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Drudge
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Do you guys play on desktops or laptops?

January 18, 2008 10:44:32 AM from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
I was just curious. I've got the game installed and running great on my desktop, which I would expect it to because it is quite a beast of a system. However, I had just installed it on my laptop as well for when I can't get upstairs and lock myself into the computer room away from the kids.

Sadly, the performance is quite terrible. The laptop appears to meet recommended specs but it just does not function very well. As soon as I start the game up and get to the title screen with the female voice singing, the sound gets all stuttery and the mouse cursor lags and stutters a bit as well. Kind of a bummer. This laptop runs CIV 4 quite well so I figured that it would handle this game with no problem. Oh well. I guess I will have to resign myself to playing CIV 4 downstairs on the laptop and GalCiv2 up on the desktop.

Regards
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Drudge
Noctilucus
Join Date 04/2007
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Reply #1 January 18, 2008 11:39:37 AM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
I play it on laptops only (I've got 2 laptops and travel often so I have absolutely no intention to buy a desktop soon).
It runs OK though with some pauzes during AI ship movement and a bit of stutter when moving the camera view (pentium M 1.6 GHz with 512 MB RAM; 32 MB video RAM). I haven't tried any galaxies bigger than "large" though. But that's ok since I don't have the time for such vast undertakings anyway
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DSep
Join Date 07/2007
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Reply #2 January 18, 2008 11:43:35 AM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
most laptops don't have that much memory to begin with. try buying some more. it used to stutter on my desktop because i only had 512mb of ram so we got 2 gig and it works perfectly.
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kryo
Join Date 05/2003
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Reply #3 January 18, 2008 11:44:13 AM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Please open your debug.err file from your laptop in notepad, and copy/paste the contents into a post here. This will give us some technical information that can help troubleshoot your problem. The location you'll find the debug.err in varies depending on your game version:

Dread Lords, all versions:
C:\Program Files\Stardock\Totalgaming\GalCiv2

Dark Avatar 1.5-1.6 (non-Vista):
C:\Program Files\Stardock\Totalgaming\GalCiv2\DarkAvatar

Dark Avatar 1.6+(Windows Vista), 1.7+(non-Vista):
My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar

Twilight of the Arnor:
My Documents\My Games\GC2TwilightArnor

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Drengin
Join Date 09/2003
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Reply #4 January 18, 2008 12:22:50 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Desktop for me. I found my Laptop was just not up to the task of running the game to any great success. Got too much of a lag on anything above tiny galaxies so i just use my desktop as it is more than up to the task.
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Reply #5 January 18, 2008 2:04:32 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
I will most certainly post the debug.err file when I get home from work, thanks!

Right now off the top of my head all I can say is it's an AMD 64 chip with 2 gigs of RAM on Vista Home but I will elaborate when I get home. It's much more convenient to play on the laptop for me since the wife will flip out on me if I dissappear upstairs with all 3 kids, ages 1,3,4 all up and about. I guess I can see her point.   

Hopefully with some help from you guys here I can get this working better for me.

Regards
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Meradanis
Join Date 03/2006
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Reply #6 January 18, 2008 2:16:20 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
I'm playing the game (TotA Beta) on my laptop only. It runs perfectly fine with 1680x1050, all details up, Immense (the biggest!) galaxy size. I have 2 gigs of ram, and a double core AMD Turion (2x 2GHz). The laptop uses a standard shared memory graphic card, nothing special there.

Perhabs the problem is Windows Vista ? My laptop had Vista preinstalled, and after running it for the first time, I checked the memory: 1 gig of my 2 gigs were in use only to run Vista, without any applications running (!).
Maybe those 3D desktop effects are one part of the problem, they require extra memory if you're using a shared memory card. Well, I'm running the laptop with Windows XP right now, and even with my webbrowser and some extra application, I'm still below 500mb of my memory in use.
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IztokBitenc
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Reply #7 January 18, 2008 2:25:05 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Hi!
Desktop comp. I haven't even tried to load GC-2 to my old portable: Cel 733, 192MB RAM, 4 MB on-board graphics card.

BR, Iztok
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Reply #8 January 18, 2008 3:07:13 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Yeah, I'm thinking it's probably Vista. I really wish they would release a service pack for that already. Absolutely horrendous memory management.

