game running very slow

from GalCiv2 Forums
ive now had galciv 2 since it first came out and i have been able to run it normally through all the versions of the game, now all of the sudden the game runs extreamly slow and the soud breaks up ll the time, even in the loading screen, i used to play games with gigantic galaxies and lots of opponents with no problem, but no i can barley play a tiny galaxy with one opponent.

i dont know if i need to post a debug but here it is anyway

Debug Message: Version v1.4x last updated on: Mon Oct 23 17:43:56 2006
Debug Message: GalCiv2 is activated.
Debug Message: Checking DX Version.
Debug Message: *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 12/2/2006, 15:34:28
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: YOUR-B27FB1C401
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Compaq Presario 061
System Model: ED881AA-ABA SR1650NX NA580
BIOS: Phoenix - Award BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2GHz
Physical Memory: 958MB RAM
Page File: 327MB used, 1985MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS


Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 Series
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip Type: ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 Series (0x5954)
DAC Type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5954&SUBSYS_2A26103C&REV_00
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (85Hz)
Monitor Name: COMPAQ FS7600 Color Monitor
Monitor Max Resolution: 1280,1024
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6553
Driver Date: 6/8/2005 00:44:56
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes



Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: Realtek AC97 Audio
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4370&SUBSYS_2A27103C&REV_02
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: ALCXWDM.SYS
Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Driver Version: 5.10.0000.5840
Driver Date: 4/20/2005 13:00:56
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 3
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0

Sound device 1:
Description: Modem #1 Line Playback (emulated)
Default Sound Playback: No
Default Voice Playback: No
Hardware ID:
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 81
Driver Name:
Provider:
Driver Version:
Driver Date:
Type: Emulated
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 3
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0



Debug Message: *********END dxdiag info.*********
Debug Message: Entering WinMain
Debug Message: ******* Starting Game Shell *******
Debug Message: Going Fullscreen
Debug Message: Preparing to change display settings.
Debug Message: Using multilsample setting: D3DMULTISAMPLE_4_SAMPLES
Debug Message: Game Resolution: 1024 x 768
Debug Message: Running fullscreen.
Debug Message: HAL (hw vp): ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 Series
Debug Message: D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL_DEFAULT
Debug Message: Refresh rate: 85
Debug Message: Bit Depth: 32 bit.
Debug Message: *********Checking D3DDevice Caps***********************
Debug Message: A full-color cursor is supported in hardware at high resolution modes.
Debug Message: RGB in format 6:6:6, Masks reported as ff0000:ff00:ff
Debug Message: Now Fullscreen
Debug Message: Shell initialization complete
Debug Message: ***** Initializing Game *****
Debug Message: Timer Frequency is 0 369e99
Debug Message: Initializing sound card.
Debug Message: initailizing bink
Debug Message: Create setup screens.
Debug Message: Clear galaxy settings.
Debug Message: Clear influence.
Debug Message: Clear up laws.
Debug Message: Clear first time events.
Debug Message: Clear wonders and trade goods.
Debug Message: Clear sector mapper.
Debug Message: Set mouse.
Debug Message: Set update timer.
Debug Message: Clear data definitions.
Debug Message: No files found matching mask C:\Documents and Settings\Alexander Scott\My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2\ships\*.xml
Debug Message: No files found matching mask C:\Documents and Settings\Alexander Scott\My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2\ships\*.shipcfg
Debug Message: Reading Star Names
Debug Message: Reading Star Names... Done
Debug Message: No files found matching mask C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\Mods\KHSM\Data\CustomMaps\*.gc2map
Debug Message: No files found matching mask C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\Mods\KHSM\Data\Scenarios\*.gc2scenario
Debug Message: Creating Galaxy
Debug Message: Killing threads.
Debug Message: Kiling civs.
Debug Message: Killing ships.
Debug Message: Killing rallypoints.
Debug Message: Killing misc objects.
Debug Message: Killing stars.
Debug Message: Killing anomalies.
Debug Message: Killing space resources.
Debug Message: Killing colonies and planets.
Debug Message: killing scenario.
Debug Message: Clearing Turn Event Log
Debug Message: Clear galaxy settings.
Debug Message: Clear influence.
Debug Message: Clear up laws.
Debug Message: Clear first time events.
Debug Message: Clear wonders and trade goods.
Debug Message: Clear sector mapper.
Debug Message: Galaxy Size Set: 4 x 4
Debug Message: Creating Random Map
Debug Message: Creating Random Map... Stars
Debug Message: Number of Unplaced Stars: 15.
Debug Message: Creating Random Map... Planets
Debug Message: Creating Random Map... Anomalies
Debug Message: Num Anomalies: 42
Debug Message: Creating Random Map... Resources
Debug Message: Creating Random Map... Done
Debug Message: Setting Game Options
Debug Message: Creating Civs
Debug Message: Terran Alliance: Intellence -> 50
Debug Message: Drengin Empire: Intellence -> 50
Debug Message: Torian Confederation: Intellence -> 50
Debug Message: Thalan Empire: Intellence -> 50
Debug Message: Creating Civs... Done
Debug Message: Updating ZOC.
Debug Message: Updating ZOC.
Debug Message: Galaxy Create... Done
Debug Message: UIBeginGame called with g_ulLocalPlayerID = 0
Debug Message: UIBeginGameHelper: New Game Started
Debug Message: UIBeginGameHelper: Mods are Disabled
Debug Message: WM_CLOSE message received.
Debug Message: GameUninitialize start
Debug Message: Killing hidden planet surface init thread. Waiting for it to die.

