Empire Optimized Released

[dougmadman]

how do you get rid of the crappy ones and just keep the good ones?

[♔KillZoneGB♔]

I'm a bit of a noob, you might say, when it comes to graphics settings. What do you mean by mip and offender textures? And are you saying I need to tune down my resolution?

I can't put most settings above medium (they're grayed out or don't show up).

I know my graphics card isn't very good but I can run the game with pretty low settings fairly smoothly (20-30 fps) and would like to see if this will let me get a similar frame rate with higher graphics settings.

I don't know of any way to replace the graphics card in my laptop. I believe it is soldered to the motherboard and Dell said that you can't upgrade the card on an M1530 only on the 17 inch XPS model. I could've gotten an 8600M with it, but I didn't get that and now I think I'm basically stuck with my 8400M.

if its only soldered on, can a local pc repair shop do it, love this the blind leading the blind ,

dump this file over your preferences.empire_script, this one is read only, so just load up the game and select the campaign, i know its gonna hit the system but could you post a screen shot.

Mips are lods (level of detail), so right up close it will display main texture.

8 mips texture files have 8 levels of detail per texture. further you are away will display the next mip

generally by / ^2 saving so 2048x2048=1024x1024 =512x512=256x256=128x128=64x64=32x32=16x16

so if i`m 1000yrds away, the texture assigned to the sprite/model would be 16X16 no point assigning 3meg+ texture to a model/sprite you can barley see. saves video memory.

If you take car games or flight sims, cockpits generally only have one mip, because your not moving the distance from your eye point, no need to have mips, saves calculations.

In the mean time i`ll do some test textures with out any mips that prussain flag for instance. and post them them here.

[dougmadman]

i ran your test preferences that you just posted but i got the exact same problem as before, aka no difference even when i set the unit detail level to ultra it has no effect in game i still get medium(all i can select ingame is medium settings)

[Welshman25]

if its only soldered on, can a local pc repair shop do it, love this the blind leading the blind ,

dump this file over your preferences.empire_script, this one is read only, so just load up the game and select the campaign, i know its gonna hit the system but could you post a screen shot.

Mips are lods (level of detail), so right up close it will display main texture.

8 mips texture files have 8 levels of detail per texture. further you are away will display the next mip

generally by / ^2 saving so 2048x2048=1024x1024 =512x512=256x256=128x128=64x64=32x32=16x16

so if i`m 1000yrds away, the texture assigned to the sprite/model would be 16X16 no point assigning 3meg+ texture to a model/sprite you can barley see. saves video memory.

If you take car games or flight sims, cockpits generally only have one mip, because your not moving the distance from your eye point, no need to have mips, saves calculations.

In the mean time i`ll do some test textures with out any mips that prussain flag for instance. and post them them here.

Thanks for the detailed explanation, you definitely seem to know this stuff!

Here's screens with that test preferences file:

[Welshman25]

Ok, I've worked with the settings with that preferences file and it is making a significant improvement now!

With the new graphics settings from the preferences file (screen attached) but with 1440x900 resolution, the naval battles looked great (screen) and actually had a BETTER fps than before. Campaign map was smooth (screen) for a while but then started to lag. Land battles had no real change in fps, and lagged a LOT with new settings.

I have a few visual bugs too. In naval battles, there seems to be a large shadowed box around where the camera's perspective is (screen). In the campaign, flags are blurry and building colors are washed out and blurry (screen). In land battles, redcoats have white uniforms and floating flags are blurry (screen).

EDIT: I am also using the realistic flag set mod and razor's redcoats, if it helps with solving the visual problems.

So it's starting to work for me, but can you guys please help me get rid of the visual glitches and get better performance in land battles?

[♔KillZoneGB♔]

Hi guys, sorry for the delay, just had a some cream cracker and a we little chat with the mr`s.

cheers for posting these bugs your having is most interesting to say the least!!!

what I've done quickly is saved some flags, flag1 i think as 565 DDS, hence the 565 on the prussian flag, so i can tell its activated and working.









Also some/most prussian units saved as DXT5 no Mips.

Could you please so kind to install this NoMip mod.

User Script

mod nomips.pack;
mod killzoneGB.pack;

If you have any other mods list Killzonegb as the last one, so others will take priority.

Nomips being 1st.

thank you for your patience, i know how frustrating this can be.

[Filo90]

with an ATI card I have to force antialias and aisotropic filter from the catalyst center?

or just apply the mod and play?

[♔KillZoneGB♔]

with an ATI card I have to force antialias and aisotropic filter from the catalyst center?

or just apply the mod and play?

Just add the mod, add the mod to the user.empire_script.

I use the control panel to force the AA and AF than use the games methord.


Welshman25 and dougmadman, looks like you will need to set your texture quality to high/Ultra,
this controls the mip levels

Ive just tested Low, and it conforms my theory, hence the 565 Prussian flag still normal while Saxony is blurred.





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[Pdguru]

Applied nomips file but still not seeing any benefit - in custom battles at least.

[Welshman25]

Ok, I've fixed a few issues.