For the heck of it I'm going to try and load it onto a second laptop I have but it's a good deal older. I think it only has 512 meg RAM but at least it's running XP. Who knows, maybe that would work better. And boy if that is indeed the case that speaks volumes about Vista's performance. If companies are going to preload Vista onto computers from now on, 2 gigs of RAM just isn't going to cut it anymore.

I have Vista on my desktop as well but that thing has 4 gigs of RAM which may be why it runs fine on that.
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DRUNKANDARMED
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Reply #9 January 18, 2008 3:35:18 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Laptop, I travel often and it just didnt make sense to buy a desktop and lapy. It ran great on DA up to large galaxys. Any bigger and it would get very slow in late game. The specs were pentium m 1.7? 1 gig memory windows xp; x700 radion graphics card 128mb.

I can not wait to test on my new satellite w/ intel core duo processor 1.8?; 4gig memory(vista only recoginses 3gig); geoforce 8700m graphics. Cant wait to try huge gigantic maps! in TA. Sorry for poor grammer, tyring to type fast.
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Reply #10 January 18, 2008 3:41:19 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
I prefer a desktop

That way, I get to see everything on my Gateway 21" widescreen HD monitor and play my sound thought my stereo system
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Reply #11 January 18, 2008 3:44:02 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Vista will recognize the entire 4 gigs of RAM if you have the 64 bit version, which my desktop has. I do not believe laptops come with 64 bit versions but I could be wrong on that.
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Graviton
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Reply #12 January 18, 2008 3:47:27 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Also Laptop here. No problems with GC2 at max. settings including large and huge Galaxies. I haven't tried immesense yet, but should be no problem. My comp has 2 gigs of memory.
Memory is really important for games. Best thing to do when you buy a laptop just max out memory and you should have no problems.
As with Vista maybe wait for further updates and the service pack.
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Reply #13 January 18, 2008 3:52:06 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
i play on both, and both my systems more or less dominate galciv hardware wise, xp on both i'm not sold on vista yet. The laptop is actually a mac book pro u sing bootcamp to run xp pro and works just great
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Master of all he surveys
Join Date 10/2007
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Reply #14 January 18, 2008 4:15:27 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Laptop only.
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Reply #15 January 18, 2008 6:42:22 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Please open your debug.err file from your laptop in notepad, and copy/paste the contents into a post here. This will give us some technical information that can help troubleshoot your problem. The location you'll find the debug.err in varies depending on your game version:

Dread Lords, all versions:
C:\Program Files\Stardock\Totalgaming\GalCiv2

Dark Avatar 1.5-1.6 (non-Vista):
C:\Program Files\Stardock\Totalgaming\GalCiv2\DarkAvatar

Dark Avatar 1.6+(Windows Vista), 1.7+(non-Vista):
My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar

Twilight of the Arnor:
My Documents\My Games\GC2TwilightArnor



Ok, here's my debug file. Hope this leads to someone being able to helping me out a bit with performance.

Thanks again!!


Debug Message: Version v1.5 last updated on: Thu Jan 11 13:39:19 2007
Debug Message: GalCiv2 is activated.
Debug Message: Checking DX Version.
Debug Message: *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 1/18/2008, 07:44:58
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
Machine Name: CHRISTIAN-PC
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6000) (6000.vista_gdr.071009-1548)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: HP Pavilion tx1000 Notebook PC
BIOS: PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.1
Processor: AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-58 (2 CPUs), ~1.9GHz
Physical Memory: 1982MB RAM
Page File: 1007MB used, 3178MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows


Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce Go 6150
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0244&SUBSYS_30BF103C&REV_A2
Display Memory: 64 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 800 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Max Resolution:
Driver Name: nvd3dum.dll
Driver Version: 7.15.0010.9815
Driver Date: 2/26/2007 14:26:00
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes



Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0862&SUBSYS_103C30BF&REV_1000
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: RTKVHDA.sys
Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5322
Driver Date: 11/8/2006 13:09:24
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 1
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0

