Terrible performance (fps-wise)

Only in TA

from GalCiv2 Forums
I've bought the whole package for 60$ (GC2+DA+TA) and played through the whole campaign set of GC2 and DA. Now I just got to TA and am starting to get used to all the changes.

But then it strikes me, as soon as I start moving around on the map (just the screen, not the ships) I get about 3-4 fps.
I check my video settings (automatically set to High) and try medium and low. The performance just got worse(why?).
I tried ticking some settings off myself, but the only way I can get 3-4 fps or more is if I leave the settings at high!
I know TA has higher requirements, but from playing gigantic maps on DA with 4-5 AI's and getting barely any lag to playing a tiny map with 1 AI and suffering immense lag ... theres something not right.

I tried doing searches, found nothing on these forums. Google got me a few threads on sites like gamespot but that didn't have any useful replies.

Any magic option that can make it all go better? (I am patched to the latest version)


My specs:
2.7ghz dual core
1gb ram
128mb shared video ram (integrated graphics* ... sadly)
playing 1280x800 (haven't tried other settings, I'll update later with results).


*I know that the integrated graphics are the bottleneck, but still from what I got in DA to what I have in TA ...
9,842 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Updated my graphics drivers, now my mouse is glitchy and flickering...
Tried different resolutions, no help.
Tried a normal game instead of campaign, still as bad.

Whats funny is that before I patched (well before I even started playing the campaigns) I tried a game in TA (unpatched) just to see what the game was about. It ran fine then.

Anyways, guess theres no magic option to save me. Time to fill in a bug report.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It is a bit suspicious that a patched TA exhibits this behavior while an unpatched TA does not, but I'm still fairly positive it has something to do with the new things that TA does (in this case it would seem to be an option that was disabled by default that is now enabled by default; see below).

Original post follows. Maybe you've tried all of them already-but I can't know that.

-

TA has some options that DA doesn't have-as well as some options that DA does have, but that are on by default, instead of off.

The first thing I would suggest is to disable anti-aliasing, or lower it to 1x, whichever you prefer. I have never understood why 4x AA is a default setting in GCII, given that it is in theory supposed to be able to run on lower hardware (which obviously enough would have trouble with that).

The second thing I would sugggest is to uncheck Use Enhanced Ship Rendering. I believe that's enabled by default. Allow Mixed Vertex Processing Mode should be disabled by default in the latest TA, but check on that as well.

You might also consider running windowed rather than fullscreen. It's possible that your video card has trouble with the animated components, but I don't have enough information to know for sure. In any case, it's worth unchecking Enable Animated Components.

Those are essentially the "new" things in TA...the only other things that come to mind would be Disable Bump Mapping and Disable Point Sprites, which may or may not solve the problem, or even help for that matter, but if DA runs fine then those two should not be the issue.

It would help to know the exact specs of your system-for instance, there's a big difference between a P4 @ 2.7GHZ and a C2D @ 2.7GHZ. My assumption is that it's not overclocked, which narrows the field a bit, but you still haven't provided that much information. However, your video is more important than your processor in this case-even if it's a Pentium 4-and not knowing what that is is definitely a roadblock to helping you. My educated guess is that you're running on 845G or 865G, which are both somewhat limited in the things that they can do (and so when TA tries to tell them to do something they can't, they go batshit insane).

Go to Start-->Run and type in msinfo32. In the System Information window that loads, go down to Components and then within there Display. The Name field there should tell us what your integrated video is-if not that, Adapter Description.

Alternatively, you can get this information from right clicking on My Computer, selecting Properties, clicking on the Hardware tab, clicking the Device Manager button, and looking in Display Adapters.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
and through my pessimism, Sole Soul comes as a ray of light to lighten my life.

I ignored the "Allow mixed vertex processing mode" since it didn't appear to be in the performance options list (although I guess it is in it, but oddly it was checked).

Anyways, my graphics are back to high, even with my crappy integrated graphics and all is smooth.

So there was a little magic option in the end :).

Now I just have to revert my graphic cards drivers, because I've been getting an invisible mouse (with hardware support on) or flickering mouse (with hardware support off) since.

Anyways, thanks a lot. I overlooked that one :).
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sigh, can't roll back.

I'm sure it's the drivers because now even DA has the mouse glitch.
I had to revert back to the default drivers that came with my laptop.

I took me a long time to find on the net, the rollback function didn't work :-\.

Anyways, as future reference:

Intel 945 Express chipsets
6.14.10.4926 - mouse glitch
6.14.10.4925 - mouse glitch
6.14.10.4905 - mouse glitch

6.14.10.4436 - works

Took me a lot of reboots :P.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I had just recently bought Twilight of Arnor and completed the campaign and 1 game. When I tried to play again, there was unbearable lag whenever I would be at specific parts of the map. I had almost the exact problem as Radwan and was driving me insane because lower settings made the entire map laggy.

This thread helped me a bunch! Thank you Sole Soul! And thanks Radwen for asking this question!