Performance of the demo

[Dominik]

This thread is not about the features of EU3 which are great and are discussed in the "Experiences thread". I would like to ask question about the performance issues.

How may it be that I can run Warhammer Mark of Chaos with playable speed and that game was really criticised for bad (slow) implementation of 3d graphics which are much worse than MTWII, yet it has more complicated landscape and more units (of course less AI work to do behind the scene) than EU3, which lags terribly?

For example I have to wait 3-4 seconds with mouse cursor over a button in main menu to get the highlight and the ability to click it. If I click too soon, the click is dispatched into a point the mouse was moved over some time ago and I often have misclicks. The game turns (days) change acceptably fast (like in HOI2DD Doomsday scenario with lots of units) but the GUI has terrible lags.

I know my PC is crap today and I plan to buy a new one (but no sooner than September), yet I would like to know if I will be able to play my CE that should arrive next week in the 8 months to come. I still think there is a bottleneck somewhere in the code that prevents the GUI from being more responsive.

Specs:
Celeron 1.7GHz
512MB RAM
GeForce 5200

(don't laugh, I know it's a crap but it still runs MoC in acceptable speed, and that game asks for P4 3.2GHz, 1GB RAM, GeForce 6800)

 

[fraese]

I couldn't run the game at all until I updated my drivers - perhaps this is part of the issue?

 

[unmerged(1823)]

3d graphics which are much worse than MTWII, yet it has more complicated landscape and more units (of course less AI work to do behind the scene) than EU3, which lags terribly?

ehhmm.. no..

the eu3 map is a tad bit more advanced that the mtw map.

 

[Palle]

What are the recommended HW specs for the game?

I just noticed that I have to buy a new video card with Pixelshader 2.0 support to play the game. And of course all the new cards require AGP 8.0 or PCI express slots... My motherboard has neither so I have to buy that too. This game is going to be so expensive I knew I had to upgrade my system at some point but would have never guessed that EU3 makes me do it!!

 

[Dominik]

ehhmm.. no..

the eu3 map is a tad bit more advanced that the mtw map.

I was talking about the 3d map, not the strategic map.

MTW2

MoC

Anyway, the map scrolls ok, it's the buttons that are really unresponsive, that's why I'm curious... and the turns are even moving quite fast.

 

[Dakk]

Actually the M2:TW map isn't advanced at all.. it's just a bells 'n whistles map with shiny things on it, that really doesn't DO anything until you press <END TURN> and then the CPU chew-chew-chews and then shows more or less the same things but instead with white ground (winter, that is).

There's no real-time element to it, whatsoever.

 

[Dominik]

But that's what uses the GPU, bells and whistles (those shaders).

But how may it be that even the main menu is lagging terribly? That is really not something complicated, to highlight a button. BTW, all other software was turned off during those tests.

 

[unmerged(63726)]

There is an issue with the graphics card; I have the fx5200 too and I am experiancing similar problems.

 

[Registered]

But how may it be that even the main menu is lagging terribly? That is really not something complicated, to highlight a button. BTW, all other software was turned off during those tests.

I get the same problem here. Perhaps the game has a problem with AMD processors? (2600+ in my case).

 

[Dominik]

If it's the video card then I can upgrade it easily, 6600 is quite cheap. I have another idea though, the sound is so choppy, is there a way to turn the sound sytem completely off?

 

[Gaute65]

If it's the video card then I can upgrade it easily, 6600 is quite cheap. I have another idea though, the sound is so choppy, is there a way to turn the sound sytem completely off?

Try to rename the sound folder to sound.old

 

[Ciçatrix]

What are the recommended HW specs for the game?

I just noticed that I have to buy a new video card with Pixelshader 2.0 support to play the game. And of course all the new cards require AGP 8.0 or PCI express slots... My motherboard has neither so I have to buy that too. This game is going to be so expensive I knew I had to upgrade my system at some point but would have never guessed that EU3 makes me do it!!

Actually, the Nvidia 6200 (and below) is available as a PCI card by PNY, although I'm not quite sure if the money saved is worth the decrease in speed of the PCI slot.

 

[General di tuti]

works fine on my pc but could be just one little bit smoother.

amd athlon 3200+ (2ghz)
512ddr ram (400mhz)
geforce 6200 256mb shitty

(going to buy me a geforce 7600GT and add some ram.. that ought to keep me going )

 

[Ciçatrix]

Slightly slow scroll and responsiveness times, but otherwise good:

Intel Celeron 2.6 ghz
768 mb RAM
Nvidia 6200 256 mb

 

[Hyzhenhok]

I'm having similar issues with a sluggish interface. This is something that has plagued my relations with Paradox games for a long time - the only paradox game I have that runs smoothly is EU2. My specs are well above the minimum, and still...

The game is nice when I'm just sitting there and watching, but whenever I try to do something or scroll around, the chopiness practically punches me in the face.

 

[unmerged(57202)]

i just play the demo, and i have all kind of trouble, like slow mouse and slow game and everything.. i play for like half hour and at full speed yet only two years have past.. i'm afraid i'll have to play a 75 hours for just one game.. that's horrible...

 

[K'shar]

It's extremely difficult to ensure that a game runs stellar on all the potential systems it will be run on, this is compounded by being a smaller budget game (and company) ... not that resources seem to matter anymore with all problems mainstream games have now.

Just make sure you have a handle on background applications (and any potentian spyware, viruses etc. programs), the latest vid-card drivers (make sure you delete your old drivers), and play in the lowest resolution with shadows clicked off ... give that a go, made quite a difference here.

 

[Dakk]

And of course all the new cards require AGP 8.0 or PCI express slots...

You might've gotten that a bit backward, any AGP-slot will do but the performance of the card will of course not be utilized to 100% (even though the actual decrease in performance does NOT directly correlate to the difference between say 4x and 8x).

And if your computer doesn't even have an AGP-slot at all, you might want to upgrade it anyway.

 

[unmerged(46069)]

You might've gotten that a bit backward, any AGP-slot will do but the performance of the card will of course not be utilized to 100% (even though the actual decrease in performance does NOT directly correlate to the difference between say 4x and 8x).

And if your computer doesn't even have an AGP-slot at all, you might want to upgrade it anyway.

Unfortunately (for me)most new graphics cards, the moderate to high-end cards anyway, are PCI express. Its hard to find a powerful AGP graphics card nowadays. AGP slots are rapidly becoming obsolete (if they aren't already).

 

[Gaute65]

Unfortunately (for me)most new graphics cards, the moderate to high-end cards anyway, are PCI express. Its hard to find a powerful AGP graphics card nowadays. AGP slots are rapidly becoming obsolete (if they aren't already).

ATi 1600,X1300,x800 has agp versions.