Intel Chipsets

[pratticus]

Hey everyone I hardly ever post but Im at wits end with this game. I bought Medival and VI way back in the day and loved it. Since then Ive played every total war title to come out. I Got a Laptop when I went to college and it ran Rome fine but I wanted to play medival again. Unfortunatly im running into CTDs everytime I try to start a campaign.

My computer is decent in all regards except the graphics card which is an intel 965 chipset.

Ive read as many threads as I can find on this subject Ive tried the button fix and drivers. Ive tried changing my screen resolution to match the game and tried 16 bit color and my chip doesnt let me chang the aa to 2x. I realy dont wanna give up on what was one of my favorite games of all time. Since most of the threads i found were older I thought mabye if I posted this somone would have some new ideas on how to solve these issues regarding intel chipsets. Any help would be apreciated.

[Prince of Judah]

I am also on an intel gma hd card. it works for me but I have unexplainable, autrocious lag during battles. I wish I could help you but I can't get any help either.

[pratticus]

thats so strange considering I can play quick and custom battle fine just not campaign. So if theres anyone out there who has and suggestions please please I love this game and would appreciate any help

[Axalon]

Hi man,

Then it probably is some file used for campaign-mode that does screw things up for your PC (likely to be located in the games “campmap”-folder). If you are running Vista or W7 you are making things harder for yourself due to drivers. If you have XP 32bit as OS, then it should be some campaign-file fussing with you since you can play battles etc. etc. Once you locate and pinpoint the file (which is probably not easy) you can (or somebody else can) manufacture a replacement-file and that might possibly solve your problem. My gut tells me that “file(s) X” probably has a BIF-format and some weird 256 color-palette – other then that I have no idea which one. Hope this helps you some.

An other - probably final - option here is that you set up an auxiliary PC (with the right specs and OS) for MTW1 and other old games that indeed does run the game without fuss (fairly recently I did post some remarks on that very note over at the redux-thread, check it out).

Anyhow, flagged for transfer since this is a tech-issue (Eras tech-help is the place for it).

- Cheers

[pratticus]

Is there anyway to identify that file Im not great with computer stuff I can do basic fixes but that seems a bit more difficult that I could pull off. I assume it would probably in the campmap folder but I dont have the slightest idea how to pick it out theres a hundred of .BIFs in there. So if theres somone out there who could give me a clue on how to go about this Im all ears.

Btw I am running vista and since The Campaign doest get past the load screen I should assume that it has to be a file that is used in the display of the campaign map correct?

also idk if this helps but shogun total war works perfectly on my comp

[Axalon]

Campmap-folder pointers
==========================

What you need to do first is to make a complete backup-copy of your MTW install (yeah straight up, all of it). And then go to campmap-folder (in the copy you want to experiment/search on) and start replacing each file in relevant areas, one at a time. - After each replacement, start up (using the correct game EXE) and see if the game loads up properly. If it does, you have hit a jackpot. Here is a link to a solid and reliable file that you can use as a replacement (just rename it):

http://www.atomicgamer.com/files/836...ap_fix_1-0-zip


Use the smallest one, “minilukup.BIF”, of the two and start replacing file by file with it. To make things slightly easier for you, download the Bif-reader to get a clue what kind of file you are actually replacing in a sheer visual sense. Here are link to that:

http://www.atomicgamer.com/files/366...s_complete-zip


Anyhow, it will probably take plenty of time and determination. If you are up for it go right ahead – but personally I would advice you to first seriously consider setting up a dedicated PC for MTW1 - if possible – it is a faster, more certain and expensive solution however… You could also try either MTW-Redux or NTW v.7 (for MTW) and see what happens, both are available over at the MTW-section. Now, “your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it...”



Guidelines on campmap-folder

• All BIF-files, timestamped 2000-xx-xx or earlier can be ignored or categorically replaced.
• "ships"-folder… Ignore, except the “port.BIF”-file…
• "Tutorial"-folder… Ignore
• "Portraits"-folder… Ignore
• "naval"-folder… Ignore
• "GameEnd"-folder… Ignore
• "glory"-folder… Ignore
• "startpos"-folder… Ignore
• Make a special test copy of a startpos-file in which you delete ALL buildings and units entries. That will drastically cut down numbers for you. All those files are located in “review_panel”-folder BTW. There are guides on how and where to edit in startpos-files. Use notepad on ‘em since it is plain TXT-files. Do NOT disrupt the formatting or the file won’t work at all.
• Files that obviously are not used in the game, check visually with BIF-reader, ignore or replace at will. There are plenty of those as well. Check “parchments”-folder for instance. If you do replace them, you can later on use file-size to more easily locate “unreplaced”/unchecked files…
• Finally, I would personally do the “Info_Pics”-folder last, because I don’t think that this one is likely to cause any problems. If you ever need to get that far, that is…

Other then that, yes you sure have plenty of BIF-candidates to plow thru. Hopefully
you will have stamina enough to make it to the other side of the maze…


- Good luck
----------------
If you really do manage to find the file(s), do report it in and send me a PM and let me know which
file(s) it was. That way I can then manufacture solid and reliable fix(es) for it - at least for redux.