Having a problem running Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat

Post up issues you are encountering with MechWarrior 2 here, this includes Netmech.
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Munwele
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Having a problem running Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat

Post by Munwele »

Hi, I am completely new to this stuff. A few weeks ago, I got a Windows 95 machine with the following specifications.
486 CyrixInstead 133Mhz
16MB RAM
HardDisk 1: Seagate 10GB
HardDisk 2: Micropolis 2.5GB
Graphics Card 1: ATI 3D Rage 8MB PCI
Graphics Card 2: Voodoo2 12MB PCI (Not running in SLI)

I have the normal Windows version of the game, not the DOS one, I believe... I must admit that I don't have the CD, I downloaded it from the net. I've read that this game is abandonware and downloading it for free isn't illegal now, I might be wrong, if so, I am sorry...

Anyways, something's not right. The game feels a little choppy, especially when you move the mouse, and I've noticed that whenever I walk over textures for example the ice in the NAV Computer training mission, it starts lagging like hell. I've decided to check on DxDiag and went ahead and disabled 3D Acceleration, but the game was as choppy as it was before.
I've tried lots of methods, including those from "RetroCompaqGuy" which tell you to install a particular driver for the Voodoo2 itself, then move Glide.dll and sst1init.dll from the Voodoo1 driver files to the game directory and finally run the game using a batch file. I found some help on another website too, forgot its exact name, nothing seems to work.

I tried running the game with just the ATI Rage, but I still got the same choppiness and lag.
To be extra sure, I tried running the game with an S3 Trio64/V2 and a Voodoo2 installed, same thing.

Would it be safe to assume that:
1) I have the wrong game version?
2) I set up the game incorrectly (I doubt)?
3) The game is using software rendering instead of hardware rendering?

Can someone please help me here? I have known about this game for long, and I wish to play it on original retro hardware.
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Havokq3
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Re: Having a problem running Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat

Post by Havokq3 »

The first thing to try on a game like this is to press Ctrl+Shift+Esc, which will open the Windows Task Manager. Here you will locate the task that MechWarrior 2 runs in, Right-Click it, and select 'Go To Process' or 'Go To Details'. The Detail or Process of the task should end in .exe. Right-Click it, select 'Change Priority', and then select 'High'. Click 'OK' in the confirmation window that appears. This will allocate more system resources to the program, which should make the game run better on your system.
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Munwele
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Re: Having a problem running Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat

Post by Munwele »

Hi, thanks for your reply. I did as you said, and nothing came up. After searching for info on the net, I found out that the sophisticated task manager we know of was first introduced in Windows NT 4.0.
Munwele
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Re: Having a problem running Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat

Post by Munwele »

Help? Anyone??
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navbuoy
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Re: Having a problem running Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat

Post by navbuoy »

Drop your graphics settings to lowest and audio quality too and see if that improves the lag...to me I believe a 133 MHz Pentium running in Windows 95 mode is a great deal of difference than in DOS mode. I vividly recall playing all my games in DOS if given the chance since the Win95 made my game run noticeably choppy.

Once you have bottomed out all the settings slowly bump them up and go back ingame to see what you can get away with.
I had a similar system Win98 ATI 128 All in Wonder capture card (ATI Rage) and about 16 megs of RAM on an Pentium 90 then a 233 MHz??? (evergreen chip) and still had issues running stuff like Jedi Knight - Dark Forces 2 on it...I believe it ran in DOS mode though..now Grand Theft Auto ran like night and day between Windows mode and DOS mode - choppy in Windows unless I dropped the settings but in DOS it was smooth as silk on high.

You could try upgrading it to Win98 and that should help a bit - Task Manager should be available...also you could try defraging your machine in 98 too since it is a better O/S to assist in improvement (hell could even port over the WinMe defrag utility to the win98 for even better defrag performance) and maybe installing DirectX 6 which I think might be best for this.

I couldn't run MW2 in DOS on the highest settings at all - had to be 640 resolution at best...even then I played in 320 mostly back in the day.

All the best.
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