SE5 + Windows 7

ashwaker · Space Emperor Joined: Sep 29, 2009 Location: Amenti

Hi again,

I have been trialling SE5 (Steam edition) under Windows 7 and the results are interesting. For one thing, the game's performance with no compatibility mode + no vsync on my PC is unexpectedly high in parts and sluggish in others. I would like to start a discussion about possible fixes for certain performance flaws in the running of the game.

PC Details:
CPU - Core 2 Duo E8200 @ 2.66Ghz
RAM - 2GB of 667Mhz DDR2
HDD - 500GB SATA, 7200RPM
GFX - Palit nVidia 9800GT 512MB RAM displaying 1440x900 (16 bit colour for se5)
Windows 7 Aero was completely disabled (Classic themes used and all aesthetic graphic elements disabled via Computer Properties Advanced System Settings section)

Now, on XP I got around 20-40fps on all screens, the only lag being when I had selected a sector with many ships, as well as during combats. I was using vsync and triple filtering. The game was, for all intents and purposes, completely playable. I also changed the setting of "Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames" in the nVidia Control Panel to 0, as per a post I had read over on spaceempires5.com about it.

Then, on 7, without using any compatibility mode, and again with vsync, triple filtering and Max Pre-Rendered Frames at 0, FPS is slightly decreased. However, performance of certain elements is different to XP. In particular, strategic combat is slower. The Ships window also takes approximately five to ten times to load, making this feature of the game completely unusable. Other list-based windows are slower, but none so much as the Ships window.

When I tried to use XP compatibility mode on SE5, Steam reported that the game was "unavailable at this time". Trying the game in Vista compatibility mode yielded negligible or no difference to the standard running of the game.

I have tried the game on 7 without vsync or triple filtering. When these elements are not used, the game's fps is not regulated, which for my computer had the effect of a much faster yet more jittery system display. The Ships window was still completely unusable.

When Aero was enabled at all, the game would intermittently flash white.

I would like to hear any possible experiences others have had with Win7 and SE5. For the PBW game I am in, the game is playable for now, but with the single-player game I had going, it is not. Why did Malfador use such a strange, picky graphics system for the game, I'll never know.

Feygan · Space Emperor Joined: Aug 02, 2007

To be honest performance issues is something I've never suffered with on SEV in any windows, and I've used xp, vista, and 7. Granted I do have a fairly powerful machine thats designed for new games, but still never any problems at all regarding frame rates. I do get the long turn time issues however I play large system quadrants with ship limits in the 2000 so thats my fault.

The white flickering I do get too, however I found this to be due to outside programs, I use opera for web browsing, if thats open while playing SEV then each time it checks for email I get flickering. If I have a download running then when that finishes I get flickering. It happens if I get an alert from either my spyware or virus software. In fact anytime you get a pop up message on my taskbar SEV flickers.

Kontana · Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2009 2:46 pm Post subject:

I don't have Win7 or Vista, so can't really help with issues with those. One option is to setup the computer to dual boot, so you can still run WinXP to play SEV, and use Win7/Vista to do other things.

bearclaw · Space Emperor Joined: Aug 04, 2003 Location: BC, Canada

I recently upgraded my computer from Vista x64 to Win7 x64 and the difference it tremendous!

On Vista, I had to turn off all sorts of the details and ClearType etc, and it was usable but with significant screen flicker. Once I upgraded to Win7, i didn't have to do any of that. I'm not runing the graphic options at their highest settings, but they are at least on and it works great!

Soooo glad I upgraded to Win7 just for this Smile

TheThirdEye · Space Emperor Joined: Mar 22, 2009 Location: Toronto

Don't have Vista or 7 so can't really say about those.

The Dual Boot is a Wonderful option for many things.
Recently I've been playing else where so I don't have DB setup at the moment, so I'm only using XP, which works quite well for SEV.
Normally I use 98, which works Even Better. 40-60% faster for almost everything in the game, except turn processing, which is only about 25% faster.

Consider 'upgrading' to a 98 Dual Boot setup. Doesn't take much space for 98 and SEV (not setup right now, so can't give exact numbers).

TheChin · Space Emperor Joined: Nov 07, 2008 Location: Cleveland, Oh

I got the white flashing in XP, until I set SEV to Safe for video memory, then it disappeared. This was just on my laptop, on my PC (also XP) I never got white flashing, so it might be more a function of video card/drivers.

ashwaker · Space Emperor Joined: Sep 29, 2009 Location: Amenti

I installed a dual-boot system after observing all the evidence clearly stacked against not using XP.

The performance of XP makes the game much more enjoyable.
Although I definitely would like to see a retrofit of the game - as a patch or a future incarnation of the series - I think Malfador has run dry on the series.

