Diadochi - TW: Bugs, Known Issues & Hotfixes

[mwro91]

RedFox, I tried lowering unit detail as you sugested, but I see hardly any difference. I made a small comparison of unit detail in vanilla RTW and DTW.

Vanilla RTW, highest unit detail: http://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/...psc840dc89.png
Vanilla RTW, medium unit detail: http://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/...ps76d21a5e.png
DTW, highest unit detail: http://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/...psc3f68e6b.png
DTW, medium unit detail: http://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3ce5dcfe.png

Maybe it's just as it should be but I'm almost certain that I don't see 3D models in DTW change into 2D sprites at any distance.
I use 1.20 version with 1.23 patch.

[RedFox]

Can you test if this slow-down happens whenever Pikemen are present in the battle? I know for a fact that the sprites generated for DTW pikemen are much more complex due to the large pike included in the model.
For example:
deuteroi_pikeman_sprite has 10 sprite textures (each 256x256)
While as:
greek_ekdromoi_sprite has 2 sprite textures (both 256x256)

If this indeed the cause, I think I can just update all the model sprites (should have done it eventually anyways) by removing the huge pikes from the model (they're unnecessary and only show in rare cases).

[mwro91]

Ok, I performed a test. 2000 legionary cohort vs 2000 gaul swordsmen and 2000 pikemen vs 2000 pikemen. In first battle FPS were around 11 - 15 and in the second sth around 10 - 13 so the values were very similiar. I also played similair battle in vanilla and had around 30 - 33 FPS in both. Still, it seems to me that in DTW i see 3D models all the time, regrdless of unit detail setting.

However, I have noticed that preferences in DTW file vary from what is set in mod's main menu every time I quit game - unit detail in file is set to HIGH, while in game options it's set to MEDIUM.

The only thing I would like to know is if I really have no 2D sprites showed in battles. If they are here, but are just more detailed than vanilla's, I'll accept the truth and keep enjoying mod on smaller unit size .

[RedFox]

Thanks for your tests, mwro91. The sad fact is still that DTW does indeed require beefier hardware due to more texture memory requirements (often several times more) and more detailed models. I am 100% positive that the sprites work as they should - since I can see the models swapping to sprites on 1920x1080.

I can see that you've turned off terrain blending - are you using integrated graphics? In that case you might be indeed running out of graphics memory, which will severely affect performance.

If you are having problems with game settings not saving you might have either of these problems:
1) Program installed under C:\Program Files\ and UAC is turned on. Due to missing Administrator rights, the settings can't be saved.
2) Game crashes and fails to save changed settings each time - this might also happen with ALT+F4. In order to prevent this, launch DTW, change all settings to your desired values, exit the game through Main Menu Quit.

[mwro91]

RedFox, thanks for all help!

I noticed something strange - in preferences file VERY_HIGH responds to HIGH in options menu and HIGH in file responds to MEDIUM in game. Is it OK?

I will try to reinstall both game and mod since i really don't see the moment of models swapping to sprites as you described (while it's easy to see it in vanilla). Maybe it's corrupt install.

As for UAC, I disabled it, but may not have done it when installing rome or DTW.

About my hardware: I have geforce GT 330M (as I remember it's 1 GB), 4 GB RAM and intel i3 330 M. The most funny thing is that I can play games like Skyrim or New Vegas with quite decent graphics (sth like medium/high) with good FPS, but all total wars require some compromises (Shogun 2 mostly of course).

Possibly it's nothing important but I have noticed that when I enter town preview (entering city map without siege battle) I can see 2D woman sprite pop up at some distance, but as for peasant model I am almost sure I don't see it.

[RedFox]

If you can play Skyrim, then you should indeed have no problems playing DTW. This only makes it more strange. Very high maps to SUPER_HIGH while High maps to VERY_HIGH, etc. It shouldn't affect much.

How about you try this:
1) Install RTW & DTW to "C:\Games\RTW\"
2) Open "C:\Games\RTW\DTW\preferences\preferences.txt"
3)
Start experimenting with game settings:
UNIT_DETAIL:VERY_HIGH or maybe HIGH might help
USE_TRIPLE_BUFFER:TRUE perhaps set this to FALSE and see what happens?
AA_QUALITY:AA_LOW maybe turn off antialiasing with AA_OFF instead?
UNIT_USE_SHADERS:TRUE setting this to false will make units look really ugly, but perhaps it will give performance?
AUDIO_3D_PROVIDERirectSound3D Software Emulation | perhaps it would be better if this was Miles Fast 2D?

