Skip to content

*IMPORTANT* Regarding Intel Hardware! Driver issues, slow game performance

11820222324

Comments

  • NathanNathan Member Posts: 1,007
    edited December 2012
    ontarah said:


    Problem with this assumption is that people all those who played BG back in its day (who I assume remain a big buyer of this game) are still big PC gamers now. I switched to consoles some five or six years ago due to cost and ease of use factors. In short, my computer is extremely standard because I don't buy gaming rigs anymore. I never assumed that a 14 year old game, no matter how "overhauled" would mean I effectively had to buy a gaming rig to play it.

    That's probably overly combative, but it does seem odd that a project designed around multi-platform accessibility, some of those platforms not being especially powerful, would consider that many people would attempt to play the game on machines that aren't supercomputers.

    Hi @ontarah, this is unfortunately the problem we ran into. Processor-wise, a whole lot of hardware is fine and will do. You don't need anything crazy for that.

    And, specification-wise, the Intel graphics chips *should* be able to handle it. It says so on Intel's website, in their literature - everything all over the place says they support our minimum requirements. The reality, however, sadly turned out to be otherwise.

    That, there, is the real tragedy with regards to this situation. (NOTE: not saying to go out and buy one, just using this to illustrate a point, so DON'T do this just 'cause of what I've typed here!!!) A $30 video card which is in some cases a fair bit worse than many Intel graphics solutions should (in theory) run our game without any issues whatsoever, solely because of the drivers being properly implemented. This is what we failed to predict, and what we're trying to work around. As I indicated in the source post, what we found out afterwards is that we're not the only game to have this issue. I actually saw a guy say with regards to playing Amnesia: Dark Descent, "Hey guys! I solved my inability to play this game on my Intel chipset! So first: install Linux..." (seriously..) - and not to mention the legion of people that are unable to play Minecraft in anything other than a browser using a kind of OpenGL wrapper that google wrote, I believe.

    At any rate, I've said it before and I'll say it again - we're working hard on this, and we hope to have alternatives for people soon. We're committed to finding a way to work around the situation, or badgering Intel to update their stuff if nothing else.
  • ultcthultcth Member Posts: 4
    edited December 2012

    ultcth said:

    its Sony Vaio Duo 11
    8GB RAM Windows 8 64
    Intel HD integrated graphic 4000
    Duo i5- @1.70GHz

    do you modify something on bgee .ini? try to download latest drivers?
    the only thing i did on the bgee.ini is to turn off the 3d acceleration, but the problem was already there before i made any changes

    I just found out that actually my game runs smooth all the time, it is the mouse, or the cursor that is making the game lag, when i move the cursor around the game will lag, if I just use the up,down, left, right arrow key the game just run as normal as smooth

    so I have no idea what is causing this....

    and yes I did get the latest graphic driver from intel
    Post edited by ultcth on
  • jhart1018jhart1018 Member Posts: 909
    @Nathan Just wanted to say thanks for the steady updates and insights. I'm one with a fickle Intel chipset and a Gateway laptop that won't let me install the newest drivers. Keep up the good work; I'm sure you'll figure out a work-around soon. When you do, hampsters and rangers everywhere shall rejoice. :)
  • eltonbarreleltonbarrel Member Posts: 262

    @ultcth

    Minimum system requirements

    OS: Win Xp 32
    CPU: Pentium 4 3.0GHz,Sempron 3200+
    RAM: 500 MB
    Graphics: GeForce 8400 Series,Radeon 9550
    HDD: 3 GB
    Direct X: 9.0

    Recommended system requirements

    OS: Win Xp 32
    CPU: Pentium D 3.0GHz,Athlon LE-1660
    RAM: 1 GB
    Graphics: GeForce 7800 GT,Radeon X800 Pro
    HDD: 3 GB
    Direct X: 9.0

    and there is my maplist . i try it and it works.
    baldur.ini:

