I am eXPeriencing technical difficulties in EBFD

[SurlyPIG]

;D Like my pun?

I'm having troubles running emperor that I think are related to Windows XP somehow. The game is locking up way more than it used to and way more than it should. The lockups, oddly, NEVER happen while I'm actually playing the game. It works great for that. My new system has a video card and a little more ram, so emperor performs wonderfully in the game, but I'm freezing a lot in two places; game rooms, and the connection screen. When I'm in game rooms it seems to freeze a lot of the time when I'm backspacing to erase something I was typing. I have no idea why that would be, I mean if my computer can run a high-graphics req game then it should be able to support fast backspacing lol. I think a lot of players in emp have this problem, but I never had it so much or so early in my playing session before. Usually I can ctrl+alt+delete and close emperor but a couple of times it's completely locked up.

I've attached my DxDiag for any obvious system incompatabilities, but I don't think this is very computer-specific somehow.

If anyone has found ways of eliminating or reducing these lockups somehow, it would be very appreciated. I estimate that for every two games I actually do get to play, I lock up once.

Thanking you in advance,

-ACE[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[GhostHunter]

Lol, yeah nice job on the pun. ;D

Well, seem's pretty odd, obvious things are closing background programs and aviod staying in rooms for very long...But yeah I know, same things happening to me, yet it never happened when I had Windows ME. Also, remember low graphics, espically on the TNT2.

Let Nyar take it from here..

[number6]

I'm freezing a lot in two places; game rooms, and the connection screen. When I'm in game rooms it seems to freeze a lot of the time when I'm backspacing to erase something I was typing.

What game rooms are we talking about here? Since the game runs fine locally I am less inclined to think it's a problem with your PC. It sounds like a network problem of some kind and network problems are notorius for bringing even the most powerful systems to their knees.

So what game channel are we talking about here? Is it WOL?

[Navaros]

http://www.dune2k.com/forum/?board=4;action=display;threadid=10529

although i learned some security related things, my original question in that thread was never answered in a practical or useful way

perhaps Emperor is just really buggy in certain places due to poor WOL coding and the problems listed in this thread are not related to a specific OS, but rather just crappy coding.

i use Win 98 SE and I still have those problems described in the thread i linked to

[SurlyPIG]

Vil,

Lowering the graphics wouldn't help me because I'm freezing in the game rooms or at the connection screen, and graphics only effect the actual playing part of the game. But thanks anyway :)

Number6,

The two places I am talking about are:

-in emperor game rooms. When you log into WOL, you see a screen with the games listed, you can view your buddy list, etc. I've never had a crash here. The crashes occur after I have hosted or joined a game and have been there for a little while. I am on a LAN connected through a router, but I have never played a LAN game over emperor. You think the network is somehow...interfering with the game, causing it to crash? All the crashes happen on WOL. They might happen in the WOL chat room, but I don't spend any time in there anymore because the chat is disabled so I doubt it.

Nav,

Thanks for the link, I'll try disabling some stuff like my antivirus and firewall...I am on a router so I guess intrusion isn't very likely. I know tonnes of people who have the same occasional problem so I doubt that getting rid of it entirely is very likely but that might help reduce it...

Thanks to all of you for the help

[anklbter8]

This is a problem with me and Ice_Cube in the Annoying Problems thread. First things said are virus programs and firewalls and although it is understandable why you would say that, I believe the problem would have to be in the network with as many people that have this problem. Like everyone says it is a completely random thing. I think that this may be a thing everyone will just have to deal with unless someone is capable of looking at the coding.

[zamboe]

Probably you already have done this before, but if not, put emperor into the compatibility mode for W98 and disable norton if you have it.

By doing that I've reduced dramatically the frecuency of crashes, still happens though, let's say 1 every 7 games.

I had problems if I did type too much or use backspace (same thing), compatibility mode solve that.

[number6]

Ace the Internet is one big network and the same network code you run on your LAN is used on the internet when you play an game online. The network code in Emperor is specific for that game. Maybe Windows XP has some problems with the network code in Emperor. I don't know. Have you run the latest critical updates for windows lately? I know a lot of problems with Windows relates to networking problems. Since the game runs great standalone I am inclined to blame the network at this time. I am not positive it is a problem with the Emperor Network code. Have you tried playing the game without your router? Another possibility is that there could be something wrong with your ethernet card.

[SurlyPIG]

Compatability more I completely forgot about that, I'll try that now thx Zamboe! If it works like it's supposed to that should cut it down a lot.

6, I have all the latest updates, and I see what you're saying now, but I'm not experiencing any problems in any other programs so who knows? If what you're saying about XP and the emp network code is true then the compatabiltiy mode thing should cut that down a lot...I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Thx again guys!

[anklbter8]

Well so far thats 6 people with this problem and Nav uses 98 SE instead of XP. If everyone used XP then I would think that it is a compatibility issue but when you throw Nav in then it screws up that equation. Its pretty frustrating. Oh my friend had this problem too so that would be 7. He uses XP but doesnt play EBFD anymore.

[Navaros]

just wanted to make it clear that I don't think "disabling your firewall, antivirus software, and all background programs" will ever have any effect on this issue whatsoever.

if there is a solution, that certainly is *not* it.

[SurlyPIG]

I tried Zamboe's suggestion to switch compatability mode (read below about how to do it). I ran Emperor in Windows 95 compatability mode and it completely eliminated the problem. Completely gone. I had this problem on occasion in Windows ME too, but on Win95 mode it doesn't exist.

I think with each new OS it became more and more of a problem, and I checked Emp's system requirements and it says minimum Windows 95, so I figured that was the best compatability to switch to, and MAN! What a difference. That backspace thing I was talking about? No more. I filled the message field with text, stood on the backspace and erased it all without so much as a trip-up. Problem solved. (for me at least)

Is windows XP the only system with compatability mode? I don't remember it on ME or 98 which would suck for guys like Nav who don't use XP...

To run Emperor in compatability mode:

right click on your Emperor shortcut (can be in Start Menu or on Desktop but you'll have to do it twice if you want it on both)

click on properties

click on the compatability tab

in the "Compatability mode" area select the box that says "Run this program in compatability mode for" and select Windows 95 from the drop-down menu.

I played more than ten games in a row without so much as a miniscule problem. And like I said backspacing or waiting in the game rooms was not a problem at all. I stronlgly suggest anyone with XP try running Emperor with this option, even if they don't have any problems. The lobby was more stable, screen transitions were faster and smoother, the connection screen wait time was less, and I even loaded faster.

Thanks so much for the advice Zamboe! And that goes for everyone too...

[number6]

Yes, well done Zamboe. I am surprised the game ran fine locally without compatability mode. I know a lot of people have complained about emperor not working right on their XP machines when just trying to play the game (not online). The compatability mode usually fixes that problem. Now we have a case where the game runs fine without compatability mode when running locally, but completely screws up when playing online. I still use Windows 98 for gaming purposes and I have started the migration to Linux for internet and productivity. I refuse to go to the newest version of Windows because I still don't see the benefit of XP (other than adding a few improvements to the user interface). Well, happy online gaming Ace.