FYI: M2TW Tech Forums

[sapi]

Answers to common tech questions, problems, and general tweaks.

Submissions by PM to sapi, please.

ToC:
1.0 - General Information
1.1 - DX Tweaker (Improve frame rates on some cards)
1.2 - 3D Analyzer (Fix incompatibilities with old cards)
1.3 - Steam Issues (How to: use mods with Steam)
1.4 - TweakGuides (General performance information)
1.5 - Tweaking ATI (How to: get improved performance on Radeon series cards)

2.0 - FAQ
2.1 - MedievalShell (unexpected opening of console)
2.2 - Text Distortion (display problems with ATI cards)
2.3 - CRC errors (cyclic redundancy check issues upon installation)
2.4 - MP CD-key issues (logon failure)
2.5 - Unspecified Error (after patching to 1.1)

1.1 - DX Tweaker

It is as the topic description says....

If you play with vsync on then this post is for you. With that said, you should also have a 256MB or more Vcard as well. I am using this method currently and it has helped a lot. Triple buffering will allow your FPS to roam freely up to your refresh rate because it keeps two extra frames in the buffer.

Note: if you have a 128MB card you can still do this but you will likely need to run MTW2 at a low resolution to see any real gains.

DirectX does not support triple buffing officially, so setting it on in your Nvidia or ATI Control Panel does nothing, it is only for OpenGL. However, you can use dxtweaker to force triple buffering for DirectX games like Total War.

You will need Microsoft .Net 2.0 Frameworks installed because dxtweaker uses it. You should have it installed on your system already if not do it.

Download, extract and open the application. After that click on the "New Program" option give it a name like "MTW2" then select "medieval2.exe" (this should show as your path for the properties panel). Moreover the parent directory should also show as the workpath.

After that select "Active" and then open the "Modules to Load panel". Scroll down to the "Present Changer" option and select the box on the left. Shortly after another panel should open for its properties.

Go to it and put a "2" in the "count" box it is that simple!

Finally click on "Start" and away you go....

Furthermore you will need to open the game from this control panel for the effects to work. If you minimize it, you can right click it in the system tray and it will show the name for you to select from there - it is a very convenient option.

You should also be able to use this method for any games as well.

If you want more info with some picts please go here but be warned there are some major text based ads embedded so dont scroll you mouse over the text area.

DXT Guide

1.2 - 3D Analyzer

This is more of a helpful tip than anything else - to those of you having problems running the game (particularly with pixel shader), download 3D Analyzer.
http://www.tommti-systems.de/go.html...ien/files.html (Click on the screen to download)

Start with your problem - I'll use mine as an example - An error message comes up saying "Your GFX card does not have Pixel shader capibilities" or something to that end.
Now, open 3D Analyzer, click Select, go to your M2TW exe file. THEN, check the following boxes if you have the pixel shader problem:
'force anisotropic filtering'
'skip pixel shader version 2.0' (or whatever version you decide)

That should do the trick. However, if the game still doesnt work, check the error message for the problem - chances are it can be changed in 3D Analyzer.
e.g. Error message=Problem with textures... to solve, check the 'disable textures'.

If it still doesnt work, try some of the following:
*Try running 3D Analyze with another game besides m2tw. If it then doesnt work, nothing will.
*Run 3D Analyze in Debug mode - you will then see what is wrong.
*If all else fails, update your GFX card/RAM/processor!

PM me if you have any questions (Not too many at a time, pls )

1.3 - Steam Issues

Yup, just open steam to the "My Games" area. Right click on Medieval 2: Total War and click "Properties". Click on launch options. Paste in there whatever you find in your mods batch file launcher. For instance, @bugfixmod.cfg

Next time you launch the game (from steam) it will run whatever mod you have it set to launch. If you want to play vanilla, remove whatever launch options you put there.

By the way, the M2:TW directory is here:
C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\medieval ii total war

Most mods should install a modname.bat file in there, if you told the mod to install into that directory (which you should have). By opening up that .bat file in wordpad/notepad you can see what you have to paste into the launch options in steam.

Also, you might want to disable patching of the game in steam, as it will automatically patch your game without telling you, and can mess up mods.

You can tell what version of the game you are running (1.1 is the current version, with 1.2 coming out soon) by opening up the game, and clicking on options. It will tell you the version number in the top right corner.