    CREATE TABLE options (
    section string,
    name string,
    value string
    );
    INSERT INTO options ROWS (
    'Window', 'Full Screen', '1',
    'MOVIES', 'INTRO', '1',
    'Game Options', 'Footsteps', '1',
    'Game Options', 'Memory Level', '100',
    'Game Options', 'Mouse Scroll Speed', '36',
    'Game Options', 'GUI Feedback Level', '5',
    'Game Options', 'Locator Feedback Level', '3',
    'Game Options', 'Bored Timeout', '3000',
    'Game Options', 'Always Dither', '0',
    'Game Options', 'Subtitles', '1',
    'Game Options', 'Keyboard Scroll Speed', '36',
    'Game Options', 'Command Sounds Frequency', '2',
    'Game Options', 'Selection Sounds Frequency', '3',
    'Game Options', 'Effect Text Level', '62',
    'Game Options', 'Infravision', '0',
    'Game Options', 'Weather', '0',
    'Game Options', 'Tutorial State', '1',
    'Game Options', 'Attack Sounds', '1',
    'Game Options', 'Auto Pause State', '0',
    'Game Options', 'Auto Pause Center', '1',
    'Game Options', 'Difficulty Level', '2',
    'Game Options', 'Quick Item Mapping', '1',
    'Game Options', 'Environmental Audio', '1',
    'Game Options', 'Heal Party on Rest', '1',
    'Game Options', 'Terrain Hugging', '0',
    'Game Options', 'HP Over Head', '1',
    'Game Options', 'Critical Hit Screen Shake', '1',
    'Game Options', 'Hotkeys On Tooltips', '1',
    'Game Options', 'Area Effects Density', '50',
    'Game Options', 'Duplicate Floating Text', '1',
    'Game Options', 'Tiles Precache Percent', '10',
    'Game Options', 'Pausing Map', '0',
    'Game Options', 'Extra Feedback', '0',
    'Game Options', 'Filter Games', '1',
    'Game Options', 'All Learn Spell Info', '1',
    'Graphics', 'OpenGL Version', '1',
    'Program Options', 'Font Name', '',
    'Program Options', 'Double Byte Character Support', '0',
    'Program Options', 'Drop Capitals', '0',
    'Program Options', '3D Acceleration', '1',
    'Program Options', 'Maximum Frame Rate', '60',
    'Program Options', 'Path Search Nodes', '16000',
    'Program Options', 'Tooltips', '20',
    'Program Options', 'Translucent Shadows', '0',
    'Program Options', 'Sprite Mirror', '1',
    'Program Options', 'Gamma Correction', '0',
    'Program Options', 'Brightness Correction', '0',
    'Program Options', 'Backwards Compatible 3d', '0',
    'Program Options', 'Volume Movie', '90',
    'Program Options', 'Volume Music', '40',
    'Program Options', 'Volume Voices', '100',
    'Program Options', 'Volume Ambients', '40',
    'Program Options', 'Volume SFX', '80',
    'Window', 'x', '128',
    'Window', 'y', '96',
    'Window', 'w', '1055',
    'Window', 'h', '798',
    ', ', ', ', ',
    ',
    ', ', ', ', '
    );
    ',
    'MOVIES', 'BLACKPIT', '1'
    );

    Colors16 bit
    Triple buffer disabled
    compatibility windows 95 (last 3 slots )

    try this
  • NoUseNoUse Member Posts: 6
    jhart1018 said:

    @Nathan Just wanted to say thanks for the steady updates and insights. I'm one with a fickle Intel chipset and a Gateway laptop that won't let me install the newest drivers. Keep up the good work; I'm sure you'll figure out a work-around soon. When you do, hampsters and rangers everywhere shall rejoice. :)

    @jhart1018 you should be able to install latest drivers by using this trick:
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/530384-how-install-latest-intel-chipset-drivers.html
  • NathanNathan Member Posts: 1,007
    @jhart1018 I just posted a step-by-step on how to install the latest drivers from Intel's website if you're willing to do a little monkeying around.

    @NoUse I found the -overall command line thing didn't do anything for me when I was testing it out on that other laptop, hence my lengthier explanation... but hey, if it works, that's a heck of a lot more simple than going through the device manager.
  • GlorfindelGlorfindel Member Posts: 65
    Well, unfortunately you can now add me to the list of people that can't play. I thought I had it fixed by changing it to Windows 95 compatibility with everything disabled. At least I could walk around without lag, although there was lag whenever things were moving (water, people, etc).

