MikeyPI

like my machine cept mine is an amd card and diff os, I use the intel card (the perk of switchable graphics) because the amd is too fast for EM4 editing, good for gameplay thou.

When's it gna come out? I'm tired of being patient, it is only fair that I be given the mod now, everyone else can wait patiently, but my special powers say that I should have it now.

computer is too fast, load other things on the map that will eat some resources up, or if you have more than one video card use the weaker of the two for editing purposes... If you only have one card the only way around it is to bog it down with things on the map to put more resources into rendering that stuff instead of just the vehicle that you're tooling the lights for.

Hey, I like SC well enough once you get over the insane learning curve of how to handle the "specializations" for your cities and how they interlink other cities along with the insanely small map size (which wouldnt be a problem without those huge specialization bldgs). Either way chris is right on the money, the integrated card with enough machine under it can play SC, but really it is meant for a dedicated card in order to get good graphics settings and a solid frame rate all the time. Integrated cards are much much cheaper but they basically have you on medium settings at on most games if not low, shadows and dynamic lighting off all the time. At least with a dedicated you can run med-high on most games and not have to worry about FPS drops. Some games just arent that optimized so pretty much you could throw a supercomputer at them and they'd still screw up, not every game dev tests every single config out there, but most of the laptops use the same 2-3 dedicated cards now so it's a pretty solid bet that newer games will support them out of the box.

I had the same computer previously, that thing was wonderful for gaming and built like a tank, unfortunately the new ones are wayyy expensive (essentially they are the alienware with the dell logo slapped on it). I went with a Satellite S70 generation for the replacement for my dell, I have not been disappointed in it's capabilities one bit yet, but my particular system is way outside of his price range. When the dell XPS 1530 existed it would've been about in his price tag out of the box, I believe I paid an extra 50 or 100 bucks for mine over the 1k mark, but it was worth every penny imo. They claimed our XPS' (the 1530) had wifi issues as well, my particular machine was extremely good at getting signals, but many many users complained about the reception of it. In the end I think that for most of them it was their access points were junk, but who's to say. The most important take-away for gaming is no integrated graphics chips, AMD and Intel both make them, so you want to make sure it's dedicated memory for the video card if you're really serious about gaming. A good number of new computers have hybrid setups, with both an integrated and a dedicated card for "heavy" applications, these work pretty well as long as you remember to swap to the dedicated card on games that try to run the integrated card.

Cept to me b/c I'm special like that... Rest of ya'll have to fend for yeselves =)

So having the Jaws of life in my truck is a bit much to carry around every day? To me you never know when you'll want to make a car a convertible, so it's worthwhile to carry em.

^not a very comprehensive list there, they clearly favor certain manufs and in one case are out of their flipping mind. I had a C-55-D Satellite, calling that thing gaming, even ultra-low is stupidly insane, the integrated video card held that thing back in many many ways, only because of other hardware was it even semi competent. To call it "gaming" in my book requires it to be versatile in the games it can handle, that one was not very versatile in how it behaved on some fairly common games. I've never used them but at the price point the lenovo's are worth looking at, avoid touch screens they bump the price up significantly for something you probably won't be using for gaming. http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y50/ Only dell at your price point with a better vid card is this one.... I prefer XPS but I think they're out of your range with a vid card. http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-17-5749-laptop/pd?oc=dncwh2436s&model_id=inspiron-17-5749-laptop Toshiba you have this one: Satellites arent bad just be forewarned the cases are not "toughbook" materials, if you're going to beat it up severely then it's probably not a great idea. I've put mine through moderate handling and experienced no damage what so ever, but I am cautious to not beat them up insanely bad. In reality it probably is on par with the others listed, but I prefer really old computers that could kill someone when used as a club. http://www.toshiba.com/us/computers/laptops/satellite/P50/P50-BBT2G22 http://www.toshiba.com/us/computers/laptops/satellite/S70/S70-BBT2G23 Each of these computers can do most current gaming with little to no issues, you want to get into things like GTA5 we'll see, perhaps upgrade the ram option on each of them to 16GB if you're really looking for a hardcore gamer computer, since you said you don't want to have to do anything technical (though you can get someone else to do this for you at a later date if you decide it worth it). I did not include HP computers in spite of them being more "mainstream" brand computers because mostly everyone I've known that had them had complaints about the excessive software bundled onto them (among other issues). These are your options for the more brand name computers, you can go with a cheaper brand, but realize that when you go with a more "budget" company, quality of the other components will probably be reduced, the "big ticket" items like processor, vid card, and things like that are usually decent enough, but the other components can be pretty mixed-bag. These are my suggestions at your price point, but since they are from the manuf. direct the prices will probably change over time, so you will have to watch them should they jump above your price point since the current "deals" are probably temporary.

