Screen Flickers - Chariots of War (Full Version)

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Terl -> Screen Flickers - Chariots of War (6/23/2007 3:47:34 AM)

I have a Dell XPS with pentium D 2.8Ghz with four gigs of ram and an ati x1600 with 512 MB. I have a fresh install of windows xp home (just installed earlier today) with all updates and drivers are current. Direct X is current as well.

When I start the game everything seems to load fine but when I move the mouse the screen flickers very badly. The game is quite unplayable. I cannot figure out what the issue might be. I also have Spartan and it does not flicker. Interesting to note (not your issue though) is that I get the same issues with some paradox games too (HoI2, Victoria, EU2) which makes me think there is a common thread here somewhere.

I have made sure Steam is not running (heck, I didn't even install it yet) as I heard it can cause this. I have no open browsers which I also read could be an issue. I am stuck [:(]

[EDIT] Added dxdiag to post. See attachment. I almost forgot [:)]




IainMcNeil -> RE: Screen Flickers - Chariots of War (6/25/2007 3:36:53 PM)

I'm not sure what to suggest - it sounds like it is an issue with your PC as it happens on more than one game. If you've checked your drivers for your graphcis card are up to date & DX too then I'm a bit stumped :(



Terl -> RE: Screen Flickers - Chariots of War (6/25/2007 3:46:23 PM)

Thanks Iain. I should have actually said the screen flickers when I move the mouse. It does not flicker otherwise. It only happens with the games I mentioned. For example, it does not happen with Spartan, that plays wonderfully.

Could there be something with the mouse driver?



IainMcNeil -> RE: Screen Flickers - Chariots of War (6/26/2007 4:38:51 PM)

I guess its possible - have you tried using a different mouse?



Terl -> RE: Screen Flickers - Chariots of War (6/26/2007 5:37:59 PM)

I was going to give a ps2 mouse a try tonight. This is such a bummer. Whatever the cause is, it only affects the games I mentioned. Someone at work mentioned that it could be my optical mouse interfering so I'll give the ps2 one a try. Such weirdness... [:(]




Terl -> RE: Screen Flickers - Chariots of War (6/27/2007 3:56:22 PM)

Must say I am extremely disappointed. I have tried old and new ATI drivers, different mice, checked with Dell for all new drivers, and tried various settings on my monitor (Dell 19" ultra sharp flat panel) and no luck with this at all. I can find no config files to adjust within the game or game's folders. I can run Spartan without issue and Legion Gold but this one eludes me. The game is totally unplayable in this state as any movement of the mouse makes the screen flicker; faster movement = faster flicker. Is there a setting to make it use the hardware cursor?

I guess the consolation is it wasn't too expensive and I have a bunch of other games to humor me - still sucks though. I was googling and did find references to screen flickering being fixed in a patch of Spartan. Could CoW have a similar issue?

Any ideas?



IainMcNeil -> RE: Screen Flickers - Chariots of War (6/27/2007 8:19:32 PM)

CoW is so old now I really don't know what the problem might be unfortunately. Spartan is already 3 years old itself :) How about running the game in a window? Go to the games data dir and edit the user.txt file. Add the following line.

FULLSCREEN 0

This sets a flag off, so it runs in a window. You can then set your desktop to 1024x768 if you want to get it to appear full screen.



Terl -> RE: Screen Flickers - Chariots of War (6/27/2007 8:55:04 PM)

I will try this tonight.

I know it is old...so many good ones are [:)] Hopefully this will be just the ticket.

EDIT: No dice. Oh well. Looks like I will rmember this one fondly.



Terl -> RE: Screen Flickers - Chariots of War (6/28/2007 2:31:55 PM)

To clarify, it opened in a window but the graphics were corrupt (all pink). I tried various desktop settings and eventually gave up and played a new game (well, new to me) that I got based on how much I was enjoying CoW, Spartan and Legion Gold. I bought Rome, Total War last week. Wow!!

Also, CoW did work back in December/January so it may have been a windows update or even an ATI driver that broke something. It is a puzzler to me as I can play Oblivion or Neverwinter Nights 2 on the highest settings without issue. As I mentioned earlier it is CoW and a couple of older Paradox games giving me difficulties. I am not real good at sorting out graphics issues as I've never really had them like this before and I really don't know enough about how it all comes together anyway. I have even tried swapping out the graphics card back to my nVidia 7300LE but that did not help.

C'est la vie, I guess, or rather c'est la guerre [:)] . I have barbarians at the gates so back to Rome later tonight.



IainMcNeil -> RE: Screen Flickers - Chariots of War (6/28/2007 8:30:18 PM)

Ah - that is because your desktop is at the wrong colour depth for the game. I think it requires 16 bit (hi colour), but have a play with this and see if it helps.



Terl -> RE: Screen Flickers - Chariots of War (6/28/2007 8:35:04 PM)

Oopsie duplicate posting.... [8|] nothing to see here...move along...



Terl -> RE: Screen Flickers - Chariots of War (6/28/2007 8:37:29 PM)

I tried 32, 16 and in a last ditch effort I tried 256. I even tried compatibility mode settings. I find it funny in a way as this is the first "gaming" pc I have ever gotten and it seems to be overly capable..

EDIT: A rather sheepish grin.... I did download a BIOS update that I found last night. I also reset my desktop color depth to 16 (could've sworn I tried that earlier) and EUREKA!! all is perfect. The game plays perfectly in window mode...it still flickers in full screen but who cares! Not sure if the BIOS update did it or I was a maroon and never really tried 16 bit color and only thought I had. Either way, the conquest has begun

Thank you very much Iain for your patience and support! I very much appreciated your help.

John
Looking forward to Arcane Legions [:)]



IainMcNeil -> RE: Screen Flickers - Chariots of War (6/29/2007 1:47:01 PM)

No problem - glad it is working! Don't forget to try out Legion Arena Gold & Commander - Europe at War if you haven't already :)



Terl -> RE: Screen Flickers - Chariots of War (6/29/2007 2:20:21 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Iain McNeil

No problem - glad it is working! Don't forget to try out Legion Arena Gold & Commander - Europe at War if you haven't already :)


I have Legion Arena Gold already; that was the first Slitherine game I bought through Matrix [:)] That made me also buy Spartan and CoW. As for Commander: EaW, it will be coming home soon [:D]



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