Severe lag with last mission to kill Emperor Worm

[Blu]

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[IxianMace]

You could try turning your graphics settings down. I have an AMD Athlon 1800+ with 256Mb of DDR and a 64 Mb GeForce II but the last mission with the Emperor worm still doesn't run as fast as I would have liked. I notice a severe performance decrease in this mission compared with the other normal campaign missions. I think it's mainly due to the fact that there are lots of structures and units on the map, and the AI is controlling lots of separate 'groups' of forces all at once, which means your processor has to process more, which might slow down the game. The game lags especially when the AI rushes with lots of units all at the same time (i.e. when you are told that the 'enemy is on the attack' or 'the Guild's forces are attacking', that's when it's more likely to lag. That's what I've found anyway. I'd try turning the graphics settings down. Otherwise, destroy the Tleilaxu flesh vats and the small Harkonnen/Ordos base on the left side of the map to get rid of units. The Harkonnen/Ordos base on the left side of the map will keep on pumping out Assault Tanks/Laser Tanks from the factory almost non-stop, so putting a stop to this might help to relieve the pressure.

[Nyarlathotep]

I'm sorry to say, but your specs arn't "all that". I think almost everyone had lag to some extent with the last mission. I did too, but I could finish. Like IxianMace said, make sure ingame graphical settings are set to low and make sure "shadows" are off.

[Timenn]

Yeah, alot of slowdowns in that game. Alot of units buildings etc. makes it slooow :)

[Blu]

Thank you IxianMace for the tips. It did make a little difference, but I still can't finish it. I've switched to just playing Skirmishes.

Nyarlathotep as for my specs being "all that", I never said or thought they were. I simply wanted to find out if I was the only one having problems. If I didn't come and ask, I could not have possibly known could I? I came to ask another question about problems I'm having, but it looks like maybe I came to the wrong place.

[Terror]

well i hadn't any lag unless i scrolled over the emperor worm who filled my entire screen and my comp couldn't handle that too good but for the rest there was no lag at all. it's not that bad

[number6]

Thank you IxianMace for the tips. It did make a little difference, but I still can't finish it. I've switched to just playing Skirmishes.

Nyarlathotep as for my specs being "all that", I never said or thought they were. I simply wanted to find out if I was the only one having problems. If I didn't come and ask, I could not have possibly known could I? I came to ask another question about problems I'm having, but it looks like maybe I came to the wrong place.

Blu,

You came to the right place. Believe me. Nyar and others that visit his thread will go out of their way to help you. I used to have a K6-III system and had my share of problems with Emperor. It didn't help that I had a crappy motherboard either (a FIC PA-2013 which is in an old system I still use for internet browsing and 2D games). I don't think Nyar was being disrespectful or anything. It's a known fact that Westwood does not support the K6 series of chips for Emperor. I also know that Nyar is a big fan of the Intel processors. Aside from your processor your video card which the DxDiag identifies as a "NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro" could very well be one of those M64 types which is one of the lower end TNT2's that used 64 bit as oppossed to the standard 128 bit memory addressing. This series basically halves the throughput of your TNT2 as compared with regular versions. Based on the input you provided there is not much in the way of hardware/software help that can be provided. I would like to know what motherboard/video card brand you are using, what apps are running in the background (the Easy report program provides that info) and as much info you can possibly provide about your configuration. Unfortunately the DxDiag utility only gives us about half the picture.

[Blu]

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[Nyarlathotep]

Blu, like Number6 pointed out, I never meant to "insult" you and/or your system. Appologies if you've taken it that way.

Anyway, I do remember something about the K6-II systems, but I can't exactly remember what it was, neither does Westwood tech support have it on their site. Things you could try (or ask your hubby :)) :

1) Try updating your motherboard chipset drivers.

2) Try lowering your virtual memory to a max of 500mb.

3) Make sure you have all background programs closed (all you should have running are "Systray" & "Explorer").

4) Clear out your "C:WINDOWSTEMP" folder.

