Age of Empires III

[Paddy55]

Has anyone been able to get AOE III to run satisfactorily under Fusion V1.1?

If so, what changes are required to the VMX file eg:

svga.vramSize = 67108864

mks.enable3d = TRUE

The min config for AOE III is:

The following are the minimum requirements for a computer to run Age of

Empire III:

* Microsoft Windows XP

* A computer that has a 1.4 gigahertz (GHz) processor

* 256 megabytes (MB) of system RAM

* A hard disk that has at least 2 gigabytes (GB) of available space

* A 32x speed CD drive

* A 64 MB video card that supports Hardware Transform and Lighting

* An audio card and speakers or headphones

* A Microsoft mouse or a compatible pointing device

* A 56.6 kilobytes per second (KBps) or faster Internet connection for online play

* DirectX 9.0c

I have a brand new MacBook Pro 2.6gHz with 2gb memory, of which 768 is dedicated to Fusion in which I have installed a Boot Camp Partition with Win XP Pro running

Thanks

Greg

[BP9906]

You just answered your own question...

The last line of AOE3 specs... DirectX 9.0c.

Currently Fusion only supports up to DirectX 9.0 w/o shaders. Not quite there yet. Its been a while since the Fusion 1.1 release so I'm hoping graphics support has improved or some nice new features are coming our way.

[Paddy55]

Many thanks for the quick reply - looking forward to Fusion V1.2!

[DaveHuber]

Am attempting to Run AOE III on new iMac

AOE crashes on startup. Opening screens fine. Crashes on menu screen.

Entire Mac crashes. Mouse/Keyboard unresponsive. Cannot force quit VMware.

VMware set for 2GB RAM, dual processors.

Mac is 4GB

Windows, Mac and VMware all updated (VMware 2.0.4)

Any suggestions much appreciated!

Thanks.

Dave

[TheLoneVM]

AoEIII is one of our test applications, and didn't see any problems with general testing. We have ran into an issue with current generation Macs with ATI cards, but I think all the current gen iMacs are shipping with nvidia parts.

1) Please note the video card type from "About this Mac" -> "More Info" -> "Graphics/Displays"?

2) Please describe the crash in more detail, does it pop up an error dialog, does it freeze the VM? Does it display anything on the main menu before it crashes?

3) Can you run any other 3D applications/games?

4) what version of AoEIII are you running? Demo, original game or one of the expansions?

[DaveHuber]

Thanks for your help!!

1) Video Card info:

NVIDIA GeForce GT 130:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GT 130

Type: Display

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 512 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x062e

Revision ID: 0x00a1

ROM Revision: 3370

Displays:

iMac:

Resolution: 1920 x 1200

Depth: 32-bit Color

Core Image: Hardware Accelerated

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Quartz Extreme: Supported

Built-In: Yes

DELL 1901FP:

Resolution: 1024 x 1280 @ 60 Hz

Depth: 32-bit Color

Core Image: Hardware Accelerated

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Quartz Extreme: Supported

Rotation: 90

2) Crash happens at menu screen. Demo plays ok until then. Can see some buildings in the background, but they are white and washed out. Machine sputters, then comes to a halt. MAC is frozen, too. Cannot get mouse or keyboard control. Music continues. Eventually, some colors and detail emerge. Machine VERY slow. Getting a mouse click to respond is up to 2 minutes.

End up powering machine off.

3) I don''t have any additional 3D games. I'll try COD if I can find the disks. Sorry, this is the one I have. I'll try to get others soon.

4) I am running full game. Not a Demo or Expansion.

THANKS. I'm stumped.

I"ll try to do a Boot Camp if i get a chance, but would, obviously, like to get to the bottom of this.

Dave

[TheLoneVM]

Ok, the white-wash issue is easy, you need to disable the bloom effect in the graphics options menu. Though it sounds like it may not be possible to get to that screen because of your slow-down problem. We did just file a bug with apple with the G120/130 cards for a hang issue with 3dMark06 (specific to their new drivers). It is possible that this is related, I'll look into borrowing a system with G130 tomorrow and investigate a little further.

[DaveHuber]

Thanks!

I really appreciate it!

If there is something comes up, you need more info or there is some experiment you'd like me to try, just let me know. I might need v e r y s p e c i f i c instructions, but I'm willing to try.

Dave

[admin]

We just found this bug internally. The issue is caused by the Apple/Nvidia video drivers. We've reported the issue to Apple (months ago) but they've not yet responded on it. Luckily, there's a workaround. If you add the following option to the vmx file, it should work

mks.gl.shaderMainBodyTemplate = 3

Simply copy/paste this line in the .vmx file that is contained in the VM bundle, to get into the bundle:

1. Right Click (or control-click) on the VM in the Fusion VM Library

2. Select show in Finder

3. Right Click on the bundle (it'll have a .vmwarevm extension)

4. Edit the .vmx file in that bundle with a normal text editor like TextEdit.app

5. Place the option at the end of the File and save.

6. Start the VM

[DaveHuber]

Great. Thanks.

I'll do this tonight. The machine is at home.

I'll let you know one way or the other.

Thanks for letting me know this. I appreciate your help.

Dave

[DaveHuber]

Above Fix worked well.

I can now start game with no hanging. Mac is stable.

THANKS!!

However, cursor still blinks quite a bit, and is not very smooth.

Are there specific adjustments advisable to make in order to improve performance?

I would say that the game is marginally playable in this state. I would imagine that turning off some of the graphics options or adjusting them would make a difference.

Fun game, based on the tutorial.

Thanks.

Dave

[DaveHuber]

This fix worked, for the most part.

Game will not play in full screen mode.

Cursor blinks on movement.

controls are a bit unpredictable.

Graphics look great.

Are there adjustments I need to make to smooth out the controls and allow full screen?

Thanks.

Dave

[DaveHuber]

I feel like I am almost there.

However, a few persistent problems remain:

Game will not play in full screen. There is lots of blinking and re-drawing, back to windows desktop, back to game, resizing windows, etc.

In less than full screen mode, cursor blinks and disappears when moved.

Now, since applying Apple's firmware update (video) i get no sound whatsoever out of the VM. Mac sound is fine. None in XP at all.

Any hints or suggestions would be welcome. I would like to get this issue resolved and start playing!

Thanks.

Dave

[admin]

This is really weird since I don't see either of the graphics issues on the Mac Pro I have here or on my linux machine with workstation (much of the code is shared between those two products).

About the sound issue. What update did you run exactly, that's definitely something that we'd like to look at.

[DaveHuber]

Hmm,

That is troubling.

The game is not really playable on my system. I suspect I likely have some setting wrong. I turned of the "Bloom" effect and the whitewash video went away.

The big problem is the blinking cursor and erratic controls.

The sound disappeared after updating firmware: http://support.apple.com/downloads/_iMac_EFI_Firmware_Update_1_4

It was ok before, now not ok.

After I applied the patch, the XP machine BSOD'd the first time it ran. I restarted it, and it booted, without sound and with roughly the same video problems as before.

If there is any additional information you think would be helpful, please let me know.

Thanks.

Dave