Running Slow

[hadrian_kamenov]

I just downloaded DW and being rather excited about it booted it up... but it seems to run terrifyingly slow... bordering on unplayable in my opinion... I have an ASUS G1SN (http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=lX7tkT8osugOK6KA ) the only difference is that I upgraded to Windows 7 64 bit, which easily goes over the standard minimum requirements... I have never encountered this kind of issue before so if you know a way to fix it or go around it I would be immensely appreciative.

[Erik Rutins]

Performance can be very subjective, but it has performed acceptably for us even on older systems. My main concern if you are running Windows 7 on a system that is not powerful enough for it is that you may have so little free system memory left that everything is constantly swapping to the hard drive. That could slow down any game. The game itself works well on Windows 7 64-bit, so I know the operating system itself is not the problem.

Could you post a DxDiag for us please?

[hadrian_kamenov]

Run at 32

[hadrian_kamenov]

Run at 64

[Erik Rutins]

Very odd, that system has more than enough horsepower for this game. I've run it on a much slower system with Windows 7 with no performance issues at the same 1680x1050 resolution.

A few suggestions:

1. Try a newer video driver and also try resetting it to the default settings. 2. Update your audio drivers (currently from 2007) if possible as audio issues can cause system performance issues in some cases. 3. Try using DxDiag to reduce video/audio acceleration to see if that makes any difference. 4. Make sure any and all other applications that might be running in the background are closed, especially anti-virus/security software. You want to see if anything you are running there could be interfering with the game.

[hadrian_kamenov]

Yes performance is subjective, but windows get called up piecemeal at a time, ships... jerk move forward

[Erik Rutins]

Also, try the Quick Start - Fast game and let me know if you see any difference in performance there with the smallest possible galaxy.

[LarryP]

This is an issue we worked with a lot during testing, especially for my laptop.

Go into the Options menu and do this: Star density: set this to the far left, minimum

Now go into the Advanced Settings: Maximum framerate: Uncheck Unlimited box Set to 25, even 20 for now if need be Uncheck Display nebulae clouds in systems System nebulae detail = Low

Try that and see if it helps. If it does, you can increase these slowly to find what works for your system. I would start with increasing the Maximum framerate first, as that will greatly help your screen choppiness. Increase it by maybe 2 at a time.

Also, these changes take effect immediately so you do not have to restart the game.

[hadrian_kamenov]

No change from size to size, also how long is it supposed to take the game to boot up on avg cause it takes almost 5 minutes...

[Erik Rutins]

Thanks Larry, Hadrian can you please give Larry's suggestions a try?

[hadrian_kamenov]

So I did what Larry said, and its a lot smoother comparatively. The ships still have a jittery quick to them and scrolling still feels clunky but not as bad...

[hadrian_kamenov]

quirk* not quick

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: hadrian_kamenov

So I did what Larry said, and its a lot smoother comparatively. The ships still have a jittery quick to them and scrolling still feels clunky but not as bad...

Now gradually increase the framrate, and you may need to do it by 1 each time. I do 2 but you may have a special case there. [;)]

[hadrian_kamenov]

Also if I hit Alt-F4 in program it crashes instead of closes

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: hadrian_kamenov

So I did what Larry said, and its a lot smoother comparatively. The ships still have a jittery quick to them and scrolling still feels clunky but not as bad...

Also try scrolling out a bit.

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: hadrian_kamenov

Also if I hit Alt-F4 in program it crashes instead of closes

Why would you want to hit Alt-F4? That's for emergency eject. [:D] [;)]

[hadberz]

Like Eric said, update your video card driver and sound driver. Realtek released a new sounddriver just a few days ago. I have a Asus W90vp laptop, so we probably have the same sound chips (Realtek High Definition Audio). Since Asus almost never updates their drivers, I use Realtek without any problems.

I have ATI video card in my laptop so can't tell you if the video drivers are the problem. It's worth a shot updating them. I believe Nvidia makes drivers that work on laptops without having to mod them.

[hadrian_kamenov]

Yeah Im looking at my systems profile on their website and they dont have any video drivers on it... which I feel as strange

[Erik Rutins]

Yes, please still try my other suggestions. I'm glad Larry's suggestions worked for you, but your system should not _need_ those performance tweaks to run smoothly so something else is disagreeing with the game.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: hadrian_kamenov Yeah Im looking at my systems profile on their website and they dont have any video drivers on it... which I feel as strange

Go direct to www.nvidia.com for video drivers.