Various CXL 2011 issues

[DaveParker 0]

My computer spec: Intel Core i7-920, GeForce 9800GTX+, 3GB DDR3, Intel X25M SSD and a separate 7200rpm HD which CXL is installed to, Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

Bought CXL 2011 via steam as the other store (that was sent out to CXL owners via email) wouldn't take my card. I had the original via steam as well.

Issues so far...

- Steam does this "one-time setup, preparing for first use" thing each time I launch CXL 2011 despite the fact I've launched it several times now. Each time I have to give it permission to run through UAC.

- The first time I ever launched it and went to create a new city, the globe appeared (and could be rotated) but no menus or buttons appeared at all. Clicking the city slots on the globe, pressing escape etc all did nothing and I ended up having to terminate the process via Ctrl+Alt+Del. This was after first playing through the first and the last tutorial.

- The game runs really, really slow. Even with no buildings on the map at all, it's way slower on my system than a 500,000 population city in the old game. Scrolling around, rotating and zooming don't seem too bad, but each time I click a button in the user interface etc there's around a 5 second delay before it responds.

- Last night I created my first city, just a very small one for now. This autosaved part way through and then autosaved again when I used the back button to get back to the globe. I exited and started the game up again today. The city shows up on the globe with the name I gave it. If I use the load button the savegame shows up with a little thumbnail preview of my city but when I click on it the option it just replaced with a "Start new city" option. I've tried a variety of methods and can't get my saved city to load up, it just keeps giving me a new empty map (but with the name I gave it when I created the city last night).

[soltangris 42]

Hm, interesting..... (I mean, terrible )

I've heard of performance issues with the Steam version of the game. I don't know what they did, but something is terribly wrong with it..... Me and all others that downloaded it through Focus' site don't have such problems.

[Ralverdo 0]

Wow, the only problem I get (ran from Website version) is that it crashes sometimes. But your problem is way worse. Anyway, tried compatibility mode? because that sometimes helps.

[DaveParker 0]

Well it launches from within steam so I'm not sure compatibility mode would have any affect, but I could try setting it on the steam launcher I guess and see if it makes any difference. I'm going to have a play about with a few things and if I figure anything out I'll post back here.

[DaveParker 0]

Tried terminating steam while CXL was running (steam doesn't let you close it normally), that didn't seem to have any impact. Also tried playing with the detail settings - seems to run at the same speed on both lowest and highest settings. The basic frame rate is fine, the problem is every 4 or 5 seconds or so a sudden disorienting jerk happens (like the screen doesn't update for a second and then when it does you've scrolled past whatever you were looking for, etc), and the buttons in the user interface (both the overlays thing at the right, and the construction menu) all take several seconds to respond when clicked on. I think the menus are supposed to animate as well but instead they just freeze for a few seconds then appear suddenly.

[DaveParker 0]

Tried XP SP3 compatibility mode on the CXL executable and steam shortcut - didn't seem to make any difference apart from Steam telling me I shouldn't use compatibility mode and it stopped the "Steam Client Service" thing coming up asking for permission to change my computer, which it normally does every time I launch CXL 2011.

[DaveParker 0]

Just discovered the "Official Steam version fix" in this forum. This resolves most of the issues I was having and I've no complaints about the performance now

Steam is still doing that one-time setup thing each time I launch the game. If I just click No when UAC asks me, it runs fine so I've just been doing that.

The other issues I had previously haven't re-occurred since.