5) If your hubby's pc is the same (meaning hardware), try comparing whats different in software (if there is any difference). Maybe that'll point you to another solution.

Remember though what I said in my realier post, all EBFD players suffer lag in the last mission (although we can finish it) !

Hope it helps !

[Terror]

i'd suggest that if emperor works fine on your pc except for that last mission just let it go. playing that last mission smoothly just isn't worth to buy a new comp for or getting all that trouble when trying to change you motherboard drivers

[Blu]

i'd suggest that if emperor works fine on your pc except for that last mission just let it go. playing that last mission smoothly just isn't worth to buy a new comp for or getting all that trouble when trying to change you motherboard drivers

That's just it Terror. It doesn't work fine on my computer. None of the Dune games do. They all crash me repeatedly and I have no idea why. No other game is like this for me. When playing Diablo2 LOD, after defeating...I can't remember which one...when we went to see the Archangel Tyriael before going to the next level, my husband's system lags so bad he can barely move. I can run around in circles with no lag at all. *shrug* I've been playing the assault missions up the the last one and then stopping, or just playing skirmishes.

Nyarlathotep my husband has no clue what's wrong. I guess I need to take it to a shop and let them give it a once over and see if they find any problems. I have no system conflicts.

number6 my vid card is a SIIG.

I'm hate to keep bothering everyone, but I really , REALLY want to play! It's the only game other than UO that has my attention right now.

In case anyone is curious, I am probably old enough to be most everyone's mom, if not grandmother. :O ;D

[Gobalopper]

Have you tried other 3D RTS games like Warcraft 3? I suspect as other people have mentioned that your computer may not be able to handle Emperor. Also it might be a problem with your RAM, when I first got Emperor it crashed all the time and it was because of bad RAM. It didn't happen in all games because they weren't as hardware intensive as Emperor was so you may not notice it in anywhere else. You could try the PCMark program (http://www.madonion.com/), if it crashes with that then you know its not just Emperor, it basically tests your computer to the max levels it can.

I don't have Diablo 2 to look but does it have similar requirements to a game like Emperor?

[Nyarlathotep]

Blu, first off all, you're not bothering us. We're here to help, that's what this forum is for :) Did you try the things I suggested ?

And if the problem is with almost all your games, I'd try to follow Gobs advice and look at your ram. Maybe if your hubby hasn't got the same problem, you might want to try and swap modules.

Btw Gob, Diablo II: LoD isn't that hardware intensive as EBFD. EBFD is the most hardware intensive game I've played.

Btw, if you're wondering, you aren't old enough to be my mom, let alone grandmother ;D

[number6]

Blu,

I did a search for the motherboard you mentioned "SY-K7VTA" and I doubt that is the right motherboard. Here is a write up on that motherboard on anandtech :

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1348

As you can see that motherboard is a Socket A type, which supports the ATHLON processors only (Duron, Thunderbird) not the K6 series. Your motherboard will be a Socket 7 type.

You also said that your video card is a "SIIG" is it this model :

"Aurora AGP 32MB TNT2 M64 (P/N: VV-AA3242) " ?

That is the only one I saw on the SIIG website that had M64 or 64 in it. Here is the website for the drivers (it basically points you to the Nvidia web site though) :

http://www.siig.com/drivers/video_agp_driver.html

I am assuming your card is AGP because they don't list any Nvidia chipsets for their PCI video cards.

As far as processes running in the background, the easy report you provided lists "createcd.exe" as one of the processes. You don't want that running when you are playing Emperor. If I think of anything else from the info you provided that might be a problem I will post a follow up.

I was in the same boat you are right now as far as playing Emperor at a decent framerate on my old K6-III system a little over a year ago. As a matter of fact Diablo II also ran a little choppy on my K6-III system as well. My solution? I built a new system very cheaply.

