Filibuster Posted October 6, 2003 Report Share Posted October 6, 2003 Installed the game today, and there is no chance I'm playing it in this state. Even with all configurations turned to minimal, the 'Test' in the config program, the intro movie and the menu all run very slow. The intro movie is the worst, it can be counted as seconds per frame instead of frames per second (and I'm not exaggerating just to coin a cool phrase). The menu is so slow it doesn't even seem to be accepting mouse clicks, I actually had to Alt-F4 my way out. Tried fiddling with my GPU settings and then setting them to default, no improvement. - Athlon XP 2600- Epox 8RGA+ motherboard- 1GB DDR in nForce2 Dual Channel mode- Samsung Syncmaster monitor, 1024x768x85Hz supported- Integrated Geforce 4 MX GPU using the latest nVidia drivers (6.14.10.4523).- Windows XP sp1- English version 1.1a (same performance in 1.0 and after applying patch) I'm getting no error messages and the game seems to be running okay, if you ignore the fact that it seems as if I'm running it on a 486. No other game has given me trouble like this, for example, C&C:Generals runs quite nicely with all the detail settings maxed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted October 6, 2003 Report Share Posted October 6, 2003 Some people reported that tweaking the AGP setting helped. I think they set it down. Others said that overclocking the CPU made trouble, so they had to turn in down a few MHz. Except for that I'm at a loss. You will have to ask at the official boards I guess, or maybe someone else have something to supply? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filibuster Posted October 6, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2003 Well, I sent the same complaint to Altar support, I'll relay any reply I get here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowBlade Posted October 6, 2003 Report Share Posted October 6, 2003 Ha! I think I have the solution to your problem. It happened to me in another game, Neverwinter Nights. I think it's a colour configuration problem, so I guess the game uses 32 bit and your desktop is set to 16 bit, so change that to 32 and you'll be OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EASyLIFE Posted October 6, 2003 Report Share Posted October 6, 2003 It's weird that some people have performance problems.The original poster has a similar PC to mine,in that it's easilly more than enough to run the game fully maxed out,mine: AMD 2200xp @ 2.Ghz1Gb DDR333 PC 2700128Mb GF 4 TI-4600Windows XP Pro The game runs fine for me,in fact my comp blows through it with ease.Even with 4xAA and 8x AF with high D3D LOD settings and it's still running smoothly at 1024x768x32 x 100Hz 19". The original poster is on Win XP and is using a Geforce card,same as me,so it cant be any of them i suppose.You on Direct x 9? then again im not sure if the game would run without it,as i have been on DX 9 for ages so i wouldnt know if you cant install it with DX 8. Run DX Diag make sure all is well there: start/run/dxdiag Follow all the tests with the DX Diagnostics utill,but if your other DX games run fine then there wont be a problem with DX i suppose.Must be some conflict somwhere maybe. Laters! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted October 6, 2003 Report Share Posted October 6, 2003 Did that fix it EASyLIFE? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EASyLIFE Posted October 6, 2003 Report Share Posted October 6, 2003 Umm , it' not me that has the problem Slaughter m8ty. (see original thread starter).The point about 16/32 bit colour is a valid one though. Games overlap the desktop , if your desktop is in 16 bit colour , and you overlay a game on it wich is in 32 bit colour (or vice versa) it can cause problems. You also dont want your game in a higher resolution than your desktop (this is ok vice versa though) , really the desktop should be equal to or higher in resolution than the game. Laters! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted October 6, 2003 Report Share Posted October 6, 2003 Sorry, I meant Filibuster Did that solve your problem Filibuster? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filibuster Posted October 6, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2003 Okay... this post is taking this thread off topic. First of all, apparently my woes aren't limited to U:AM. Shadowblade above mentioned Neverwinter Nights. Well, as it happens, I also have that installed on my HD. On a random impulse, I decided to test how it works... well, it took me about 8-10 minutes to load a saved game, after which I got 10-15 frames per minute in the game. The same problem is also present in the toolset. Both used to work perfectly well before. So, I have probably been barking up the wrong tree blaming UFO for the problems, although I have no idea what changes I have made to the system that could have caused this. The problem first exhibited itself after UFO installation, but I haven't played any of the afflicted games in a while, so the introduction of the problem may very well predate that. Interestingly enough, C&C:Generals which I mentioned before still works perfectly, no slowdown whatsoever. So, I've been doing some experimentation to rule out stuff... the desktop colour setting is 32bit, so no problem there. Uninstalled/reinstalled nVidia drivers, no change. Dxdiag shows all green, reinstallation of DirectX 9b does nothing. I've tried changing every D3D and OpenGL setting in the nVidia properties, and in the AGP settings in the BIOS (also put BIOS back to default and even jumper-cleared it). Strangely enough, it does not affect every game. Maybe just those which use OpenGL? Then again, I also tested Half-Life, both with in OpenGL and Direct3D mode, neither works. As I said, this does not seem to be an UFO problem anymore, so this is probably the wrong forum to continue this, but if anyone has any ideas how to fix this thing I'll name my firstborn baby after him/her*. Otherwise I'll have no difficulties in deciding how to spend next weekend... reinstalling everything from the OS up... * - pending agreement from its mother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowBlade Posted October 6, 2003 Report Share Posted October 6, 2003 So maybe the game uses 24 or 16 bit modes instead of the 32 one. Try changing between the first two. I'm sure that's the problem, unless I somehow misunderstood it. It fixed my Neverwinter Nights, so it's quite possible it also fixes UFO: Aftermath. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filibuster Posted October 7, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2003 No, nothing that easy, I'm afraid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
