Emperor: Battle for Dune Multi unit Lag

[Bojazz]

Kay so this topic has been on a few other forums around the internet but I haven't been able to find a solution for it.

The Problem:
Emperor: Battle for Dune installs and runs fine on windows 7 machines, until you select multiple units. For some reason this causes intense video lag, and then hyper speed until the game returns to the time it should be at.


The following fixes do not work:
-Adjusting in-game graphics settings (including v-sync)
-Running in compatability modes or as admin
-disabling secondary monitors
-updating graphics card drivers
-changing to single core mode using affinity in the task manager
-re-installing the game
-running from CD or ISO on virtual machine

Machine:
According to other forums this problem occurs across all types of machines, the common factor seeming to be Nvidia graphics cards. But for argument's sake I'll post my specs.

L1N64-SLI WS Mobo
2x Athlon 6x fx dual core (socket L1)
8gb Crucial Ram 800 mhz
BFG 8800 GTX water cooled edition
1000 watt OCZ PSU
400 gb seagate sata HDD
G15 Gaming keyboard
Razer Lachesis
Dual Monitor (20" Crt/22" LCD)

If anyone can conjure up a fix for this I'd be greatly appreciative.

 

[Bojazz]

Bump

 

[Torgo]

It worked for me, brand new out-of-the-box laptop with an ATI card. I installed E:BfD and started the Ordos campaign today, no problem selecting a large number of units. Didn't run in compatibility mode, just installed off CD#1 and played campaign off CD#4.

Maybe this is an nvidia issue as you suggest. Did you test it in all play modes (CPU skirmish/campaign/multiplayer)? I dunno, just thinking out loud...

Here is my system specs if it helps since I haven't (yet) done any modifications:
Newegg.com - ASUS K70 Series K72JR-X1 NoteBook Intel Core i5 430M(2.26GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 - Laptops / Notebooks

Also, have you tried installing it on an alternate OS? Ubuntu is a quick setup, just get the wine package and then install Emperor. Apparently it's well supported:
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=4179

 

[Bojazz]

I've tried all gameplay modes with no change and it works fine with Nvidia cards on XP sp2 and 3. It just seems that Windows 7 + Nvidia cards causes this rather strange problem.

Your idea of alternate OS install would definitely work, but I'd rather not have to dual boot for one game.
Thanks for the input though, every bit of info helps.

 

[Frostmourne]

Update your keyboard and mouse drivers, uninstall any codec packs on your PC and media players too (apart from WMP). Update DirectX.

 

[Bojazz]

It was a fresh install of 7 so I had installed the latest drivers for all my hardware about two days prior, I've loaded no codec packs and Direct X is the most recent version. Problem persists.

 

[Torgo]

If you really want it working, try a dual boot setup just for diagnosis. If it works under your alternate operating system then you know the culprit.

 

[Bojazz]

I already know it works on alternate OSes. As my original post states this only seems to happen on Windows 7 machines with Nvidia graphics cards, hence posting the problem on the windows 7 forums.

As I have also stated in a previous post I'd rather not have to dual boot for one game.

 

[Torgo]

Yes, you said it works on different machines, but not on a different OS on your particular machine. Since it works perfectly on mine as well as other people I've talked to that run Windows 7 with nvidia, there may be something specific to certain machines rather than an operation system issue. I know you'd rather not dual-boot but it might be the best way to diagnose this. Who knows, you might find you prefer a linux-based operating system...

Just trying to help. No need to flip out.

 

[Bojazz]

First off - not flipping out

Secondly - The game ran fine on both XP and Vista with no hardware changes. As afore mentioned other forums around are posting the same problem with the apparent common factor being Nvidia cards and Windows 7.

You can check out the dune 2k forums for more info.
Linkage - Old problem with Emperor on Windows 7

 

[Torgo]

Well what you didn't say is whether the game works on XP on the same machine that you have Windows 7 installed on, or if those machines you used XP had the same problem with a Windows 7 install. And yes you were kind of biting my head off there, just take it easy friend.

You're the first person I've heard of to have this problem. E:BfD is a pretty small community of players but a good number of them have probably upgraded to Win7, and probably many of them use machines with nvidia. Let's go through it logically:
1. Are your drivers up to date?
2. If you have updated, have you tried rolling back the drivers to reproduce the error?
3. Have you tried using drivers for older OS's? They usually don't say so explicitly, but Windows 7 is compatible with older drivers back to XP.
4. Have you tried an alternative driver manufacturer? Zeropoint makes drivers for nvidia and ati: DriverHeavenDownloads.net - Fast n Furious
I assumed you did all of steps 1-4 already since you were convinced the problem was nvidia's interaction with the OS. Once you have done that, the next step in diagnosis is to try a dual OS setup, or duplicate machines to see if you can reproduce the problem.


These older games aren't supported, so it's no surprise if the latest and greatest drivers have trouble.

 

[MrMetal]

I have the same problem with Windows 7 - lags on multiple units selection. I turned off TARGET LINES in GAME OPTIONS and everything works flawless Hope it helps you.

 

[Bojazz]

Dear god, you are a genius! I have been trying to fix this for 6 months! POST THIS EVERYWHERE haha!.

Alrighty people problem solved. Just turn off target lines