If a moderator could sticky this to the Technical Help section all of us Steam users would be greatful. It's very frustrating when 100% of modders assume you are using a store bought version as we can't run any mods without spending hours figuring this stuff out for ourselves.

1.4 - TweakGuides

I recommend all you Total war loving peeps to scurry over to this link

http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html

It will release all the resources you need to enjoy this game, and give your system a nice kick up the jacksie.

It's not a tool, just a great guide to setting up your pc the way you want it.

I have noticed people with alot of performance issues + higher specced to mine. So i can only conclude that this guide that i used over a year ago is giving me the edge.

Go on give it go, 1 hour of your time for total pc happiness hmmm....tough one.

1.5 - Tweaking ATI

Radeon Tweaking Guide

After spending ages looking at Radeon tweak guides such as this excellent one at http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.html I have tweaked my graphics card to perfection. I have struck the fine balance of IQ (image quality) and performance.

First thing you need to do is uninstall the CCC (catalyst control center) and if your drivers are outdated, you mays well uninstall all Radeon drivers and software. Here's how...

First go to add/remove programs and uninstall the CCC and Radeon drivers and reboot. Now get Driver Cleaner Pro, run it and select "multiple cleaning filters" and select every ATI filter in the drop down list and proceed to clean. Reboot then cancel all attempts to install the driver.

Go back into Driver Cleaner and now perform a cab clean to clean your driver.cab file from the backed-up ATI drivers. Mays well perform anyother cleaning options while your at it too. Reboot.

Now get your hands on WinASO Registry Optimizer and go strait into options, hit the "scan options" tab at the end and select "aggressive mode" and untick all boxes except for "save scan options". Then delete all the strings for the 3 ignore tabs. Close options and run a registry scan using all avilable checks then hit fix. Now you mays well go to "Advanced tools" and click "registry defrag" and complete that. Reboot.

Now u need to download the latest display driver. There are many tweaked drivers out there and I've used many (Omedga, NGO, ect) and to be frank they are complete crap both in their claims of higher IQ and higher performance (sure, some are faster, but at the expense of IQ, lol). Get the official driver and tweak it yourself (that's the next bit of this guide). For all Radeon cards, there is just one driver - http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/radeonx-xp.html - downlaod the Display Driver 11.8MB 6.11 Nov. 15, 2006 Display Driver Only at the bottom so you dont waste time downloding the one with CCC included.

Now without the CCC there is no way to tweak your card so we need a CCC replacment which comes in the form of ATI Tray Tools download (ATT). This is far far better than CCC in everyway. It weighs next to nothing, runs fast, it's easy to navigate and gives you access to far far more options and settings than the newbie CCC does. Install ATI Tray tools and now we begin the tweaking...


Start ATI Tray tools and it will load into your sys tray. See the red icon there? Right click it.

First things first, go to Tweaks - Standard Tweaks and tick "optimize pixel shader code", "geometry instancing" & "fast Z clear enable", all other boxes should NOT be ticked. Now click the "System" tab and enable ONLY the WMV Acceleration option.

Now go to Tweaks again but select Advanced Tweaks and answer yes to the warning and then make it look like mine does...




Now go to Hardware and disable "fast writes" and then reboot when it asks you. Fast writes sounds cool but does not do what it claims and causes system instability. Experiament with it to see if you gain from it off or on.

Now finally go to the Direct 3D section and under the General tab, set anti-aliasing to application controlled and tick adaptive anti-aliasing and choose performance (no noticable difference between performance & quality) mode in the drop down menu. Set anistrophic filtering to 4x or x8 (try 8 first) and then tick performance for it to (like with anti aliasing theres no noticable difference between performance & quality). Now under the Performance section set texture preference and mipmap detail level to high quality and set v sync to ALWAYS OFF. Now click the "Additional" tab and under Tweaks section tick all but "alternate pixel centers". Under "Addidtional" section within the "Additional" tab set Catalyst A.I to high and flip queue size to 3.

Click ok then see if you've gained those extra frames with no IQ loss.

Additional Notes

if you are the lucky few to have a very powerful Radeon card then you can easily go ahead and ramp up the anti-alising and anistrphic filtering to there maximum quality and enjoy the hugely enhanced visuals anti-aliasing gives. You can also untick anistrphic and trillinear filtering optimization to get the max possible anistrphic texture filtering. Also enable line AA option in advanced tweaks.

