It might also be worth noting that to my knowledge, GalCiv2/DA did not even appear in the list of fixed or non-fixed issues in the driver release. I know that I reported the bug myself. Perhaps there has not been enough push on this one.

Magnus--

I believe it has been confirmed that there is an issue in nVidia's drivers, and they are working on it. Cari is also working on some changes on our end that may work around the driver weakness. Unfortunately there are many other things that need worked on as well, and progress is not always as quick or easy as we'd hope. I'm sorry that you're still having trouble, but everything is being done that can be to get it fixed.

Kryo,

I appreciate your response. Thank you very much. As long as it has been confirmed that it is a driver issue and they are working on it, I can wait. I was just a bit frustrated when I heard that Cari was waiting to hear from nvidia and that they didn't even mention it in their driver release notes, much less fix it with the release. I'll keep waiting on it, and again I thank you for your response.

I heard back from my contact at NVidia.  There are a few things in GalCiv2/DA that use 2D drawing routines from a library called GDI: the graphs, the minimap, and I believe also the pie charts.  In Windows Vista, GDI is no longer accelerated, so it's much slower.

I have a test build for DA where I have replaced the GDI routines with the 2D drawing code we used in GalCiv1 that I would like people to try before we put it up as a beta.  Back up your existing lib3d.dll and gc2darkavatar.exe and extract the files from these zips to your GalCiv2\DarkAvatar folder.

http://sd.stardock.com/carielf/da_1_6_b2_test1.zip

I may still have to do further work on the minimap, but this was the quickest to implement.

Unfortunately, the fix did nothing for my problem. The condition remains the same and goes away when I minimize the lower displays. Perhaps the minimap is still causing most of the problem and the slow performance won't go away until all of the pieces are fixed. I hope this feedback helps. Someone else please reply and confirm this. If this fixes the problem for other, maybe my issue is broader. However, I'm still thinking it's minimap related. Thank you again for your support. I will continue to check this post daily to look for updates.

I can confirm it does nothing for me either and the problem goes away when i minimize the mini map / main ui

Since someone else reported yesterday that the test build did not help, I started re-writing the minimap code again.  I don't know if I'll be able to get it done for the next beta, but I'll try really hard.

 

Well, I know that we all really appreciate your effort. Keep up the good work and thanks for those who also replied and confirmed that this didn't help so that I know that I am not the only one.

One more quick question. Can you perhaps create a patch the completely blanks out the minimap from the bottom information? This will be a quick fix to solve the problem in the mean time while you work to rewrite the full minimap code. I don't know anything about programming and I really don't know how much effort that would take and if would be as time consuming as doing the rewrite in the first place, but it's just a thought.

I would rather play without the minimap in the interum rather than not play the game at all while I wait for the next or the following beta. Thanks again.

Here's another test build (read my dev journal if you want details):

http://sd.stardock.com/carielf/da_1_6_b2_test2.zip

Thanks again for trying a new test, but it didn't work either. Same performance, same issue. I started a new game to try it out, but it didn't change anything.

To be a little clearer about exactly the situation that I am having incase it helps:

My normal FPS sits at a constant 75 no matter what I do(with the minimap minimized).

With the infobar not minimized:
If I use the keyboard to scroll, 10 FPS is the max.
If I use the keyboard to rotate/zoom, 16 FPS is the max.
If I use the mouse to scroll/rotate/zoom it will go to 1 FPS until I stop actually moving the mouse, and then it will snap the screen into position to catch up.

Keep up the good work, I am sure you will figure this out soon. Thanks again.

Hmm...I'm getting much better framerates on Vista standing still and scrolling with my test build.  Are you sure that you're actually overwriting the exes?

 

Also, are you using the 158.18 drivers?

 

I've tried your test2, but also here, on my vaio with vista same result: it's all slow until i minimize the bar. I've installed yesterday the last nvidia drivers (it's difficult on a laptop find a driver upgrade..) my drivers now are 7.15.0011.5818 of 12/04/2007

Its a good bit better alright not smooth but playable on my pc however its still much smoother with the mini map minimized

no, here i've the identical result: less than 10 fps when mini map up, more than 50 fps when mini map minimized

Thanks guys for confirming this as well. I have the 158.18 drivers and I have literally done everything that I can on my end. The only other thing that I can think might be having an effect is that my mouse is not fully compatible with Vista. That might explain my mouse rotate/zoom. However, the keyboard is giving my 16 FPS when I do those functions and I don't think that is caused by anything other than video.

