Possible FIX for SHOGUN GOLD/WARLORD GRAPHIC ISSUES on 8xxx & 9xxx Nvidia Cards

[vigilantevil]

Good day Everyone,

It has been a long story but coming right the point; I think i have found a POSSIBLE FIX for all those graphical issues that plagued SHOGUN TOTALWAR (GOLD/WARLORD). the issues reported earlier and that i found are,

1. Main Menu Constant Stuttering (70% Fixed)
2. Mouse Trails on Main Menu (100% Fixed)
3. Stuttering and Frame Skip on Strategy Map (100% Fixed)
4. Units Disappearing on Battle map (100% Fixed)
5. Units Moving in opposite direction (this seems to be related to the graphic issues of TEXTURE BLANKETS) (100% Fixed)
6. Texture Blankets (Strong example in the thread NVIDIA GEFORCE 8xxx AND 9xxx SERIES OWNERS - README by Asai Nagamasa. and it is 100% Fixed)

NOTE: GOOD NEWS to all those people out there who have nVidia GPU. no need to replace them nor do you need any old platform to enjoy SHOGUN TW(GOLD/WARLORD) above all no need to switch to the Software Acceleration with in the game provided your system can handle the stress and that you are able to run the game which i am sure it can.

Before i post my Tests and Fix, i think i should make it clear that this solution is not related to the Crashes related to throne room, Poems or Death sequences of Daimyos as I have not faced any yet and i am well in to year 1549 on my campaign. for all those issues please consult the related fixes and solutions posted by relevant Great people who helped us all. respect to all of them.

Also here are my Specs.

Intel (R) Core 2 Duo E7400 @ 2.80GHz 2.79GHz
RAM 2GB DDR2
WIN 7 Ultimate 32-Bit

GPU: nVidia 9800GT 1GB DDR3 with 280.26 Firmware/Update up to date.

Just to not make it a whole Book here, my Fix is in the next post.

-V-

[vigilantevil]

THE POSSIBLE FIX

OK the term POSSIBLE FIX i used is because PC Configuration is different for every person and so there might be a possibility for even a small program running in background that can cause issue which i am certain has a probability of 3% but nonetheless can not be ignored.

Alright, To play this Old game we have to make sure our GPU is configured to play the old standards of Graphic processing. so how do we do it? well if change the main settings that would of course effect the remaining games and applications. in order to address this issue, i think NVidia always provided us with a Control panel along with every update in which we can specify the settings for each of our applications and games. in this case we are going to set some values for ShogunW.EXE file under the 3d Settings tab of Nvidia Control Panel.

Things to do.

1. Right Click on Desktop and select Nvidia Control Panel from the list that appears (usually in the Bottom section)
2. Once the main screen opens up select MANAGE 3d Settings from the left side Menu under the list 3d Settings.
3. On this interface you are provided with 2 Tabs. Global Settings (effects overall Applications) and Program Settings (application Specific). Select the Program Settings.
4. If the Executable is found then select it but as in my case i could not find the Exe for Shogun so i had to use the browse option to go the the Install folder and selected ShogunW.exe (note that i have the Gold Edition but for some reason my exe is named ShogunW.exe i guess for warlord. i think they both are the same game but with different name)
5. Now for all the settings listed there you can play with as you like at your own risk. I would recommend my options as shown in the pictures Nvidia Cp1 and Cp2. it might be possible that you need to change a little bit of things basically experimentation but i hardly doubt it.
6. Test your games against the benchmark snaps i have attached here.
7. Above all i need people to test and post their results and findings so we can narrow down the BENCHMARKS.
8. Help would be appreciated by the Mods and Admins.

Happy Playing SHOGUN TOTALWAR guys

-V-

[The Holy Pilgrim]

Very nice work!



I will definitely have to try this out.

[vigilantevil]

Thanks Holy Pilgrim. I think this find still needs a lot of refinement so I would look forward to your feedback. I would appreciate your help on this to further test and verify.

thanks!

-V-

[Akaie]

..and just when I intend to get rid of my old 9800GT!

I remember installing Shogun: Total War (Gold Ed.) on Windows XP HE using VirtualBox. It actually worked without the horrid stuttering and all that until I installed the Additions pack thing (forgot the name).

It is good someone is working on this. If it works, I'm having myself a good Shimazu campaign .

Thanks for the info, vigilantevil!

[vigilantevil]

You are more then welcome. I will be more then happy if this FIX work is verified some people so we can extend the scope of testing over to M:TW.

-V-

[vigilantevil]

good evening fellas.

I have had a new session for testing and there are some more findings that i would like to share.

1. Test run completed on nVidia 6800 GT (WinFast Brand), 8800 GT (inno3D) and 9800 GT (inno3D) ... All Worked out Fine.
2. System Specs remain same as mentioned in my first post.
3. Unit Disappearance issue. New update! We have to keep the screen ratio to FULL SCREEN from with in game options. it seems this solution does not support the WIDE SCREEN aspect of the game just yet.
4. Main Menu stuttering seems to be constant at first but as soon as you start a new game or load one, it appears to get itself fixed. once you come back to main menu it will be gone as if it was not there. every thing seems very beautiful. the only instant it comes back is when you finish up a Historical or custom battle and come on to the result screen but then again as soon as you come over to the main menu it is gone again so in my humble opinion, THE GAME IS VERY VERY MUCH PLAYABLE now you can say about 90% which i am sure is way more then we previously thought to be the case which was unfortunately 0.00%

As for MTW, i do not have it yet with me. AS soon as I have some positive feedback from the community I will take up testing with MTW as well, or may be anyone of you with those cards and the game handy can try it out. it will be my pleasure to be able to bring joy over to my fellow gamers. (Finally i am giving something back to the gaming community

Hope to hear from you guys soon.

-V-

[theboredguy]

i did everything you said but still my game crashes... it's so frustrating..

[Capco]

Hey to everyone interested.

I've loved the medieval version of this game and have had the same issues as others. I just want to verify that this fix worked for me for Medieval: TW.

Thank you kind sir

My system specs:
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (for $12.99 +tax. Thx UB )
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost)
CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 DELUXE (REV 3.0)
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) Twin Frozr II/OC 1GB GDDR5
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular
HDD: HITACHI Deskstar 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA III
SSD: OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SATA II
CD/DVD: LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
Headset: Creative Fatal1ty Professional Series Gaming Headset MKII
Keyboard: Saitek Cyborg V5
Mouse: Logitech MX 518
Computer Case: Antec Nine Hundred