Upload your logfile for one, dx compatibility is just one of several issues that can cause the game to not work. Under windows 8 run it as an admin is an important one, some run compatibility for XP, but on all the newer os computers I've had I did not have to do that, only admin was required... Could be a video card related issue, your drivers may be incompatible,, or the actual card it's self.. DX diag can help figure that one out, but the logfile is the one that we need to figure out what's going on in your game.

The Operating Systems Vista + don't have the old format of DX on them, as DX progressed they ceased providing essential files for "obsolete" games/apps that were never meant for the newer OS setups, so as time goes on more and more programs can't run on them without help.. Anywho, I tossed this into the download center to help people who have a fresh install of one of the new OS's that'll have DX10 or newer on it, realize your directx diag will still show the fact it's a newer version than DX9, this is normal, it just adds in the files that are missing to make it DX-9 compatible. http://forum.emergency-planet.com/files/file/613-microsoft-directx/

But I want it now *demands an "easy" button, why should I have to do any work myself? You do know I'm Lazy, just look at my signature!

Yeah see this is the type of childishness that we won't tolerate here on this site, if there were an issue on this site, then it has a bearing and should be reported to the staff. If it took place outside of this site, why are you going to bring it here? What possible positive effect can come about by spreading drama that nobody but yourselves can validate, nor take any meaningful action against? Perhaps you don't quite understand but it's meaningless to us what transpires outside of our "realm" on this site, if it does not occur here, we should not have to be brought into the mix in regards to it. If something transpired on this site, it is then that you should report the incident so that we may address it, things like the above should never be displayed in public for all to see, again I have to ask what possible positive outcome will result? Anyone who can be objective knows airing grievances in public, especially unsubstantiated claims of grievances will end with nothing but ill effect.

It was buried in the mess, but it was up there, figured I'd just quote it rather than go through any further effort.

My momma always said stupid is as stupid does - Forrest Gump Managed to read Beasty's post but not mine I guess, does not mean that you escape the off-topic wrath it entails. Next time use the PM feature.

Release it! Onto more important smileys: Note: Whining about it not being released in a timeframe to your liking is NOT part of this topic, fair warning.

Then you'll want to find DX9.0C because the DX windows ships with is too new and does not have all the required things that EM4 needs.

Instead of having to imagine, why not simply just build your own component, for example the new light editing options for us? If you're going to make statements why not support them by making an example to show how powerful this tool is instead of just stating it? I can state things too, this new SDK will make you a millionaire! Doesnt mean it's true unless someone can prove that it can actually be implemented.

I would love to say cops are kind to their cars, but in reality since the vehicles change hands pretty frequently in most departments (multiple drivers of the same unit through the day) they kind of treat them like most civilians do rentals, so it isnt unheard of for police cars to take "minor" damages in the course of their duties, in an effort to make it cheaper to fix them most police agencies don't go for higher models and instead get "fleet" vehicles for their police vehicles, even if the particular vehicle in question does not have a police package. D.A.R.E. cars and other specialty units break the rule on buying the cheapest thing available, but outside of that they usually go with the most basic ones because the parts are cheaper to repair/replace when there are less of them, plus there is less to go wrong with a car when it's a basic package missing all the added goodies for an upgrade package (like the fog lamps in the bumpers). Demo cars are rarely that basic package that most departments end up going with, the "demo" is kind of like the prototype version of a car that you see at auto shows where they show you an all decked out version to make ya want it, by the time the bean counters are through with them they are as stripped of extras as they can get them. When building american police cars it's usually a good bet that it's either a "fleet" vehicle (the big 3 have fleet distributor divisions for corporate/government wholesale of the most common fleet cars), police packages (stripped versions of the basic packages), or just the basic package. For example some departments have expeditions in their fleets, most of those departments did not spring for the eddie bauer edition of these trucks.

