Some tips for making the game run better on older machines

[pipfromslitherine]

Guys: Let's be honest. There are many machines that can not be considered "older" which have the mouse lagging issue. And, while I like the graphics in this game, they are hardly the ultimate and should not be taxing even the "middle aged" machine. Me thinks the issue is in the game and not the machines.

That said, I have an "older" machine and cured the mouse lag by turning off shadows in Rise of Rome and Infernal Fire. But it is back with Legions Triumphant. What gives? Anyone?

Does the 'new' lag happen on all maps/setups, or only on some newer LT scenarios? What kind of FPS (SHIFT+Q) are you seeing?

Cheers

Pip

[Johnus]

Pip: On all three games my FPS are between 60 and 20. I think, I thought that the mouse lags most on LT because the first few scenarios I opened on LT had heavily forested areas. Seems the FPS plummets and lag soars with the number of soldiers and the number of trees on the screen. Make any sense?

[pipfromslitherine]

Of course - more units and trees are going to mean more work for the GPU. Did you post your specs so we can determine what is going on? Reducing the shadow quality would likely help.

Cheers

Pip

[bcbarnesRR]

pip,

could you tell me what benchmark you were quoting numbers from a few posts back? I'd be interested in testing out my laptop to see how it would do (AMD Radeon HD 8600/8700M)

[pipfromslitherine]

I just check the numbers on videocardbenchmark.net for the device I am investigating.

Cheers

Pip

[bcbarnesRR]

Pip,

Thanks. I went ahead and got FoG2, and as it turns out, with shadows and AA off, windowed (no frame), and my driver settings all at 'performance' the game plays well. I'm sure it isn't as 'pretty' as it could be, but I've been enjoying it, and the mouse lag isn't bothersome unless I zoom WAY out. My score on the site you mention is 1023, and I am playing at full resolution 1920x1080 on a laptop. The GPU says 100% load, and gets up to about 87C, but I'm told that 105C is the max, so I can live with it. I appreciate your information, and will be using that website when I replace the laptop with something new in a year or so.

Update: I downloaded the test and ran it on my laptop and got a 3D score of 1590.

Brian

[Epicouros]

Probably a long shot, as I'm still on Windows XP, but I would really like to buy FOG II if I was sure it would work on my 11-year old PC (it was a good one at the time, though, and still does all I want it to do - except run certain games).

I enjoyed FOG I and I'm sure I would enjoy FOG II even more. I looked for a demo in order to test if it would work on my PC, but wasn't able to find one.

For a long time, I just assumed my PC wouldn't be able to run the game and I left it at that.
However, at the Essen game convention in Germany last October I passed by the Slitherine stall, looked at FOG II and started chatting with one of the stallkeepers. I expressed my interest in the game, but that I was still on Windows XP unfortunately. However, we also talked about Pike & Shot Campaigns, which I also enjoy a lot. I mentioned that my PC can run that game with no issues at all. It runs very smoothly.
He then answered that if P&S works without any problems on my PC, then probably FOG II should too (albeit probably on the less demanding settings).
I didn't by it in the end (mainly because I had already bought way too much RPG material at that convention ), but said I would think it over.

So here is my question: was he right? Could I play FOG II on my Windows XP machine, considering I can play P&S without any problems?
Here are my specs:

Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit SP3

CPU
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 34 °C
Brisbane 65nm Technology

RAM
2,00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 372MHz (5-5-5-18)

Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. GA-MA69G-S3H (Socket M2) 26 °C

Graphics
AOC Spectrum (1024x768@60Hz)
512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT (NVIDIA) 39 °C

Storage
232GB MAXTOR STM3250310AS (SATA ) 31 °C

Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S203D

Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

[pipfromslitherine]

Probably a long shot, as I'm still on Windows XP, but I would really like to buy FOG II if I was sure it would work on my 11-year old PC (it was a good one at the time, though, and still does all I want it to do - except run certain games).

I enjoyed FOG I and I'm sure I would enjoy FOG II even more. I looked for a demo in order to test if it would work on my PC, but wasn't able to find one.

For a long time, I just assumed my PC wouldn't be able to run the game and I left it at that.
However, at the Essen game convention in Germany last October I passed by the Slitherine stall, looked at FOG II and started chatting with one of the stallkeepers. I expressed my interest in the game, but that I was still on Windows XP unfortunately. However, we also talked about Pike & Shot Campaigns, which I also enjoy a lot. I mentioned that my PC can run that game with no issues at all. It runs very smoothly.
He then answered that if P&S works without any problems on my PC, then probably FOG II should too (albeit probably on the less demanding settings).
I didn't by it in the end (mainly because I had already bought way too much RPG material at that convention ), but said I would think it over.

So here is my question: was he right? Could I play FOG II on my Windows XP machine, considering I can play P&S without any problems?
Here are my specs:

Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit SP3

CPU
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 34 °C
Brisbane 65nm Technology

RAM
2,00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 372MHz (5-5-5-18)

Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. GA-MA69G-S3H (Socket M2) 26 °C

Graphics
AOC Spectrum (1024x768@60Hz)
512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT (NVIDIA) 39 °C

Storage
232GB MAXTOR STM3250310AS (SATA ) 31 °C

Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S203D

Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

It would likely run, but you would need to turn pretty much all the settings to their minimums and even then it could well be quite sluggish in battle. To give an idea, the benchmark on an 8600 is 242, which is 3-4x slower than the lowest end video card it is possible to buy these days (which nobody should be buying for games!). This may be a reasonable thing to use the Steam refund mechanism for, a couple of hours should be fine to see if the game can run appropriately on your system.

It should in theory run under XP, though it has not been tested on it. You really (really!) shouldn't still be running XP, certainly if connected to the internet. It is no longer a secure OS. If you can get a copy of Windows 7 then the transition should be mostly painless.

Cheers

Pip

[Epicouros]

Thanks for the quick reply!

I will look into that.

[tlotsi]

Would a Nvidia GT 1030 or AMD RX 550 be enough for this game?

[pipfromslitherine]

Would a Nvidia GT 1030 or AMD RX 550 be enough for this game?

Yes, they should run the game fine.

Cheers

Pip

[Okie]

Has anyone tried this game on windows 11 yet? does it work?