Isabella leaderscreen issue.

[TheMarshmallowBear]

I have now changed computer to a new/better one (it's not really new per say) and to my surprise I can no longer choose "Medium" as a setting for the Leaderscreen quality (which I could on the previous one) which is quite a shame since now every leaderscreen constantly re-renders (it's blurry for a second then it clear again, which looks pretty much exactly like on Medium exepct you can CLEARLY see that the leaders are computer-genereated, which is quite .. weird.. ANYWAY

There's only one small issue, Isabella..

Isabella's background DOES NOT unblur, it keeps on blurring, and has always been blurred for me unless the setting was set to Medium (which is no longer possible).

So.. what now? don't tell me to get a new graphic card, cuz I can't afford one...

 

[callan]

Just typed out a long and fully coherent response but the internet ate it. This is the short concise version:

What you are describing wouldn't be intentional behaviour on the part of the game at any graphics setting. It's hard to be certain from your description but what it sounds like is happening is that the LoD textures required to complete the Leader Scenes cannot complete their loading process because required textures are being unloaded to make way for different required textures ad infinitum. Hence the background for Isabella never loading, it's place is the LoD queue is never reached.

The game is not likely to be at fault for this in any meaningful way unless you have massively tampered with the .ini files governing the game engine. Assuming it's a vanilla install then it is more likely that your system that is somehow at fault. Perhaps your computer's memory management is somehow configured incorrectly (can't say this is especially likely unless you have knowingly altered it) or perhaps you are suffering a bottleneck when loading objects from the page file, which can be caused by the HDD it is on being very full or very fragmented. The level of fragmentation required to cause the issues you describe would be fairly immense mind you.

In any case it's impossible to be certain without knowing more details of your system. A DXDiag would be nice but a few details on the hardware and OS are a minimum.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

The screen issue is only appears if the settings are set to Low, which oddly enough happened on both of my computers that I had.

My computer is fresh, fresh format, fresh install of OS etc. Since I asked my dad to switch computers so I could have better performance (and I do).

You could try setting the Leaderscreen quality to Low and start up a game with Isabella and see if you have the same issue (that is if you have the DLC)

OS - Windows XP Professional
(I have the XP in Polish so pardon the weird translations)
System producer : IQonIE
System model : M61SME-52
Processor :: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4000+, MMX, #Dnow (2 CPUs()
Memory 2048 MB RAM
DirectX 9.0c

 

[The_J]

That's not exactly a new computer ^^.
More important is the graphics card, which you should be able to see in the second tab of the DxDiag menu (or just save it as .txt and attach it here).

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Oh hi J..

ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series
Advanced Micro Devies, Inc.
AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x9498)
Internal DAC (400 MHZ)
1024.0 MB
1280x1024 (32 bit, 60 Hz)
Monitor Plug and Play

 

[The_J]

That card should be sufficient. -> Has the driver been updated?

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

As far as I know my dad downloaded the latest ones.. I think..

ati2dvag.dll
Version 6.14.0010.7261 (English)
Date 2012-04-06 04:20:02
Pdop. przez WHQL (have no idea what that is) : n/d or n/a
Mini-driver VDD :ati2mtag.sys
VDD : n/a
DDI version : 9 or newer.

 

[callan]

After some consideration I have changed my mind and I'm beginning to suspect the game may well be causing this problem by poorly utilising the limited available memory. At least I can't see any reason why a freshly installed XP system would have any memory management or disk paging issues. This is bad news in terms of looking for a solution as it may be a fairly intractable interaction between borderline hardware and the game. You could try altering some of the game engine .ini files to tweak the LoD engine so as to display more acceptable results but this is a moderately complex business for an amateur with no guarantee of success. There are bound to be quite a few resource threads out there that may help, it's not something I have any experience with for this game as it's always run relatively well for me, even on my lowest specced machine though it only slightly outspecs yours - it's also a Dual Core but with a 4890 GPU. I suppose if I were to start looking I'd compare the current LoD defaults for "Medium" with those for "Low" and start updating the "Low" values to match the "Medium" ones one or two at a time. This would be a fairly lengthy process since it means changing a few values, starting the game to make see if you've improved or worsened it ad nauseum until it either works or you give up. Sorry I can't be more helpful man.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Well, I the main issue for me is being unable to completely select the Meidum choise in the settings (even modifying the ini files does nothing). Which is the biggest let down.

Nebuch is also affected by this graphical issue.

 

[The_J]

Is AA activated (either in the graphics card settings or in the ingame graphics menu)?

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

AA = Antilysing right? Or is it Adaptive Antylising?
I JUST DISCOVERED THIS :

; Set to 1 to allow the 'medium' and 'high' leader settings on low-end machines. (DANGER: 256M is probably not enough! Use at your own risk!)
AllowMediumLeadersOnLowEnd = 0

D: whaaa!?

 

[callan]

Well if you set that to 1 and save it should allow you to choose Medium leader quality at least. I'm not sure why the game thinks you have such a poor GPU, perhaps you could open up DxDiag, click Save All Information at the bottom, open the text file it creates and copy/paste your version of the 4th section "Display Devices" in it's entirety?

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Yeah, something is not right, I manually turned on the option in the ini files and can select "medium" with no issues, BUT, the screens really lag, especially the bigger ones (Suleiman, Gandhi, etc). But my dad said the Graphics Card and Speed should be better than my old one, so I'm dumbfounded.

I checked the Device Manager thingy and PCI .. something is listed as a questionmark with exclimation icon over it... I need to talk to my dad..

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series
Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Chip type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x9498)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9498&SUBSYS_E930174B&REV_00
Display Memory: 1024.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Monitor Plug and Play
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.7261 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 4/6/2012 04:20:02, 305664 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/d
Mini VDD: ati2mtag.sys
Mini VDD Date: 4/6/2012 06:16:18, 7746048 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-D7D8-11CF-A668-3AC9A1C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x9498
SubSys ID: 0xE930174B
Revision ID: 0x0000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D
Deinterlace Caps: {6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
{6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,UYVY) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,UYVY) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
{3C5323C1-6FB7-44F5-9081-056BF2EE449D}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,2) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{552C0DAD-CCBC-420B-83C8-74943CF9F1A6}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,2) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: Not run
D3D7 Test Result: Not run
D3D8 Test Result: Not run
D3D9 Test Result: Not run

 

[callan]

Yeah, the first step would be to resolve whatever driver problem or conflict you have there. If it's an option for you upgrading to Win 7, preferably 64 bit, might help as it's much less reliant on the end user providing chipset drivers and the like.

That DxDiag looked exactly like I'd expect it to by the way, so the problem isn't there.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

I know, but don't think I can afford anything (Operating System cost a lot don't they?) and I don't think my dad has a copy of Windows 7. Even though to be perfectly honest I would've love to just get a brand new PC.

Still, it is worth noting that the blurry leader screen needs to be fixed, since it's always present in Low details, while the other screens (Except for Nebuch's) render fine.

UPDATE

The fault of the sudden decrease in performance was due to the fact that one of two memory... things.. became lose and was "unconnected" meaning that instead of... 2048 of memory (or close) I only recieved 1024. My dad fixed it and both Portal 2 and Civ 5 run a lot better... my dad just needs to superscrew the component properly and I should be fine..

Thanks everybody for everything