    Sadly, after my first combat encounter with a few hobgoblins and casting entangle the game became unplayable. Almost to the point of freezing. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has figured out how to make this work. Here are my specs:

    HP 600-1120 All-in-one CPU
    Intel Core processor
    4GB RAM
    Windows 7 Home Premium
    Intel HD Graphics driver 8.15.10.2226 (updated and said I have the latest)

    I really want to play this, thought I was, now I'm not and I'm terribly frustrated.
  • bigdogchrisbigdogchris Member Posts: 1,336
    Not sure where else to post this but I have a second test system that has ATI Xpress 1150 integrated graphics. Using OpenGL Version 1 fixes performance issues on that chip as well, though the movies do not play.
  • JoeWalkerJoeWalker Member Posts: 75
    @Nathan please could you post a link for the step by step thing for the intel driver updates when you have some time? Thanks
  • cyrus213cyrus213 Member Posts: 16
    edited December 2012
    any news on how the fix is progressing?
  • NoUseNoUse Member Posts: 6
    Nathan said:

    @NoUse I found the -overall command line thing didn't do anything for me when I was testing it out on that other laptop, hence my lengthier explanation... but hey, if it works, that's a heck of a lot more simple than going through the device manager.

    It worked for me so i believe it's worth a try since it only takes 10 seconds...
  • wildwild Member Posts: 43
    @Nathan huge thanks for your force fix worked on my brother's laptop now i can multiplayer with him
  • BradgarTheBlackBradgarTheBlack Member Posts: 8
    This is truly an absurd and shameful job that beamdog has done and I for one WILL NOT fall for their tricks of early ordering ANYTHING from them until its released and patched and it works for the machines that it SHOULD work on and should have worked on from the start. My Gog.com baldurs gate trilogy install works and is a far better(and cheaper) product than yours (considerinng it works). To wrap things up I will not be buying anything else from beamdog EVER AGAIN (unless its a game i want and even then I will wait to see on the forums if it is actually a working game or not.) Beamdog entertainment : you should be ashamed of yourself.
  • NecroblivionNecroblivion Member Posts: 210

    This is truly an absurd and shameful job that beamdog has done and I for one WILL NOT fall for their tricks of early ordering ANYTHING from them until its released and patched and it works for the machines that it SHOULD work on and should have worked on from the start. My Gog.com baldurs gate trilogy install works and is a far better(and cheaper) product than yours (considerinng it works). To wrap things up I will not be buying anything else from beamdog EVER AGAIN (unless its a game i want and even then I will wait to see on the forums if it is actually a working game or not.) Beamdog entertainment : you should be ashamed of yourself.

    Don't give up so fast man. I also can't play the game now because it freezes after like 7 mins of playing. But I have sent them some files and I hope they will find a way to fix this for me and for everyone else.
  • DarkjaDarkja Member Posts: 2
    Just thought I would say what worked for me. I have a XPS 12 Ultrabook Touchscreen Laptop which uses Intel GPU and the stand alone install just did not work after hitting play. White screen freeze, everything I tried did not work. So I installed to my big rig which uses ATI VId cards and it ran no problem. I copied the BGEE folder from the big rig to my laptop via usb and it ran perfectly fine and has ever since.
  • ermoermo Member Posts: 81
    edited December 2012

    This is truly an absurd and shameful job that beamdog has done and I for one WILL NOT fall for their tricks of early ordering ANYTHING from them until its released and patched and it works for the machines that it SHOULD work on and should have worked on from the start. My Gog.com baldurs gate trilogy install works and is a far better(and cheaper) product than yours (considerinng it works). To wrap things up I will not be buying anything else from beamdog EVER AGAIN (unless its a game i want and even then I will wait to see on the forums if it is actually a working game or not.) Beamdog entertainment : you should be ashamed of yourself.

    Have you considered sending an e-mail to support@beamdog.com with your issue? From what I've seen, the Overhaul team is pretty serious about helping people with any issues they have.

    Try it, you might be positively surprised. =)

    Other than that, if you ask me, the release has felt more like open beta testing for preorder customers than an actual release and with 20/20 hindsight, it should probably have been advertised as such. It would certainly have weeded out the most clueless consumers and would have given the Overhaul team a chance to talk things through with technically minded early adopters and would probably have been less stressful for the parties involved to boot.

