Playable on netbook?

XSS · 08-10-2010, 03:48 AM

I'm wondering one thing. I have a netbook (Acer Aspire One) and i play lots of indie games on it. But when i tried Gratuitous Space Battles, the game starts and then the screen is just black.
After checking the Event Viewer, there was nothing specific. Just main game's EXE crashed on address blablabla a lot of nonsense numbers for mem addresses.

I'm running the following hardware and software:
Atom N270
1,5GB RAM (used to have just 1GB)
Intel 945GS chipset with Intel GMA950 graphic chip
Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB
Windows XP SP3 32bit
DirectX is fully updated with web installer/updater

Can you guys (devs) check what's wrong and if possible, make the game playable on such netbook? It would be really awesome to play it on netbook. Even with lower graphic effects.

cliffski · 08-10-2010, 05:36 AM

This is almost certainly purely the screen res that is preventing the game running. Because of a complex UI, the game really needs a screen height of 768 pixels, and typical netbook max res is 600, so they can't cut it.
Some of them can toggle into 768 res mode, but some can't.

XSS · 08-10-2010, 06:04 AM

No way of getting it working at 1024x600? I've played games far more complex on netbook and they were perfectly playable, that's why i'm wondering.
Especially because there isn't any controls that require constant access.
Once you set everything, the game does everything on its own. So that shouldn't be a big problem. But i'm not a developer, so i don't know how is the structure of your game made.

08-10-2010, 02:31 PM

Hey, I figured it out.

Go to your documents folder, open "My Games/Gratuitous Space Battles" folder, inside is a prefs.(some extention can be opened with notepad).

Inside, change the resolutions to match your screen resolution.

I have a notebook, had the same problem, now I've changed the file settings I can play fine.

NOTE: Unfortunately a few menus will not display properly. if a window pops up and you can't reach an okay button or something, escape key will close that window and let you continue. Over all, there is no very negative impact from it. You can't see module stats neither =(

Hope this helps, if you have questions, drop me a message.

08-10-2010, 03:48 AM	#1
XSS Join Date: Jan 2005 Reputation: 88 Posts: 958	Playable on netbook? I'm wondering one thing. I have a netbook (Acer Aspire One) and i play lots of indie games on it. But when i tried Gratuitous Space Battles, the game starts and then the screen is just black. After checking the Event Viewer, there was nothing specific. Just main game's EXE crashed on address blablabla a lot of nonsense numbers for mem addresses. I'm running the following hardware and software: Atom N270 1,5GB RAM (used to have just 1GB) Intel 945GS chipset with Intel GMA950 graphic chip Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB Windows XP SP3 32bit DirectX is fully updated with web installer/updater Can you guys (devs) check what's wrong and if possible, make the game playable on such netbook? It would be really awesome to play it on netbook. Even with lower graphic effects.

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08-10-2010, 05:36 AM	#2
cliffski Positech Games Join Date: Nov 2009 Reputation: 100 Posts: 323	This is almost certainly purely the screen res that is preventing the game running. Because of a complex UI, the game really needs a screen height of 768 pixels, and typical netbook max res is 600, so they can't cut it. Some of them can toggle into 768 res mode, but some can't.

08-10-2010, 06:04 AM	#3
XSS Join Date: Jan 2005 Reputation: 88 Posts: 958	No way of getting it working at 1024x600? I've played games far more complex on netbook and they were perfectly playable, that's why i'm wondering. Especially because there isn't any controls that require constant access. Once you set everything, the game does everything on its own. So that shouldn't be a big problem. But i'm not a developer, so i don't know how is the structure of your game made.

08-10-2010, 02:31 PM	#4
Momijisu Guest Posts: n/a	Hey, I figured it out. Go to your documents folder, open "My Games/Gratuitous Space Battles" folder, inside is a prefs.(some extention can be opened with notepad). Inside, change the resolutions to match your screen resolution. I have a notebook, had the same problem, now I've changed the file settings I can play fine. NOTE: Unfortunately a few menus will not display properly. if a window pops up and you can't reach an okay button or something, escape key will close that window and let you continue. Over all, there is no very negative impact from it. You can't see module stats neither =( Hope this helps, if you have questions, drop me a message.