44 réponses à ce sujet

[Gorath Alpha]

                           You have questions you want to ask? 

There have been game players here who didn't mind answering.  There had not been any regular visits here from Bioware employees, for about a year and a half, despite the potentially misleading name they have applied to this forum.  Relatively recently, on some selected topics, that changed some.  However, official support is definitely on Electronic Arts' Help Pages, as clearly described at the top. 

Each summer, however, the majority of the readership finds too many other things to do and few of them show up in here, so searching the archives becomes most important (this low readership period actually extends from early May into late October, and this year is lasting even longer). 

PC Tech questions need to be accompanied by supporting system information, including what resources here at the forum you have already tried to use.  There is no need at all to keep on repeating any of the very many FAQ items that have all been collected by EA, and are well represented here in the forum's archives, easily found using a site redirector with Google or Yahoo. 

( site:social.bioware.com )

A great many problems can be answered by reading the opening messages in the various pinned threads at the top of the forum, although a couple of those have turned into mere collection points for incomplete questions.  Pay particular attention to any pinned ("Sticky") thread on top that starts "Read First".  If you have another game platform besides an X86 PC, there are separate Tech forums for Apple PCs, PS3s, and XBox360s. 

We will want to confirm that your system meets the game requirements (see the next comment added to this thread), and you should double-check it, yourself.

Here is the link to a second, excellent problem reporting guide here on the Social Forums: 

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/131/index/2012975

That's if you didn't want to follow RaenImrahl's version.  social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/58/index/7280573

Here is a link on how to acquire the system information:

www.pcworld.com/article/114741/answer_line_get_all_the_details_on_the_hardware_inside_your_pc.html

If you do not want to complete a proper report, we can only assume that your problem isn't that important to you and we will just skip over it.  Please use every day business style paragraph breaks, punctuation, and spelling. 

Thank you,

Gorath

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 03 novembre 2011 - 06:53 .

[Gorath Alpha]

Until I edit it, the announcement above hadn't mentiond the system requirements, which I will add in a few minutes or less.  As usual, however, Bioware managed to screw up the video card minimums.  The X850 is still fairly fast today, but never had the "c" level of SM-3 shaders, so no Medium Textures.  The 6600 GT is slow, too much so, and never had 256 MBs of VRAM, so no Medium Textures. 

Windows XP Minimum Specifications
OS: Windows XP with SP3
CPU: Intel Core 2 Single (or equivalent) running at 1.6Ghz or greater
AMD 64 (or equivalent) running at 2.0Ghz or greater
RAM: 1 GB or more
DVD ROM (Physical copy)
20 GB HD space
Video: ATI Radeon X850 256MB or greater (this is clearly wrong)
NVIDIA GeForce "6600 GT" 128MB or greater (and this one is more wrong)

(Note: IMO, the practical choices for the two video cards above should be the Radeon X800 Pro, and the Geforce 6800 GS, at least, for small textures - it will take a Radeon X1650 XT (or X1800 GTO, same thing, almost) for medium or better textures)

INTEL'S GARBAGE (Graphics Chip) IS NOT SUPPORTED

For Vista, the so-called minimum Radeon is pure Pie in the Sky fantasy.  An x1550 is just a plain vanilla X1300 with another name, and is about half as fast as the already too-slow Geforce 6600 GT. 

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 01 mai 2011 - 10:41 .

[Gorath Alpha]

Good Morning, if you are sober enough to be reading this. I hope your celebration was a pleasant one. If for some reason, you are just now getting into playing DAO, welcome, and have a good time.

Too many new folks had been coming in with no idea what this place is. You may think of this as your introduction of us, to you. (I will add a few thoughts to it along the way, once a day, as long as there is no useful discussion pinned at the top about either the practical requirements, or the appropriately usable reporting guides. 

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 01 janvier 2011 - 08:47 .

[Gorath Alpha]

Get All the Details on the Hardware Inside Your PC

www.pcworld.com/article/114741/answer_line_get_all_the_details_on_the_hardware_inside_your_pc.html

If any of you want to ask how well will this or that set of PC components work in this game, feel free to ask right here within this thread.  If you are at all shy about it, start learning about PC Hardware right there:

PC Hardware* Basics for Gaming (and inventory of Components):

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/58/index/509580

P. S.  You should ignore any messages from anyone suggesting that you can rely upon the SR Labs for answers (System Requirements Labs is wrong so often they are merely a laughing stock).

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 02 janvier 2011 - 01:46 .

[Gorath Alpha]

The video graphics rankings article comparing pixel shader performance is here:

http://social.biowar...58/index/128343

[Gorath Alpha]

The generational study of graphics solution rankings is here:

http://social.biowar...58/index/575571

Laptops vs. gaming desktops

http://social.biowar...8/index/2670447

[Gorath Alpha]

The new Trouble Shooting procedure guide is here:

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/58/index/5642862

(The noise level from one (IMO) TROLL and some people he stirred up got too high; and I had to kill the thread.)