    Ah well, you live you learn, and I'm actually pretty amazed at the level of dedication on display by team Overhaul. =)
  • BradgarTheBlackBradgarTheBlack Member Posts: 8
    Do I have to send an Email to Wizards of the coast when i can't play a magic game? Should I send an e-mail to blizzard because diablo 3 lags sometimes? No , I don't. Want to know why? Because people have basic expectations , good and bad for their playtime sessions. I've beat baldurs gate 1 and 2 , with and without mods many times over. Never has the game performed so terribly! If my crappy little Toshiba Satellite C655 can run all the classic infinity engine games, and even starcraft 2 , there is no good excuse why this game doesn't work and on a mainstream platform like integrated intel graphics. That being said; I've played and beaten baldur's gate extended edition on my other computer that has a good , non integrated , graphics card. What do i have to say? Black Pits was entertaining but short. The main campaign didn't add too much to the experience. Dorn and Neera were fun ( i played evil , so no monk guy) but do 3 new characters and 3 new areas really add the depth that costs 20 dollars , when you can get this game and its sequel on gog.com for half the price if i'm not mistaken? My answer is, considering the terrible hardware support problems and lack of additional content besides the additional npc s , unfortunately. no . Wait for Project Eternity, or download bg 1 and 2 with gog.com and mod it to your liking for a better playing experience overall.
  • ZayneZayne Member Posts: 32
    edited December 2012
    @BradgarTheBlack
    Well, you're right, but I'll go further. Why should I buy BG 1 and 2? I can simple pirate GOG edition from piratebay for free. And there can I get BG:EE, which don't need internet to launch.
    So, you don't want, you don't buy. What've you expected from BG:EE? Something like new ToSC?
  • BradgarTheBlackBradgarTheBlack Member Posts: 8
    I expected an actually enhanced edition. not an exact copy of the game with 3 npc mods added , practically no new equipment and a gladiator arena that has 15 battles and isn't even part of the actual proper game. i'm not complaining because I truly love this series and it is very near and dear to my heart, but if this is the best that this company can do with my beloved intellectual property, should we really be applauding their shoddy worksmanship?? @Zayne : I'm not going to pirate Baldur's Gate. i bought it with all the infinity engine games when they had it on sale for 2 dollars per game at gog.com. I also still have my original copies of the original games. I honestly dont know what I expected, but what I got was the exact game of baldur's gate slightly enhanced , with lots of bugs and a game that i should be able to play on the go , i can't because they don't support integrated intel chipsets.
  • NecroblivionNecroblivion Member Posts: 210
    I agree that I expected for things to be a bit more enhanced then they really are. Combat animations, spells, etc'. But I understood that the contract they had kinda made it impossible to really enhance the game. So its like a BGTUTU with extra NPCs and a fanky camera. But I am not looking about the game now. You should look farther to the future to the potential this game have. Both for the modding comunity and official DLCs. The great thing here is not the enhancment. Its the fact that Overhaul breathed new life and new fans to BG with the promise of more goodness to come.

    So, yeah, I can't play now. But I am sure that my problem will get fixed. And I also have something I didn't had back in 1998. I have many people to talk to them about this awesome game. And for me its a great thing.
  • ermoermo Member Posts: 81
    edited December 2012

    If my crappy little Toshiba Satellite C655 can run all the classic infinity engine games, and even starcraft 2 , there is no good excuse why this game doesn't work and on a mainstream platform like integrated intel graphics.

    "Please note: Intel Integrated Graphics are not currently supported."

    That's what it says on http://www.beamdog.com/products/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition

    Does Caveat Emptor mean anything to you?

    If you buy a product and it says on the package that you can't use it under such and such circumstances, do you think you have a good case if you decide to complain about it?

    And for the record: There is a good excuse, you just don't appear to want to accept it. I support Overhaul's decision to target their render to OpenGL 2.0 because it is a very sensible, mature, well-supported cross-platform compatible render target which will work on tablets, Macs, Linux and most windows PCs with reasonably modern drivers.

    Please note that it is Intel who has advertised that their IGPs sold since 2008 support OpenGL 2.0 (the Intel G4x series chipset with GMA X4500 IGPs which was marketed alongside its 45nm Core 2 Duo processors). As it turns out, that support is spotty, to put it mildly.

