Demo not working

[hneaz]

i d/led the bioshock demo and it exits after the first cut scene of the game. the graphics options are low quality cuz i wanna see if the game runs. how do i fix the issue?

my specs are

Dell Inspiron 1520 Jet Black

Cpu - Intel Core 2 Duo 7300 (2.0ghz)
OS - Windows Vista Premium 32 bit
Ram - 2gb PC 5300 ram
Hdd - 160 gb 5400 rpm
Gpu - 8600 GT 265 mb DDR2
Screen - 15.4" with 1440 x 900 resolution

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Dats sum fast RAM sun.

 

[Krynn72]

Its probably Vista. Everything is.

 

[kineaesth]

Realistically, it should run fine on your computer. So, yeah... Vista.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Your HDD is a bit of a bottleneck, not sure why you would go with anything under 7200RPM. But that shouldn't stop you from playing the Bioshock demo - I suggest doing all the basic trouble shooting processes: reinstalling video card drivers, checking hardware temps, trying other games etc etc

 

[Baal]

Your HDD is a bit of a bottleneck, not sure why you would go with anything under 7200RPM. But that shouldn't stop you from playing the Bioshock demo - I suggest doing all the basic trouble shooting processes: reinstalling video card drivers, checking hardware temps, trying other games etc etc

It's a laptop; 5400 is pretty standard

 

[soulslicer]

i ave a 7200 rpm hard disk on my lap top.
and it probably is vista, if the cutscene is merely a video, then probably when the actual graphics load, the drivers get owned and your game dies..

 

[Cormeh]

I doubt it's Vista. The PC demo worked fine for me on Vista. I would suggest as babyheadcrab with reinstallation of drivers etc.

 

[Baal]

i ave a 7200 rpm hard disk on my lap top.
and it probably is vista, if the cutscene is merely a video, then probably when the actual graphics load, the drivers get owned and your game dies..

I was just saying, if some guy had a 5400 RPM HD on a desktop PC with the rest of the specs being as they are, you'd call him a moron, and I don't think anyone would disagree. But laptops are tossups between 5400 and 7200 it seems.

Personally, I'd try Windows XP before you try much else.

 

[TaoFan]

I have WinXP and the game ran OK for me until I got to the end of the first level, where your plane crashes and you have to swim to that building and take the lift down. Then, when the second level loaded, my PC either reset or crashed out.

It simply took an update of the 3D card drivers to solve that problem.

 

[hneaz]

Your HDD is a bit of a bottleneck, not sure why you would go with anything under 7200RPM. But that shouldn't stop you from playing the Bioshock demo - I suggest doing all the basic trouble shooting processes: reinstalling video card drivers, checking hardware temps, trying other games etc etc

why did i go with 5400 rpm? cuz i dun see a difference in loading times plus it came free with the laptop.

other games work, like stalker and nfs-mw. how is the latest nvidia driver?

 

[Laivasse]

I think I read about something like this, but forgot what the suggested solution was. Try turning off Dx10 effects, and seeing if the game loads? If that doesn't work, try running with the parameter to force it to Dx9 - you can probably find it in the tweakguides thread around here.

edit: here it is

Importantly, this highlights an oddity which currently occurs with BioShock: it appears that if your graphics card is DX10-capable, then BioShock uses full DX10 effects even when you have the 'DirectX 10 Detail Surfaces' set to Off. This explains why Antialiasing is not possible in Vista DX9 mode, while it is in XP DX9 mode. It also explains why performance comparisons between Vista DX9 and DX10 mode which demonstrate that DX10 has minimal image quality or performance impact (e.g. in this article) are not entirely correct, because under Vista BioShock will always run in DX10 mode if it detects a DX10 graphics card.


There are three main ways to get BioShock to correctly run in DX9 mode on a DX10 card in Vista: In Games Explorer right-click on the BioShock icon and select 'Play-DirectX9'; or right-click on your BioShock launch icon, select Properties, and add -dx9 one blank space after the last character in the Target box; or you can disable individual DX10 effects by editing the relevant DX10 .ini settings (See Advanced Tweaking section for details). In any case the actual performance difference between proper DX9 and DX10 mode can be quite pronounced in some areas, so if you're struggling for FPS run in proper DX9 mode, or use BioShock under XP for maximum FPS.

 

[AfternoonLemon]

I can't get the demo to work either. The main menu has no cursor, so I have to move the mouse around to try to guess where the cursor is, and the keyboard cursors don't seem to work on the menu either :stare:

Once I navigate my way into the game, the main part of the game that is, there are big blocky pixels floating about, and the water is just blackness. The only thing that displays properly is the fire and smoke.

I haven't got a powerful system, but it is above the minimum specs, so I thought I would run everything on low just to get an idea of what the game is like - wasted my time downloading 1.8GB!!

Tbh, by the sounds of it, there are many others having problems with this game, so I'm in no hurry to upgrade in order to play it.. :upstare:

 

[Laivasse]

Sounds like you don't have a graphics card capable of Shader Model 3, in which case your system is not in fact above the minimum specs.

 

[AfternoonLemon]

Sounds like you don't have a graphics card capable of Shader Model 3, in which case your system is not in fact above the minimum specs.

You're probably right, I dunno, how far away are the days when games tell you they won't run before you install them? :hmph:

In actual fact, some already do, but they all should really.

 

[Laivasse]

It's not that I don't sympathise, but SM3 is your problem right there.

 

[hneaz]

i bought the full version and it works really well. i dun experience that much lag.