Playing on a netbook

I've played all my LDW games on my netbook, and was soooo excited to try VV5, but after downloading I get an access violation error when trying to open the game.

Please don't tell me the games resolution will not play on a netbook as I'm sure I'm not the only ones who carries their little villagers around in the netbook.

VV5 is 1024x768, instead of the 800x600 size we used for previous games. That size has many benefits, but it can present problems on computers that don't support resolutions higher than 1024x768. Without knowing the specific error code you're getting, I can't say exactly what the problem is, but (assuming that it's due to the display size and resolution) the procedures in this post should help you. I have tested VV5 in full-screen mode on older computers that supported only 800x600, and it worked fine.

Thank you very much for your quick response LadyCFII.

I went and tried all the fixes.

The first change in configuration didn't work, but force windowed it did open the game in the task bar and I could hear music, but when I clicked on the game in the task bar nothing happened.

It's eating up my trial time to wait too long to see what it does.

So I then went and checked all the settings, and I have everything enabled that it said I needed. My driver date is old, 08, but when I tried to update it said it's the most current available.

Is there any hope if it managed to at least open at the bottom of my netbook in the taskbar?

The error seemed to be the same as the one just posted in the bug reporting thread. It's a series of errors, and I can't type them out as they freeze the screen and now I'm not getting them, instead it's just frozen in the task bar and I need to use task manager to close it down.

Also, my highest resolution available is 1024 x 600. This could be the problem??

There is one other known issue that affects VV4, as well. If you use Firefox and have it running when you try to launch the game, Firefox will prevent VV from displaying full screen. It will stay minimized and can't be restored until you quit Firefox.

If that's not the issue, then you might try setting your display resolution to something closer to 800x600 and see if that helps.

I did have FF open the first time around, so I made sure it was closed.

The first options with 1 in the full screen=1, and forcefullscreen=1 gives me the first error of:

The display card does not support (1024x768x16BPP)@60Hz, followed by the other errors as mentioned in the bug report thread.

When changing the settings to windowed, and 0 in the full screen options, it freezes in the taskbar with just music playing - also with FF closed.

I don't think it's going to work on my netbook (XP by the way - forgot to mention that first up).

Thanks anyway LadyCFII. I will have to unfortunately miss out on VV5 as the change to 800 x 600 resolution also freezes it in the taskbar. Very sad day.

Edit:

I think this is the issue:

System Compatibility

Windows System Requirements
* Windows 2000, ME, XP, Vista, Windows 7
* Download size: 80MB
* DirectX 7.0 or later
* 1024x768 or larger display
* 512MB of RAM (1 GB for most Vista versions or Windows 7)
* 700 MHz Processor (1 GHz for Vista or Windows 7)

I never bothered to check the system requirements as I own every game from LDW and they all worked. I don't have 1024 x 768 or larger.

That's so sad! I don't have a netbook in my lab (I may need to get one, I think), but I do have quite a few really old Windows desktops and laptops running Windows 98 and later, some of which are capable of only 800x600 resolution, and they ran VV5 in full screen mode.

Yes, I'm really sad LadyCFII.

I probably edited my post just as you replied. The requirements say 1024 x 768 or larger, so I think it would definitely be the issue.

If I do decide to download on my work notebook (which should fit the requirements), would I receive another hour trial? I don't play games on it though. I'm supposed to be working.

Yes, you would have another hour if you install VV5 on a different computer. As I said, VV5 has worked fine in full-screen mode on every older computer I've tried it on, down to 800x600. However, the only wide-screen display I used was a Mac.

I put the 1024x768 display in the requirements as a warning to people with smaller displays, so that they would be sure to download the trial and check it out before plunking down their money.

Sorry ...
I am also using a netbook. Windows XP, display 1440 x 900 - the game works fine. May I help?

Your netbook has a much higher display resolution than Brenda's, and the display resolution is at the root of her issue. Netbooks come in many configurations, and it's not too likely that your experience with your netbook would help her.

What netbook do you own Candy? Thanks for letting me know.

I tried it on our home PC. It's a new widescreen & although the game will load, it seems the resolution is an issue again.

In fullscreen I get constant flickering across the top of the screen, and tried all the fixes. I then get a message from my PC saying I'm in the wrong resolution, and it changes back to the best resolution.

In windowed it is workable, but only just. I had to autohide the task bar, but it's still just a tad too large so when I go to hit details and other menu buttons on the bottom of the game it just brings up the task bar and hides the menu options. Not having too much luck with our widescreen PCs.

Are there any other configuration settings I'm able to change within the program LadyCFII? Thanks.

The game itself offers only the choice to switch between full screen and windowed mode. As with all of our games it will display only in a fixed resolution, which for VV5 is 1024x768.

You probably don't want to go through a lot of hassle for a game, but if you have an older display around that's 4:3, you could probably attach it to your netbook and set the display resolution to allow you to run the game that way.

Thanks LadyCFII. I really appreciate all of your help. The work PC which it runs fine on is 4:3, so that is why it's perfect, but in the wrong location.

I tend up update my netbooks more often than we update our home PCs, so I'm going to definitely check the resolution size of the next one I buy. That's why I've asked Candy what she has so I might be able to check it out.

I must compliment LDW both for the support you give your customers, and also for VV5. I have to say it is the best casual game I've played, albeit just for a short trial time!

I might not be able to buy & play it now, but hopefully in the future when I get the suitable PC, I will come back & buy it.

Thanks so much again LadyCFII, and to the developers & Arthur who puts his heart & soul into our little villagers.

I'm very sorry, Virtualbrenda but I have read your question recently. How LadyCF wrote, my netbook allows a much higher display resolution.

I am not an expert but I know you can also put the display resolution of 1024 x 600 to 1024 x 768, if you allow the unsupported resolutions. And if you use Windows XP.
It is possible that you have to change this setting again for the other applications.

Another possibility would be to connect an external monitor to the netbook ...

I hope this helps a little!

The basic issue is that the hardware must support resolutions at least 1024x768 in order to make those kinds of settings changes. Many smaller (or older) computers cannot physically display images that size. I have one laptop that I regularly test on that has a display that's 800x600. No software setting is going to be able to change that.

You're right! It depends on the graphics card. If this allows a choice of higher resolution, then you can adjust the setting. If not, there is no way to change

Yes, the graphics card and the actual number of pixels present on the display. Each display has a fixed number of pixels, and can't be set to display a higher resolution than the number of pixels physically present on the display. I could attach an 800x600 monitor to a graphics card that support many megapixels, and the computer still wouldn't allow me to display more than 800x600.