Older DirectX heavy game has studdering problems.

I have a top of the line system and am running Win7Ux64 after a fresh format and an update to all windows files and hardware drivers.

An older game that I used to play on XP was a game called Space Empires V. It was released in 2006. I've been having mouse lag issues when opening windows in the game. I.e. Ship design, Colony statistics, Empire News, Starbase Design, Intelligence reports etc.

After sifting through the forums for that particular game, I was informed that the issue lies with the game utilizing DirectX, but it would seem that the game is reliant on an older version, so DX11 is emulating for the game, which is causing the frame slowdown with in-game windows open.

Since I am on W7Ux64 and with DX11, and I've tried the XP mode, virtualization, and Compatibility changes to no avail, my question is, can I manually adjust settings to D11 for that specific application? I am not terribly familiar with manually ajusting DirectX, nor have I really had a reason to in the past.

Should I download old DX drivers from a driver database and see if it helps? I don't want to put old drivers on my system and have a potential conflict. If I can have the old drivers on my system without screwing up my DX11 games that would be perfect.

Any ideas would help with the problem.

Thanks for your time.

The Wicked One, welcome to the forums.

Yes you need to install/update DirectX for older games to work properly. See #5 here,

Tips on Troubleshooting Game Issues

for the download links.

No I already did. I said that I updated all hardware and windows programs after the format.

I've had the latest version of DX for a while now. Doesn't help anything. Should I try to install DX9c? See if that works?

If you installed the latest DirectX Redistributable (now re-neamed DirectX End User Runtimes), then you already have 9.0c.

Looked up that game and it isn't DirectX 9 that you need but DX 8.1,

Space Empires V

and DX 8/8.1 isn't included in the update. No idea what would happen if you tried one of the earlier DX updates that still contains it. It should just install/add the DX 8.1 files and ignore all the others as they will be newer, but you never know. One thing you can try is check the game disk and see if the is a DirectX folder, and if there is either run the installer (if present) or if it is just the DX files add them to the game's installation folder.

One more thing, while looking around at their site, you have the latest patch installed?

Space Empires V: Patch

No idea if it will help, but it came out in mid 2009.

Being that Space Empires V is a DirectX 8 game (which speaks of it's age), don't expect too much success in running it on Windows 7. Sorry.

I would suggest you Google the game to see if others have had any luck getting it to run, and what they did to make it so.

In the mean time you should still try the DX 9 updates which this download includes.... Download details: DirectX End-User Runtime

BTW - Windows 7 is fully compatible with games and hardware that use older versions of DirectX

Also checkout step #6 for a better understanding of how DX11 works in relation to older games/hardware - Tips on Troubleshooting Game Issues

Good luck.