If any of the graphics articles seemed confusing to you, or perhaps too complicated (sorry, if that was so), here is a really basic video card discussion:

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/58/index/519461

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 14 janvier 2011 - 01:45 .

[Gorath Alpha]

When it comes to creating an inventory list for a gaming PC, I seem to always forget one of the easiest ways to collect the basics is available to all of us in the Bioware game launcher's Configuration Utility.  After it has examined your system, it has a page that will show you what it found.  There are some items it skips that are pertinent, but this makes a very good start. 

(Well, I suppose I can forgive myself for forgetting it, since it isn't available until after you buy the game, and I generally am thinking in terms of "can you run it", before you buy a game, but with accuracy instead of SR Labs' laughable inaccuracy.)

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 10 janvier 2011 - 01:58 .

[Gorath Alpha]

I've been adding some helpful tips to this, about once a day, while I was seeing some new people coming in, but the last couple of days has seemed pretty slow in that regard.  Anyway, here's a good one for you to consider:

Do you Know what your PSU is doing tonight?

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/58/index/1935044

P. S.  I've suggested that Angband should write up a little blurb promoting his separate guide to tweaking DAO for an elderly PC with a low end video graphics card, which seemed a bit overpowering, in a way, for a DIRECT inclusion here, to edit in (another edit) with the link that he has added in his following comment.  His help could really be good if you are faced with budget crunch city, and this game doesn't seem to be working well for you.  (And I'm already editing this P.S. when I see that I messed up his name / handle.  There are two n's, not one, my bad there, sorry about that.)

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 14 janvier 2011 - 06:54 .

[Angband21]

Moved to social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/58/index/5721203 on request

Modifié par Angband21, 14 janvier 2011 - 03:34 .

[Gorath Alpha]

Would you mind sharing with our newest game players a discussion of MSCONFIG, Clean Booting, Black Viper's guides, and your own system component list? I think a separate message of your own would be preferable).

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 16 janvier 2011 - 02:13 .

[Angband21]

Gorath Alpha wrote...

Would you mind sharing with our newest game players a discussion of MSCONFIG, Clean Booting, Black Viper's guides, and your own system component list? I think a separate message of your own would be preferable, given the nature of my intention for this thread, and if you would also move most of your own lengthy advice there, I will be happy to include your own article among the references used here (right now, there is no local Clean Boot Guide here).

Sure, not a problem.

[Exemplar]

I'm new to this these forums, not even sure if I am supposed to post here. I was wondering though how I register a digitally downloaded game.

[Gorath Alpha]

Although I'm not endowed with Moderatorial level Powers here on the Bioware Social site, so that I cannot make demands on other gamers about what they can or cannot include in their comments into my thread, I can request it be locked when I think it has gone astray, and reconstitute it without the contributions I do not want.  It's not been my plan to do more than accept the on-site equivalent of "Can I run It" queries. 

However, I hadn't ever announced any such restriction, so I'll say this, I do not use digital copies of anything.  My ISP is the local cable TV and landline telephone provider, whose single reasonably priced package of everything is limited to 384, which is much better than a dial-up (below 56), but just not good enough for really large downloads.  Thus, I have no idea whether any digital vendor's product is more or less easy to register than the retail hard copy is. 

That being said, I believe that you asked your question elsewhere later.  I hope you have your answer by now, although I don't think we need confirmation back here in this thread. 

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 19 janvier 2011 - 02:55 .

[Gorath Alpha]

Gorath Alpha wrote...

Get All the Details on the Hardware Inside Your PC

www.pcworld.com/article/114741/answer_line_get_all_the_details_on_the_hardware_inside_your_pc.html

If any of you want to ask how well will this or that set of PC components work in this game, feel free to ask right here within this thread.  If you are at all shy about it, start learning about PC Hardware right there:

PC Hardware* Basics for Gaming (and inventory of Components):

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/58/index/509580

P. S.  You should ignore any messages from anyone suggesting that you can rely upon the SR Labs for answers (System Requirements Labs is wrong so often they are merely a laughing stock).

Good morning, all.  Glad you found us.  Let's hope this advice will help you learn more about whatever it was that brought you here. 

[Gorath Alpha]

It looks as if we have several new people coming in here today.  I hope this will help you. 

[Gorath Alpha]

Gorath Alpha wrote...

It looks as if we have several new people coming in here today.  I hope this will help you. 

Once again, I believe I've seen several new people.  Here's your welcome basket. 

[Gorath Alpha]

Hey, welcome to the PC Tech discussion forum.

[Sajak]

Well now I'm bummed. Stupidly assumed the game would run on my Acer laptop which just has the chipset and doesnt seem to be supported. You think if the installation software can check for hard drive space and the config checks your system, they might be able to tell you then, not wait until you try to start the game. Game's gonna go on the shelf until I can afford to buy a new computer and that sucks.

