I can't play Huge maps anymore!

[Willem]

I just got into my first late game with the patch 2.08 and the lag became so horrendous it was unplayable. And trying to use the grid crashed my system. I wasn't having any problems with it before, it's only since the patch that this has been an issue. My system should be more than adequate to handle the game, especially since I'm running on Low Resolution, though no low textures. I have:

AMD 3500
Radeon X800 256 VRAM w with driver 6.9
4 gig of RAM, dual channel

I even tried reducing some of the settings on the card itself, but nothing helped.

It's such a drag, things were really getting interesting. It was going to be Montezuma with his 2 vassals against me and my two. Plus Stalin jumped in on my side as soon as Monty declared war. I didn't even have to ask, he was just being a nice guy.

[snoopy369]

That's odd ... I've nearly the same setup (x2 3500, x800 256 vRam, 2G system ram dual channel) and have no problems ... perhaps your driver version needs updating or rolling back (one or the other), I have a much earlier version, 6.5something I think.

[Willem]

Come to think of it, the last time I played through I was using an earlier driver version, 6.7 I believe. I should maybe try that one. I believe I still have it on my computer somewhere. It's kind of a weird idea that a more recent driver doesn't work as well as one from before.

[Sabre2th]

It happens fairly often. They make any number of changes each time they update. Sometimes things don't work together as well as they plan.

[Willem]

Well that was the problem. I rolled back to 6.7 from 6.9 and the game seems to be running fine now. Now hopefully Neverwinter Nights 2 will run OK on 6.7. That's why I upgraded in the first place, they included 6.9 on the disk.

The game's not quite as interersting now though. Montezuma didn't declare war on me this time around, after I refused his demand. Stalin still went after one of his vassals though, which means he's probably in big trouble. At least I'm free to pursue my plans to invade Cyrus and his vassal Elizabeth. I just about have all my forces in place to take 7 cities between them simultaneously. I've been planning it for awhile now.

[Dis]

Re: I can't play Huge maps anymore!

Originally posted by Willem
I just got into my first late game with the patch 2.08 and the lag became so horrendous it was unplayable. And trying to use the grid crashed my system. I wasn't having any problems with it before, it's only since the patch that this has been an issue. My system should be more than adequate to handle the game, especially since I'm running on Low Resolution, though no low textures. I have:

AMD 3500
Radeon X800 256 VRAM w with driver 6.9
4 gig of RAM, dual channel

I even tried reducing some of the settings on the card itself, but nothing helped.

It's such a drag, things were really getting interesting. It was going to be Montezuma with his 2 vassals against me and my two. Plus Stalin jumped in on my side as soon as Monty declared war. I didn't even have to ask, he was just being a nice guy.

and I thought I was the only one having problems. Though with me it starts with large maps. I posted this in the bugs forum. I have a cool game going right now that crashes every few turns. It causes my entire computer to reboot!

[Dis]

Originally posted by Willem
Well that was the problem. I rolled back to 6.7 from 6.9 and the game seems to be running fine now. Now hopefully Neverwinter Nights 2 will run OK on 6.7. That's why I upgraded in the first place, they included 6.9 on the disk.

The game's not quite as interersting now though. Montezuma didn't declare war on me this time around, after I refused his demand. Stalin still went after one of his vassals though, which means he's probably in big trouble. At least I'm free to pursue my plans to invade Cyrus and his vassal Elizabeth. I just about have all my forces in place to take 7 cities between them simultaneously. I've been planning it for awhile now.

hmmm, looks like I'll have to do the same thing then. I updated drivers to try to play NWN2 as well. Where would I find older versions of my drivers. Or how would I roll back?

[Willem]

Originally posted by Dis


hmmm, looks like I'll have to do the same thing then. I updated drivers to try to play NWN2 as well. Where would I find older versions of my drivers. Or how would I roll back?

To roll back, you just have to install an earlier version of the drivers. That will overwrite what you have right now. As for how to get them, your first stop will be the web site of the company that makes your video card. They might have older version hanging around still. If not, I'm sure there's someone out there who could email them to you. If you're using an ATI card, I could send you 6.7, that version works. At least on my system.
I also have a copy of 6.14 that I haven't gotten around to deleting from my hard drive yet.

[Rancidlunchmeat]

Hmm.. I had posted about this in the Patch thread. I was wonderfully happy when I read that it was happening to you with your 4gigs of ram, because I thought it was a memory issue.

If it's a gpu driver problem, that's interesting.. but since I use an nVidia card, I'll have to go test some drivers I guess to see if any of them work better.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Rancidlunchmeat

If it's a gpu driver problem, that's interesting.. but since I use an nVidia card, I'll have to go test some drivers I guess to see if any of them work better.

It was in my case anyway. I still get some lag and jerkiness late game, but it's playable, and my grid works again.

[Rancidlunchmeat]

Well, I just updated my drivers to the latest version and reinstalled the entire game and patched it. But I was having the same exact problem as you.. a problem that never happened prior to installing the patch. (IE: the game was unplayable, 5 minutes between turns even at the early stages of the game)

I know I don't have the most up to date computer, but I was able to play Huge Maps with standard or plus 2 AI prior to the patch, and after the patch I had to go to large maps with -2 AI. Obviously, that has a huge impact on the game when you have that much space without enough players.

Here's to hoping the driver update fixed it (crosses fingers)

[Rancidlunchmeat]

It works. Back up to Huge maps with the standard number of AI. No freezing or slowdown or anything.

How very odd that a problem that would appear to be due to memory is due to the gpu drivers, and how odd that the patch would change something so fundamental that you'd need to update your drivers.

Anyway, the latest forceware drivers fixed my problems. So if anybody is having an issue, update your graphics card drivers! It's NOT a memory issue. I have 512 ram, and no problems anymore with huge maps. (oh.. and only 128 on my 6800nu by the way)

Cheers

[snoopy369]

Indeed.... an awful lot of things that are blamed on memory are actually something else Often what happens is that drivers fix one thing but break another ... and it's possible that the patch did the same, tried to fix how certain drivers affect something but that caused something else to not work the way it was expected.

So apparently the answers are:

ATI card: Revert to older drivers (Catalyst 6.4-6.7 should be okay) (NOTE: ATI is odd, in that 6.11 is newer than 6.7.)
nVidia card: Upgrade to newest drivers (93.71)

If there are any specific cards for which the above is not true, please post ... specifically, if there are any cards on which Warlords 2.00 works fine but Warlords 2.08 does not work for "HUGE" maps, and for ATI cards you are on drivers in the 6 series, or for nVidia you are on 93.71, please post here. Individual cards often have their own issues (just look at the driver release notes to see that )

[Willem]

Originally posted by snoopy369
So apparently the answers are:

ATI card: Revert to older drivers (Catalyst 6.4-6.7 should be okay) (NOTE: ATI is odd, in that 6.11 is newer than 6.7.)

That's not to say that 6.11 will cause the poblem though, I was using 6.9 at the time. Unless of course you know someone else who is having the same issue with 6.11.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Rancidlunchmeat
It works. Back up to Huge maps with the standard number of AI. No freezing or slowdown or anything.

How very odd that a problem that would appear to be due to memory is due to the gpu drivers, and how odd that the patch would change something so fundamental that you'd need to update your drivers.

Anyway, the latest forceware drivers fixed my problems. So if anybody is having an issue, update your graphics card drivers! It's NOT a memory issue. I have 512 ram, and no problems anymore with huge maps. (oh.. and only 128 on my 6800nu by the way)

Cheers

I had to go back to older drivers to fix the problem.