Video Settings

[Guest Zenial]

Hi!

 

I've just started playing again on Windows 10 64 bit. I'm having a problem with launching the game while connected to extended monitors. If the external monitors are connected and I try to launch el.exe, I'll get a spinning 'load' cursor for a few seconds and then nothing; el doesn't appear in processes. When I unplug and use my laptop by itself, the game loads just fine. I can then reconnect to my extended displays without interrupting the game. 

 

Does anyone have any suggestions on a better solution please?

[BunnieRabbit]

Hi.

 

I'm no expert, but I have a couple suggestions. Since it is a laptop, and I had similar experiences years ago when I used extended displays on my laptop with EL. It's not my advice, but copy & pasted. I hope it helps.

 

It could be that when you are putting the computer into sleep, after a time interval the computer might be going to Hibernate mode and that is why you are facing this issue. We can try disabling Hibernate and check if the issue persists. Please follow the steps mentioned below to check if that helps:

 

Type Command Prompt in the search bar on the taskbar.

Right click on the Command Prompt icon and select Run as administrator.

Now, type the command and press Enter on the keyboard: powercfg –h off

 

 

I suggest you to try creating a new power plan on the computer and check if that helps or makes any difference. Please follow the steps mentioned below to change the power plan:

 

Press and hold Windows key + R, to open Run box.

Type control and click on OK.

Now, click on Power options.

Click on Create a power plan.

Click on Balanced (recommended) and click on Next.

Follow the on screen instructions to create a new power plan.

 

[Aislinn]

Hi,

My work computer setup is pretty similar to yours: I have a laptop and two external monitors and run Windows 11.  I don't normally play EL from there but I did just install it to see if I ran into the same problem you have.  I have no problems whatsoever with launching EL.

To comment on BunnieRabbit's post, I have sleep and hybernation disabled on my laptop. I'm no expert with Windows so have no idea if that would matter.

Is it possible your issue is unrelated to the monitors?  Possibly a graphics card issue? Are you getting far enough to trigger an error log in your EL directory? (C:\Users\yourname\Documents\Eternal Lands\log\main_xxxx.log

 

Additional comment: My laptop has two graphics cards: Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics and  a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU. I have it set up to always use the NVIDIA card for all applications.  Is it possible you have a dual graphics card setup as well and one of them can't handle EL?

 

I'm just throwing things to consider at you. Again, I'm no Windows expert but I can't think of anything else that could be an issue offhand.

[Guest Zenial]

Oh, it's Windows 11 Home, seems I'm living it the past. Correction in original post.

Processor: AMD Athlon Gold 3150U with Radeon Graphics        2.40 GHz

 RAM 8.00 GB (5.92 GB usable)

System Type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Display adapters:

• ALOGIC DX2 Docking Station
• AMD Radeon Graphics

I've disabled hibernation mode, as per BunnieRabbit's .post. No change. 

I've toggled all Video and GFX options in EL including Video Modes and Troubleshooting/Poor Man. No Change.

Updated docking station drivers. No change.

 

My main_4d68.log in its entirety:

[2024-11-08 09:52:39, C:/msys64/home/paul/el-client/elc/engine/logging.cpp:311] Log started at: 11/08/24 09:52:39 Cen. Australia Daylight Time
[2024-11-08 09:52:39, C:/msys64/home/paul/el-client/elc/engine/logging.cpp:314] version: 1.9.6

 

Anything else I can try?

 

 

 

 

 

[Aislinn]

I've been pondering this especially since I have a similar setup including a docking station.  A few other things to consider:

Are all your drivers up to date? Graphics card, docking station? maybe even monitors?

Could your docking station have something to do with it? Any way to try to hook up one or two external monitors without it?

Which screen do you have set up as your main display?  I have the laptop set up as main and have positioned the other two around it and checked "make this my main display" for the laptop's screen and "Extend desktop to this display".

 

[Zenial]

Hi Aislinn,

 

Sorry for the delayed response. I really appreciate your efforts and interest. The monitors are hooked in via Display Port to the docking station. I've been anticipating a HDMI cord might reveal itself to me and I've been able to try a monitor direct to the laptop, by bypassing the docking station and EL loaded just fine with any display as the main. I don't have an independent graphics card and all drivers are up to date.

 

I'll call up Alogic later and ask them. If I get a result I'll report back.

 

Thank you.

[bigkav]

Welcome back Zenial <3

 

Docking stations are notorious for poor video drivers, and based on your response when you have it connected it seems to be changing the launch priority and attempting to launch EL using that driver. I own three different brands of docking stations and use EL on Android, macOS, Windows 10&11, and Linux and I have encountered some truly bizarre issues especially as I prefer to run my laptops headless.

 

With the dock connected, go into your display settings and ensure that your AMD iGPU is set as default for all applications. This will prevent new apps defaulting to trying to run from the dock drivers. You may not see this option without the dock connected. Switch to HDMI cables wherever possible when working with mobile devices/laptops and as a rule of thumb with laptops it's a good idea to create a custom power plan to ensure there's no funny business with battery saving / power saving policies. It can also help to ensure there is power directly to the laptop rather than power through your dock.