Dawn of War... Rise of Legends

[Clanky]

Ok. So I bought Dawn of War [with winter assult expansion], and Rise of Legends...

I gave Dawn of War to my mate cos he has a laptop and I wasn't going home for ages. And... haha - we played it for two days lol! verrry nice

And, when I came home - we tried to install Rise of Legends. But after installation, it said that we didn't have sufficient video card specs... damn!
I don't know what card we have. Not sure if we have one.
I was just wodering whether it's possible, and easy, to find out what card we have?

It's a pretty new computer - got it last christmas.

Owell... if we don't have one, then I guess we can get a nice newy haha!

ps. Does any one play Dawn of War [or winter assult] online? I've been 'pondering' whether its good? I guess it would be! The game by itself is so mad!
The best map I've played is... dunno its name - but it was mad! It was like the world was made of metal. Had water haha! Verry nice. Although. I was Imperial and had all the rest on insane with random... haha - I was dead in 10 minutes. Damn! All my pre-attack defence systems were smashed! lol... I was pretty sure I could at least stay to build some tanks!
  --> Nice Nice!

[ninogenio]

go to start->control panel->display->settings

and under the display tab it should say what your card is you can have a look in the advanced section also to see 

[Shockwave]

Or you could go to start menu,
click run,
type;
dxdiag followed by return to give you lots of info.

[sarek2k]

@clanky i have a geforce 6600 pci-express card it's pretty crap by todays standards but just about runs stuff like dawn of war and it's expansions, i also play cnc3, cnc generals (zero hour) and they all run fine.

things to look out for:

If it was a shop bought pc (ie pcworld, comet, currys etc) it MAY be running with built in graphics which defintly wouldnt cut it for todays gamming!

i'd recommend a minimum of 128mb, pixel shader 2.0 or 3.0 (without pixel shader 2.0 @ least it will probably reject even running these games like the error you got), go for anything radeon or geforce over 50/60 quid and you should be fine running those games obviously the more u spend the better it will run.

hope this helps you out!

[Clanky]

Ok, I did checked it out. Boy - lots of information!
Here's whats in the Display tab:
  Device
           Name:                           SiS Mirage Graphics
           Manufacturer:                SiS
           Chip Type:                     SiS 661
           DAC Type:                     Internal
           Approx. Total Memory:     64.0 MB
           Current Display Mode:      1024 x 768 (32 bit) (75Hz)
           Monitor                          Plug and Play Monitor

   Drivers
           Main Driver:                    SiSGRV.dll
           Version:                         6.14.0010.3750 (English)
           Date:                            30/06/2006 02:56:08
           WHQL Logo'd:                 Yes
           Mini VDD:                       sisgrp.sys
           VDD:                             n/a
           DDI Version:                   9 (or higher)

  DirectX Features
           DirectDraw Acceleration:   Enabled
           Direct3D Acceleration:      Enabled
           APG Texture Acceleration: Enabled

I did the tests, and all returned positve results. I'm not sure why the game doesnt work (ours is a 64mb card yeah?) Maybe we dont have a certain 'thing'.

Thanks guys!

[Jim]

There's a newer version of the driver here http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4401.html
But even though the 661 is a DirectX9 part I guess it's pretty old and crappy now.  Maybe 64Mb is too little?  You could try setting the desktop down to 640x480x256 before launching the game?

If you get a new board, remember to get an AGP one   Last time I looked the X1600 comes as AGP, but they might have done the X1650 or X1950 as AGP by now.

Jim

[Clanky]

Nah, 64 MB is the recommended amount of Video RAM.

Ahhk. Installed the game again and used the driver. But it still doesn't work.
It says (the Dawn of War game):

"No suitable display devices were found. Make sure that you have a video card that supports hardware T&L (Transform & Lighting)."

Might have to get a new grapics card hey!?
The minimum system requirments about the video card (my computer max's out everything else) says:

"64 MB DirectX 9.0b compatible AGP video card with Hardware Transformation and Lighting."

Recommended video card is the nVidia GeForce 3 64 MB of video RAM. Should I get that one?

[Jim]

I'm reading that the hardware T&L on the SiS661 either doesn't exist or it's not complete, so that's the problem.  You can use dxdiag to find out.  Start->Run, type in dxdiag.
You won't be able to buy a GeForce3 any more, they haven't been on sale for about 5 years.  ANY AGP card you can lay your hands on now will support hardware T&L.

Jim

[Clanky]

So I just go to say, EB and ask if they have an AGP video card in stock?
Or are all new video cards AGP?

Thanks Jim.

[Jim]

Hardly any cards are AGP any more, the world has moved on to PCI Express over the last three years, so they're quite difficult to find and you'll hardly have any choice.
The other thing to check is to make sure you have an AGP slot on your motherboard.  Some boards with integrated graphics like the SiS don't have the possibility to expand.  You might have to open the case to find out to see if there's one there.  It'll likely be a brown slot, slightly narrower than the PCI card slots, usually at the top, nearest the CPU.
Picture here on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agp

Jim

[Clanky]

Ohk.
Well, would it be better to get a PCI video card with Transformation and Lighting? Or would I have to get the AGP?
I think our computer has expansion ports for a AGP card, but I'll check to make sure.

Thanks.

[Jim]

PCI, AGP and PCI Express are three different things.  Don't buy a PCI card because they are ancient (pre-AGP) and almost none will support T&L (I know nVidia do one that does).  Don't buy a PCI Express card because your motherboard won't have a slot for one. (PCI Express is sometimes also called PCIe or PCIx).

Jim

[Clanky]

Ohk. I checked again, and our card is located in the PCI Bus Port 1... damn - must be a PCI!!!  noooo.

Well. I'll keep trying to see if we can get an AGP card - I went to DSE and they only have PCI Express!
Are you sure our computer wont have a PCI Express port? It was bought in December last year...

Thanks.

[Jim]

Maybe - only way to find out is to take the lid off and compare the slots on the board with the photos on those wikipedia pages.  Unless you have the motherboard manual?

Jim

[Clanky]

Well, I found a IT shop, and asked about a video card. He wasn't too sure what type we had - I got my brother to open up the computer (we had 3 whit slots - PCI yeah? - and 1 orange/brown - AGP). But he wanted to be sure it was an AGP not a PCI-Express so we bought it in...

Now we have an AGP card YAY!

GeForce 5500, AGP 8X 256MB!
Plays games now.

[Jim]

Excellent stuff!  You should be able to run all Taj's pixelshader 2 demos now too!

Jim