[Gorath Alpha]

No offense meant here, but I have a particular scenario in mind that doesn't involve laptops.  Assume that you owned a desktop that you bought without separate video graphics because the OEM didn't offer the particular one you wanted in that particular model, or the increase in price was exorbitant, or whatever caused you to have a desktop with only the equivalent of laptop video. 

So, you have your video card ordered by mail and it won't get here so very soon, but whoever you buy the game from has it available before you have the card installed.  This way, you install the game, if you want to, but just don't waste time trying to run it yet.  You could check the label on the box that tells you your onboard Chipset video chip isn't good enough, so you've saved some time if it's already installed when you finally do have the usable graphics card in the system. 

I'm not saying that is why it's allowing you to install when the hardware is inadequate, but it makes a good excuse for it, anyway, don't you think?

[Gorath Alpha]

Gorath Alpha wrote...

Hey, welcome to the PC Tech discussion forum.

Howdy there, how are you, what's happening? 

Glad to see you.  Besides "Howdy",  another popular greeting locally is "Buenos Dias!" (Been living in south Texas this last 30% part of my life, where some kind of Spanish, often the "TexMex" variety, is very common.)

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 01 mai 2011 - 01:10 .

[Gorath Alpha]

The second post to this thread is a CORRECTED version of the Windows XP System Requirements for Dragon Age, since the officially published version is VERY scewy, particularly for Vista.  An X1550 is a very low-power business grade card based on the X1300 Vanilla card, with very minimal added tweaks, not at all useful for gaming.

Bioware was apparently very concerned about various 128 MB video cards, such as the minimum Geforce, the 6600 GT.  They included a special "Small Textures" set for those.  The Small Textures also didn't take full advantage of the SM3 pixel shader functions.  ATI's Radeon Xn00 generation only offered Dx9.0"b" capability, which was only the first half of the SM3 functions, so all of them were relegated to Small Textures. 

When they had tried testing the X800 and less powerful Radeons, they found that ATI had stopped supporting them in the current graphics drivers, and they didn't test with the Omega drivers.  Only the X850, a rather high powered card when new, was still covered by the latest ATI (AMD) drivers, and it became the "minimum" as a result.  The 6600 GT had been a somewhat wimpy card for any "600" level, but so was the X600 (much worse), and the X1600 Pro (the 6600 Vanilla and the X1600s  were much more like "500" level cards). 

SMall Texture files:
Geforce 6600 GT vs. Radeon X1550 (not well matched at all)
http://www.gpureview...1=187&card2=497

Radeon X1550 and Radeon X600 "XT" (reasonably well matched)
http://www.gpureview...d1=497&card2=93

Geforce 6600 GT vs. Radeon X700 XT (Close match)
http://www.gpureview...d1=187&card2=97

Geforce 6600 GT vs. Radeon X850 XT (not even close at all)
http://www.gpureview...d1=187&card2=55

Geforce 6800 GS vs. Radeon X800 XL
http://www.gpureview...d1=368&card2=52

Geforce 6800 GS vs. Radeon X850 Pro
http://www.gpureview...d1=368&card2=54

Geforce 7600 GT vs. Radeon X850 XT (The older Radeon was faster)
http://www.gpureview...d1=385&card2=55

Medium Texture files:
Geforce 7600 GT vs. Radeon X1550 (*no match at all*)
http://www.gpureview...1=385&card2=497

Geforce 7600 GT vs. Radeon X1650 XT (very close match)
http://www.gpureview...1=385&card2=472

You should IGNORE  the ridiculous foolishness represented by the "Official Requirements" minimum video graphics, and also anyone who quotes from them, particularly the morons at System Requirements Labs. 

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 01 mai 2011 - 07:33 .

[Gorath Alpha]

Gorath Alpha wrote...

Gorath Alpha wrote...

It looks as if we have several new people coming in here today.  I hope this will help you. 

Once again, I believe I've seen several new people.  Here's your welcome basket. 

People are digging in the oldest corners of the cemetery, and they are skipping past the Stickies on top.  What's the problem?  Those are up there to help you out.  

[Gorath Alpha]

Please read and take advantage of the useful information in the messages that are pinned up at the top (the "Stickies"), particularly Raen Imrahl's new one starting off with "Read First".

Thank you.

Gorath Alpha wrote...

                           You have questions you want to ask? 

(Snipped out most of it.)

If you do not want to complete a proper report, we can only assume that your problem isn't that important to you and we will just skip right over it.  Please use every day business style paragraph breaks, punctuation, and spelling. 

Thank you,

Gorath

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 15 mai 2011 - 08:54 .

[Gorath Alpha]

Gorath Alpha wrote...

Gorath Alpha wrote...

It looks as if we have several new people coming in here today.  I hope this will help you. 

Once again, I believe I've seen several new people.  Here's your welcome basket. 

Greetings to the new people!  Pay attention to how things work around here, and you'll have much more fun with your game!