though - note: I play at the tatical level only since these maps are rather large - i.e. I only see the icon representations only.

When a constructor reaches its starbase designation there is a massive pause before it brings up the starbase upgrade window and the info display shows the stats of the constructor. It that where the problem lies - the stats database recall for objects?

EDIT: That must be it - after the turn is over and I get begin my moves are what not if I selectg a parked constructor and send it on its way there is still a big pause. If I launch a ship from a planet then try to scroll on the big map to find where I want it to go there is a big pause before scrolling is allowed. When an auto pilot ship moves during a turn its still pauses before it moves - not as much as when follow auto pilot ships was on mind you but still there. It deos the usual moe the first step, recall stats (but don't display them now and don't auto focus the big map) then move.

EDit again: interesting thing: if my auto pilot ship is visible in the middle of the main display it rates and fps of 0.3 or so, near the edges of the main display it rates higher likes previously stated. Issues with auto pilot pathing?

EDIT: new 8800gts 640mb vid card makes no difference