Star Wars: Battlefront II

[Koroush Ghazi]

I managed to play for an hour last night without a crash - I had to set my CPU Affinity to CPU 0 for it to work, so in my case the problems are caused by the dual core incompatibility issue.

However a quick check of the SWBF2 forums reveals non-dual-core/non-P4 HT users are still crashing out, so it looks like there are several issues involved.

[SquiRRel]

Yeah I just bought the game a few days ago...its ok ..like Koroush said..nothing amazing gaphics wise...but its an ok game ..exspecially if your a star wars freak :P

[Roachcky]

I have had no swbf2 problems no lag no skips no hangs no loading wait nothing all my settings are on high and my pc is gay lol amd 1900 256ram radeon 9200. i also got call of duty 2 it had a few skips in it but i read through the tweak guide for it and it ran fine after that and i just got fear and the test ran smooth so did the first few levels but now im skipping all over.

[MadD0c]

Just read some interesting stuff on the lucas arts forum for swbfII

1. Microsoft has an update to improve performance on duel core and Hyper-Threaded system. Apparently XP has a problem with ACPI and Duel Cores some thing about thermal regulation. Some seem to have had SOME sucess after applying this. The file is WindowsXP-KB896256-v3-x86-ENU.exe and there is an article on the microsoft about the update so check if you have it.

2. Some also mentioned an app which you can download from majorgeeks called WinLauncherXP. It is a little app to launch other apps. What makes it special? Well you can set the affinity for the game as well as the priority for the app. Unfortunatly it looks like it must be loaded in memory (but is rather small)and the app must be launcher from with in it. Will play with it to see if it is of any benefit.

3. This could be the most promising post there but also could be the most irritating. Some are starting to say that there should be a patch out sometime in the next week or 2. This could just be some idiot posting what his christmas wish is! I'm treating this as a rumour and will believe it when I see it. For all we know we will still be here in february say "I wonder when they will patch is thing."

I'm going to give these 2 sugestions a go over the next week and see if it helps and get back to you. I hope this work so we can play what looks like a fun game.

[Koroush Ghazi]

A patch should be coming sometime soon - Lucasarts just can't leave the game a mess like this.

For me simply using the method described on my SWBF2 page worked to remove my dual core crashes. There's no need to use the dual core patch, as that's designed for people experiencing reduced performance when using thermal throttling. For AMD X2's for example thermal throttling is actually a risk and should be turned off.

There are a lot of people posting all sorts of wacky "solutions" on the lucasarts forums, when in reality the game needs a patch and it needs one now!

[MadD0c]

How right you are the only solution is a patch, but i did a bit more research in to the microsoft update and that little app I found.

1. Microsoft Update

As Koroush stated it is only if you are having problems with thermal throttling and isn't even part of the official Win XP updates. They say only install it if you are having problems directly linked to this. This shouldn't be a problem for many of us as we probably would disable it with in the first few second of touching the machine as I had.

2. WinLauncher XP

I'm a sucker for some new little app I find, some are quite good but many are dreadful. This one is a bit of a pain and quite unreliable for what I wanted it to do. So that in the end Koro's sugestions were the best.

So after all that I'll put this game back on the shelf and wait for a patch. The frustration is setting in, I hate not getting something to work. Anyway what's the point for messing up my system for a broken piece of software. I hope a patch comes soon!!!!

Patch Version 1.1 is live

http://forums.lucasarts.com/thread.j...02604&tstart=0

This update addresses the following:
----------------------------------------------------

NEW CONTENTS AND FEATURES
---------------------------------------------

• Added support in both Singleplayer and Multiplayer for additional maps.
• Added support for the LCD screen on the Logitech G15 Gaming keyboard.
• Added additional server-client functionality to increase the online experience.

RESOLVED ISSUES
---------------------------

• Corrected functionality issues with Droidekas.
• Adjusted the weapon animation speed based on how fast the player is moving.
• Corrected an issue that caused the remote rockets awarded to heavy weapons class soldiers to become invisible.
• Corrected an issue with the sky texture on Geonosis.
• Resolved various stability issues associated with multiple hardware configurations.
• Improved stability for computers using Dual-Core CPUs with NVIDIA GeForce 6 or GeForce 7 graphics cards. Please check the NVIDIA website for future driver updates which may resolve any existing issues.
• Increased stability for both Singleplayer and Multiplayer portions of the game.
• Corrected an issue that caused player icons in the mini-map to disappear.

MULTIPLAYER IMPROVEMENTS
--------------------------

• Increased Multiplayer performance for LAN and Internet games.
• Increased Multiplayer stability for LAN and Internet games.
• Corrected an issue that caused a decrease in network performance when rolling starships in Space maps.
• Increased stability between game sessions and map cycling.
• Reduced the ability for players to SPAM text messages during online play.
• Corrected an issue that caused hero characters to not appear in Multiplayer games.

BALANCING IMPROVEMENTS
--------------------------

• Corrected an issue in Space maps with starships inside of hangars.
• Corrected collision issues with the Ball Mode of Droidekas.

[Crazy Asian]

About time. Thanks for the 411.

[Koroush Ghazi]

Yes, thanks for the headsup and I've posted this news on the front page.

Unfortunately I installed the International patch (since I have the Australian version), and guess what - I now get a 'Please insert original disk' error when trying to launch the game. And yes, I'm using a 100% legitimate install with retail CDs of the game.

Quite frankly I really don't even want to bother resolving this problem as I haven't played the game in over 3 months. It takes Lucasarts almost 4 months to bring out this patch, and it instantly does this upon installation - I am amazed and will not be releasing a full guide for this game. It's just a pathetic joke to be honest.

Additional Comment:

Apparently the solution to the 'International Patch' problem involves the following:

1. If you've already installed the International Patch, you will have to totally uninstall the game, (You can save your savegames by backing up the \Program Files\LucasArts\Star Wars Battlefront II\GameData\SaveGames\ directory), and reinstall the game. If you haven't yet installed the Internationl patch, you can just skip to step 2.
2. Go to the \Program Files\LucasArts\Star Wars Battlefront II\Install directory.
3. Open the Launcher.xml file using Notepad.
4. About 7 lines from the bottom of that file, find the line:

<Version domestic="false" demo="false" update="false" /> and change it to:

<Version domestic="true" demo="false" update="false" />

(i.e. the domestic= variable changes from false to true).

5. Close and Save the file.
6. Now download the Domestic 1.1 Patch, and it should install on your SWBFII. Remember, if it doesn't after following the above steps, it means you have to do a full uninstall/reinstall of the game, then do steps 2-5 above, then install the Domestic Patch only.

[MadD0c]

Looks like I was right in december when I "thumb sucked" February for the "patch". I say "patch" as this is actually a slap in the face. After, at least, 4 months of "development" on this patch we get a 26Mb download with a list of fixes that I can view with out scrolling down is a joke. At first I didn't realy blame the developers as it seemed like Lucas Arts was at fault (Remember the SWKotOR II disaster). But this looks like all of them are just incompitant or take us for fools.

I for one will not be getting any Lucas Arts associated games untill a few months after release when I can see whether it would be a dud or not. Now it is a case of twice bitten forever shy.