Emperor and WinXP

[crdstephen]

Hi there!

I hope someone can help. I am having some strange issues with Emperor: Battle For Dune on Windows XP Professional.

Issue 1:

When I attempt start this game the game hangs before the opening EA Games logo appears. I have to end the task for the game by using the windows task manager that reports Dune is "Not Responding". After I have ended the task and attempt to run the game again, it launches properly. I do not know why I have to do this every time I want to play the game. Any ideas?

Issue 2: The main problem.

Once I get the game going, I can play it for hours as it is very addicting. The game runs pretty well, however during the later missions the video gets very choppy and makes the game unplayable. Strange thing is that if you sit and watch all your units in the game go choppy for a while it will eventually speed up again and all will be fine but will get choppy again soon after. :-[

I have contacted Westwood Technical Support and they have given me the traditional answers like update your video card drivers and close all unnecessary programs. I have already tried all of that but nothing has helped. What is interesting is that when the video gets choppy the sound is fine.

Here are my system specs:

Windows XP Professional

P4/478 1.9G 400MHZ Processor

2 X 256 MB 800MHZ RIMMs for a total of 512 MB

Maxtor UDMA133 80GB HDD using NTFS and the Intel Application Accelerator Drivers

ASUS P4T-E MOBO (no sound version) Using the Chipset drivers from Intel's website.

SB Audigy X-Gamer

ASUS V8200 GeForce 3 Ti200

3COM 10/100 NIC

Plextor Plexwriter 24/10/32A CDRW drive

Whisper Enermax 350W Power Supply

Panasonic 1.44MB floppy drive

My system is not the best there is, nor is it a slower machine, but with my setup, the game should play better than it does IMO. :-

I am currently running with the NVIDIA 29.40 drivers for my GeForce 3 Ti200 and have tried every driver set that I can find but it has not helped.

I have also tried shutting down every program I can in the Windows Task Manager Processes Tab but that doesn't help either. I cannot shut down any process with the username of System as the computer reboots.

Within the game I have turned down all the video settings all the way down to the bare bones but still the same thing.

I have tested this all with a saved game that I saved just when it got all choppy. If I start a new mission, everything is fine but it will eventually get choppy.

Westwood has also suggested re-installing the game, but I really do not understand how this will help because if I start a new mission, everything starts out fine, but it will eventually get choppy. So I tried it anyway and it didn't help. Same thing. The last time I heard from Westwood was on April 4 saying "We have reviewed your issue. Due to the unique nature of your issue, we will need to research your problem further. We have a team continuing to examine your specific problem and expect to have an answer shortly." I have not heard anything from them since.

I have also tried turning the Video Acceleration down as per another sugestion but that did not help either.

I can play all my other games perfectly. My other games are Dungeon Siege, Quake 3, MOHAA, Pharaoh, Star Trek Voyager Elite Force to name a few.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. I would really like to finish this game and play online! ;)

Thanks in advance!

Chris

[Timenn]

Hmm, there doesn't seem anything wrong with your system specs...

Reinstalling is one of the things you must always try, you'll never know if there is a corrupt file or something.

For the rest I don't know, but I think some others can help you out

[Nyarlathotep]

What you might want to try is to take the computer case off while you play. If possible, have an extra fan blow air inside it.

To me it seems it could be several issues, heat, hardware or memory.

What you could do is to try to take out either one of the memory modules and try to play. If the problem re-occurs, swap modules.

Make sure your windows temp folder is empty..

[crdstephen]

Hi Guys!

Thanks for your reply.

I have already tried reinstalling the game. Same problem.

I have lot's of cooling in my case but I will try playing with the side cover off. My case is a Lian-Li PC-60 Which has 3 fans. My power supply is a dual fan which does a nice job.

As for memory, it is Samsung 512MB RAMBUS PC-800 which must run in pairs. I cannot take them out.

Never heard of the windows temp folder having an issue with games but I will definitely try cleaning it out.

I will post my results after I test everyone's suggestions.

Thanks!!

Chris

[Apollyon]

i know someone who gets the same problem and he also has winXP pro

[Nyarlathotep]

Another thing you might want to try is to put all ingame graphical settings to low and make sure shadows is off..

[crdstephen]

Hello there.

Well, I have tried everything that everyone has suggested but the same problem occurs every time. Nothing has emproved at all. :-[

I have even tried the game in compatibility mode but nothing has helped. All my other games are fine.

It would appear that Emperor is not WinXP compatible but then again, I was having the same problem with Emperor on my WinME computer with a P3 500. That's why I built a new computer, so I could play this game.