Sound device 1:
Description: Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Default Sound Playback: No
Default Voice Playback: No
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0862&SUBSYS_103C30BF&REV_1000
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: RTKVHDA.sys
Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5322
Driver Date: 11/8/2006 13:09:24
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 1
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: Game Resolution: 1024 x 768
Debug Message: Running fullscreen.
Debug Message: HAL (hw vp): NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150
Debug Message: D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL_DEFAULT
Debug Message: Refresh rate: 60
Debug Message: Bit Depth: 32 bit.
Debug Message: *********Checking D3DDevice Caps***********************
Debug Message: A full-color cursor is supported in hardware at high resolution modes.
Debug Message: RGB in format 6:6:6, Masks reported as ff0000:ff00:ff
Debug Message: Now Fullscreen
Debug Message: Shell initialization complete
Debug Message: ***** Initializing Game *****
Debug Message: Timer Frequency is 0 17d7840
Debug Message: Initializing sound card.
Debug Message: initailizing bink
Debug Message: Create setup screens.
Debug Message: Clear galaxy settings.
Debug Message: Clear influence.
Debug Message: Clear up laws.
Debug Message: Clear first time events.
Debug Message: Clear wonders and trade goods.
Debug Message: Clear sector mapper.
Debug Message: * Collectors Edition *
Debug Message: Set mouse.
Debug Message: Set update timer.
Debug Message: Clear data definitions.
Debug Message: No files found matching mask C:\Users\Christian\Documents\My Games\GalCiv2\ships\*.xml
Debug Message: No files found matching mask C:\Users\Christian\Documents\My Games\GalCiv2\ships\*.shipcfg
Debug Message: Reading Star Names
Debug Message: Reading Star Names... Done
Debug Message: OptionsWnd: Quit Btn
Debug Message: Posting WM_CLOSE message.
Debug Message: WM_CLOSE message received.
Debug Message: GameUninitialize start
Debug Message: Killing Galaxy
Debug Message: Killing threads.
Debug Message: Kiling civs.
Debug Message: Killing ships.
Debug Message: Killing rallypoints.
Debug Message: Killing misc objects.
Debug Message: Killing stars.
Debug Message: Killing anomalies.
Debug Message: Killing space resources.
Debug Message: Killing colonies and planets.
Debug Message: killing scenario.
Debug Message: Clearing Turn Event Log
Debug Message: Clear galaxy settings.
Debug Message: Clear influence.
Debug Message: Clear up laws.
Debug Message: Clear first time events.
Debug Message: Clear wonders and trade goods.
Debug Message: Clear sector mapper.
Debug Message: Clear data definitions.
Debug Message: Killing Galaxy: Completed
Debug Message: Shutting down sound system.
Debug Message: Clearing sound and music handles.
Debug Message: GameUninitialize end
Debug Message: Device not cleared. 1 counts left.
Debug Message: D3D not cleared. 1 counts left.
Debug Message: Destroying Window.
Debug Message: Main Shell terminating normally
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kryo
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Reply #16 January 18, 2008 7:28:57 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Yeah, with only 64MB of RAM allotted to the video chip it's going to have trouble. You should be able to adjust how much it gets in the computer's BIOS. You should also try turning anti-aliasing down to 0 and updating your video drivers from laptopvideo2go.com (the ones you have have a bad crash bug in them).

There is a known issue with vista (and even XP in the newest drivers) and DL, which is fixed in DA/TA. Namely, nVidia cut 2d acceleration form their drivers so any time the minimap is showing, the screen will scroll very slowly. There is a workaround for that at least by minimizing the bottom panel, and hopefully DL will get the fix with the 2.0 update after TA's release.
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Reply #17 January 18, 2008 7:52:15 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Desktop here. If I had a laptop strong enough to run the game, I'd use it for playing while traveling. But for playing at home, I just love the immersion of a big LCD monitor running 1600x1200 resolution, with a powerful GPU card driving it so I can play most modern games without any trouble.
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Drudge
Join Date 09/2006
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Reply #18 January 18, 2008 8:27:10 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Yep, it looks like I'll be sticking with my desktop, much to the wife's discontent.   

But hey, on the upside it looks much better on a 24" lcd in 1920x1200 rez!

Thanks all, I'm sure you'll be seeing me around with questions on actual gameplay soon enough.

Best regards,
Drudge
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