    Why would you try to pin the blame for that solely on Overhaul, when it is in fact Intel and the laptop manufacturers who aren't supporting OpenGL 2.0 properly in spite of what they advertise ?

    What you also conveniently seem to forget is that the original BG series was developed to use a DirectX 2D render target (with optional DirectX 3D features), which is why it ran on all sort of Microsoft Windows machines. But that render target also represents a limitation in terms of the effects available to you, since it offers much less options for acceleration by specialized (read: graphics) hardware. And DirectX is most certainly not a cross-platform standard, being tied to Microsoft Windows as it is. Starcraft 2 uses a Direct 3D render target on Windows and not OpenGL (It uses OpenGL on Mac, because Macs don't support DirectX) so that point is moot too, if you consider that Overhaul were in good faith when they chose OpenGL 2.0 and that their team/budget is nowhere near the size of Blizzard's Starcraft 2 team/budget.

    I suggested that you drop Overhaul an e-mail because, despite their disclaimer, they actually care about getting their product working for their customers. The fact that you ignored this and proceeded to unconstructively complain and attack straw men instead tells me that 'constructive' is not an adjective that adequately describes your present state of mind.

    You may want to work on that if your goal is to make people listen and take you and your concerns seriously. Just an observation. =)

    Post edited by ermo on
  • Berserk_AlucardBerserk_Alucard Member Posts: 24
    @ermo - I don't think it actually said Intel Integrated Graphics weren't supported on launch. It was something that came to light afterwards... So for people like me who preordered months ago, I worried about the fact that it might not run, but I didn't give it much of a second thought (as it wasn't a HD remake or anything.)
    I think it was a massive oversight on Overhaul's part. I can play BG1 and any of the other Infinity Engine games from GOG just fine on my laptop, but even with all of these patches, BGEE still isn't working smoothly for me.
    Then again, I say that, but I am really happy with how many patches and fixes they've rolled out in such a short time after release. Keep up the good work Overhaul!
  • BradgarTheBlackBradgarTheBlack Member Posts: 8
    @ermo In this situation caveat emptor means nothing to me. Want to know why? Because theres no good reason a ten+ year old game shouldn't run properly on modern systems. @berserk_alucard brings up the point that this was an issue brought to light AFTER launch or days before launch. To me this also makes your warning of 'caveat emptor' void. As for your technical jargon of explaining why X system should and shouldn't work on Y because of Z. Who cares ?? I'm not a programmer and thats not my job to understand or care. My job as the consumer was to give this company my money and get a product that would be up to expectations. So far it hasn't been.
  • ermoermo Member Posts: 81
    edited December 2012
    @BradgarTheBlack:

    I repeat: Overhaul made the right technical decision. Your laptop manufacturer (and by extension Intel) are the culprits here. All laptops sold since 2008 (so 'modern laptops') have been advertised to be compatible with the graphics system which Overhaul are using.

    In reality, the manufacturers and Intel do not support that graphics system very well in the sense that they make it difficult to install non-broken graphics drivers.

    In the end, Overhaul were caught out by this and now have to spend extra time and money on support, refunds and on working around broken graphics drivers on laptops. On those laptops where the drivers can be updated, that usually solves the problem.

    But perhaps you feel that the laptop graphics drivers on the laptop you own are also Overhaul's responsibility and not between you and the manufacturer from which you bought said laptop?

    The fact that Intel themselves are basically saying "OK, we lied, our products do not actually support OpenGL 2.0 like we promised, so you will probably need to design and implement a different graphics subsystem to get your game to work on our hardware under Windows because our OpenGL Windows graphics drivers suck" is telling.

    And that is why I keep telling you that there is a perfectly good technical reason why BG:EE doesn't work on some systems -- but if you want to stick your fingers in your ears and go 'NANANANA', be my guest; just don't expect to be taken seriously.
  • darrenkuodarrenkuo Member Posts: 366

    @ermo In this situation caveat emptor means nothing to me. Want to know why? Because theres no good reason a ten+ year old game shouldn't run properly on modern systems. @berserk_alucard brings up the point that this was an issue brought to light AFTER launch or days before launch. To me this also makes your warning of 'caveat emptor' void. As for your technical jargon of explaining why X system should and shouldn't work on Y because of Z. Who cares ?? I'm not a programmer and thats not my job to understand or care. My job as the consumer was to give this company my money and get a product that would be up to expectations. So far it hasn't been.

