So I was updating my various drivers (in my case, my NVidia Graphics drivers, and I'd updated my Intel drivers quite recently), and between updates and configurations and whatnot, I tried running Clockwork Empires without the NVidia card. The game is .. functional. No broken textures, everything loads in properly, nothing amiss, graphically. I didn't play for long, because it was choppy and lost a lot of frames, but it wasn't the horrible mess of texture-less items I was expecting. My computer: Lenovo IdeaPad Y580 Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit Intel core i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.3GHz 6144MB RAM DX11 Intel HD Graphics 4000 NVidia GeForce GTX 660M (2 gigs VRAM)
Hey, neat! How slowly is slowly? Are we GPU bound? What happens if you go into the (much-neglected) menu and start turning features off?
I would still consider it unplayably slow / laggy - the interface lag is particularly bad, even with all settings at minimum. But I was pleasantly surprised to see no textures were missing or anything. I also took a look at the game running on both the HD 4000 and NVidia GTX 660M with AZDO enabled; there were no misaligned textures or missing heads or anything, it looked the way things are supposed to look. I don't know how to tell if the game was GPU bound, but I took at peek at my task manager while it was running, and CPU and RAM usage were next to nothing, so I assume the poor performance was the Intel GPU's fault. Intel HD 4000 driver: 10.18.10.3958, dated 9/30/2014
Having the same problem here, probably since 34A and now still on 35 Windows 8.1, 64bit GeForce GT 640M LE Intel i7-3612QM @ 2.10 GHz 12 GB RAM
A 640M should be okay - make sure that you are actually using the 640M and not, say, the onboard Intel chip. (somebody else who knows better than me where that control is hidden in the control panel will hopefully tell you where to look... )
Well, for most programs, I would open up the Nvidia control panel, and you can manually select which card to use. However, for CE, that option is grayed out, implying that I can't select Nvidia for this program
Did I go through the NVidia Control Panel configuration with you, gmkchicago? That's extremely weird, I've never seen a program appear on the list, but be grayed out. So the Clockwork Empires install path appears properly in the program list? Maybe you could double check and find the install path with the Add button. I've actually whipped up an instructional graphic - is it step 2. where you're having trouble?
I do usually go through that process for most games. But in this instance, I am unable to switch the processor. I've read some NVidia message boards where people have the same problem, but no clear solution seemed available. I attached a screenshot below. It's a bit hard to see, but the selection error is greyed out and unable to be changed.
I've never seen your specific issue; I find it extremely weird that it's not possible to force the NVidia GPU for specific games. Aside from updating your video drivers, and NVidia Control Panel itself, I'm at a bit of a loss, sorry. I do notice that our Control Panels are very slightly different; what version do you have? Mine is v 8.1.740.0 *edit* After doing a little reading, I may have a culprit for you: laptops with the Optimus technology will typically force all programs to use the integrated GPU while in 'power-saving' mode. My guess is that you've been running Clockwork Empires with your Intel HD this whole time, and never properly with your NVidia GPU. Please try changing your Power Plan to something not intended to save energy, and see if the option choose the NVidia GPU becomes available to you.
Ahh, that was it, thank you very much. I have a Vaio where there is a physical switch between 'stamina' and 'speed.' Simply switching it to 'speed' was enough to allow me to select the Nvidia GPU. So simple, yet so obscure.
