2 Problems, 2 PCs, same game... [Archive]

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ChaoticInfinityX

04-01-2007, 03:43 AM

Just picked up a copy of PK Gold and loaded it on my laptop earlier today and just now on my desktop. On my laptop, the game installed without a problem. I updated the game from 1.62 to 1.64 then loaded up the game. I played through the first level and noticed some speed issues... but I figured it was just because I haven't gotten use to playin FPS games on my laptop. After clearing the 1st level, I really noticed the issue on the 2nd level when my own movement, firing speed, and the enemies' movements were all speeding up randomly albeit temporarily. I haven't played again on my laptop, and wanted to try it on my desktop to see if the issue would repeat. I checked out some of the other forum entries... but I don't have any speed-configuring software or anything like that on my laptop. Also haven't had any speed issues with other games (last 2 games I installed and played were Unreal Tournament 2004 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.).

So I installed PK Gold on my desktop, and again updated the game from 1.62 to 1.64. The install went ok, but when I launched the game the resolution was stuck at 640x480. Now, I know the resolution is kind of small when you first run the game (I remember having to configure the video options when I first played it on my laptop), but when I went into the video options to change the resolution, I clicked on the resolution and it would only get smaller. What I mean is that the resolution options would only cycle between 320x200 and 640x480. My normal desktop resolution is 1920x1200 (16:10)... and my laptop support upto 1280x800 (also 16:10) which the game is configured to on the laptop. Now, I've recently updated my video drivers as well as my monitor drivers... and I'm so baffled about this I even went as far as reinstalling DirectX 9.0c again (from the web, not the copy from the game's installation). I have several games installed on my desktop as well, and I have not had any of them (UT2k4, Stalker, Oblivion, HalfLife2, Doom3, etc).

So yeah, any at all help is greatly appreciated. Oh here are the stats on my systems (lemme know if you need any other info):

(Laptop)
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile Processor
Nvidia Geforce Go 7600 256MB
2GB Ram
Win XP w/ SP 2

(Desktop)
1.8Ghz AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+
ATI Radeon x1600 256MB PCI-E
4GB Ram
Win XP w/ SP 2

Thanks.

Varus77

04-01-2007, 08:41 AM

ChaoticInfinityX

04-01-2007, 04:35 PM

Welcome to the forum...

You're wrong with your Laptop because ALL mobile CPU have this, if Intel then called...
Intel® Dynamic Power Coordination
Coordinates Enhanced Intel® SpeedStep® technology and idle power-management state (C-states) transitions independently per core to help save power.
Therefor:
http://dreamcatcherinteractive.com/forums/showpost.php?p=212133&postcount=9

For your second problem:
Try to change your native desktop resolution to one of this:

visible = { "640x480", "800x600", "1024x768", "1152x864", "1280x960", "1600x1200", "1920x1440", "2048x1536" }

^^^ The game supported resolutions.

Is the supposed 'standard issue' speedstep application a downloadable optional application or something for the bios? I checked my laptop bios, and found no mention or options for a "speedstep". Also, are there any alternative speed/performance applications that would possibly work in this situation? I don't have much confidence these days in an app as old as that GPL P.Monger... especially when it requires all those patches for it if it doesn't work straight "out of the box."

As for the desktop, I'll give that a try when I get home. It's odd that the game does infact support some 16:10 resolutions and not all, especially when it supports a res as high as 2048x1536. Anyway, I'll update you on the desktop help results as soon as I can test it.

ChaoticInfinityX

04-01-2007, 06:00 PM

Gave the desktop resolution change a try, but even going as low as 1024x768, the game would only allow a max res of 640x480 on my desktop. I've even tried reinstalling the game, but it didn't help.

Any other suggestions? I hate playing on my widescreen lcd monitor at a minuscule 640x480.

Varus77

04-01-2007, 07:21 PM

About the Laptop...
Sorry - I don't own a laptop to check this but I guess this "energy" saving thing you should find over your documentations and maybe some similar related stuff in BIOS and/or XP-systems config (energy management ?)...
The target have to be to run your CPU with stable tact-rate because the game engine is based on this.

You've already reinstalled the game after changing the desktop resolution but I hope that you've deinstalled it before.
There are two places for the resolution:
In Painkiller\Bin\config.ini.... search for >>>>> Cfg.Resolution
and in the LScript.pak file > Main > Cfg.lua
Maybe with the first and/or the second you can get what you want. Normally there isn't in your Data-folder this LScripts\Main\Cfg.lua but you can create or just copy from the following zip to change/playing around with it. If there is this path and file the game will read it at least. (If you delete it then all is like before)
http://age-pi.de/Varus/PK_LScripts.zip

ChaoticInfinityX

04-01-2007, 08:42 PM

I'll look into the laptop stuff a little more when I get some free time... I'm sure i'll find what you were refering to, or something similar.

As for the desktop, i actually did try messing with the config.ini before reinstalling it (and yes, i uninstalled the game first! ;) ). The big reason why i reinstalled the game is because after messing with the resolution in the config file, the game's graphics display became corrupt. (BTW, to fend off any n00b editing 101 lectures, I know how to navigate my way around a config file, and I only changed the line which stated the current resolution was 640x480... and I changed it first to 1920x1200 and then lower to 1024x768). Now what I mean by display corruption is that the display would be all out of sync, similar to bad TV reception with an oldschool antenna.

It was odd, and annoying because even after reverting the config.ini file back to it's original state, it wouldn't fix the display corruption. That's mainly why I reinstalled the game. As soon as I get another chance, I'll check out that lua file you mentioned... maybe it holds the keys to my PK Happiness! I'll also give my video card settings another look... cause I really want to play this game, and it's too odd that the thing holding me back is that the now "older" engine isn't compatible with relatively new hardware.