I have noticed that Westwood has not released a patch for Emperor in quite some time. Perhaps the next patch would address this issue if and when it is ever released.

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Nyarlathotep]

I have noticed that Westwood has not released a patch for Emperor in quite some time. Perhaps the next patch would address this issue if and when it is ever released.

There are no new patches coming.

I'll look further into your problem and get back to you..

[Nyarlathotep]

As I can't seem to modify my previous post, could you also attach a dxdiag output to this thread ? It would be a great help in further investigating your problem..

[Dante]

I have even tried the game in compatibility mode but nothing has helped. All my other games are fine.

Don't bother with that. It's about as useful as a block of ice at the South pole.

One tip which is difficult to get right but might be worth considering in the future; I once installed a game, Driver. It had TERRIBLE graphics due to insufficiant sonething or other. Some time ago, I had installed Dungeon Keeper II. I then installed a patch for this game, not only did it work better, but ALL of Driver's problems were solved. This is difficult to explain, it can't have been intentional, Bullfrog and Westwood aren't working in alliance are they? But in any case, it worked. If you have any other games, upgrade them all. It MIGHT work... :-

[crdstephen]

[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[Nyarlathotep]

What you might want to try is to lower your refresh rate of your adapter. It's currently set to 85Mhz, but try the adapter default setting.

Also, try to play with the option -s behind the games shortcut..

[DukeLeto]

Hi there!

I hope someone can help. I am having some strange issues with Emperor: Battle For Dune on Windows XP Professional.

Issue 1:

When I attempt start this game the game hangs before the opening EA Games logo appears. I have to end the task for the game by using the windows task manager that reports Dune is "Not Responding". After I have ended the task and attempt to run the game again, it launches properly. I do not know why I have to do this every time I want to play the game. Any ideas?

Issue 2: The main problem.

Once I get the game going, I can play it for hours as it is very addicting. The game runs pretty well, however during the later missions the video gets very choppy and makes the game unplayable. Strange thing is that if you sit and watch all your units in the game go choppy for a while it will eventually speed up again and all will be fine but will get choppy again soon after. :-[

I have contacted Westwood Technical Support and they have given me the traditional answers like update your video card drivers and close all unnecessary programs. I have already tried all of that but nothing has helped. What is interesting is that when the video gets choppy the sound is fine.

Here are my system specs:

Windows XP Professional

P4/478 1.9G 400MHZ Processor

2 X 256 MB 800MHZ RIMMs for a total of 512 MB

Maxtor UDMA133 80GB HDD using NTFS and the Intel Application Accelerator Drivers

ASUS P4T-E MOBO (no sound version) Using the Chipset drivers from Intel's website.

SB Audigy X-Gamer

ASUS V8200 GeForce 3 Ti200

3COM 10/100 NIC

Plextor Plexwriter 24/10/32A CDRW drive

Whisper Enermax 350W Power Supply

Panasonic 1.44MB floppy drive

My system is not the best there is, nor is it a slower machine, but with my setup, the game should play better than it does IMO. :-

I am currently running with the NVIDIA 29.40 drivers for my GeForce 3 Ti200 and have tried every driver set that I can find but it has not helped.

I have also tried shutting down every program I can in the Windows Task Manager Processes Tab but that doesn't help either. I cannot shut down any process with the username of System as the computer reboots.

Within the game I have turned down all the video settings all the way down to the bare bones but still the same thing.

I have tested this all with a saved game that I saved just when it got all choppy. If I start a new mission, everything is fine but it will eventually get choppy.

Westwood has also suggested re-installing the game, but I really do not understand how this will help because if I start a new mission, everything starts out fine, but it will eventually get choppy. So I tried it anyway and it didn't help. Same thing. The last time I heard from Westwood was on April 4 saying "We have reviewed your issue. Due to the unique nature of your issue, we will need to research your problem further. We have a team continuing to examine your specific problem and expect to have an answer shortly." I have not heard anything from them since.

I have also tried turning the Video Acceleration down as per another sugestion but that did not help either.

I can play all my other games perfectly. My other games are Dungeon Siege, Quake 3, MOHAA, Pharaoh, Star Trek Voyager Elite Force to name a few.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. I would really like to finish this game and play online! ;)

Thanks in advance!

Chris

As for issue one, It seems to be an XP-Westwood thing. All WestWood games TS and newer have that problem... You don't have to "end task", just wait a while...

[Desert_Eagle25]

Or delete the opening EA thing completely..got to your emperor-movie directory, wich is usually C:WestwoodEmperorDataMovies and delete "Legals.bik" and the opening movie should be gone.

[DukeLeto]

Cool...That should speed up my testng (a little). ;D

[crdstephen]

Hello again.