I went to local Computer parts seller and was able to throw a system together for less than $400. Here are the parts I purchased and the prices:

Chaintech 7AJA2E Mother board with 1Ghz Duron Processor(http://www.chaintechusa.com/products/socketa/7aja2e.htm)

Price $80

MSI Geforce 3 Ti200 (http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/vga/vga/pro_vga_detail.php?UID=164&MODEL=MS-8850)

Price $90

Maxtor ATA133 7200RPM 60GB hardrive

Price $70

Generic Case with 300W power supply

Price $80

Mouse, Keyboard, Floppy Drive,

Price $60

Total $380

I took my Sound Blaster Live out of my old system and I was set. This new system plays Emperor very smoothly. I have not played the final single player mission on it yet, but I believe everyone here when they say that it is still choppy.

[IxianMace]

Here is something you might want to try. I used this to get Emperor running on my old computer (Pentium II 400, 12Mb Voodoo II card, 64Mb RAM). See if it works for you. It used to just exit straight back out to windows when I tried to load Emperor on the old computer, but I got it running using this method.

1: On the desktop, right click on the icon of 'My Computer'

2: In the meny that pops up, click on 'Properties'

3: A box called 'System properties' should appear. Click on the 'Performance' tab.

4: Click on the 'Graphics' button.

5: A box called 'Advanced graphics settings' should appear.

Is the slider all the way to the right? If it is, move it to the left and play Emperor each time with a different setting selected. Keep going until you find a setting that gives you stable gameplay.

This might help to give you less crashes, if you're experiencing stability problems with Emperor. You should keep your graphics turned down to as low as they can get. Hope that works for you.

[Blu]

Nyarlathotep tomorrow...well later today I'm going to try to update some drivers. Last time I did that, I had some system issues so I've got to make sure I don't do the same thing again. It was something about the 4in1 pack for my mb. I need to get my husband to post here to explain that. He's asleep now. I'll make the other changes you suggested and try running it in a bit. Ok so I may not be old enough to be your mom, how about sister? :P I'm closing in on the 1/2 century mark much too fast. *sigh*

Gobalopper I ran PCMark fine. What do all those numbers mean? I couldn't find anything on their website to explain them to me. My CPU score was 2791, Memory score was 1698 and HDD score was 124. It had a whole lot more info but I can't make heads or tails out of it. I did save the info. I play Ultima Online. There is a 3D version which I hate to play due to the ugliness, but I lag a bit in it too. I can play it, but I prefer not to as all my girls look horrible. That is the only other game I really play, besides Diablo.

number6 my mb is definately a SY-K7VTA Pro. I already knew it was, but when I boot up, which I do alot, it also says it there too. I'm not positive about the SIIG, my husband said that. I'll have to open my case later and see what I can find. I used to know how to remove things in the startup that don't appear normally, but I forgot what file to open to manually remove them from the list. Do you know what I mean? I know it's not autoexe.bat, but it's one like that. Do you know which one it is? I don't know why createcd shows up as it doesn't autostart.

I might have to upgrade my CPU and get a new vid card. Too bad I didn't think about it before now. This weekend was First Saturday in Dallas. We get the best deals there. First Saturday is a computer flea market the weekend of the first saturday of the month in a parking lot downtown. You have to get there before midnite on Friday nite to get the best deals. Stuff goes fast! Just be sure and take a flashlight. Folks come in from all over and some stores set up tables too. It's a great outing. It's been going on for over 30 years. They even have a website. http://www.firstsaturday.com

IxianMace I will make that setting adjustment and see what happens.

Thanks again guys for the help. Maybe we'll figure this out yet.

[number6]

number6 my mb is definately a SY-K7VTA Pro. I already knew it was, but when I boot up, which I do alot, it also says it there too. I'm not positive about the SIIG, my husband said that. I'll have to open my case later and see what I can find. I used to know how to remove things in the startup that don't appear normally, but I forgot what file to open to manually remove them from the list. Do you know what I mean? I know it's not autoexe.bat, but it's one like that. Do you know which one it is? I don't know why createcd shows up as it doesn't autostart.

