Video Issue or Something

[NRA]

Hi guys)

WZ 2100 has been my fav right from the start--long before 2k, so I had to have my second OS as Win'98 because XP didn't work ok with it. A couple years ago I did find and try a renewed version and found it very acceptable--well done!--but life goes on and working... Now I have some spare time and found an old yet working PC in my garage and wanted to try WZ again, but it seems that the hardware is rather outdated or something.

So, my first question is Where one could find SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS?

The point is I'm not sure it's a technical problem, just outdated hardware perhaps. Ok, the PC in subject is Core2Duo e4400/ DDR2 2048MB/ SATA 500GB with PCI-e GeForce 6600 256MB running the latest version of WZ2100 downloaded from this site (3.1.0 - Jan 14) under pure vanilla XP SP3 x32 (5.1.2600) at the start shows 'quote]A non fatal error has occurred

[screenInitialise:187] OpenGL GLSL shader version 1.20 is not supported by your system. Some things may look wrong. Please upgrade your graphics driver/hardware, if possible.[/quote]Actually Aida64 says it does support shaders up to 3.0, anyway it works fine with ANY settings, but every some 2-10 cycles of HQ radar turns the game freezes for about a half second--disregarding the quality, texture size, map, AI type, and screen resolution. FPS is set to 60, but around 40. The campaign also slug down, but works fine by now, whereas skirmish occasionally shuts the game down without warnings.

As far as the system is clean (no AV/viri--double-checked) with the hardware inspected, I can't help thinking it's a memory leak, video lag, or CPU-stumbling. Could someone head me to the correct direction? For the purpose I played Ziggurats with seven difficult bots (3xNexus + 2xNullbot + 2xSemperfi; no alliance, scavengers) to get a few crashes, so should be it a 'technical' problem, please move where it belongs.

TY

By the way, I researched to Autorepair and went to drink coffee--one of the Nexus won six others!

[NoQ]

No, not video. What you're really experiencing is

• http://developer.wz2100.net/ticket/3471
  http://developer.wz2100.net/search?q=fpathAStarExplore

Some bug we still couldn't catch for some time already, but still most people somehow don't have it

[NRA]

Thank you, NoQ.

So, the hardware is ok.
What about rather frequent freezes then? As far as I understood they are somehow related to pathfinding issue, right?

The system was working at default speed and I tried both slowing down FSB, multiplier, SPD, video and overclocking it within sense, but it remains the same. Perhaps some service keeps polling or a disabled service is required?

You won't believe me, it's just my luck

Ok, perhaps there's there some 'safe mode' for WZ 2100?

[NoQ]

That's NullBot AI thinking, see also FAQ, should be improved significantly for many AIs in the next 3.1 release, but not completely fixed. Whenever there are too many units and stuff, he starts lagging.

[Lord Apocalypse]

Best thing to do to gather info is to leave task manager running in the background and wait till you hit a slow down or severe lag then wait about 10-15 seconds and pause the game ten alt-tab out and see how things are running. Just don't forget to switch over to the performance tab before starting wz so you don't waste any time after you pause the game.

See what is getting hit hardest, your cpu or ram. With a 6600 it should not be a video problem unless you don't have the latest nvidia driver (and I do mean nvidia, not whoever made the card).

[NRA]

I must have something confused because in Campaign mode the game works smoothly for any settings, where's periodically lagging in Skirmish only--whatever are the settings, the number of players and AI type.

I checked Task manager and it says that WZ takes some 50MB memory and some 55% CPU--without sizable peaks-drops while freezes--the game just seem to loop in some routine(s).

I tried to give it High priority and the gameplay slightly improved, but the lags persist. Alas.
So I connected my old CRT LG 21" and tried 60-75-80-85-100Hz modes--in vain.
I disabled Vsync and FPS is from 35 to 200, but lags are still there.

Dunno, keep wondering.

[NoQ]

Please confirm that you are still having freezes when NullBot AI (or any custom scavenger AIs) are not present at all.
Maybe overheat?

[NRA]

That's right--even using only the default AI (Nexus) causes periodic freezes without system performance drawback, but only in Skirmish--at any settings. No scavengers makes the game just a little smoother, not a remedy though.

