I'm having trouble starting Universe Sandbox.

[linkuniverse22]

I installed directX on my computer and used the one click install for universe sandbox, and everything went perfect.  Then when it tried to open an error report showed up and for some reason was sent halfway through me typing me e-mail address, so now it thinks my e-mail is "link".  Every time I try to restart the program it sends me the regular error report.  My real e-mail is link-cfu.net (-=@) and my computer is a windows XP.  If you have any idea why this is happening, please post.

Edit by Dan: modified email address to prevent it being read by bots.

[linkuniverse22]

For some reason I can't send my error report, but I read the log and found this:

Avaliable Texture Memory: 0.0 bytes
Used Texture Memory: 66.0 MB

Does that mean my computer doesn't have good enough graphics?  I'm not really smart when it comes to computers so I really need help.  Please reply.

[Dan Dixon]

Does that mean my computer doesn't have good enough graphics?

Or that Universe Sandbox isn't as efficient with its handling of graphics memory as it could be. I plan on making some changes to the amount of memory that Universe Sandbox uses in the next release. At the same time upgrading to a better video card would probably solve this problem.

So did it ever work for you? Did it work the 1st time and not the 2nd?

[linkuniverse22]

The first time I used this was only for a little while at my cousins house, although I got really into it, so when I got home I started reading about it and asking questions.  I finally decided to download it on my computer which leads me to my first post.  Sorry if I wasn't very clear.  By the way, I sent you an email with the "sandbox log" and the "engine log" attached to it, so I'm just wondering if the graphics problem is the only problem. 

[linkuniverse22]

Is there any way to see how large my current video card is, and what size video card would you recommend for Universe Sandbox?

[linkuniverse22]

Does anyone know what size video card is good for universe sandbox?

[Dan Dixon]

I'm sorry you're having trouble. Thanks for working through it.

I can safely say that basically any video card made in the last two years with 128MB of RAM should work great.

At the same time it should also work with cards that only have 64MB of RAM (but I can imagine that might not on some 64MB cards for other reasons).

(As I was typing the above I just had some minor deja vu. )

You can see what kind of video card you have a couple of different ways:

Run DXdiag
In windows: Click on the Start button and then click on Run. Type "dxdiag" into the text box and click 'OK'.
Click on the Display tab and it will give you information about your video card.

If you'd like to share that information here it might be helpful in figuring out why Universe Sandbox isn't working for you.

It wouldn't hurt to make sure your video drivers are up to date. If you share your info I can better tell you how to do that.

Look at the Log Files
You can also get some information for the Universe Sandbox log files. Open the Engine Log.txt file (found in: My Documents\Universe Sandbox\Logs). The 11th line should list the type of card that Universe Sandbox thinks you have.

It would also help me if you could send me a copy of your log files. Could you attach them to an email and send them my way please?

[linkuniverse22]

Thanks for replying.  I sent my logs to forumadmin-universesandbox.com and my email is link-cfu.net, it's also in my profile if my email comes out looking weird like in one of the other posts.  Also, if I do have a video card it is very  old, so that's probably the problem.  My cousin said he'd get me a good deal on a video card, he knows a lot about computers so it shouldn't be to hard to get a good one.  Thanks again.


Edit by Dan: modified email address to prevent it being read by bots. (-=@)

[Dan Dixon]

The log files were very helpful. Thanks.

I hoping to make some changes in the next release that will address your issue (but it's never a bad idea to get a new video card .

And I changed your email address (swapped the @ with a -) so that it won't be picked up by automated software that scans the internet in search of email addresses to use by spammers (people who send spam email). No worries.

[linkuniverse22]

Glad I could help, and I'll keep the email thing in mind next time I post my address.  Well, I'm defiantly getting a new video card in the near future, so hopefully that will fix my problem .  Thanks again for all your help, and I'll post when I get my video card to tell you whether it worked or not.