Choppy graphics and flashing

[nutmeggm]

I've read about the system requirements and I've tried setting my settings ingame to many different resolutions, and to best performance, and it's still choppy. When I move the mouse to the edge of the screen the house pictures just smear across the screen. The whole screen is also flashing a lot.

I've tried right clicking the executable and changing the compatibility mode to windows 98 but that hasn't helped.

I'm using an AMD Xp2800+ with Windows XP SP2. I have 512MB of RAM, and TONS of free HD space. My video card is a Nvidia GeForce FX 5500 with 256mb of ram. I've updated to the latest drivers on the Nvidia website and I still have the same issues.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate it!

Thanks

[Keith]

What is the size of your virtual memory page file setting?

You want it to be at least one and one-half to twice the size of your physical memory. You have 512MB, it should be 768MB minimum.

You can get there by right clicking on My Computer, selectig properties.

From the properties menu, click on the ADVANCE tab.

From the Advance menu click on the PERFORMANCE settings button.

From the Performance Options menu, click on the ADVANCED tab.

The size of your virutal memory page file is shown at the bottom. You can change it by clicking on the CHANGE button. Make a note of what the current settings are before you change anything.

Often is is recommended to set the Custom Size INITIAL and MAXIMUM page file settings to the same amount of space, i.e., 768 in both entries. If you already have that amount you may want to try a twice the physical RAM size which is 1024

Click SET and OK and close all menues.

This is just a stab in the dark and may or may not help. You can always change it back.

Other suggestions, how old is your mouse driver.

Is your sound card driver current?

Have you done a disk cleanup and defrag lately?

Try uninstalling and reinstalling the game after a defrag.

Does your video card have a control panel application where you can change how your video card performs? Are there any settings there that might need adjusting, enabling, disabling?

[Topher_LS]

What is the size of your virtual memory page file setting?

You want it to be at least one and one-half to twice the size of your physical memory. You have 512MB, it should be 768MB minimum.

Often is is recommended to set the Custom Size INITIAL and MAXIMUM page file settings to the same amount of space, i.e., 768 in both entries. If you already have that amount you may want to try a twice the physical RAM size which is 1024

I agree with everything else you stated except the page file. The 1.5 (2 or 2.5) times physical memory multiplier is certainly up for debate. The multiplier is mainly a hold back from the days when most computers were 32 - 128 MB of RAM running Windows 95 or 98.

The page file is used when you run out of physical RAM, and even the fastest hard drive is significantly slower than the slowest RAM. So if your computer is hitting the page file a lot, you REALLY need more RAM to boost performance.

XP handles it's page file very differently, and much much more efficiently than any of the older versions of Windows ( 95, 98, Me, NT ). XP machines with page file sizes over 512MB have been shown to perform slower in some applications & games. A page file of 512MB or more in a modern machine is mostly a waste of HD space anyway.

With 512MB RAM, I would recommend you to set your MINIMUM page file size to 100MB or 256MB and your MAXIMUM to whatever you want, 512, 768, 1024. XP will dynamically change the size when needed & should never go over 512MB under normal gaming circumstances.

Another consideration with page file is what drive it's on. Many people move their page file to a seperate drive ( e.x. D: ). This is great since the heads shouldn't need to seek as much, but you should always leave a small portion on your C: drive for those odd programs that like it there. If your page file resides on your D: drive, also add some to C: with MINIMUM set at 2MB & MAXIMUM set at 50MB or 100MB for drive C:.

Here are a few good articles:

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/supertweaks.htm (Number Five)

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html#Tweaks

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

[Emperor Ming]

I am also now having this problem. I was actually fine for a few days until I installed the November 9,2004 version of the NVidia GeForce drivers when this problem started happening.

I've got a very similar configuration with the NVidia GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU.

To confirm, text does not clear, the buildings shake and are blurry when scrolled.

The original problem I was trying to correct was in the third moderate mission in the campaign, I'm getting a consistent crash after my city is well established. Need to see if that is still happening after the driver update.

[nutmeggm]

My page file is set at 768 minimum, and 1158 maximum.

I have diskkeeper set to defrag every night, and it's clean currently.

I've updated my mouse drivers. (Logitech M-BJ58)

I've done a disk cleanup, and uninstalled and reinstalled COTN.

I've goofed with all the settings that I can with the card, tried changing resolutions in and outside of the game.

It's still doing the same thing.. I tried taking a screenshot but it didn't save.

It still is smearing across the screen. When I adjust the quality settings, it still smears, but it goes away quicker. I suppose the next test will be to drop back to older video card settings.

Thanks!

[nutmeggm]

I downgraded my video card drivers from 6.6.9.3 (dated 11/9/04) to
drivers 5.6.7.2 dated 3/24/04 and the problem has cleared itself up.


Thanks for all the help!

Josh

[Keith]

I am also now having this problem. I was actually fine for a few days until I installed the November 9,2004 version of the NVidia GeForce drivers when this problem started happening.

I've got a very similar configuration with the NVidia GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU.

To confirm, text does not clear, the buildings shake and are blurry when scrolled.

The original problem I was trying to correct was in the third moderate mission in the campaign, I'm getting a consistent crash after my city is well established. Need to see if that is still happening after the driver update.You may want to try rolling back your video card drivers to the previous version since the problem has only been occuring since you updated them.

Right click on My Computer (Windows XP) and then select properties. Next click on the HARDWARE tab and selct the DEVICE MANAGER button. Expand the list. Find DISPLAY ADAPTERS on the sublist. Right click on it and select PROPERTIES. Click on the DRIVER tab. Click on the ROLL BACK DRIVER button.

It would be a good idea to make a RESTORE POINT first before you attempt this using the SYSTEM RESTORE utility on the ACCESSORIES>SYSTEM TOOLS menu.

[Emperor Ming]

Rolling back to the July NVidia drivers cleared up the shaking so thank you for that.

I still have a CTD in the scenario I'm running that I have saved off (I started a new city though so no angst there...). Is there someplace I can post the save game?

Thanks!

[Keith]

I would imagine that you should make a new post describing your exact problem, what you were doing when it happened, and what you did (if anything) to overcome the problem, in the technical support forum (this one).

Don't post it in this thread as it may get buried.

Attach the save file using the manage attachment button below.

I usually like to put them in zip files with a notepad text file describing the problem and what I have tried in with the save file. That way they don't have to keep coming back to the board to look for it.