How to fix the screen flicker issue, permanently I do believe.

[razmoudah]

Well, after digging around in the game files (which are actually mostly .txt files) and finding the .pdf with all of the extra help info for modding the game (explains why everything except the code that actually runs the game is in .txt files, better for the modders) I finally found the solution to the screen flicker problem. In the directory for the game (SpaceEmpriesV) you go into the directory (or folder) SE5, then into Data, and open the file Settings.txt. Towards the top of the file (it is a loooooooong one) is a setting labeled "Support Multithreading" you simply switch the value from "FALSE" to "TRUE". I haven't done a long game secession trial with that change yet, but I instantly went from the screen flickering at times several times per second to none at all from game load up through loading a saved game and playing a single turn. For the past couple of days I couldn't even make it through the splash screens without multiple flickers. I think it's rather pathetic that the problem was just simply the game not letting DirectX utilize Multithreading if you had a multi-core processor, and with the exception of a few very earlier Vista boxes who doesn't have a multi-core processor? Even in 2008 they weren't exactly rare for gamers to have and they've only become far more common (to the point where it's hard to find someone with a smart phone that doesn't have a multi-core processor, heck even the 3DS and PSVita are multi-core).


Also, if there are any modders reading the Steam Community board for this page, give yourselves a very hard slap upside the head for missing this one. This is the most I've done with programming since I left college over a decade ago (so obviously I don't mod) and I still found the fix by checking out the modding help files. I'm not sure if I should be impressed with your lack of ability to find a solution that was staring you in the face or be ashamed that I've considered you at least as knowledgeable in computer programming as me.

[razmoudah]

Well, I just spent a while playing and didn't get a single flicker, and it was a minimum of an hour. Now if I could just figure out how to get it to allow fullscreen when I'm not using the "Primary Display Driver", or else modify the window size so that it's like a normal maximized window on my 1920x1080 display, so I can get the frame rate to stay above 20 fps most of the time I'd be happy. Unfortunately neither of those things are mentioned in that entire mod help .pdf.

[BlueTemplar]

This game pre-dates Vista and the generalization of multi-core processors.

Also I'm not sure why you are dissing modders, the multithreading setting is well known :
http://spaceempires.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=39539
http://steamcommunity.com/app/1690/discussions/search/?q=multithread
They should rather be impressed by YOUR lack of ability to find a solution by searching the forums.

[razmoudah]

I don't know what the original release date for the game is, but the most recent patch is dated 2008, which my old laptop was at least that old, maybe another year, ran Vista, and had a multicore processor. It wasn't really built as a gaming system, even if I did do a lot of gaming on it. By 2008 they were becoming that common and it was fairly obvious that was going to become the dominant or even only processor type in just a couple of years.

Also, I didn't even know of the 'Multithread' problem (as there are other older games that I play without such problems) so I never looked through the forum for 'multithread' specific solutions. Instead I looked through the first couple of pages of threads in the Steam Community checking any thread who's title seemed like it might contain a clue, after hitting ones that hadn't had a new comment since around mid-2013 I stopped looking. I did try using Google to find some solutionts, but like normal most of what I found I Google wasn't related, and what was didn't contain a solution (as it was either to old or was just someone else complaining about it). So, since I'd seen a few comments by people who said that they'd modified the window size to play the game windowed (which does also seem to fix the problem as well as letting you use something other than the primary display driver to get a much better frame rate) and still not finding any clues on how to do so I started searching through the game files trying to find one to open up in Notepad (you'd be amazed the number of extension types that use basic ASCII encoding, enabling you to open and modify them in Notepad) and was pleasently surprised to discover that aside from the game engne itself everthing was in .txt files. I did a lot of digging around, still didn't find what I was looking for, but did find a .pdf that contained 'help' for modding. I looked through it, and happened to find the single spot about that strange 'Support Multitheading' I'd seen in the Settings.txt file and thought 'What the heck, it can't hurt anything to try and if it doesn't work I at least kno how to change it back'. If the modding community doesn't want me to talk smack about them over this then they needed to get someone to sticky the solution so that it would be easy to find, and maybe state that it helps with the screen flicker problem so that when people search for it they can find it.

Unfortunately I have found tha the screen flickers can still occur, but when you can frequently get 1 to 2 hours, if not more, between them it's an ignorable issue.

Now, to go and try to find an admin, assuming I can, to get this thread with a solution stickied for the sake of others who have as much trouble with search engines as I do, as I can never seem to put in the right search string once it's more than two words (and sometimes even then I can't get it right).

[razmoudah]

Well, I can't seem to find a link somewhere to ask an admin to sticky this thread, so I'll just have to hope that someone who does know how to contact them will see it and do so.

Also, I forgot to mention before that when I used Google to attempt to find solutions to the problem spaceempires.net was down, so if it had been working I might've been able to find the solution there.

[BlueTemplar]

I don't think many modders visit this forum. Most of them probably aren't even aware this game is on Steam.

It was released in 2006 :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Empires_V
Vista was released in 2007 :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista

It would seem that multicore processors overtake single core processors in sales in 2006. However, it would seem that the developer didn't even plan for the game to run in Vista, so it's not surprising that multithreading support is lacking (the first game I've heard to boast multithreading compatibility was Supreme Commander, released in 2007).

Steam doesn't even seem to want to take the time to fix the badly named folders in the game installation that crash the game, and to note on the Store page that this game is not supported under Vista and newer Windows, so I wouldn't hope for any Steam employee to lift a finger to sticky anything here...

[Rameses_Norway]

problem fixed for me was shuting down AI suite 2, so try shuting down some of your background programs to see if that works, its weired i never have had any problems with any of my background programs before and ai suite 2 is a motherboard program that monitors the temperature of the pc, so i left the program on max fan and will have to restart the program when i end the game, fast fix without changing any txt files, havent played long (used to play this game years ago but lost it, had the same problem then dont remember how i fixed it) but it sees to work at least

[💖 Officer Hotpants 💖]

THANK YOU! I was about to lose my mind from the flickering and I hadn't even got into my first game yet! I was still setting things up.

EDIT: Damn. Didn't work for me. Oh well.