I might have to upgrade my CPU and get a new vid card. Too bad I didn't think about it before now. This weekend was First Saturday in Dallas. We get the best deals there. First Saturday is a computer flea market the weekend of the first saturday of the month in a parking lot downtown. You have to get there before midnite on Friday nite to get the best deals. Stuff goes fast! Just be sure and take a flashlight. Folks come in from all over and some stores set up tables too. It's a great outing. It's been going on for over 30 years. They even have a website. http://www.firstsaturday.com

OK, I will take your word for it that your motherboard is a SY-K7VTA. Is it made by SOYO? That is the only motherboard manufacturer I find when I do a search on the internet. If that is the case here is the Soyo website product info:

http://www.soyousa.com/products/proddesc.php?id=38

It clearly states that the motherboard only supports AMD Athlon Socket A processors. You should not be able to run a K6 processor on this motherboard. Here is an explanation that I pulled off the web from (http://www.bestpricecomputers.ltd.uk/products/amd_info.htm) that explains the issue :

"The K6-3, and K6-2 are all 3D processors. They are based on the Zif socket 7 design. The Athlon "Thunderbird" (K7) & "Duron" processors are a different shape. They need a "Socket A" type motherboard. ("Slot" A is the older shape for the Athlon and has now been replaced by the Socket A). The Athlon XP processors released in 2001 are numbered differently i.e. XP 2000+ is actually a 1.6 GHz. According to AMD the XP 2000+ suggests what speed of Pentium 4 will give you the same speed.

Can I buy a computer that has the ability to take all types of processors?

They do not exist. All motherboards that take the AMD K6 range of processors can't take the Athlon processor, and vice-versa. Motherboards for the Duron take only the Duron. Whichever choice you make you can upgrade only within that range of processors, unless you change your motherboard. Also, no AMD based PC can take an Intel PIII, P4 or Celeron processor."

A little long winded, but do you see why I am confused? To answer your question about disabling programs from starting up at boot time there is a utility that comes with Windows called "msconfig". You can start this application by clicking "Star->Run" and then typing in "msconfig" and press the enter key. A tabbed window will display, click on the tab labled "Startup" and simply deselect (by clicking on the checkboxes) the apps you don't want to autostart on boot up and press the "OK" button.

[Blu]

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[Nyarlathotep]

You're new dxdiag is a lot different. Make absolutely sure you update your video card drivers. 23.11 are one of the worst driver versions for your video card ! Also try and update your VIA chipset.

[Blu]

You're new dxdiag is a lot different. Make absolutely sure you update your video card drivers. 23.11 are one of the worst driver versions for your video card ! Also try and update your VIA chipset.

I got a new vid card yesterday. It made some difference. I could play the last mission for awhile before the "swimming in molasses" lag hit. It wouldn't be so bad if I could control my mouse enough to click on things, but by the time it stops moving, I'm past where I was hoping to be. It's the same card that number6 says he has. I was surprised to find it at the store and on sale for $99. The sales guy said it was a definate improvement over my current card.

I'm checking now for the 4in1 driver update for my mb. The last time we tried to update it my system went into super slowmo. There is an update for my BIOS too. Should I do that too?

[Nyarlathotep]

You could update your BIOS, but I have serious doubt it'll improve the lag you're experiencing. It might reduce or cure the crashes you have. When you update your BIOS, please be careful, cause doing it wrong can bring you back to the "stone age" ;)

[gunner154]

Have you tried other 3D RTS games like Warcraft 3? I suspect as other people have mentioned that your computer may not be able to handle Emperor. Also it might be a problem with your RAM, when I first got Emperor it crashed all the time and it was because of bad RAM. It didn't happen in all games because they weren't as hardware intensive as Emperor was so you may not notice it in anywhere else. You could try the PCMark program (http://www.madonion.com/), if it crashes with that then you know its not just Emperor, it basically tests your computer to the max levels it can.

I don't have Diablo 2 to look but does it have similar requirements to a game like Emperor?

No it has lighter requirements. The disk space is much higher, but the graphical requirements aren't as heavy.