Video really needs to improve

Could you post your debug.err so we could look at your system specs? At this point, the video performance is pretty close to final.

Did you try lowering the resolution?

i have this issue to but when going to the main menu thats also slowed down so i think its no graphics card related.

Hello Frogboy,

The game seems to run really good so I don't think it's a card issue. I just wish it would continue to run as good as it does for the first several turns.

Please let me know how to send the debug ?

Read this: https://forums.elementalgame.com/364285

Frogboy,

Here are my sys specs from debug:

System Info
Time: 7/29/2010, 17:54:19
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: WOO56
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_qfe.100216-1510)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation
System Model: Dimension 4600i             
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A12
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
Physical Memory: 1022MB RAM
Page File: 467MB used, 2250MB available

Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce 6600 GT
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_00F1&SUBSYS_2011107D&REV_A2
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Resolution: 1600,1200
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.7805
Driver Date: 9/9/2005 16:26:00
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes
 

Yea, there's the issue.  First, your drivers are 5 years old. Update them and that might help.

Second, and this isn't really fixable, your video card may actually be below the minimum specs for the game. I think the Geforce 6800 is the absolute minimum.  You should still be able to play in cloth map without a problem though.

The reason the driver is over 5 years old is because the game runs worse on the brand new driver. So if I get a NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT will that be great or so so ?

And thank you for your swift help !

It should definitely be better on a 7600 GT. Even that card is over 4 years old.  It all depends on your threshold of pain.

I run it on my 3 year old laptop (ThinkPad T400 no problem) but I am always careful to run at 1024x768 with anti-aliasing turned off.

So is the best thing to buy a newer pc...I really want your thoughts because this system runs all kinds of new programs no problem ?

The game just freezes..scrolling in and out is horrible and it drags real bad....so this is the best it will get on my PC ?

I run sims3 and it runs pretty good.

It probably runs many new programs fine. Typically, 3 years is a decent run for a PC. After that, it's starting to get a little long in the tooth.

Your PC has two things going against it. First, it only has 1 gigabyte of total system memory. That was relatively small even 5 years ago. Second, your video card only has 128 MB of memory.  When put together, it's really not up to running a modern PC game.  The Sims 3 is dedicated towards very low end devices (they did a pretty much straight port to cell phones I believe to put it in perspective).

I can't say whether you need to upgrade your machine or not.  But to play Elemental, you would almost certainly be best served by playing cloth map only mode which would greatly increase performance.

Hi!  I've been having similar video issues but not exactly the same.  I purchased the game right after a video card upgrade, and the game runs slowly in the strategic map mode.  It might be a common performance issue but the game gets slower and slower in strategic map mode until the FPS is just too low.  No crashes or memory problems so far in 0.98, and the cloth map mode runs fine.  Here is my debug.err:

System Info

Time: 7/30/2010, 22:09:58

DirectX Version: DirectX 10

Machine Name: REINERT-PC

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6000) (6000.vista_gdr.100218-0019)

Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)

System Manufacturer: System manufacturer

System Model: System Product Name

BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz

Physical Memory: 4094MB RAM