Matrix Games Forums

I am no longer getting combat animations. It's no big deal but it is nice to tell at a glance if/how heavily a ship is damaged by the smoke plume. Was this done away with in 1.1? If so let me know. I have re-installed the game and the upgrade and no animations.

Originally posted by Chris Trog
I am no longer getting combat animations. It's no big deal but it is nice to tell at a glance if/how heavily a ship is damaged by the smoke plume. Was this done away with in 1.1? If so let me know. I have re-installed the game and the upgrade and no animations.

Did you hit the F5 key by mistake? It toggles the combat animation ON and OFF.

Chris -- any chance you have a Dell PC with an nVidia graphics card??? There seems to be some of us with that configuration who are experiencing problems with the combat graphics/animations. Note that when the graphics do return (and they usually do), your PC may lock up....

Interestingly enough, I have two Dells with Nvidia cards here that I've been using for testing for months. No problems, except in Windowed mode. The animation/crash problem is a bit baffling, frankly, but we're still putting a lot of effort into hunting down anything in the code that could be causing this or any of the other few crash bugs that are still on our list.

Regards,

- Erik

Decided to start a new thread with this as the actual subject - might make it a bit easier to keep track of. I played around last night with sound / animations off and on and can confirm that the game crashes even with sound / animations off. Same behaviour, mouse moves around but you cannot close the window, CNTL ALT DEL doesn't work and you need to power the machine down. I did discover last night though that while CNTL ALT DEL does not seem to work ALT tab does seem to still work. This will get you back to windows where CNTL ALT DEL does work. You can therefore kill off the frozen UV and then start it up again without powering down the PC. Saves quite a bit of time and a little wear and tear on your system. Only did this once (it was late when I tried it) so others may need to verify if this approach works consistently. If there are others out there with newish Dells with Nvidia graphics cards who don't have this locking up problem can you please post your driver versions, etc? My PC is a P4 1.7 Ghz with 64MB Nvidia Geforce 3 running ME.

Thanks,
Frank

That might explain why I got kicked out to the desktop (on my first game yet) about 15 minutes after I started.

I run a P4 1.8 with an NVidia Geforce 3 and Windows XP.

I have a Dell Dimension 8200 P4 1.8GHz, WinXP, 64 MB NVIDIA GeForce2 MX w/ the original drivers supplied by Dell. I have not had any lockups or crashes.

Keep in mind that some crashes to desktop have been reported as a result of attacking (strafing) enemy airfields at 100 feet altitude.

I too have a Dell wint nVidia card and no problems with animations - except that when my F-5A lightenings recon the field and get to the animation screen they are represented by wildcat group with a number of planes that has nothing to do with the number of lightenings. Used to be P39s but now it is wildcats.

I too have a mid-range speed Dell 733mhz with an Nvidia GeForce 3 Titanium card and have only experienced a lockup on the initial launch of a scenario, tried to launch it again and it worked fine. No in-game lockups or crashes however. The drivers are out of the box. This is a PNP Nvidia GeForce 3 Titanium video card less than two months old. (Got it to replace the Nvidia TNT2 card that didn't have the horsepower to handle the graphics and 3D animation of Morrowind). This card absolutely screams. The only crash I can force was with the flight of G4Ms from off the map trying to attack Lunga in Scn#17 that is covered in another thread.

Eric -- thanks for the reply. I, too, am baffled by this problem. Every other game I have (and there are a lot) runs fine. Has Matrix compiled any stats on the configurations of the users that are having this problem? Any one thing in common (like Windows Me or a specific nvidia card like the Geforce3 Ti200)? I keep putting off wiping my PC and relaoding everything (and maybe upgrading to XP) for fear that it won't solve the problem

Thanks for any input/suggestions and keep those great games coming!

Definitely the same problem I have. My 7-month old Dell is a Dimension 8200 1.9GHZ P4 with 256MB RAM, 100GB hard drive, running Windows Me, Geforce3 Ti200 (with the latest Detonator drivers (29.42)), and a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card. I have defragged the HD, updated the drivers, uninstalled/installed UV (several times).

Initially the combat graphics ran just fine. Then 45-60 minutes into a game, they stopped. PC would lock up when the graphics returned. I did have 1 game that continued AFTER the graphics came back. Now the graphics are gone from the start, but still lock up the PC when they return. Interestingly (is that a real word?), when I installed the 1.10 update, the graphics were back. I started a saved game and a new game and had graphics, at least until I rebooted and then they were gone again! I'm on the verge of wiping my PC and reloading, even upgrading to XP, but would sure like to know first, if that will even fix the problem.

Great game, but dang it, the graphics are more than just eye candy. In this game they convey information and I want to see them!

Dude, you got a Dell???

The system manufacturer may or may not be the issue here. There are numerous instances of Win ME not working and playing well with some games. XP is generally solid however.

As with most issues like this, the old adage is to make sure you have the latest drivers and make sure there are no TSRs running in the background (especially Norton Anti-Virus). Then see if the situation exists.

Thank you for the responses. I have been offline for a couple of days as I had to put a new hard drive in my laptop. Yes, I am running a Dell with the Nvidia GeForceGo2 (Dell Mobile). I will keep checking this page for any fixes to the animation problem.

Quick synopsis: Bought game, saw combat graphics. Graphics went away. When they came back, PC was locked up. I have a Dell 1.9GHz P4 with a Geforce3 Ti200 64MB video card, etc...(exact config is in other posts concerning this same problem)...

OK...The other day I downloaded and installed version 1.10. Got the combat graphics back UNTIL I rebooted. Got messages about my system configuration files being updated when I rebooted. Afterwards, no graphics.

Tonight I installed version 1.11. Combat graphics back! Until I rebooted, saw same msgs about system configuration files being updated, then no graphics!

Why are my system configuration files being affected by an update to a game????????

Anyone else experiencing this?????

on my Dell anyway...


See thread at:

showthread.php?s=&threadid=21632

admins: anyway to combine these similar threads???

Sorry if you already mentioned this, but what OS are you running? I'm wondering if you have some sort of utility that's running on reboot and either adjusting your registry or something else.

While messages like system configuration being updated are not unusal after an installation, the fact that a reboot "breaks" the combat animations after patching for you is darned unusual. From here, it seems to point to something in the shutdown/reboot process, perhaps a system restore type thing or a third party config/registry restore utility.

Regards,

- Erik

FYI, I have merged both threads!

Originally posted by uncc
on my Dell anyway...


See thread at:

showthread.php?s=&threadid=21632

admins: anyway to combine these similar threads???

Erik -- I am running Windows Me. To my knowledge (which is very limited when it comes to WinMe tho!) I am not running anything that would modify the registry on a bootup.

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that it is time for a system wipe and reload. Its probably well overdue anyway.