Alternatively if you struggling with your card the settings to tweak for more performance are again anti-alising, anistrphic filtering.

2.1 - MedievalShell

This problem may occur if you are using a Microsoft wireless keyboard with an out of date version of the Intellisoft driver installed.

The latest version of the driver - 5.5 - can be downloaded from the Microsoft site here

2.2 - Text Distortion

If you are seeing illegible or distorted text in Medieval 2 and you are using an ATi video card, you should try to toggle Catalyst A.I. in your Catalyst Control Centre.

To do this:

- Right-click on your desktop
- Choose Catalyst Control Centre from the menu that appears

The exact location of the Catalyst A.I. tick-box will vary depending on which version of the Catalyst Control Centre you are using. It can usually be found within the 3D options. If Catalyst A.I. is on, please turn it off. It it is off, please turn it on.

2.3 - CRC errors

If receive a Cyclic Redundancy Check error when trying to install Medieval Total War 2

1. First, check to see if there are any scratches, fingerprints, or marks of any kind on the disk surface. Something even as small as a piece of hair or a very light scratch can cause this error. If you find any fingerprints or debris try cleaning the CD with a dry, soft cotton cloth.

2. If you do not find any scratches, fingerprints, or marks of any kind on your CD, try renaming the InstallShield folder located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield, to InstallShieldOld. Start the installation again to reinstall the InstallShield components with the newest version.

3. Close all background tasks

4. If you have any virus protection programs like Norton or McAfee, temporarily disable them by right clicking on the icon in the system tray (lower right corner of the desktop) and selecting "Disable" or "Exit". Also be sure to end all background programs before attempting installation, this is best done after a fresh reboot of the PC.

5. Download the SafeDisk update from the Macrovision website here

If the above does not work, try the following:

6. Make sure that you are logged in as the Administrator (for Windows XP Professional) or Owner (for Windows XP Home). This will usually be the first account that was created once Windows XP was fully installed. If you are not certain, contact the manufacturer of your PC for assistance in finding your Administrator/Owner account.

7. If you have an Administrator account, create a new account with Admin rights:

- Click Start
- Click Control Panel
- Click User Accounts
- Click Create New Account
- Choose account name eg. Games
- Click Next
- Choose Computer Administrator as Account Type
- Click Create

After the account has been created, Log Off via Start and Switch User

Choose the new account eg. Games to log in and install under this account.

8. If the previous steps did not work and you have sufficient hard drive space available, you can try copying the disk files to your hard drive and installing without the disk.

- Create a new folder on the desktop (just right-click on a blank portion of the screen and select New then Folder)
- Name the folder MTW2.
- Double-Click the new MTW2 folder to open it.
- Insert the 1st disk into the DVD-Rom drive and if the auto play starts, cancel it.
- Double-click My Computer to open it.
- Right-click on your DVD-Rom drive and choose Open
- When you see the contents of the disk in the Window, click on Edit at the top of the window and choose Select All
- All the contents of the disk should now be highlighted, click on Edit at the top of the window again and choose Copy
- Click on Edit at the top of the window and choose Paste. This will copy the contents of the disk into the MTW2 folder on your hard drive.
- Follow the steps above to copy the second disk - Once all the files have been copied, remove ALL CDs from any drives.
- Run Setup.exe to install the game

To save disk space, you can delete the MTW2 folder after the installation has completed.

If you cannot copy the CD contents to your hard drive or get the same error message when installing the game on another computer, then there is a possibility of the discs being defective, if you suspect this may be the case, please return the disk to the original retailer for a replacement.

2.4 - MP CD-key issues

You're getting the error message:
"Login failed - invalid CD-key"

Right this is how to resolve (with thanks to various posters)
You cannot change the cd-key ingame anymore (most likely for the protection against illegal games), so you have to do other things.

Open Start
Click Run
Type: regedit
Now go to this: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/SEGA/Medieval II Total War"

Now you'll see a value representing the CD-key. Change it to what it should be. You could have done the following wrong:
-Don't type spaces
-Do type the "-"s
-Don't use "o"s use "0"s
-Type everything (except for the numbers obviously) in capital letters

Now it should work, if it doesn't let us now ... preferably in the MP part

2.5 - Unspecified Error
Do as the readme states:

Due to a timestamp check, the following unpacked files will
cause the game to crash and must be deleted before the game is
launched:

data\descr_geography_new.txt
data\descr_geography_new.db