Putting KillzoneGB's mod pack last in the script file fixed all my problems with flags and that odd black box in naval battles. I still have the white uniforms on redcoats and the campaign map buildings that are blurry and washed out (almost no color, see my post's screen).

I cannot set textures to high/ultra Killzone, my game grays them out.

[JayMac]

Welshman25: When I saved my redcoat custom skin as a movie with the pack manager, they returned to red

[EdWaRd.DaBeAsT]

Hey KillZone,
My computer can't run everything as high as you guys can i can only run it with everything low at 1350X 1100 or something like that but units ultra size, will this mod make it faster for me to run the program because sometimes it will lag when there's like a huge battle. thanks.

[Brenil]

If you're unable to select higher than medium quality graphics in the options menu, do the following courtesy of Drwizardphd:

HOW TO UNLOCK GRAPHICS SETTINGS:

1. Locate the Empire: Total War preferences file. Not sure about Vista, but on XP its default location is C:\Documents and Settings\YOURNAME\Application Data\The Creative Assembly\Empire\scripts

2. Open up the file and find the line:

gfx_video_memory 0; # gfx_video_memory <int>, Override available video memory (bytes) #

3. Change the value "0" to something bigger. I think it uses bits, but I'm not sure. I set this value to 536870912, which is 512 mb converted to bits. You can find a converter on the internet and set this to whatever value you like, not sure what will work, but that number worked for me.

I have a 256mb HD radeon 2600xt AGP and I can run the game on high/ultra settings with no problems and very playable fps, lowest it gets is around the 20's. I have honestly no idea why they decided to limit it in such a way but this method should provide a permanent workaround.

Good luck!

CA for some reason decided to lock higher graphic settings based on your video card's memory, which is very silly considering many people (including myself) can run Empire on high to ultra with 250mb memory; yet in their infinite wisdom they decided to block it to those who can easily run it. The above method works, as I have done it myself. If you cannot find the Application Data within your Documents and Settings folder, remember to enable viewing of hidden folders.

[JayMac]

EdWaRd.DaBeAsT: I as well can't run everything on High, and I have ultra unit numbers with darthmod, Using this allows me to use shadows for the first time, and unit detail on ultra, and it has no lags. I would try it for sure

[dougmadman]

omg that worked brenil thank effin god!!!!!

[♔KillZoneGB♔]

Hey KillZone,
My computer can't run everything as high as you guys can i can only run it with everything low at 1350X 1100 or something like that but units ultra size, will this mod make it faster for me to run the program because sometimes it will lag when there's like a huge battle. thanks.

Hi EdWaRd.DaBeAsT, it should cant say how much by tho, this depends on what hardware your using,
how your O/S configured. once booted up, i think my processor idles at less than 1%, mind you i have 70% of Vista Junk Disabled for the word go.

AlacrityPC is good for shutting down unnecessary services

the landscapes and sky have been reduced and the nasty all in one weapon textures so this will help off the bat, nasty DDS 32 texture converted to DXT5.

Before i did this mod, i could not run with grass or tress without horrible lag, now i can turn everything up to max ok 1088X612 res because i do like to use SSAO and all the other options, i don't get lower than 15 fps on average.

that's pretty good for a non overclocked single core processor for this game.

This with the memory dll form COH i haven't had one CDT as of yet.

some people have reported good gains, while others, slight.

[Welshman25]

If you're unable to select higher than medium quality graphics in the options menu, do the following courtesy of Drwizardphd:



CA for some reason decided to lock higher graphic settings based on your video card's memory, which is very silly considering many people (including myself) can run Empire on high to ultra with 250mb memory; yet in their infinite wisdom they decided to block it to those who can easily run it. The above method works, as I have done it myself. If you cannot find the Application Data within your Documents and Settings folder, remember to enable viewing of hidden folders.

Thanks! I was able to try it maxed out.

Started the campaign maxed out. Building color problems all fixed, with the downside of getting around 0.3 fps (no kidding).

[zargon]

sorry this is a really dumb question, but do you have to apply this via modmanager etc? how do you run it? or do you just install files to places advised?

[bwc153]

Well, according to the install instructions, just download it, place the pack file in it into the data folder inside your ETW folder, then place the user.empie_script file into the
C:\Users\accountname\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Empire\scripts
folder. note: that is vista path, if you have XP, i forget what it is for it.
if you already have a file with the same name in there, just open up BOTH user.empire_script files, then copy the thing saying "mod killzoneGB.pack;" into the user.empire_script thats already in the scripts folder, then it should work.

EDIT: Ok.. i just tested the mod, with it, everything was jittery.. , the hud was flickering, but when i moved my camera or things moved on screen they jittered, i have no idea weather this has to do with the mod, or the fact i messed with Catalyst control center.. probably CC, as noone else has has this problem.
EDIT2: ok.. me editing CC was problem, i reset settings to default and it worked fine.

[♔KillZoneGB♔]

Bwc153, when you chaged the setting Via CC, did you make sure that the AA and AF are on the lowest settings in the game?