Battle of Britain II TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE
CRASHES
Install the latest
Update (v.2.10)
http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=19536
GeForce4 MX
cards and Intel built-in graphics chips are not supported
The Nvidia GeForce4MX cards, even though recently released, are
based on 5 year old technology (GeForce 2 cards!) and cannot run DirectX9 games
like BOB2, Silent Hunter III, Starship Troopers, etc. This Intel built-in
graphics chips were designed for business applications, and suffer a similar
fate when it comes to 3D gaming. Here is a compatibility list from Intel:
http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/intel945gm/sb/CS-021400.htm
How to know what video card you have installed:
START MENU / CONTROL PANEL / Display / Settings
If you have a GeForce4 MX card or Intel built-in video, we recommend the following:
-Nvidia GeForce 6600 or ATI x600 or above
-If price is a serious issue, the ATI 9800 cards are very good too
If you do upgrade, not only will the newer games run, but all games that run will look and perform much better than they do now.
Turtle Beach Sound Cards
We have a reported user with a Turtle Beach sound card who experiences a crash when going to EXTERNAL view. We are looking into what may be causing this, but it may be a sound driver issue since Microsoft FS2004 users have reported the exact same crash. The current fix is to do the following:
- Open START MENU / CONTROL PANEL / Sounds and Audio Devices / Audio / Advanced (under Sound Playback) / Performance
- Set Hardware Acceleration to the 2nd notch from the left
Date Execution Prevention (DEP)
Start - My Computer - click on 'View System Information-
click on the 'Advanced' tab - click on the 'Settings' button under 'Performance' - click on the 'Data Execution Prevention' tab.
Then set up the options as in this pic:
Corrupt Installation
With virus protection, firewalls, hardware errors, etc., corrupt installations are always a risk. We have had user-reported issues get fixed with a simple re-installation.
Please note: Redownload the 2.04 just in case you had a bad/corrupted download as several have been reported
1. Uninstall old version
2. Defrag hard drive
3. Run a registry cleaner (like CC cleaner - a free program)
4. Delete all files in install directory for a fresh install (you want to remove old files that the new EXE may not like/understand)
5. Reinstall game CD
6. Run 2.04 patch (no other patch)
if you still
experience crashes after updating, check for these possible issues:
- Windows XP users
should be on XP Service Pack 2
- Do not have BOB1 or
multiple install paths of BOB2 on the same computer. The game only supports a
single installation path.
- 64 MB video RAM is the
minimum required to play the game
- In your Windows display
settings (START / CONTROL PANEL / DISPLAY / SETTINGS / ADVANCED), reset all
DEFAULTS. More specifically make sure your Antialiasing, Anisotropic Filtering,
and VSync are all set to APPLICATION CONTROLLED.
- Use the latest sound
drivers.
- Stop background
applications, especially virus protection. You can use the update utility to do
this in one step.
- Reset BOB2 to
defaults. You can use the update utility to do this in one step.
- If you have a Saitek
Rumble game controller, in the in-game OPTIONS / CONTROLS, uncheck the FORCE
FEEDBACK checkbox
- Set the in-game
OPTIONS / MORE GFX / FILTERING to ALL
If this doesn't work
then email support@a2asimulations.com
and we'll try to assist. To help us help you, please attach these things:
- Your computer specs,
like CPU, OS, gfx card, gfx card driver.
- Also, directly after a
crash, look in the game directory (where the bob.exe is) and email us the files
bdg_out.txt, dumplog.dmp, debuglog.txt.
- A short description on
what you did (for example, did it crash in the GUI or during flight, which
mission or was it a campaign etc) and please tell us whether there was an error
message.
LOW FPS
IMPROVING PERFORMANCE
- In your Windows
display settings (START / CONTROL PANEL / DISPLAY / SETTINGS / ADVANCED), reset
all DEFAULTS. More specifically make sure your Antialiasing, Anisotropic
Filtering, and VSync are all set to APPLICATION CONTROLLED.
-In game OPTIONS, try
setting:
-"Gfx/Weather"
to LOW
-"Gfx/Mirror"
to OFF
-"More Gfx/Object
Quality" to MINIMUM
-"More
Gfx/Filtering" to ALL
-"More Gfx/Ground
Object Density" to MINIMUM
-"More Gfx/Particle
Density" to MINIMUM
-Disabling
"Options/Adv/Game Hires Landscape" can help.
-Also the higher the 3D
resolution the more VRAM is used.
-Other in game settings
normally only have a minor influence on fps.
MISC ISSUES
* If you don't see
MOVIES in the user menus, you may need to update your codecs:
http://www.free-codecs.com/Intel_Codec_Installer_download.htm
* If you see white or
black water, you should set "Options/Gfx/Weather detail" to Low.
* Excessive (say over 2
minutes) loading times:
Check any virus checkers
or similar. One user needed over 2 minutes loading time from the "fly
command" to entering 3D. When he disabled Norton's GoBack program, it was
down to 45 seconds. GoBack is part of Norton Systemworks and it keeps track of
a lot of stuff so you can "go back" to a previous system state in the
case of a crash. Similar programs may have a similar effect.
If you have a low to
medium end card or see white or black water, you should set
"Options/Gfx/Weather
detail" to Low.
If you have a 64MB video
RAM graphics card (for example GeForce 3), you need to conserve VRAM as much as
possible. So, get the texture swapper and set textures to low:
http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2678