GalCiv2/Dark Avatar on Vista

Published on February 1, 2007 By CariElf In Bug Reports

Update August 2007: If you are having memory issues on Vista, please read this Microsoft knowledgebase article:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938194

Update: June 2007: Version 1.6 of Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar should have no problems at all on Vista at this point as long as your NVidia video card drivers are version 158.24 or higher.

If you have a laptop card, check the support section of your laptop manufacturer's website (Dell, hp, etc) for updated drivers. If the driver version is not 158.24 or higher, you should contact your laptop manufacturer and ask them when updated drivers will be available. The more of you who contact them, the more incentive they have to update their drivers. Otherwise, your only other option is to use the modified drivers from a third party site like LaptopVideo2Go, but this may void your laptop warranty so check the terms and conditions of your warranty first.

Update Mar 3 07: The 101.41 beta drivers appear to contain the fix for the issues discussed in this thread. If you are using an nVidia card with Vista, check nVidia's site for these drivers (or newer).

If you have a laptop and the manufacturer does not provide new enough drivers, try the ones here.

Update May 7 07: Version 1.6 beta 2 for Dark Avatar resolves the scrolling slowdown issue.

There is a known issue with GalCiv2 and Dark Avatar on Windows Vista and an NVidia video card. With the older version of the drivers, this could manifest as a crash or hang, or sometimes a hard lock. With the latest drivers for Vista, the game just stops repainting but can be shut down by hitting ALT+F4. It is typical of this error to see the message "Error flipping back buffer" in your debug.err file.

We are working with NVidia to resolve this issue. It may help if we send in the system information for additional systems, so if you encounter this error, please send your debug.err file to gc2bugs@stardock.com with the subject line "Vista NVidia error" or something along those lines so that I can quickly identify them and send them to my contact at NVidia. Dark Avatar and GalCiv2 have their own debug.err files, so make sure that you send the one where you got the error. Please only send in the report once.

You may also want to save your last autosave before the error so that you can test to make sure that new drivers have fixed the problem once NVidia has releases a new version, but you don't need to send in the save games at this time.

Currently, there are no known issues with ATI cards on Vista, but you may want to make sure that you have the lastest drivers anyway.

Please make sure that your debug.err file is included with any reports you send in, as SmartException is not currently attaching the debug.err file in its reports for Dark Avatar.

Update: NVidia has identified a problem in their drivers, which will be fixed in their next release.

Comments (Page 3)

CapitalShip

on Feb 24, 2007

Omg, GalCiv2 and now the Sims2?? Noooo! These are 2 of my main games and I really need these to work. I have vista 64-bit and I wonder if that will help or make things worse. Hopefully SD and Maxis will get the games updated.

ShunterAlhena

on Feb 24, 2007

People, I think it's alright for nVidia not to have fully up-to-date, compatible drivers for Vista and every single 3D game - Vista IS bleeding edge, after all.

But for Heaven's sake, if this is the case, TAKE THAT ***ING "BEST VISTA EXPERIENCE" NOTICE from the forsaken nvidia.com front page!!!... my old ATi 9600XT would run better since for a reason unknown, ATi actually COULD make working, compatible drivers ON DEADLINE, not only claim that they have with shameless arrogance!

...yeah, a mild case of GalCiv2 withdrawal symptoms.

kryo

on Feb 24, 2007

Hopefully SD and Maxis will get the games updated.

As noted elsewhere in this thread, it's not a problem with the games themselves (I assume this is the case with Sims as well), but with nVidia's driver support on Vista. They say they have found the problem though, so the next driver update *should* fix it.

Desidono

on Feb 24, 2007

People, I think it's alright for nVidia not to have fully up-to-date, compatible drivers for Vista and every single 3D game - Vista IS bleeding edge, after all.

I have to disagree. Vista has been in RTM since November, and RC2 since October and this after a five year development cycle. It was available to enterprises since the end of November. I have no sympathy for nVidia, Apple ("Vista will break your iPod!"), or any other company that wasn't prepared. It's not like Vista was a huge secret and unavailable.

TAKE THAT ***ING "BEST VISTA EXPERIENCE" NOTICE from the forsaken nvidia.com front page!!!... my old ATi 9600XT would run better since for a reason unknown, ATi actually COULD make working, compatible drivers ON DEADLINE, not only claim that they have with shameless arrogance!

Preach it! This is my last nVidia card. A major company with only one real competitor that can't seem to reach the same bar that their competitor does doesn't deserve my cash flow. The 'BEST VISTA EXPERIENCE' stuff just rubs salt in the wound.

...yeah, a mild case of GalCiv2 withdrawal symptoms.

You and me both. If I hadn't just bought this card, I'd run out and get something ATI.

ShunterAlhena

on Feb 24, 2007

I can't run off either, I just fetched this nVidia 7600. It's not the newest, I know, but it should be a decent performer (and I only made the switch because a faulty power feed had burned the ATi card out, and with a motherboard not supporting PCI Express this was the best card my shop could fetch). Instead, it's a bunch of overcostly silicon. At least it runs Aero Glass even with this loose excuse of a driver...

oiseaugrande

on Feb 24, 2007

I just got a new computer (with Vista) as well, and I installed all my old games. The only ones having problems are the Sims2 and GalCiv2.

Seriously, thats not THAT BAD!!! I mean I just beat Total Annihalation (Circa 1997) and then beat Supreme Commander as a follow up without a single crash or anything! I dont know...I mean its pretty bad, but when only two games crash, it's far from horrible.

People, I think it's alright for nVidia not to have fully up-to-date, compatible drivers for Vista and every single 3D game - Vista IS bleeding edge, after all.

I think thats right...give it some time, and I think you'll know why you bought Vista with an NVdia, or vice versa!

