RADEON 9700 PRO runs extrelmy slow in Star Trek Armada II

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Inimbrium

Posts: 17   +0
Greetings people.

I have a Hercules 3D Prophet RADEON 9700 PRO and Star Trek Armada II runs extremly slow when the screen is showing multiple buildings/ships. I don't mean a great number, we are talking 5 buildings and 10 ships, that is a small number.
The framerate goes as low as 1 FPS, and averages at 5 FPS. Offline. This is unaceptable. I love this game, but its unplayable. :( :mad:

I have tried the latest drivers (1st April 2003 when I downloaded them) from both ATI and Hercules with the same problem.
I have a new version of the VIA 4 in 1 drivers and the latest BIOS for my motherboard. The BIOS AGP settings are:
AGP Fast Write Enabled, Sideband addressing mode Enabled, and so are two other AGP settings that I cannot recall. AGP is 4x.
Also, I run the game at 1024x768 32 bits, and have tried it at the lowest possible settings that the game allows, 640x480, 16 bit, minimum other settings.
In windows I disabled all the settings, inc. anti aliasing, anisoprtic filtering, and textures and mipman on minimum. Trueform is off.
I tried V Sync both on and off, same thing.

Note: All my other games run very well, it is just Armada II that runs slow.
Jedi Knight 2, GTA 3 (with some textures missing problem, but thats another story), Return to Caslte Wofenstein, Medal of honor allied assault ALL run very well, some run well at high graphics and AA settings. :)
But not Armada II, so there clearly is a big problem, which does not involve my computer. Or does it?

To reporoduce it, you just run it. Don't worry, it does this every time without fail, unfortunately. :(

System specs, if it helps:

AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.3GHz
384 MB PC133 CL3 SDRAM (3x128 MB)
Soltek 75KV+ Motherboard (with latest BIOS)
The graphics card is a Hercules 3D Prophet RADEON 9700 PRO.
Western Digital Caviar 100GB UDMA 100
Sound Blaster LIVE! Value
Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 91 Monitor (19")
HP 9110 CD-RW Drive (ancient)
SONY 40x CD-ROM Drive (crap)
No brand TV Card.
Alcatel Speed Touch PCI ADSL Modem
3COM US Robotics 56k ISA Modem (not used)
MS Internet Keyboard PRO
MS Intellimouse Explorer
Note: CPU Overclocked (stable) from 1.2GHz (13x100).

So, has anyone got this same problem? Any sugestions?
Any help is very welcome.:grinthumb
 
It's most likely caused by truform being enabled...
For some strange reason Truform causes the 9500/9700 to run very slow, even though it's supposed to support it...
Which is a shame, since it make games look better imo...


I've been looking around a bit, but can't seem to find any info regarding how to disable it...
I'll try to see if I'm a bit luckier tomorrow...
 
Hi

No, Trueform is not enabled. I tried it with it on and off. I have the switch to turn it off in advanced settings in display properties.
Do you own a similar card? If so, the latest Catalyst drivers enable you to switch Trueform on and off. :)

Anyone else with any ideas?

PS. I am downloading 3 Babylon 5 epz off Kazaa right now. ;) :D :D

PPS. You look like Bruce Willis. I've always thought so. :cool:
 
Well, it seemed the obvious answer...
And I haven't been able to find anyone else with a similar problem :(

Yes, I have a 9700pro, and love it...

Hehehe... Yes, I think so too...
Nice to meet another B5 fan :)
 
A bit late, but still..

Yes, you can turn truform off in the drivers...

blackabysss> What are you talking about?

Are you having the same problem as Inibrium, or?

BTW: Welcome to the boards :) Enjoy your stay!
 
Originally posted by Nic
Your not the only one with this problem.
It seems that the Radeon 9700 is no good for the Armada games (I & II).

Radeon 9700 Pro - Star Trek Armada Slowdown

Wha???

There are thousands of people w/ the same card running the game fine. Where do yo come off saying
Radeon 9700 is no good for the Armada games (I & II).

Seems kind of silly to make such a blanket statement. Maybe you could try helping the guy instead.......The game is a resources HOG, as has slowdowns on MANY different cards, Geforces show the EXACT same problems.....

The R9700 and R9800 don't exactly run this game with fps to spare, but right now, nothing does.....still better than most alternatives....

Back to the problem....try disabling stencil shadows..although your graphic card supports them, the game runs better w/out 'em
 
PreservedSwine: Well if you followed that link I supplied then you'd see that I was merely passing on info from that website, and its quite obvious that I am not stating the condition as a 'fact' (hence ... It seems that ...).
I don't actually have Star Trek Armada myself, so I can't comment. There's someone over at that forum saying that his onboard graphics run that game well, so why doesn't a top end card like the Radeon 9700 do better than 1-5 fps? This issue is also verified by another user in that same thread.

If your advice works then I'm sure Inimbrium will let us all know :=).
 
Hi. Thanks for the advice.

Where can I find the option to disable the stencil shadows?
It's not in the game, and it's not in my graphics card display settings tabs. :(
 
Originally posted by Inimbrium
Hi. Thanks for the advice.

Where can I find the option to disable the stencil shadows?
It's not in the game, and it's not in my graphics card display settings tabs. :(

You'll need to download a tweaker, like Rage3Dtweak

Don't play too much w/ all the options, ,ost only slow down the card. Have fun:cool:
 
GOOD NEWS!!!!!

Hey, you never guess what???

I managed to get Armada II to work smoothly!!!!! Even on my 1.3GHz AMD system, fully zoomed out (so that it shows everything, the slowest it will ever get, 1600x1200 with 6x Anti Aliasing and everything, and its still fast!!!
OK, it wasn't my idea, someone showed me how, and the full credits goes to a person known as 'Doctor Q' who emailed me the solution. :)
Thanks Doctor Q! :grinthumb

Ok, this is what you do:
Install the ATI Omega drivers from http://www.omegacorner.com/
It's that simple!
The exact driver that I installed, are RADEON WIN 2K/XP OMEGA DRIVERS 2.4.60 PROVIDED BY: DriverHeaven
They work for sure, now http://www.omegacorner.com/ also have nVIDIA drivers as Armada II is also slow on the latest nVIDIA cards. I haven't tested this out, as I no longer own a nVIDIA card, but there we are.

Thanks for the stencil shading solution PreservedSwine. I have installed the tweak program, and will do it when I restart after posting this. Who knows, it may make Armada II faster still!

Thanks for the link to the thread in the other message board Nic.

I have posted a similar post on the thread that Nic provided, showing them the solution also.
I have also posted there a link to this post and PreservedSwine's stencil shading solution.

Tnanks for the support everyone.

Enjoy your now smooth Armada II! :angel:
 
Glad to hear you got Armada working properly Inimbrium, and thanks for updating us with how you solved your issue. It just shows what can be done when users cooperate and help each other out. Good of you to post on that other thread too, and I'm sure those users will appreciate your taking the time to help out. Have fun :=).
 
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