Age of Empires III & Warchiefs

[chronox]

I just installed AoE III Gold (base + Warchiefs) and much to my dismay, I get a lot of stuttering when scrolling around on the map. It's almost as if my PC is not powerful enough but I know that is not true. My specs are:

E8400
GA-P35-DS3L
4GB DDR1000
8800 GTS 512
7200.11 500GB

I have all of the settings maxed out and lowering them does not seem to help. Zooming the camera in and then scrolling seemed to help a bit. Also the choppiness seems to be alleviated by moving around the map a couple of times as if it is being "buffered".

It'd be nice to find a fix for this. Thanks in advance for the help!

Edit: I forgot to mention that a quick search with Google turns up some mentions of this problem but no tangible solutions.

 

[Bateluer]

Your system is plenty powerful enough for AOE3, it should power through it without a second thought. It sounds like a driver issue though. I'm not familiar with the best set of Nvidia drivers for your graphics card, but I'd look at the latest chipset drivers for the motherboard too. Also, check to make sure you have the latest DX redistributables.

 

[chronox]

Oops, I forgot to mention what drivers I'm using. Thanks for reminding me.

For video, I am using the 175.16 drivers for Vista x64. I also downloaded the latest DirectX files (Aug. '08) from the MS website after installing AoE. As for the motherboard, I am using Intel ICH9 drivers that Vista prompted me to install (not sure which version) when I originally built the computer back in January.

I can run every other game without any issue. Even Crysis is playable at High settings, no AA. It is a bit odd that AoE is running so poorly.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

I have always had this problem with the game, with several cards and systems. Annoying, and probably why I never play it.
You can probably get rid of the stuttering by turning down the shader quality I believe. It will take the bloom effect away though.

 

[chronox]

That's disappointing to hear. While it did not run at max settings, it did run without issue on my 6 year old Dell box. I've turned everything to Low/Disabled and even dialed down the resolution and still nothing. I guess this is one game that is just not compatible with new tech?

 

[StinkyPinky]

Originally posted by: chronox
That's disappointing to hear. While it did not run at max settings, it did run without issue on my 6 year old Dell box. I've turned everything to Low/Disabled and even dialed down the resolution and still nothing. I guess this is one game that is just not compatible with new tech?

Never had a problem with it with the system in my sig.

 

[chronox]

So I disabled Vsync and it seemed to help a bit. I also turned down the shader quality to "high" and shadows to "low". Rather than having massive stuttering/choppiness, scrolling over the map is now much better but there is still stuttering.

 

[chronox]

Since I came across another question here regarding poor AoE3 performance, I thought I'd update here as well just in case anyone had the same question.

Earlier tonight I installed the 181.22 drivers for my 8800GTS 512. Before doing so, I updated DirectX 9.0 to the latest release (Nov 2008). I recall this this release did not work when it was originally released but it now works. Updating DirectX 9.0 solved the choppy map-scrolling issue for me and it may do so for others as well.

 

[chronox]

I realize I'm replying to a thread from 2008/09 that I started and eventually posted the last response in but I've come across more information that may benefit others especially since Games for Windows had this great series on sale for next to nothing.

Recently, I purchased the Asian Dynasties expansion pack and reinstalled AoE3+Warchiefs on my computer. The stuttering issue has reared its ugly head again; however this time around, my DirectX and nVidia drivers were up-to-date. My system configuration is the same with the exception of running Win 7 instead of Vista.

I've managed to resolve the stuttering issue this time by enabling the "windowed mode" that retains full-screen play if you select a game resolution that is the same as your desktop resolution.

Happy Holidays to All!

 

[Bateluer]

I've managed to resolve the stuttering issue this time by enabling the "windowed mode" that retains full-screen play if you select a game resolution that is the same as your desktop resolution.

Happy Holidays to All!

Good to know.

When you posted this thread, I was running AOE3 on a 2.13Ghz Dothan laptop with a 7800GTX with 512MB of VRAM, 2GB of system RAM. It ran well, mostly, no stuttering that I can recall. It did bog down in multiplayer games though, when there were a lot of units on the map. Single core CPU.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Loool, I remember posting in this thread.

I recently bought that game off the GFWL deal, and wow, the stuttering is still there.

So a recap:
2005- My old XPS laptop with 6800 go ultra and 2.0ghz Pentium M -Stutter while panning
2007- Athlon x2 3800+ with x1900xt - Stutter while panning
2008 or 09 or so - e5200/e2200 with 4830/x1900xt - Stutter while panning
And now, Phenom II x4 with GTX 460 - Stutter while panning.

Its funny because when I first played the game on my shiny new laptop 5 years ago I was going crazy over wtf my new awesome laptop had the stutteryness with the game. And several years and generations of hardware later, the problem is still there, LOL.

I will try the window mode thing.

 

[MentalIlness]

I have also been playing this recently with Ashley in my sig. Pretty much identical to your system OP.

But...I have never had that problem. No slowdowns/choppiness/stuttering.

But I did notice, it ran considerably better with V-sync off.

All settings are completely maxed. Via NV control panel.

What resolution are you running ? When I play, I run at 1440x900.

 

[chronox]

What resolution are you running ? When I play, I run at 1440x900.

I run at 1680x1050, the native resolution of my monitor. After posting, I played a little and noticed that the stuttering comes back after a while. It is nowhere as bad as before but still noticeable.

Not yet satisfied, I found a suggestion online that I turn down the camera acceleration time all the way to the left (no delay). This has provided some relief and I don't notice the stuttering that appears after playing a while; however, there is still stuttering when I scroll over areas with heavy fighting. I also now run with D3DOverrider that comes with RivaTuner and force Triple-Buffering/Vsync.

So, just as a running tally, the settings that appear to mitigate the stuttering while scrolling are:

1. DirectX 9.0, driver updates
2. Running in "windowed mode"
3. Minimizing camera acceleration delay
4. D3DOverrider (force Triple-buffering, Vsync) - not sure to what extent this does but I've read Triple-buffering is recommended when forcing Vsync

 

[MentalIlness]

Yea, I have the Collectors Edition. It has AOE3/Warchiefs/Dynasties all on it. I have played pretty much all of them. I haven't noticed any stuttering in any of the three games.

However, I think I prefer AOE / AOE 2 though. Nothing like the greatness of these two games exist today.

Warchiefs is better with v-sync off, but Dynasties is better with v-sync on :/