5Corparty

on Feb 25, 2007

I just bought Civ2: Dread Lords, and can't even get it to load for Vista.

The .exe file won't work, and neither will the emulator.

Thoughts/ known patches, anyone?

kryo

on Feb 25, 2007

I just bought Civ2: Dread Lords, and can't even get it to load for Vista.

The .exe file won't work, and neither will the emulator.

Thoughts/ known patches, anyone?

If you're talking about the installation, you just have to wait a few minutes after running setup.exe directly and it'll eventually go. Windows defender likes to scan EVERYTHING completely before it runs it, and it takes its sweet time doing it (The Gold edition installer is broken up into small files so it doesn't do that).

If you're talking about the game itself, post the contents of the debug.err file found in the game's directory.

Michael Thomas No NickName

on Feb 25, 2007

This is why you should not but "indy" games.

I love Galactic Civilizations II. I played it all the time on my old XP machine. I bought a new computer with Vista Home Premium and an NVidia card. I can no longer play. "indy" games suffer from lack of support from both the developer and the industry overall. GC2 was even well rated in industry magazines. (If GC2 was such a big deal, why does it STILL NOT WORK on Vista?)

The word on the message boards is NVidia drivers. Ok, I can deal with that. After two beta releases and one formal release of NVidia drivers, the game still crashes.

Other games work, Supreme Commander, etc. It is silly to just blame this on the driver. The other games have found a way to work, this game should also.

I had planned on purchasing the Dark Avatar expansion, but have waited. Why purchase a game that will not run on your shiny new computer.

Hopefully, the finger pointing will end soon, be it the game or the driver, and we can start playing GC2 again.

Until then, I will wait on purchasing the expansion pack and play something else!

kryo

on Feb 25, 2007

"indy" games suffer from lack of support from both the developer and the industry overall. GC2 was even well rated in industry magazines. (If GC2 was such a big deal, why does it STILL NOT WORK on Vista?)..... It is silly to just blame this on the driver. The other games have found a way to work, this game should also.

Nobody is "blaming" anyone. nVidia themselves confirmed that it was a problem with their drivers. They report that the issue has been fixed internally now, and the next release should include the fix.

Michael Thomas No NickName

on Feb 25, 2007

Thanks for the response. It is very much appriciated. It is nice to know the message boards are being watched.

However, this is not the first time the message boards have posted that the problem has been fixed internally at NVidia. We have also seen messages stating that the problem will be out with the next driver.

I repeat my earlier comments, there have been several driver updates since the problem was reported including an official, non-beta NVidia release. The game still crashes.

If other games can find a way to work with the NVidia drivers, GC2 should be able to also.

Until this problem is resoved, anyone with Windows Vista and an NVidia card should be wary of purchasing GC2, GC2 Gold, or the Dark Avatar expansion.

I personally, wish the game just worked. The would allow me to stop spending time on the message boards and start spending time playing the game again.

kryo

on Feb 25, 2007

I personally, wish the game just worked.

So do we. All we can do is wait hopefully for 100.66, the same as anyone else.

CapitalShip

on Feb 26, 2007

This is a good thread regarding vista. So far, I never tried GC2 DA yet, but I tried Pacific Storm and it don't launch in vista. Then I tried BF1942, although it loads and gets in, it has a strange graphic problem that doesn't let me change any options. From what I have read here, and elsewhere, in addition to my experience with BF1942, I really think its nvidia's drivers. Alot of people are blaming vista, I don't know, if it was vista then maybe alot more games would not work. I am running vista 64-bit home premium and it will switch to 32-bit mode to run games and applications that were designed to run in 32-bit. So far though, all I had a chance to play was supreme commander, bf2142, bf1942, pacific storm (tried to play it) and of course flight sim x. I am wondering if others with ATI chipset cards are having problems running games on vista? If there are not many reported problems running games on vista machines with ATI cards, I think that would answer alot of questions.

ShunterAlhena

on Feb 26, 2007

This is why you should not but "indy" games.

Fable: The Lost Chapters is about as mainstream as it gets, Microsoft's own game, featured on XBOX, done by Lionhead, not even so new as to have cutting-edge exotic graphic features. I received a sealed new original copy about two months ago, so can't blame anything on cracks and other filthy stuff, either.
Now, when I first installed Vista, ingame was a mere black screen. After a few weeks, the fine folk at nVidia were so kind as to provide a beta driver, which made the game to run but it stops every few minutes, the screen goes blank, then comes back. Afterwards Windows reports that the driver stopped and was reset.

So, it's not Vista, it's not GalCiv2, it's our beloved, trustworthy nVidia AKA "The Best Vista Experience - In and Out of the Box".
..

Desidono

on Feb 27, 2007

This is why you should not but "indy" games.

I've never been much of a cheerleader, but I have to say that the best and most detailed support on this issue has come from Stardock from what I've seen. This thread was started by Stardock, being very honest and upfront about the problems. It's encouraged me to definitely buy more Stardock, if not "indy" games in general.

This is the first major issue I've had with a Stardock product and it's not even their fault. Does anyone else here remember the hell that was CivIII, a "mainstream" game, right out of the box?

The word on the message boards is NVidia drivers. Ok, I can deal with that. After two beta releases and one formal release of NVidia drivers, the game still crashes.

Other games work, Supreme Commander, etc. It is silly to just blame this on the driver. The other games have found a way to work, this game should also.

I'm glad your experience with your games has been much smoother than mine. I have two games that won't run and another handful that don't run optimally. Having to turn off advanced graphics options so that the game will even run is not my idea of a good gaming experience.

I recommend you do a search for information on nVidia drivers on Vista out there on the interwebs. You'll find this problem is much larger than just GC2 - don't forget to check out the site talking about the class action lawsuit.

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