If you are having graphics problems with the demo...

[unmerged(6777)]

If you are having graphics problems with the demo and you are positive that you have a card that has at least 128 MB physical RAM and supports Pixelshader 2.0, please try putting the attached file in the EU3 root directory (default is c:\program files\paradox interactive\eu3 demo\ ) and try running the game before sending me a report. If this loads okay but ends up in a somewhat stretched-out image, try using the in-game settings utility to switch to your screen's native resolution.

Also...

Make sure that you have your graphics driver set to allow the game to control graphics settings. Some drivers (recent nVidea ones anyway) have options to disable software control and force settings from the driver which might be causing problems. If you've never fiddled with the graphics driver settings then you shouldn't have to do this, but if you might have made changes for another game then there could conceivably be conflicts/issues arising from that.

At least this will help narrow down the issue.

EDIT:

I think we have now received enough dxdiag reports to get to figure out what's happening so there's no longer a need to send any new ones to me. Hopefully the devs will figure out a work-around or fix that will help many of you who are having problems.

Thanks.

 

[unmerged(64677)]

For the Computer challenged...ROOT directory??

If you are having graphics problems with the demo and you are positive that you have a card that has at least 128 MB physical RAM and supports Pixelshader 2.0, please try putting the attached file in the EU3 root directory (default is c:\program files\paradox interactive\eu3 demo\ ) and try running the game before sending me a report. If this loads okay but ends up in a somewhat stretched-out image, try using the in-game settings utility to switch to your screen's native resolution

Ok...im not a complete idiot. But, where is the root directory and how do I find it??

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

Open My Computer, double click C: drive, continue along the path that he notes.

 

[unmerged(64677)]

Open My Computer, double click C: drive, continue along the path that he notes.

Im missing something here....I dont see a ROOT directory in the EU3 file. Sorry for being sooo challenged at this

 

[unmerged(6777)]

Or...

- Right-click on the EU3 demo shortcut on your desktop
- from the drop down menu, select "properties"
- a box should open with the "shortcut" tab selected
- click on the "find target" button
- the root folder of the demo will open
- now drop the new settings.txt file in the folder and (if prompted) say that "yes you want to replace the file"

 

[unmerged(6777)]

Im missing something here....I dont see a ROOT directory in the EU3 file. Sorry for being sooo challenged at this

Ah...

The folder won't be called "ROOT" -- that's a common way to describe that folder for a program where all of the files and subfolders for it are located. The folder itself is called "EU3 Demo" and you'll see that it already has a "settings.txt" file in it. That's the file you're going to replace with the one I posted.

 

[unmerged(64677)]

Ah...

The folder won't be called "ROOT" -- that's a common way to describe that folder for a program where all of the files and subfolders for it are located. The folder itself is called "EU3 Demo" and you'll see that it already has a "settings.txt" file in it. That's the file you're going to replace with the one I posted.

Darn...I followed your instructions and am still getting the You need at least 128 error message. I have confirmed that I have more than enough resources to run this. Any suggestions? Just an FYI... I downloaded the DEMO from GameSpot.

 

[unmerged(21215)]

I tried your fix on a laptop with GMA950. Still not working !

Luckily I got a desktop too..

 

[Kosh]

If you are having graphics problems with the demo and you are positive that you have a card that has at least 128 MB physical RAM and (...)

A silly question: the "128 MB physical RAM" thing... does it means that a ATI Hypermemory or Nvidia Turbocache card with 64MB in card + 64 (or more) shared is not supported?
I'm going to buy a new laptop and ....

 

[OHgamer]

A silly question: the "128 MB physical RAM" thing... does it means that a ATI Hypermemory or Nvidia Turbocache card with 64MB in card + 64 (or more) shared is not supported?
I'm going to buy a new laptop and ....

My hunch would be not.

Alot of the reports of players having game load problems on startup come from laptop systems using video chips that do exactly this (borrow from the main CPU to make up the total). My theory is that when the game is loading up and checks the equipment needed, it only sees the video card having the base level of MB, not the shared value it gets from borrowing from the CPU, and hence the game senses you do not have enough on your card.

