Dominions II: Technical/Hardware Issues

This is to keep track of all Hardware/Technical Problems that occur when playing, running, installing, patching Dominions 2. This thread will be cleaned and pruned regularly adding in Questions and Answers as well as linking threads that get made outside of this thread in order to keep up to date.

In order to better serve and find any issues with technical or hardware issues, please use this format.

Game Version: (Full or Demo) Patch Version
Operating System:
Hardware Specific Name: (Video Card Radeon 9800 or SoundbLaster 5.1 Audigy)
Driver Specific Name Associated with Hardware: (Nvidia 56.6 Forceware Drivers for WinXP)
Specific Issue or Problem:

Also please use this thread to respond in order to allow the Developers and other Technical/Hardware Guru's the chance to help you with your problem.

Q: I'm having problems with starting Dominions 2 with Win98 or WinME.
Q: I can't see my mouse cursor with a Voodoo Graphics Card.
A: Help! Mouse not displayed!

Q: My sound keeps skipping or stuttering or won't work at all (Windows).
A: Try changing the Audio Output in Dominions 2 to Waveout. Preferences > Audio Preferences > Waveout. Then quit and restart Dominions 2 to see the results.

Q: I'm using Linux or Mac OS X, I can't remember which one, but I really don't like the dominions2 folder that gets created in my home directory. Can I move it somewhere else?
A: You can set the DOM2_SAVE environment variable to point to where you want the dominions2 folder to be located. Default is ~.

The following questions are from Saber Cherry's newby guide

Q: Why is my game running at approximately 6.5 frames per second?
A: Try updating your video drivers. If you have a "Rage" or "Radeon" card, these can be found at www.ati.com ; drivers for "Vanta", "TnT" and "GeForce" cards can be found at http://www.nvidia.com. Before you install new drivers, be sure to uninstall the old ones (normally from the add-remove programs menu). For Nvidia cards, I suggest this utility: http://www.guru3d.com/detonator-destroyer/ after uninstalling the old drivers, to fully remove them, before installing new ones. Please note that some people have had problems using ATI's Catalyst 3.9 and 3.9 drivers, and find 3.7 work the best. If you're still having trouble, try a more complete computer tuneup that should fix most problems caused by software.

Q: I have an ATI Radeon card, I'm using the latest drivers, and the demo won't run at all!
A: Try using Catalyst 3.7 drivers instead of the latest drivers, or if you have Hydravision turned on, try turning it off. These changes solved the problem of the demo not running at all for a couple people... and whenever changing drivers, be sure to uninstall the old ones prior to installing the new ones!

Q: I have a laptop and I can't find any drivers. Help?
A: If you are using a laptop and the manufacturer is too lazy to provide recent drivers, try generic drivers from here: www.omegacorner.com . The drivers there are confirmed to solve this problem in ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 chips. Credit: Pocus

Q: Why is my refresh rate like 60Hz in every fullscreen resolution?
A: "This is not DOM 2 issue. Its windows issue. Windows will default to 60 Hz for every game/program that doesn't set its own refresh rate as some sort of protection from damage in case your monitor can't support it. There are some programs out there that help you set refresh rate for each resolution that will work in any game/program. One tool for NVidia graphic cards is NVRefresh and you can find it at http://www.nvrt.org/ (Credit: Daynarr). That worked for me. But, you can also switch to "windowed" mode and maximize the game window, in which case it will run at your desktop refresh rate. Plus you can quickly switch to a spreadsheet if someone comes by...

[Chazar]

[bug has been fixed in current Version]

[ July 06, 2004, 12:13: Message edited by: Chazar ]

[Marignon Zealot]

A great bug - somewhere in a mid-late game, especially on a large map with plenty of units and races, game drops to Windows without any message. This happens somewhere at the end of next turn generation. reloading the latest save doesn't help - the same drops at the same moments.

The only solution i have - to make back-up copies of save games and replace the latest one with some made several turns before.Only in this case it is possible to evade the drop.

Win XP; Full Version; GeForce4400Ti 64mb

[ March 24, 2004, 19:18: Message edited by: Marignon Zealot ]

[Johan K]

Zealot, you forgot to mention if you have patched Dominions to 2.08 yet. If you haven't done so then do so. Many crashing bugs have been fixed since the game was released.

[Aikamun]

Don't know if it was addressed by patch 2.08, but people are suffering through very low fps with Radeon cards. See: www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=74;t=001222

Thanks,
Aikamun

[Zapmeister]

I can't give a lot of detail, but I have noticed that in sessions (I reboot frequently) where I check my network games, and use other applications (NetScape 6.2, ICQ is about all) Windows 98 very frequently gets into a low-memory situation where it can't launch anything. That's with nothing running but the operating system.

I'm pretty sure this only occurs when I've been using Dominions on the net. I suspect that, in certain situations, Dominions is leaking memory under Windows 98.

[gabe]

Hi. A friend told me about Dominions, so I downloaded the demo. When I run it, I can hear the audio but there's no video. I'm prompted to change my resolution to 1400X1040, but it's already set to that!

Demo
Windows XP

Can you help? I'd like to play!

[Johan K]

Try running Dominions with the -w switch to start it in windowed mode.

[gabe]

Johan-

Thanks for responding. I'm not sure what you mean by '-w switch.' Is it a DOS command? The only way I know to start the game is from the 'All programs' menu. Sorry I'm not up to speed, but could you please specify? Thanks.

Gabe

[Endoperez]

The '-w switch' is a command line switch. In dos, it would be used like this:

C:\Games\Illwinter\Dominions II\>dom2 -w

In Windowses, you can use dos promp. Click Start, click Run, write 'cmd', and a black window with white text that looks and acts very much like DOS pops up. Most dos commands work for it, and you can go to your Dominions II directory and test if the game works with this.

If it works, you want it to be easily usable. This can be done with the help of shortcut, like the one that probably is on your desktop. Right-click on the DomII icon (Belphegor the Lord of Corruption, IIRC) and choose properties. Now you should be able to write in the target (for me "E:\Dominions II\dom2.exe") amd working folder (for me "E:\Dominions II"). You just have to add the '-w' to the end of the target line. It seems it has to added outside the quotes, like this:
"E:\Dominions II\dom2.exe" -w

You might not have the words "target" and "working folder" in there, because those are direct translations from my Finnish windows's respective words.2