systems Posted October 7, 2003 Report Share Posted October 7, 2003 When you start a new game does the hard drive light stay on all the time? If so, I'd do a scandisk and then force a defrag. I don't know what could make NWN work and then you fire it up again and all is in SPF not FPS. Things to check: 1. In DXDIAG, does it say "AGP enabled"? Does the Direct3D test pass?2. What is your AGP aperture in the BIOS? 128Mb is usually best unless you have 256Mb RAM or less.3. Are you running anti-virus or any other taskbar apps?4. Are you running unnecessary services (do a right-click on My Computer and select "Manage", then go to services at the bottom).5. In your Detonator drivers, are you running in "High Quality" mode? I'd turn that off for a GeForce MX and go with "Performance"6. Do another My Computer -> Manage and this time look in Device Manager. Is there any hardware marked in yellow or red? Post back with your answers to them all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowBlade Posted October 7, 2003 Report Share Posted October 7, 2003 Well, if that doesn't fix it, I suggest you return the game to your vendor to get a replacement BEFORE messing with your computer, which may lead to worse problem if you do anything wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filibuster Posted October 8, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 1. In DXDIAG, does it say "AGP enabled"? Does the Direct3D test pass? Yes and Yes. 2. What is your AGP aperture in the BIOS? 128Mb is usually best unless you have 256Mb RAM or less. 128. 3. Are you running anti-virus or any other taskbar apps? Antivirus, sound control panel, nVidia control panel, joystick control panel, Messenger (which I exit before starting any games). All have been there basically since I first installed the OS so I doubt they're the problem. 4. Are you running unnecessary services (do a right-click on My Computer and select "Manage", then go to services at the bottom). Hmm... not that I would recognise. 5. In your Detonator drivers, are you running in "High Quality" mode? I'd turn that off for a GeForce MX and go with "Performance" I've tried with practically all the possible settings. 6. Do another My Computer -> Manage and this time look in Device Manager. Is there any hardware marked in yellow or red? Well, there was an USB 2.0 controller for some reason without a driver (USB's been working fine nevertheless) but that's fixed now. Also, there's a secondary LAN controller I've disabled, that's also since I installed the system way back when. Sorry for not replying sooner - I spent last night doing a fresh installation of XP on a HD I borrowed from my old computer, and on that, both NWN and UFO work perfectly. Should at least rule out problems with BIOS settings. Thanks for the help, guys, but I believe the path of least bother here is reinstalling the OS. Well, they say that's a healthy thing to do every once in a while... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
systems Posted October 8, 2003 Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 If you do reinstall, here's a tip for you. As soon as the basic install finished, run Norton Ghost and create an image of your system. Ghost is included with the motherboard CD of quite a few machines. If anything goes wrong, rather than spending an hour just putting Windows on you can restore from the image in about 5 minutes. If you don't have ghost you'll be left with Windows Restore points. Then if this happens again go back to an earlier restore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filibuster Posted October 8, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 Thanks, I'll do that. (secretly relieved I won't have to name my first kid 'Systems'...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
systems Posted October 8, 2003 Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 Thanks Dad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bor-ka Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 I had the same problem:Athlon XP 1600/512RAM/ASUS GeForce 4 MX 440/WinXP SP1 The game was tooooo slow, but magically worked fine in-the-window (-option fullscreen=FALSE) But then, guess what? I've played with the driver settings and turned off ASUS's OSD (it is in Display/Advanced tab, it is for displaying OSD with hot-key to control brightness/gamma etc. in games). And all of sudden, it started to be very smooth. I even turned AA and anisothropy ;-) Hope this will help anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EggBoy Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 A chum of mine had the exact same problem last night. This was sorted by tweaking some opengl settings in the geforce driver properties. Im not too sure if the game uses opengl or direct x, but this tweak made a big difference. So if you are still having problems, have a look at your cards opengl settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domino Posted October 10, 2003 Report Share Posted October 10, 2003 I'm having this problem too, but I find it to be quite strange.I have a Radeon 9700pro card with TVout.When I have TVout disabled, the movies are laggy and unwatchable.When I have TVout enabled (extending screen to the right), the movies play quite nicely, but offcourse I cannot play since it's not longer possible to scroll right Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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