Alas my video card just doesn't like the 1.5.1 stuff in D3D (I get long pauses when moving over water and/or certain map areas when panning/moving the camera - all new since one of those late betas pre-1.5.1).
I'd really like to use OpenGL but whenever I run it I get a hard crash to desktop with one of those lovely memory-fault type error messages like so:
(The same thing happens on WinMe on this same machine, so I suspect it is the video card).
I'm wondering if there is some special OpenGL driver(s) or something I need to make this work?
I'm going to see if I can get a new video card as the gameplay has taken a nosedive for me ever since the first "over water" problems started in 1.5 (1.4 was fine for whatever reason). I figure a 128MB Radeon should do the trick. At least one of our other players is in the same boat and is following my lead.
Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
first, check for new drivers from the manufacturer.
usually that's the best bet. otherwise, you might be able to get away with using a much older set of drivers (small chance, but finite). failing that, maybe a different graphics card is the way to go.
Also Check the thread "Updates for People With Problems" this thread has links to updaters that will update you to 1.5.1c which fixes some D3D related issues.
One thing I did notice is that on Win2kPro (for me) it's noticeably better to turn off "Use Directinput". Only had the "pregnant pause" a few times instead of dozens this past Saturday, which was encouraging.
Still - over the water in Picket Fences is death. For whatever reason, that kind of thing started in 1.5 and never really went away for me.
But it has got me back into the market to look for the best place to put together my own PC again from the ground up (I did this two PC's ago and really enjoyed it). I'll get a video card that should be more than adequate to the task.
I still see the weird floyn-on-the-field problem with some of our order's plugins that convert large numbers of units to the same or similar unit. After zero to n games (in other words, unpredictably) random units on random teams will floyn to another team's colors. I discovered when there are multiple players to a team if the captain selects the offending units, detaches them, and then takes them back, the floyn disappears for those units and they return to the proper colors.
I've mentioned this quirk a few times over the past couple of years but it's so odd that I don't think it got much attention. Must be something with a max# collection references being used at one time or some other "overflow".
I believe I may have a solution - by adding additional unit tags using the same mons tag and simply a copy of the same core tag, thus tricking it into believing I'm using fewer of several different core tags when they are actually the same.
One more little bit of magic that will be under-the-hood in RDF 5.1, which is coming soonâ„¢.
RDF 5.0 is doing rather well - passed the 600 downloads mark recently! Sweet!