In truth it would probably be more accurate to have the charger be the base-model version, that's usually what police package vehicles are based off of, not performance model versions of the car. the SXT has upgrades that most police departments would not want to pony up for, my bet most charger police cars are SE/LT model (whichever dodge calls their base models). The SXT is more of a "performance" version with some cosmetic upgrades and other things police officers would probably like just fine, but the bean counters would not want to pay the difference for.

There is not full mod support, there is still much to do in order to take a mod from EM4 and make it work in EM5, the systems are pretty different especially for models and maps. Let's be honest that is the bread and butter of most mods out there, so you're looking at an incredible bit of work. I am not sure how the scripting aspects work in EM5 vs EM4 at all, so I can't even fathom what would have to change to make that work. Simply put it's not something we have in mind to do with regards to this mod, all of the effort to this point was to make EM4 gameplay more evolved as opposed to trying to make the game look prettier (em5). As framework aspects go, we would rather stick with EM4 rather than trying to go into EM5 and probably most likely have to redo 90% of what we've done thus far. Their SDK has been released for EM5 yes, but as to improved function/performance/gameplay that has not been proven yet, this latest "patch" (they call it a DLC I call it a patch) just came out and as far as I know nobody has really worked with it to see what it actually does/is capable of doing. Don't try to put the cart in front of the horse with figuring well they released some tools, so now it must be a cakewalk to just flip everything over, chances are it is not going to be that easy unless someone makes additional tools to make it possible. I myself don't feel like going into EM5 is really worth it for the step backwards in game play that I experienced in my trial of EM5, my fellow cohorts would have to speak for themselves as I can only speak for me, but I was unimpressed with EM5.

EM4 runs perfectly fine on windows 8 64-bit, I have had it installed on two separate machines now, is your windows 8.1 an upgrade from a previous version of windows? (IE XP/Vista/7) or is it a fresh-install of 8.1 only? If the OS is fresh and not an upgrade from an existing one, you're likely running into problems with not having a directx old enough to run EM4, the latest bundled versions of directx are missing some of the files that older games require, so you need an older version of DX to compensate for this fact (I believe that em4 needs DX9 to run). Also make sure that you run the game as an administrator, under win8 this is a requirement to make it run right out of the box for the OS.

Chances are one of the mods you've installed has altered the original game files, as such whatever mod is the culprit has changed the way all the other mods are using the "base" game, I've seen this happen with others who did not install sub-mods correctly, chances are one of em that auto extracted replaced original files to help out that specific mod.. Only thing I can think of to do is to uninstall/remove the folder completely (make sure all references to EM4 are gone completely, then try the mods one by one working with the ones you know are stable and stay in their own folder till you find the one that replaced default base files... Sucks but it's the only thing I can think of to try to do here, because usually a changed default file is the culprit in causing these type of "overlap" issues. From looking at your log file I figure you ran my mod, I downloaded the old NY mod available on the site and produced a log-file to see what was what, the two log files don't even come close to matching, on yours it did not even load the hospital or the police station models within the logfile. Mine they were present, so something is probably loading that is overtaking the ability for other mods to run correctly. Perhaps a script in the original game was changed, I'm just guessing here as to what exactly it is.... You can try to hunt the culprit down, or just remove every aspect of em4 off your comp (manual delete the whole folder) and reinstall it, then start putting back the mods that you know are stable and don't change orig files first till you find the offender.