If nothing else helps, make a backup of DTW preferences and just copy settings from vanilla RTW settings.

At any rate, I would really appreciate if you helped me further to track down the cause for this issue. It might just be one setting that's causing the lag. If it can be fixed, it will definitely encourage me to release a new patch.

[mwro91]

I tried to change graphic settings you suggested, but I only ended with not more than 4-5 FPS, but never more than 18 when watching two almost entire armies at screen, at long distance (most of my test were performed at battle of Raphia - Diadochi version).

One very strange thing happened when during the battle I turned off shaders. It was a total disaster: FPS dropped to values around 4-6 making game totally unplayable. I was expecting here some boost but it turned just opposite!

[mwro91]

Sorry for double post, I can't edit them yet. I made a mistake in the previous one. I wrote

but I only ended with not more than 4-5 FPS, but never more than 18

but I meant

but I only ended with not more than 4-5 extra FPS, but never more than 18

So I just have something around 10 - 18 FPS when looking at two entire armies marching/fighting.

[RedFox]

Thanks. Did you try copying settings from vanilla RTW preferences? \RTW\preferences\preferences.txt

Perhaps using those settings will reveal the issue?

[mwro91]

Thanks Redfox, I haven't tried to copy settings from vanilla. Later I will do it and post here what happened.

But I have noticed something interesting. When you wrote about 3D models swapping to 2D sprites I started to pay more attention to this. I saw that some units use sprites and some other do not. For some units i can clearly see the moment of popping up of 2D texture, and for some not.

Here are two pics:

Hillmen use sprites, peltasts seems to have no sprite:
http://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1e7d5606.png
Principes and hillmen use sprites, but triarii rather not:
http://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1f64ffb4.png
In the picture above a radius of 3D model draw distance can be seen, but not at triarii unit (unit on the right).

[mwro91]

Now I'm sure that's sprites problem. I made two battles both 2000 vs 2000.

First: principes vs numidian spearman, both units use 2D sprites. Lowest FPS value was around 40, most of time 45 - 50.
Second: legionary cohort vs seleucid pezhetairoi, both did not use sprites. FPS was 12 - 17, not exceeding 20.

[RedFox]

I see. So it looks like the sprites should be updated after all.

[mwro91]

Can we expect some hotfix in the near future then? I wonder if I should start a new campaign with smaller unit sizes or just wait a few days for update?

[RedFox]

I'm currently quite busy, so I would recommend starting a new campaign with smaller unit size. I will eventually get around to generating the sprites, though I'll have to write a small program to simplify the sprite generation and update in DMB. I remember we did it manually last time and it took ages. Maybe this weekend I can start on something, but no idea when I'll finish.

[The _Ghost]

Hi,
i have just started playing diadochi TW and when i start an imperial campaign with Romans and i get the first battle with Epirus i start the battle it loads and gets to about a half and crashes and shows Generic error: Failed to find texture 'data/terrain/battolfield/test_climate/summer/oz_medi_rock.tga'. im running the DTW mod on RTW 1.5.
could you please help me fix this i really want to play with Rome. TY

[RedFox]

Looks like an incorrect installation. Download DTW main installer + patch from the downloads thread and install it to an existing RTW folder. Simply copying DTW folder will not work, since some data is copied to RTW\data.

[EmeraldPhoenix]

I use Windows 8, and I can't even get this mod to start up. It doesn't even get as far as the black screen. What is wrong here?

[EmeraldPhoenix]

Never mind, I fixed it. Something was wrong with the preferences file, I think.

[RedFox]

Make sure to run the game with Administrator rights.

[gangstamaori]

Ever since I installed 1.23, battles have caused a ctd. When I play imperial campaign as Epirus and go to start the battle against Romans, it crashes. Mentions something about missing a file that ends in oz_medi_rock.tga file.

Any tips? I never had any problems before installing the patch when I was just using a few of the hotfixes.