Unofficial Tex Murphy

I keep having one of two problems with Overseer. If I open it immediately after I boot my computer, there's usually no problem. However, at other times, either the video is lurchingly choppy, or the audio when clicking on things is halting. But those two problems don't seem to occur at the same time. Pretty freaky.

I wouldn't complain if I had time to spend decent chunks of time toward the completion of the game, but I don't want to keep rebooting the computer for 10 minute increments.

It sounds as though your screensaver may set to activate at less than 20 minutes. Having the screensaver activate too soon will cause problems with MPEG. And if it isn't the screensaver that's causing the problem, then you may want try a different mpeg setting.

Hope this helps!

Nilo

Wow - that's very possible. I'll try it when I get home. Thanks for the reply!

What's your OS?

95? 98? ME? XP? 2K? Vista beta?

3.X..?

Turned off the screen saver. Didn't work. Would sleep mode set at an hour cause the problem? How would I "try a different MPEG setting"?

I'm using XP. Although I wish I had a system with 95 on it!

Try turning off the System Restore, Auto Updates and Indexing Services.
Test, then let us know how you got on.

PS Chances are the amount of RAM in an XP box would mean a lot of low-level fiddling to get any 9x system to run properly without problems (esp. 95). Worst case is you cannot even boot Windows with a 'Insufficient memory to initialize Windows.' message. http://www.dewassoc.com/support/win98/w ... memory.htm

I gave up on 98SE after it refused to install various NVIDIA driver versions for my new Geforce 6800GT.
All I have now is the underlying DOS system and Wndows 2000 on a dual boot.

i'm_melting_i'm_melting wrote:my new Geforce 6800GT.

Nice! How's she treating you?

I am still using my FX-5950 Ultra, and don't want to upgrade becuase I probably will get CPU limitation with anything higher (A-XP 3000+ Barton @ 333 FSB). Plus I have AGP which rules a 7800 GTX out anyway.

-Cub. =o)

Well besides the apparent lack of understanding with 98SE, very well indeed.
Maybe the 'PCI-Express to AGP bridge' thingy on the card does it. Oh well.

Not exactly gonna miss it anyway, most Windows games I have run fine on my Windows 2000 partition and Pacific Fighters runs great at 1600X1200.

The 6800 series is the last Geforce line to support AGP - just in case you feel like upgrading with your current mobo.

Yeah I figured my next upgrade will be an entire overhaul. It's hard to beleive I spent almost $800 on my FX-5950U 2 years ago! I will probably want to go with an SLI setup with the next gen Nvidia.

Have you seen those new Quad SLI PCIe mobos? They are insane! But very pricey.... but imagine 4X 512mb 7800 GTXs! You would have CPU limitation for the next 2 years!

-Cub. =o)

I don't think I'll upgrade mine for some time yet. It's not the most powerful system in the world, but it's the last P4 board I could find with an ISA slot for my AWE64 http://www.bcmcom.com/bcm_product_bc875plg.htm

The whole SLI marketing thing seems to have hooked people in despite the fact that they don't seem to realise they are still buying two or four videocards after all (not to mention the latest generation gfx).

How quickly people forget Nvidia's driver 'optimizations' and how hell-bent they are at trying to convince people they need two monitors hooked up to all their cards (re. Nview).

Anyway, this rig should do me for some time yet and will probably stay my primary DOS machine after I get a new one.

i'm_melting_i'm_melting wrote:
How quickly people forget Nvidia's driver 'optimizations' and how hell-bent they are at trying to convince people they need two monitors hooked up to all their cards (re. Nview).

Well... the latest so called 'tweaks' to the ATI drivers which were supposed to improve OpenGL performance have turned out to be optimisations which sacrificed image quality... Looks like they were looking for an overnight fix for over 5 years of poor OGL performance.

I will admit that a 4X SLI setups is rediculous... but a 2X setup is a handy thing to have if you have the cash... otherwise ATI would not be trying to match it with Crossfire.

-Cub. =o)

I know ATI are no angels either. Yet neither company is prepared to forever stop this malpratice as so few people out there notice it.
It's disheartening to turn off the tweaks (HQ mode) on my card and see how slow it really is with filtering turned on.

Even more depressing is the fact these two companies are the market leaders.

Still, who knows we may have another 3dfx lurking around the corner to mix things up... Things are really off-topic now aren't they?

i'm_melting_i'm_melting wrote:I know ATI are no angels either. Yet neither company is prepared to forever stop this malpratice as so few people out there notice it.
It's disheartening to turn off the tweaks (HQ mode) on my card and see how slow it really is with filtering turned on.

Even more depressing is the fact these two companies are the market leaders.

Still, who knows we may have another 3dfx lurking around the corner to mix things up... Things are really off-topic now aren't they?

I'm HERE! sorry!

What I've read so far would have been things I'd have asked you to try. I see they haven't worked. Disable any anti virus software for starters. They have been known to create this type of problem. Also, I don't see where you mention if you're playing the DVD or CD version. Which is it? Have you installed the patch for the game? Finally, does it happen literally every 10 minutes or just every now and again?

I lied. One more question: Could be a Sound Card/Video Card conflict. What sound card is it, and are the latest drivers installed for both the video and sound card? IF you tell me you have AC97 sound, I'll tell you to buy a second hand (or new if you have the bux) Sound Blaster sound card, and try that.

Thanks for all the help on this thread, guys. You're awesome.


I've installed the patch and disabled anti-virus. I'm playing the DVD version. My sound card is the Intel Extreme Graphics Video Card, latest version (and I've tried rolling it back to the previous one), and the video card is an integrated card that came with my Dell Dimension (3000?). I haven't tried turning off the System Restore, Auto Updates and Indexing Services, but...

This is the weird part. I ejected and replaced the DVD, and when Overseer started, it started with the blue sky screen, which it had nott been doing! Then it worked fine. I played it a couple times, and then it went back to the old problem one time when I started the game. Ejecting/replacing the DVD didn't fix it again until after I rebooted my computer. The difference is that I hear the DVD drive being accessed (the DVD spinning) a whole lot more when it's working, whereas when the video/audio are halting, the game seems to take a long time to try to access the drive, and then does it in short bursts. I wonder what makes the difference?

So in short, I can play Overseer, with the only hitch being that annoying undefined error after cutscenes. Help on that would be most appreciated

Jerry Dan wrote: I've installed the patch and disabled anti-virus. I'm playing the DVD version. My sound card is the Intel Extreme Graphics Video Card, latest version (and I've tried rolling it back to the previous one), and the video card is an integrated card that came with my Dell Dimension (3000?).

That is a very confusing sentance...

I think you mean you video card is the Intel Extreme Graphics (on-board) and your sound card is also on-board (most likely an AC97 sound system).

But either way... good to hear you got the game working.

-Cub. =o)