Long story short, I will replace my mouse when my keyboard works at 75 FPS like anything else and my mouse still gives me problems.

I have been basically renaming my old exe's and lib's to DarkAvitar_backupX.exe and somethingsomething_backupX.lib. Then, I just paste in the new ones. I also can confirm that they are current because they say Testbed 2 or whatever in the corner of my title screen.

Maybe nvidia is not giving you the full story Cari. I noticed that earlier on, people had this same issue under XP with 8X.xxx nvidia drivers. I am not sure of the exact driver number. However, as I recall from reading the forums, once they went to the 9X series, the problems went away.

Keep trying, we are all counting on you. I haven't played in about a month and I can't wait to get back on the horse. 

*****One more important question: I am running the DA 1.6 beta. Is that a problem for trying these test beds?*****

I tried the new update on Windows XP. I finally got a program that lets me take screenshots & display fps so I ran some tests. Here's a recap of my debug.err.

Debug Message: Version v1.6 beta 2 Dark Avatar test 2 last updated on: Fri Apr 27 17:44:48 2007
Debug Message: Checking DX Version.
Debug Message: *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 4/30/2007, 21:58:48
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: DEEP-BLUE
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.061219-0316)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gateway
System Model: FX400
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
Physical Memory: 2044MB RAM
Page File: 1297MB used, 10591MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS


Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce 7950 GT
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0295&SUBSYS_C6333842&REV_A1
Display Memory: 512.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (75Hz)
Monitor Name: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Resolution: 1600,1200
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.9371
Driver Date: 10/22/2006 13:22:00
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes



Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: SB X-Fi Audio [1000]
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0005&SUBSYS_00311102&REV_00
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
Provider: Creative
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.1187
Driver Date: 8/17/2006 11:17:10
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 3
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0

Sound device 1:
Description: USB Audio Device
Default Sound Playback: No
Default Voice Playback: No
Hardware ID: USB\Vid_0d8c&Pid_000c&Rev_0100&MI_00
Manufacturer ID: 65535
Product ID: 65535
Driver Name: usbaudio.sys
Provider: Microsoft
Driver Version: 5.01.2600.2180
Driver Date: 8/3/2004 23:07:56
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 3
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0

My fps was worst centered around the following image at lowest detail setting. I would get 22 fps while the camera was stationary & minimap open. 24 fps while the minimap was closed. At highest video settings (at 0 anti-aliasing though), I was getting 17 fps at this same image with minimap open, 19 while closed.



Also I noticed, at highest video settings with the minimap zoom level set to 300 (had to be 300), I would get these strange lines across the minimap.



Let me know if I can try anything else or provide more information. Thanks for the help.

You appear to be running the game at 1024x768, while your desktop is 1280x1024. Are you running in a window? If so, you should try running fullscreen, as windowed mode most generally does cause some performance loss.

I e-mailed my contact yesterday and he said that the function call I'm using to draw the primitives is slow and told me another way to do it.  It also happens to be the same function that I'm using to draw all the screen textures.    He's going to use my third test build (which makes the line graphs also use Direct3D) and see if he can find any bugs in the drivers now that it's using a more optimal solution. 

The 8 series does run a lot better on Vista. 

I have a 6800 on my Vista test box and I get around 40 fps resting now and (depending on what I'm scrolling over) 8-19 fps when scrolling.  It doesn't seem to chug even at the 8 fps, though.

Also, strangely enough, you sometimes get better performance if you run the game at your desktop resolution instead of making DirectX resize it, even though you have more stuff on the screen, so you could compare framerates with trying that too.

No, not running in windowed mode. I'll try making my desktop resolution 1024x768 and see if that makes any difference. Thanks.

Sounds good Cari,

Thanks again for the help and the update. I'll keep checking daily. Please let me know if I can help test in any way.

Tried with the desktop resolution set to 1024x768 and had the same fps.

In other news, the edit button's missing in my previous post so I can't fix the quote for some reason.

Thanks again.

You can't edit once another reply has been made after your post.

1.6 DA beta 2 fixes the issue!!!!

Thank you so very much. Now I can play the game again. Everyone who has this problem--search the form for the beta, download and enjoy. Thanks again CariElf for the hard work!

Excellent. I'm glad to know that this is not a case of "it works on my machine!"