I tried deleting "Legals.bik" as suggested by Desert_Eagle to solve the start up thing. Unfortunately it did not help.

As for the choppy video, I have tried Emperor again with the refresh rate at 60 MHZ and the -s setting but with no improvement. I have also tried playing Emperor with the case cover off with no improvement either. The game still gets choppy.

I was wondering.......

I have my hard drive partitioned. I have WinXP installed on Drive C and Emperor is on Drive D. Could this be causing the problem? Would it make any difference having Emperor installed on Drive C?

Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again.

Chris

[Nyarlathotep]

I doubt it'll do any good, but you might want to give it a try.

Have you already tried to defrag your harddrives ?

[crdstephen]

Hi Nyarlathotep.

Thanks for your reply. That's what I thought as well as all my other games are installed on the other partition as well and work perfectly. I'm going to try it anyway just to see what happens. I got nothing to loose and who knows. I might just be able to play this game after all.

Yes, I regularly perform error checking and disk defragmenter on my drives.

Anyway, I'm going to try this and see what happens. I'll report back my findings.

Thanks for all your help.

Chris

[crdstephen]

Hello again.

Well, I installed Emperor on Drive C and tried it out. Sadly there was absolutly no change at all. The game still gets choppy. I have uninstalled Emperor completely from my PC.

I guess it is time to move on to something else. It is very unfortunate that Westwood was unwilling to continue to troubleshoot this. It will be a long time before I purchace any more games from Westwood. :(

I really wish that I was able to play this game as it is really cool.

I would like to thank everyone in this group who replied and tried to help.

Take care!

Chris

[DjCiD]

and another one bits the dust... :-

as a result of no support (other than Doc Nyar out of the kindness of his heart ;D) from WW we have lost antoher from the Duniverse... ;D

alsa WW why have thou forsaken us?!?! :'(

[Nyarlathotep]

Sprry to see you leave crdstephen. I'd wish I could help you more..

[crdstephen]

Hello again.

Well, I've decided to give it another go at getting this game to work. I've re-installed the game and when I load my save game to the final battle of the Harkonen mission I have the exact same problem.

I'm in the process of updating the BIOS on my MOBO and various other devices as well as all my drivers. I will report back once I have all this done.

Quick question: Is there anyone out there with a similar set up to mine with this game working perfectly? If so, did you have to change anything?

Thanks!

Chris

[Nyarlathotep]

Hello again.

Well, I've decided to give it another go at getting this game to work. I've re-installed the game and when I load my save game to the final battle of the Harkonen mission I have the exact same problem.

I'm in the process of updating the BIOS on my MOBO and various other devices as well as all my drivers. I will report back once I have all this done.

Quick question: Is there anyone out there with a similar set up to mine with this game working perfectly? If so, did you have to change anything?

Thanks!

Chris

Chris, if it's the final mission you have choppiness issues with, don't bother trying to find a solution, cause you won't. I haven't met anyone yet who has stated that the last mission ran without some sort of "lag". In order to troubleshoot the problem, I've ran the game on several machines and they all "lag" in the last mission.

Not that you shouldn't update your drivers, but don't do it because you think it might solve your "lag" issue...

[crdstephen]

Hello Nyarlathotep!

This is very interesting. So, if I will not be able to finish the final mission, does this mean that I will not be able to play multiplayer missions completely without choppyness?

Thanks!

[Nyarlathotep]

Let me put it like this:

The campaign missions are playable, except for the last mission. You can play it, but expect lots of "lag". I was able to play the last mission (with a machine far worse then yours), but it lagged terribly. Skirmish games and online games are without a doubt playable (especially if you have cable or DSL).

There's something about Westwood (currently EAP) games that makes them need "heavy" machines to run properly (just look in the Game forum about Generals that I posted). Also Renegade needs a good machine to run properly with all settings turned on. Another game that I have (FPS) is Serious Sam: 2nd encounter. It's Doom like and has excellent graphics. I can run that game in 1024x768 on a Intel PIII 1gig, 512 SDRAM, and a GeForce 3 (first one) without a hitch, no problems what so ever. If I take Renegade, I need to lower the detail level to less then half, play at 800x600 and 16bit. If I play by these settings, I get an average FPS of 50 (in large battles it drops). If I would play with all details and 1024x768, my FPS would be something like 10 or so (drops in large battles).

Weird to say the least and I can't understand that they haven't learned from EBFD. They KNOW that their games demand much more from a machine then any other game. It leaves me clueless as to why they don't act on it *shrugs*...

I hope I haven't drifted off that much and you still get the point I'm trying to say :)