The NV diode temperature is 48°C for idling and about 62°C while playing, whereas the NV panel says that 145°C (?!) is critical.
I replaced a box cooler with 80mm one, so it doesn't exceed 55°C now--no diff.
According to Aida64 the CPU temperature is quite similar (45-60°C).
Occasionally I find that CPU speed is lowered, but it must be some powersaving feature, besides CPU speeds up when loaded, as the game does.

BTW, not sure it might relate, yet at the mission when NEXUS "broke alliance" and I had to "find... and ..." the game lagged too, but more severely--for longer, however, just for some 20 seconds. Ok, guys, although most other games (mostly Direct3D) work quite smoothly (depending on the settings), perhaps it's very OpenGL or something is not functioning properly on my old and possibly faulty hardware. A bit later I may have an opportunity to check GF8800 and some ATi just to make sure.

BTW, as far as all tests give relevant result for such a machine, where I could test video/rendering in GL mode in respect of WZ 2100?

Cheers)

[NoQ]

PCI-e GeForce 6600 256MB

It is not old hardware; we're running on stuff a lot older.
Yet i've never heard of freezes in skirmish other than NullBot-related.
I give up, anybody else?

[NRA]

NoQ, the video card is some seven years old, and as far as the only warning is about "OpenGL GLSL shader version 1.20 is not supported", I think this might be a possible reason. The motherboard has an integrated intel X3000, but it's disabled and doesn't run WZ at all (more severe GL fault at startup too). I couldn't find any oAL (sound?) gadget in the control settings, nor check how it goes with Azalia codec, so I un/installed some codecs (K-lite and some others), cleaned up, yet I'm not sure it relates.

Could you recommend me a tool to test GL-compatibility or compliance?

[Ezio]

NoQ, the video card is some seven years old, and as far as the only warning is about "OpenGL GLSL shader version 1.20 is not supported", I think this might be a possible reason. The motherboard has an integrated intel X3000, but it's disabled and doesn't run WZ at all (more severe GL fault at startup too). I couldn't find any oAL (sound?) gadget in the control settings, nor check how it goes with Azalia codec, so I un/installed some codecs (K-lite and some others), cleaned up, yet I'm not sure it relates.

Could you recommend me a tool to test GL-compatibility or compliance?

aida64 -> display -> opengl

[NRA]

Ezio, actually I was asking about TESTING, not some general info that

Support for OpenGL 2.1 is 66%;
OpenGL 3.0 is 28%, and
OpenGL 3.1 is 16%

I thought it was a burn memory slot issue (that's why I threw it at my garage), but it seems the problem is Gigabyte 'feature' to enable C1E and EIST/ESS (powersaving) what periodically drops the speed down when the CPU load is below some threshold--perhaps, about 54%, as the game uses. Thus, turning them off made the game if not absolutely smooth then very far much absolutely smoother. My bad, guys. This mobo is weird, for example, if I disable Hyper-Threading (virtual core) then it disables the second real core too, while the CPU doesn't support HT at all. Lesson's learnt.

Ok, guys, may be I'm becoming somewhat greedy, but could you recommend me a PCI-e video with a sensible price/performance ratio supporting at least DirectX10+? I wanted to buy a used 8800GT, but almost $45 for such an outdated device seems rather costy. Frankly speaking, I would like to see REQUIREMENTS and recommended specifications for WZ2100, say, minimum/recommended intel/amd CPU, ATI/NV/intel and whatever that may effect (ForceWare 93.71 WHQL is the latest for GF6600?) the gaming experience. Just a slight offtopic

[NRA]

Alas, but even overclocked videcard with minimal setting 800x600x16bit still occasionally lags even with 40+ fps and no apparent CPU stumbling, especially for bigger maps and scavs, disregarding AI type. Used videomemory is some 30MB. so that's not the case either.

Gonna try another video soon and may be using a little better hardware (i3/5 with DDR3 and PCiX 2.0+), but tonight will make a new attempt under Windows 7 x32 Home. Possibly-maybe-perhaps.

[NoQ]

I'd rather try to underclock in these circumstances ...