Dominions 4 Frequently Asked Technical Questions

I bought the game on Desura, can I claim it on steam as well?

Yes, you can. Just use the cd-key you got for the game and enter it in steam. Here is a list of your games on Desura and you can press Keys to see what the cd-keys are.
If you bought Dominions 4 on gamersgate you can also claim it on steam as well. The other way around wont work, your steam key can't be used on Desura or GG.

Where do I install mods?

You put them in the folder called 'mods'. To find this folder open Game Tools in Dominions 4 and press Open User Data Directory, a file browser will open and show you the mods folder. The .dm file from the mod should be directly in the mods folder (no in a subdirectory and not in a zip file).

(Windows) My graphics is very slow and or buggy, what's up with that?

Dominons 4 uses OpenGL graphics and you need a graphics driver with decent OpenGL support. The best way to get this is to download the latest graphics driver from your graphics card vendor. This would be from one of these places Nvidia (GeForce cards), AMD/ATI (Radeon cards) or Intel (Intel cpu with integrated graphics).

(Windows) The screen goes black and then nothing happens

This is probably because of an anti virus program or firewall that is incompatible with Dominions 4. Turn off those programs and try again. Comodo and IObit Malware Fighter are known to cause this problem.
Steam has this list of applications that can interfere with various games. Most probably work fine with Dominions, but use it for inspiration on what to disable.

(Steam) How do I use command line options (switches)?

* Right click on Dominions 4 in steam
* Properties
* Set launch options
* Enter the options here and you are done

(Windows) How do I use command line options (switches)?

* Create a shortcut for Dominions4
* Right click on the shortcut
* Select Properties
* In the path, it says something like "C:\Program Files\Dominions4\dom4.exe"
* Add you options to the path line after the last ".

When done you path will look something like this "C:\Program Files\Dominions4\dom4.exe" --nosound.

If you use steam you cannot use the Desktop shortcut as it's a shortcut to steam, not to Dominions itself.

(Windows) A developer wants a debug log, how do I produce it?

You run the game with the -dd command line option. When you quit you'll have a file called log.txt in your Dominions4 directory, that's the debug log.

(Mac OSX) A developer wants a debug log, how do I produce it?

You run the game with the -dd command line option. The way to do that is this:
* start a terminal
* navigate to where Dominions4.app is located
* write "Dominions4.app/Contents/MacOS/Dominions4 -dd"
* This starts the game and the debug output will appear in the terminal.

(Windows) My entire computer crashes when playing Dominions, how do I fix it?

This is probably because of a buggy graphics driver, faulty hardware or some background software that malfuntions. Dominions itself never crashes the entire computer on its own. Try these things:
* Update graphics drivers.
* Turn off anti virus, firewalls, screen rotation software and similar things that you have running. Steam has this list of applications that can interfere with various games. Most probably work fine with Dominions, but use it for inspiration on what to disable.
* Update your bios.



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