Dominions II: Technical/Hardware Issues

[Johan K]

You could try to run Dominions II without sound as well (switch: -s), that will eliminate one possible source of error. But since it crashes when you pan around I would guess that it is something weird with the graphics drivers. Maybe the card manufacturer has an updated Version.

[Pirateiam]

Yeah I have already tried that. What is strange is that I run Dominions II during the week on a laptop (work/traveling)with almost the identical onboard graphics chipset and it runs fine. The glaring difference is that the workstation that I run it on the weekend (that is failing) is a AMD Anthlon - Windows 98 OS system. I built the workstation myself so I know I have the most updated bios and graphic drivers. I think I have narrowed it down to either the graphic chipset or I am having power drops on my motherboard. I will be able to eliminate the power issue this weekend since I am running a monitoring log right now (I knew I should have used a 300 watt PS ) One question I have that you may help me with is the Direct Draw Version that is supported (I assume you use Direct Draw calls in your code right?) My drivers say Version 1.0, is there not a newer Version?

I also think I am going to throw a AGP graphics card in to see if that eliminates the problem. Tell me which inexpensive AGP cards that you know for SURE that works with Dominions II. Also if there is anyone out there that has an AGP card lying around that they do not want anymore let me know. I would be willing to even spend a few bucks for it .

[ April 25, 2004, 18:41: Message edited by: Pirateiam ]

[Johan K]

Direct draw is not used so I don't think it should cause any trouble, but you never know. Dominions II is developed with an AGP geforce2mx in mind (I have that one), so that card should work flawlessly.

[MCArt]

I am having problems to start the Demo. I get a Nagot gik fel error message that tells me it 'failed to init OpenGL'. I have tried the things suggested in the thread linked to from Zen's post here, to no avail.

I suspect NVidia's latest graphic driver (56.64) is at fault - because the demo was working some months ago, before I had de-installed, and later re-installed it - but I am not sure.
Does anyone have ideas how to get it back working again?

My system is an Athlon XP 2000, 256MB RAM, Windows ME and NVidia GeForce 4 MX 440

[ July 27, 2004, 21:40: Message edited by: MCArt ]

[Endoperez]

I have the same graphics card. I will check what happens if I update the drivers.

I downloaded drivers from NVidia homepage, installed them and checked. The game still works.

Maybe corrupted installation or temp file? Re-install the demo and empty Temp-folder.

[ July 28, 2004, 11:02: Message edited by: Endoperez ]

[MCArt]

Originally posted by Endoperez:
I have the same graphics card. I will check what happens if I update the drivers.

I downloaded drivers from NVidia homepage, installed them and checked. The game still works.

Maybe corrupted installation or temp file? Re-install the demo and empty Temp-folder.

I deinstalled, reinstalled, deinstalled again, re-downloaded from another source, reinstalled... and I still can't get it to run, nor do I know what the exact problem is, except that it cannot initialize OpenGL, for whatever reason.

It doesn't even create a temp folder, either, so nothing to delete for me...

I've attached the debug log, if anyone can guess where the problem lies:

code:

---

dbglevel 1 pc_endian

datapath='.'

savepath='.'

temppath='C:\WINDOWS\TEMP/dom16882'

Något gick fel!

Failed to init OpenGL

flushopengl

DeinitPrint

---

Oh, and here is the stdout file:

code:

---

Could not init SDL: DirectInputDevice::SetDataFormat: Invalid parameters

---

[ July 30, 2004, 03:59: Message edited by: MCArt ]

[Endoperez]

I meant c:\Windows\temp folder, or temp folder of the OS you are running DomII in.

It doesn't even create a temp folder, either, so nothing to delete for me...

I've attached the debug log, if anyone can guess where the problem lies:

code:

---

temppath='C:\WINDOWS\TEMP/dom16882'

---

The problem seems to be the dom16882 -folder in your c:\windows\temp -folder. It contains data needed by DomII for processing turns (or something like that), and I don't think they will be left in there if everything works. You can safely remove it, and anything else in your temp file too if it is starting to fill up your hard disk.

edit: won't => will

[ July 30, 2004, 19:11: Message edited by: Endoperez ]

[High_Priest_Naresh]

the game works pefect for me! I got lucky

[NTJedi]

Saved game file not working... game crashes after clicking host:
ERROR: Nagot gick fel
unit -1
getmaxhp: bad unr


GAME IS WORKING AGAIN>>>
[b]UPDATE: Apparently the game has a 32,000 unit limit which causes this crash... Hopefully the unit limit will be increased for DOM_3 so very large maps can be played without worry.

[B0rsuk]

Hey

I have two 3.5 questions. I didn't find answers in stickies/FAQ's (or perhaps I didn't search too well ?)
-----------------
1. Is there any way I can run Dominions2 on machine without hardware acceleration ? I can run (demo) on my home machine, but I have reasonably good, if somewhat old, video card.
The situation has changed and I no longer have internet access on my own machine. Here, there's no opengl, and I don't have root password.
Is there any hope for me ?

It would make sense for Dominions2 to run without hardware acceleration. After all, it is used in 3 cases, If i remember correctly.... Title screen, laboratory (pretty!), and battles.But I tried to run Dom2 with opengl disabled and it spat out some kind of error message.
-------
How about Dominions3 ? I didn't buy Dom2 mostly because of annoyances associated with purchasing online (Poland). And once I decided the games IS worth buying, Dom3 was already on the horizon.
So I'm going to buy Dominions3, but will it work on machine without hardware acceleration ?
I could play it on my own machine, which is not connected to internet, but that would basically mean no multiplayer, or terribly slugish game pace.
----------
3. Me and my friend are interested in Dominions3. But he's not so excited about it, so we'll probably buy one copy first.
What is Dominions2's threshold when it comes to IP's/cdkey ? How many IP's can be used before copy protection kicks in ? (I presume Dom3 will use similar mechanic)