Just my theory, but would explain a lot of the problems with laptops since a large majority of the video cards in laptops tend to be of this "borrow RAM from the main system" type.

 

[Evie HJ]

It means that *for now* the game detect those cards as not having enough memories.

We've been told it's #1 on the to-fix list (as in, they're working on a bypass right now). Though of course, even when the pop-up stop showing up, us poor hypermemoried people likely won't get stellar graphic performance.

 

[unmerged(64677)]

Its crazy to think that my Dell Latitude laptop which has run programs like BF2 and WOW is having difficutly with running a simple graphics type game like EU3

 

[unmerged(46069)]

The posted settings.txt file worked for me. I'm now playing the demo fullscreen, although the performance is still not very good.
Thanks a lot MrT.

 

[KingOfTheIsles]

I'm not sure it is the physical memory, as it runs with Transformation and Lighting emulation (albeit badly) so it may be more of an issue to do with that.

 

[unmerged(6777)]

Just a little update...

The devs now have enough reports to know what's going on and work on a fix, so there's no longer a need to make a dxdiag and send it to me. We'll keep you posted on development.

Thanks to all who took the time to send their reports in to me. It has really helped the devs to track down the problem so quickly.

 

[Kliwarrior]

following the "graphic troubles" threads, I've seen 4 kind of issues

1. Cards without HW T&L ( e.g. GMA 900/950 ): game starts with 3Danalyze hack, except the weird blue color...

2. cards which "pretends" to have 128 or more megs, but actually "steal" main ram: EU3 discovers this trick and punishes the card owners..

3. cards with 64Mb - period : EU3 punishes the card owners as above

4. cards without PS2.0 support: hardly these will ever work..

It's possible to have any rumors on which kind of problems the Dev-team guys are -eventually- thinking about ?

Note: I wrote just "thinking about", I'm not speaking about any future patch.. i know the p.dox rules about that

 

[Registered]

2. cards which "pretends" to have 128 or more megs, but actually "steal" main ram: EU3 discovers this trick and punishes the card owners..

3. cards with 64Mb - period : EU3 punishes the card owners as above

Punishes? odd choice of words. Anyway, the devs are supposedly working on this. 64 MB cards should work for 1.1, don't ask me what performance would be like though.

 

[Kliwarrior]

Punishes? odd choice of words.

uh, i forget to put a couple of smiles after that

Anyway, the devs are supposedly working on this. 64 MB cards should work for 1.1, don't ask me what performance would be like though.

let's hope someone would take a look at #1 (hw h&l) too..

 

[unmerged(6777)]

following the "graphic troubles" threads, I've seen 4 kind of issues

1. Cards without HW T&L ( e.g. GMA 900/950 ): game starts with 3Danalyze hack, except the weird blue color...

Not sure if a fix is possible for these. The devs will let us know.

2. cards which "pretends" to have 128 or more megs, but actually "steal" main ram: EU3 discovers this trick and punishes the card owners..

The devs expect to have a fix that will allow these to work. Performance may suffer depending on how much system RAM is "stolen" and how much remains to run the game. Assume that you'll need at least 512MB + however much is being used to top up your graphics card. 1GB would probably be a good starting point (guessing).

3. cards with 64Mb - period : EU3 punishes the card owners as above

Ditto. The devs hope to have a fix to allow this to run, but performance is quite likely to suffer.

4. cards without PS2.0 support: hardly these will ever work..

I think it's very unlikely that a fix would be made for this (at least not anytime soon) though the devs would need to confirm that. I believe that it would involve so much new coding (almost to the point of having to duplicate all of the existing graphics code and then adding more to handle dual functionality) that it's probably not feasible.


What I don't know is whether the things that they are trying to make a fix for will be released in a demo form or will only be built into a full game patch. I would hazard a guess that it would be the latter.

 

[wolf4492000]

Hey MrtT, do you know how to get it to work with the FX5200 cards series, cause I still cant get the game to work. Even in window mode it crashes when I try to play a game, and full window mode just crashes at startup.

Thanks.