    @BradgarTheBlack

    Agree with your points of view ,

    All of us are not engineers , i can catch up your feeling , especially one game which we wait so long time.

    I have 5 PC (4 NB , 1 Desktop) , there are 4 PCs can work well , another one got obviously lag symptom,

    When i install the game first time , it crash by Intel integrated chip issue , i feel frustrated much , and got angry in it.

    After i chage my other NB , BG-EE works, and update 4 patchs , this game get better and better now ,

    I can't wait tons of new features coming anymore (If Overhaul will do it..) , i don't satisfy their tech support until now , i really feel this game become nice day by day , so i would like to pay the money to them ,

    No profit , no future , Overhaul Games need to live , so i don't care pay more money for them ,

    Because i know , BG-EE / BG2-EE are their mostly important project / product , so they can't mess up it in this situation , if BG failed , they die ,

    So i suggest you , keep waiting or buy the new PC which is quite cheap now , and you can enjoy this game well ,

    I don't have idea if one or two months later , they can fix the OpenGL or not , but i know this Baldur's Gate will be better in the future and extend its life for more longer time.

  • BradgarTheBlackBradgarTheBlack Member Posts: 8
    edited December 2012
    @ermo I give intel as much discredit for it not working on my laptop as much as I credit nvidia for making it run on my desktop : None and none! Since when has it been a piece of hardware's fault that an old piece of software doesn't work the same any more? NEVER ! Of course there's going to be some obligatory updating of software to meet the needs of modern hardware.... not vice versa. This is where I suppose our disagreement has its roots. I hold the software developer to test and test and test to ensure that their product works for as wide a variety of systems as possible. I know you say that they did, and IF thats true and thats a very skeptical IF . IF that is true that they developed the game the best way and just my small demographic of integrated graphics cards people are the ones that are just out of luck, then that is just a bad feeling to have as one of the people who are having these problems and I truly hope they sort it out quickly.
  • HoboJoe0858HoboJoe0858 Member Posts: 36
    @Berserk_Alucard
    Im pretty sure I saw "Integrated chipsets are not supported" sometime when I preorderd it.
    BG1/2 and any other Infinity Engine game use a DirectX2D render path as opposed to the OpenGL that BG:EE uses, thats why you can run them just fine.
  • MilochMiloch Member Posts: 863
    Whoa, I warned about this but didn't expect a 20-page thread before I could read even the first post. Is there a summary of potential fixes/ameliorations other than the OP?
  • RedGuardRedGuard Member Posts: 672
    edited December 2012

    @Berserk_Alucard
    Im pretty sure I saw "Integrated chipsets are not supported" sometime when I preorderd it.
    BG1/2 and any other Infinity Engine game use a DirectX2D render path as opposed to the OpenGL that BG:EE uses, thats why you can run them just fine.

    I didn't and I checked them a good while ago before I decided to pre-order. I know my laptop isn't suitable for most games, so I wasn't about to rush out and buy BG:EE despite the fact that BG1 & BG2 run fine enough on my computer. Plus the word on these forums when inquiring was generally that any five year old machine could run BG:EE without any hassle. Overhaul did state on release (and not before as far as I know) that they encountered this problem late in development. If the system requirement on their Beamdog's webpage (which is separate from Baldursgate.com) was changed before the release there certainly wasn't an effort to inform people of that and make them aware.

    Had I at any point been aware of this issue beforehand I would have obviously canceled my pre-order and waited to see if/when it may change. At the moment I'm waiting around because a) Overhaul have stated they are working on a solution and b) I want their solution to work so I can experience the game properly.
  • JoeWalkerJoeWalker Member Posts: 75
    I think it's fair to say that Overhaul have managed a great deal with BG EE - On these posts all there is to read about are people who are saying how it doesn't work blah blah blah, and I know it's frustrating as I am one of those people who it doesn't work for, but I'm guessing the number of people who it works absolutely fine for makes us unfortunate few look like a little spec - They've released several patches in a very short space of time so they are obviously working their butts off on this and I'm confident they'll find a fix for the intel situation too, we just need to be patient and support them in any way possible
Sign In or Register to comment.