Windows Vista, new video card... game just dies

Ed Kolis · #1 June 29th, 2006, 11:07 AM

So I recently installed the Windows Vista beta on my machine... also had to replace the video card, since the old one died on me... well, I tried to run Dom2 again just for fun, and when I run the exe the screen just goes blank and then the game exits (even after applying the 2.16 patch)... Any idea what might be causing this? My new video card is a PCIE nVidia 7300 series with 512MB of RAM (don't remember the board manufacturer, but that I found for the wondrously low price of $100US... perhaps there was a reason it was so cheap for such a card...

capnq · #2 June 29th, 2006, 11:47 AM

I haven't had that problem with Dominions II, but have had a similar thing occur with other software. It was suggested to me to update my video drivers to fix this, but I haven't actually gone through with doing it. (I haven't done it because I don't have a working CD-ROM drive at the moment to restore the original drivers if I botch the install.)

Agrajag · #3 June 29th, 2006, 12:54 PM

1) AFAIK, the 7300 isn't that good.
2) Doesn't Dominions use OpenGL? Doesn't Microsoft hate OpenGL? I can see why they wouldn't hurry to include full OpenGL support in their beta version of Windows Vista. (its just a guess though)

Ed Kolis · #4 June 29th, 2006, 04:18 PM

The 7300 sucks? Crap, I knew it couldn't be that cheap for no good reason

Dom2 uses OpenGL? Funny, I thought you could set it to use DirectX... I know there's a setting for DirectSound support at least... does it use OpenGL by default? Is there any way I can get into the config files and change that setting without actually running the game, because I can't even get the main menu to appear!

Arralen · #5 June 29th, 2006, 05:44 PM

Switch Dominions to DirectX?

No way to do that.

Dominions uses the SDL library which in turn uses OpenGL - with DirectX there wouldn't be any way to get it to run on Windows, Linux, Mac and Solaris.

Btw., why do you use a beta version of a product that might become usable with the first service pack in 2008?

slashdot: Windows Vista May Degrade OpenGL
http://slashdot.org/articles/05/08/06/177251.shtml

edit: spelling

DominionsFan · #6 June 29th, 2006, 05:51 PM

Window$ Vi$ta...nothing can stop the Micro$oft steamroller.

Ed Kolis · #7 June 29th, 2006, 05:59 PM

Um, how exactly will Vista become "unusable" when a service pack is released??? Aren't service packs supposed to ENHANCE software???

Ironhawk · #8 June 29th, 2006, 06:08 PM

I have pretty extensive usage with the Vista beta since I am helping develop some games for it. And from that I can say that Vista beta is very "beta". I would not even concern yourself if something doesnt run on it. Wait another 6mos or so and if it still doesnt work maybe worry then.

Ed Kolis · #9 June 29th, 2006, 11:01 PM

Hehe

I've actually found it to be quite stable so far, but maybe I haven't pushed it enough

Anyway, I got the game to run by running it in windowed mode, so that issue seems to be resolved

Cainehill · #10 June 29th, 2006, 11:40 PM

Ed, he said, "usable" - the last versions that MS put out that were semi-usable on first commercial release was Win95, maybe Win98. No one should ever get the latest "greatest" version of Windoze until _after_ the first service pack.

Programmers who've been developing for Vista (like the lead guy for Stardock) are likewise very dubious about it.