It is a good thing if the "DLC" aka patch is released for free, that is a positive thing at least, if it is released and as described in the hyped up description you've provided anyway. I compare developers of software to politicians, they are very good at hyping what they're doing and promising the world, but nearly always disappoint in delivery, expecting you to forget the other 80% they promised since they did give you around 20% of what they said. If any other industry were to do the same they would be sued out of business by the governments, software is exempt from being required to deliver a defect-free, as-advertised product and they take advantage of this fact. Most of the people out there in this community, rightfully so have taken on a "show me then I'll believe" perspective. This attitude comes from the major hype built around the original game and the lackluster delivery of it (particularly at the price point it was offered for), given that particular history behind the development of the core game you should be able to understand the hesitation to want to see proof prior to believing what is stated to the community. I knew for myself they were going to change how everything was done for an "all-new" game, that's part of the process when you make a new game to change how things are done, but a developer that actually wants to preserve the modding community supporting it would include either documentation at least, or even better utility tools to make the transition easier for modders to go into their new system. By not doing either they've taken a large chunk of the "veteran" modding community and alienated them out of the game, most simply have no desire to learn to walk all over again for a game that was in their eyes a disappointment in it's delivery. These are facts of life the developer has to face, regardless of what they promise moving forward, they have to rectify what issues exist in order to "smooth over" any ill feelings the consumers have, if they wish to retain the same consumer base.. If not, then they just need to keep doing what they've done so far in this process and they'll be perfectly fine with the caveat of all the upset individuals likely never purchasing another 16T product, as many have done with other developers who they felt alienated by. In my book they failed to deliver what they promised to the consumer, they overloaded their hand with what they said would happen vs. what was actually delivered. Such is life in that regard most games do this now, but in a "niche market" game it's a dangerous game to play, most large franchises have millions of consumers that will buy their products so if 10% are disappointed it really changes nothing. Emergency is a limited-market game and as such one would figure the developer would wish to retain what "base" they have while reaching as many new initiates as possible, but the reality that must be faced is that most of the people out there who have purchased the emergency series games have done so because of mods being available to tailor the game to what they wanted. In this game that was promised which is why so many jumped onto the bandwagon early on, but in the end people who got a game last year are still waiting for fully functional tools to make it "easy" to develop and distribute mods for this game. Calling this game mod-friendly is a fallacy at this time, currently only advanced-users can alter their games, knowing and understanding how to undo these actions, there is currently no tool to differentiate mods nor is there any tool to compile packages to make them easy to install. The "DLC" is suppsed to rectify this, but how can you market a game as mod-friendly without thinking of such basic steps within the process to make the end-user have an easier go of it? It just stinks of rush the job for a cash grab and laugh your way to the bank all the while telling those you just played this particular game on that they just need to be patient and you will implement these wonderful changes! (without noting the fact that they should've been there in the first place) I am quite glad you know that the community manager has changed and that someone else is now responsible for PR duties for the communities at large, but with my infinite powers of deduction (aka the search feature of this lovely forum) I can tell you this individual's name comes up only once on this forum, and that is within this topic as you have stated it. Great relations with the community at large if you can't even take the time to drop in and say hi as the predecessor at least did, he may have been active for a dismally short period, but at least he made his presence known in passing. The new "community manager" has not even felt it proper to grace us with a passing meet and greet, that about sums up the relations of the community with their PR rep that has been appointed allegedly to confer with the community. Even you have to admit that is pretty sad when the guy who's job is supposed to be to handle public relations with the community can't take the time to grace their consumer base with even a passing "hey everyone I'm the new guy".. That alone speaks volumes for how valued the consumer is in this instance, and rightfully so users can and would feel extremely alienated by a developer that has a PR specialist for them that does not even associate with them. All New Ford Pickup! for 2015! While we marketed it as being a pickup with a bed, due to unforeseen development issues we were unable to deliver the bed on this model, please be patient and enjoy your new ford pickup while we work on a patch to make the F-series1.20485 Also included within this "DLC" (aka patch) is the suspension, when we shipped this truck we promised it could haul 1 ton in the bed, but the suspension we included only can hold 20% of that weight, we also apologize to the 35% of consumers with performance issues, we are working on a patch to rectify these issues, along with the other 15% that can't even get their brand new ford truck to even start. We are working hard to fix these issues and will continue to do so to support our much valued customer! Thank you for your support in buying our latest pickup. How fast do you think the governments would bury them in lawsuits while the consumer flat out never would purchase another vehicle with such defects again, or even think of buying from the same corporation again? The same application can be applied to practically every other consumer market out there, except for software where the quality control just is not there and buyer beware reigns supreme. It's a sad statement but a valid one for the whole software industry at large, from Operating Systems to gaming, they all do the same practices and the consumer is left with little protection from the inferior quality control they push while massively inflating the cost for such defective goods.