Debug Message: Aborting hidden planet surface initialization.
Debug Message: Hidden planet surface init thread dead.
Debug Message: Killing Galaxy
Debug Message: Killing threads.
Debug Message: Kiling civs.
Debug Message: Killing ships.
Debug Message: Killing rallypoints.
Debug Message: Killing misc objects.
Debug Message: Killing stars.
Debug Message: Killing anomalies.
Debug Message: Killing space resources.
Debug Message: Killing colonies and planets.
Debug Message: killing scenario.
Debug Message: Clearing Turn Event Log
Debug Message: Clear galaxy settings.
Debug Message: Clear influence.
Debug Message: Clear up laws.
Debug Message: Clear first time events.
Debug Message: Clear wonders and trade goods.
Debug Message: Clear sector mapper.
Debug Message: Clear data definitions.
Debug Message: Killing Galaxy: Completed
Debug Message: Shutting down sound system.
Debug Message: Clearing sound and music handles.
Debug Message: WorkAreaBack.png not cleared 1 counts left.
Debug Message: GameUninitialize end
Debug Message: Device not cleared. 4 counts left.
Debug Message: D3D not cleared. 1 counts left.
Debug Message: Destroying Window.
Debug Message: Main Shell terminating normally

thanks in advance
6,097 views 21 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Try turning anti-aliasing down to zero (off) in the game's video options. An ATI X200 chipset is pretty weak, and the AA is likely just plain too much for it to handle.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
turning off anti-aliasing doesent seem to have done anything, even the menu screen is still very slow.
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hmm. Did it get slow after a patch, or just out of nowhere? If the latter, are you running any background programs or have you changed any other settings lately?
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
it seemed to come out of nowhere ive had 1.4x for a little while now and it ran fine about a week ago when i last played it, dont run anything except galciv to when i play and i don't recall changing any settings from when it ran normally.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If nothing else, you should update your drivers. You can find video drivers at ati.com (or omegadrivers.net if the latest stock ATI drivers won't work).
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Did you recently install any new multimedia programs like WinDVD or an mp3 player?
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
a driver update seems to have fixed the problem, odd since ive run the game on these drivers for a long time normally.

sincere thanks for all the help with the problem

unibrow
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i take back my previous remark, i launched galciv2 after my computer restarted from the driver update and it seemed to run fine however i went back on right after i submitted my last post and it was back to its pre driver update state.

to CariElf's post- i installed an update for iTunes since the last time i played the game if that could be relevent
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Yes, as iTunes may have installed or updated a sound codec on your system, which may not be playing nicely with GC2.