I heard about Starfury 2 "back in the day"... perhaps it will be used again to test 3D skills, hopefully DX10/11 this time Very Happy

Thanks for all your input. It's an interesting topic for me.

orionc · Space Emperor Joined: Dec 22, 2008

my problem is i cant get the game to install at all. i have windows vista home premium with an amd phenom quad core and an Nvidia geforce 9100.

ForesterSOF · Space Emperor Joined: Jun 23, 2007

Do you have a co;y of the game some where.

I have made a copy of my SEV at times so I can play multiple versions of a mod or the game itself.

I had to start the game with the exe of desktop shortcut but all the needed links seemed to be there.

orionc · Space Emperor Joined: Dec 22, 2008

I have the CD yes

ForesterSOF · Space Emperor Joined: Jun 23, 2007

The copy I am talking about is a direct copy of what was put on my Hard Disk.

orionc · Space Emperor Joined: Dec 22, 2008

well i suppose i could put a copy of the game file on my thumbdrive, would that allow me to play the game on my windows vista machine?

Skyburn · Space Emperor Joined: Mar 12, 2008

It would need to be an installed copy that was moved onto the thumb drive.

Do you get an error message when you try to install SE5?

orionc · Space Emperor Joined: Dec 22, 2008

wow it just installed! ill let you know how it plays.

orionc · Space Emperor Joined: Dec 22, 2008

it seemed to play fine, but windows told me the video game was missing a part, it was missing "D3DRM.dll"

Mentat · Space Emperor Joined: Jan 04, 2010

Well it seems Win7 is far better performer than Vista SP2.

I have a vista laptop with;
Intel T9550 2.66 Gz
Nvidia 9600GT
4 Gig Ram

and a Win7 laptop with;
Intel T6600 2.2 Gz
Ati HD 4330
4 Gig ram

and Win7 definitely performs better with SEV despite having far inferior specs than the Vista pc.

I can easily get 80 FPS on map screen and 30 FPS on ship design screen with it.

with Vista , I can get barely 30 FPS on map screen and 10 FPS on ship design screen.

Settings are:

windowed mode
1024x768x32
Graphics : Low
Backgrounf: Low

I almost tried everything to get vista working but its a no go.
it is even bogged down further after opening a few menus in game.

I dont know why but i am definitely frustrated with it. I wonder if programmers are sleeping still? there are tens of patches released and none of them addresses this damn problem!

PS> These values are with clear type font is removed. But its still playable with Win7 without removing this feature and its still 50 FPS in map screen and 20 FPS in ship design screen

marhawkman · Space Emperor Joined: Mar 24, 2008

Hmm... there are some system settings you can tweak in Vista to help that. Mostly disabling useless memory wasting background processes.

Mentat · Space Emperor Joined: Jan 04, 2010

They are already tweaked. You are talking indexing services and such i guess..

its a blazing fast laptop with everything else. But SEV is a no go.

bearclaw · Space Emperor Joined: Aug 04, 2003 Location: BC, Canada

I came across this interesting article this morning. Thought it might be of interest for anyone wanting a one-stop place for all the tweaks available in Win7 (and 32-bit Vista, apparently)

Fyron · Galactic Guru Joined: Aug 04, 2003 Location: CA, USA

Boy oh boy does that fuck up explorer in Vista64!

bearclaw · Space Emperor Joined: Aug 04, 2003 Location: BC, Canada

LOL!
You just had to try it, eh? Even with it saying it crashes 64-bit Vista Smile

marhawkman · Space Emperor Joined: Mar 24, 2008

Fyron · Galactic Guru Joined: Aug 04, 2003 Location: CA, USA

AndreyKl · Space Emperor Joined: Jan 08, 2010

SEV works nice at win7 exept generating different lists like were said in first post. Big problem with fllet lists, just long load of colonies, systems e t c

Battlespud · Space Emperor Joined: Mar 24, 2008

I don't really understand why people have such an issue running SEV on Vista. I have 3 vista machines, 2 laptops and a desktop and there is no visible lag whatsoever, or slow down, on highest settings on any of them.

stats
Desktop:
AMD Phenom x4 2.2GHZ
ATI Radeon OC PCS+ 4890 (1 gig)
7 gigs Dual Channel DDR2
1 TB HDD
650 watt OCZ StealthXstream
Vista 64 bit Premium

Laptops: (same stats on each)
2 GHZ AMD Turion
Nvidia 7300LE (GREAT for the money, even runs Empire Total War decently and any of the older ones like Med II maxed!)
200 gig HDD
Vista 64 bit Premium

It makes no sense that people are getting such varying results.