Transform & Lighting Hardware?

[MarkDuffy]

A HUGE California howdy City-Builders & Sierra refugees!

I finally got Immortal Cities even though I have a NVIDIA TNT2 64 card that doesn't support the game. This type of problem has never stopped me in the past (on my old P1/2@166 + top-of-the-line Voodoo card let me run games I should not have been able to years ago). Of course I could play the tutorials & a simple test of the Editor produced a tiny test map where I could place buildings, but the Grand Campaign caused a crash. Other threads from the developers say that the reason is small map sizes in the tutorials & demo.

So...

How is this possible? Either one has T&L, or one does not. This sounds like "just a little pregnant"!!! Is this another Bill Gates scheme? I shouldn't even be able to play the tutorials. I smell a rat wanting us to buy new hardware. :D In the meantime, I plan to experiment with the Editor & see if I can create a senario/campaign I CAN play. I want to see how much I can get outta the game w/o a new card (yet). Are there any tiny maps in the game I can use or download from elsewhere?

Anyway, another thread said for me not to buy the best card out there, cuz it would interfere with my Sony VAIO P4@1.8G, but get something less that the CPU can handle (I don't believe this & need to be convinced).

Any suggestions?

[mouse]

Mark I agree that not buying the best card does sound a bit bogus. Good luck getting your current video card to work :D Think it more about the amount of detail and folks moving around the map in the demo since the larger maps show the most problems of non-compliant video cards Btw it's as much about eing DX 9 complaint as it is about T&L.

[Keith]

Here's the post you seek:

http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showpost.php?p=34204&postcount=6

[MarkDuffy]

Dat you Dude, Keith (as in Sierra Keith)?

I saw your same post over at Sierra & ignored it & bought the game anyway. I want a suggestion of which graphics card to buy specifically. I'm a bit gun shy about do-it-myselfing & want to take my white box in & have the pros do it (perhaps). But being w/o my computer for even a few daze whould send me screaming into the night... :D Which is the very best card & your comments on the problems involved with my CPU now being a minimum 1.8G (sob)?

By the way, I saw a thread about DirectX from WinSP2 not being up to snuff. When I installed the game, it said my DirectX was fine & didn't need to install it. Do you suggest I install it anyway? Also, I think I saw a post of yours that said that I need to uninstall before reinstalling. I have no DirectX in my add/remove programs. So how do I do that if necessary?

PS Thankx for your comments Mouse. I plan on putting this game also under my thumb eventually. Right now it's an adventure (smirk)!

[Keith]

Dat you Dude, Keith (as in Sierra Keith)?

I saw your same post over at Sierra & ignored it & bought the game anyway. I want a suggestion of which graphics card to buy specifically. I'm a bit gun shy about do-it-myselfing & want to take my white box in & have the pros do it (perhaps). But being w/o my computer for even a few daze whould send me screaming into the night... :D Which is the very best card & your comments on the problems involved with my CPU now being a minimum 1.8G (sob)?

By the way, I saw a thread about DirectX from WinSP2 not being up to snuff. When I installed the game, it said my DirectX was fine & didn't need to install it. Do you suggest I install it anyway? Also, I think I saw a post of yours that said that I need to uninstall before reinstalling. I have no DirectX in my add/remove programs. So how do I do that if necessary?

PS Thankx for your comments Mouse. I plan on putting this game also under my thumb eventually. Right now it's an adventure (smirk)!
Yep, that's me. ;)

Putting in a new video card isn't really rocket science. It's just a plugin card to a AGP or PCI slot. Then you install the driver software once the new card is detected on bootup. If you have a Best Buy store check and see if they have a tech shop. They usually will upgrade computers for a fee.

Get yourself one of the Nvidia Geforce cards, which are popular, as are the ATI RADEON series cards. I run a RADEON 9800 Pro card myself.

If you decide on ATI, I would suggest a 9200 or better, or if you can afford it one of the newest X series cards like the X800, etc. You can always move the video card comes the day when and if you ever get a newer faster computer.

If your dxdiag file doesn't show any "(problem)" tags under the directplay portion of the list or elsewhere, I do not think you need to reinstall DirectX, unless you are experiencing anything unusual that might be DirectX related.
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[MarkDuffy]

Thought so, Keith (as in "The One & Only!) Glad to hear it!

Ok, I'll go with one of Radeon's X cards like the X800 & install it myself (as soon as I figure out how to get the case open (probably lots of cobwebs in there). It's one of those tricky cases with a secret latch somewhere. :D There are a lot of complimentary posts about Radeon. I remember in my 166 daze, people told me that I would not be able to play the newest games until I got a P4, but my Voodoo solved the processing problem.

I haven't seen any problems, so I'll leave my DirectX as is. Thankx for your advice!

Wow, my COTN screen is really busy. This game is something else. What's next, we actually talk to the people & they talk back? I can only imagine what it will be like with a better card (besides actually playing the Grand Campaign)!

[MarkDuffy]

Well Keith, I decided to get a new graphics card.

I first chose the 9200, cuz I was worried about the power supply requirements. I installed it & it caused problems. Fatal errors & reboot loops. Fry's Electronics said I had installed improperly & fixed it (they claimed). Same results. So I yelled & screamed that this was impossible. My system runs everything.

I told them that I really wanted a 9800 Pro as you suggested & they said they would try it.

I love the 9800 Pro! :D

By the way, I left it running all night on COTN while I slept. No smoke coming outta my white box the next morning...

Thankx (on to the Grand Campaign) !!!

[Keith]

Good. The 9800 isn't the absolute latest model anylonger, but it has a lot of nice bells and whistles. I like mine alot and it hasn't had any problems with any software so far.

Enjoy the campaign! ;)