Did you update your sound drivers or your video drivers?  Updating your sound drivers if you didn't may help.  Otherwise, you may want to do a search for all files with the extension *.ax and rename the extensions of the .ax files not in the windows system folder.  If GC2 runs perfectly after that, you can blame one of the codecs you renamed.  Otherwise, it could be a codec that has a different file extension, but .ax is the most common. 

You could also try renaming your My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2 folder to something else so that GalCiv2 will create a fresh folder and see if that improves anything.

Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I tried all of your suggestions, unfortunatly none of them seems to have worked.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Go to Start->Run and type msconfig.  Choose Diagnostic Startup, then hit OK.  It will prompt you to restart.  When you restart, it should start without a bunch of stuff in the systray.  Then start GalCiv2 and see if it's behaving itself again.  If it is, it's probably iTunes or something else that normally runs in the systray.

To re-enable all the stuff you turned off, go to Start->Run and type in msconfig again, and choose Normal startup this time.  You'll need to reboot again.

Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
GC2 seemed to run fine in diagnostic mode, except that it had no sound (i dont know if this was supposed to happen). what should i do to fix the problem in normal mode?
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Interesting, about the no sound.  You obviously need something in that systray running for sound, but something, possibly the same program, does seem to be causing the slow down.

Run msconfig again and choose selective startup, then click on the startup tab.  That should list all the files being loaded when windows starts, and they should all be unchecked.  Check enable all, then uncheck any ones that look like they have to do with iTunes.  Then try GalCiv2 again.  If GalCiv2 is still running well, we've isolated the problem. Otherwise, you'll have to try to eliminate which program is causing the problem, which will be tedius.

If iTunes is the problem, you can close it from the systray and shut down the background processes from Task Manager whenever you play GalCiv2.  When you start iTunes, it should load those background processes then.

Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
iTunes seems to have been the problem, the game worked perfectly when i started it with itunes not selected. now i was just hoping for some more specific instructions on closing iTunes when i play GC2.

Sincere Thanks

unibrow
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If you right click on the iTunes icon in the systray, you can close the main part of the program from that menu.  There will still be 2-3 backround processes running that do things like check for updates and check to see if you've plugged in an iPod, which you will probably also need to shut down.  Hit CTRL+Shift+ESC and sort the processes by name.  It's been a long time since I've had iTunes installed, so I don't know what the exact names, but it should be fairly obvious which ones they are.
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i went through the steps you described above however the game still behaved the same way, on a whim i compleatly unistalled iTunes and all iTunes related software i had on my computer, after restarting the computer i tried to launch gc2 again and it still behaved the same way, this compleatly baffels me and i dont know what to do next
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Think I have found the problem- whenever I restart the computer and start GalCiv II before any other program it works normally. If I run any other program (ex Internet Explorer) then it behaves erratically. Explains why it work when in dx mode and when I updated the video drivers. I don't know what this means but it does seem to be the problem.
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Well, it could be a malicious program like a virus or spyware which gets triggered when you launch other programs, or it could be that the other programs are loading a codec that GalCiv2 doesn't like.

You can see what codecs are installed on your system by right clicking on My Computer, then select properties. Click on the hardware tab and then click on the Device Manager button.  Then right click on Audio Codecs and choose properties. The properties tab of the dialog that comes up will list and allow you to remove the audio codecs installed on your computer.  You can follow the same steps for the Video Codecs.  There are instructions in this MSDN article for re-installing the Windows audio and video codecs:

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;893681&spid=1007&sid=1498#EUADAAA

I didn't give you those instructions before because they're a little more extreme, and they might cause iTunes or one of your other media programs to stop working.  At worse, though, you would just have to re-install the programs. 

 

Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I ran virus programs scan and it did not detect any malicious programs on my computer

just to be clear on the other part, you want me to unistall the audio and video codecs from my computer and then reinstall them?

thanks in advance
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

just to be clear on the other part, you want me to unistall the audio and video codecs from my computer and then reinstall them?

Yes.