Apocalypse worked before...

[Ion Mage]

My laptop was configured to run apocalypse properly, with VDMSound, mousectl, and the no-cd and svga fixes. I got a nice campaign going.

 

Then, I had to send my laptop away for some repairs to the monitor, which apparently included getting a new monitor all together, and reinstalling the display drivers. It has an integrated video system for a video card, fyi.

 

Now, I tried running the game again. Loaded VDMSound and mousectl properly, but when the game fully loaded and ran, the 'text' screen stayed, and even displayed in red! By 'text', I mean the screen saying that VDMSound and mousectl are loading, you know, the DOS prompt. Thing is, while the text is red, I can hear the music just fine. And pressing escape registers the 'button press' sound, and ends the program. From the looks of it, the game is running, its just that the DOS prompt is displaying OVER the game itself! Anyone familiar with this issue?

[Pete]

I just got it working near perfect in DOSBox 0.63.

 

People who experience choppy sound can achieve near-perfect sound by loading up DosBox, pressing CTRL + F12 until the CPU cycles display at 6500 and starting Apoc (or doing this when Apoc has already started).

 

Mouse was fast enough for me straight off and it's not crashed yet (tho I've not done much else yet).

 

There's only a very faint clicking sound in the background now and despite the intro animation not displaying too well, it played at the right speed and the sound was crystal clear.

 

I'm on a P4 3.2ghz with half a gig of RAM, so some further testing will hopefully get this working perfectly

[Pete]

Right - cranked DosBox up to 10000 - 12000 CPU cycles and it runs perfectly now at using 34% of my system's resources. Theoretically, it should run well with the CPU cycles set to this level on a 3ghx machine using 66% of the CPU. Anything lower might slow down your machine a touch.

 

Mouse moves perfectly. Game runs perfectly.

 

Just hit CTRL+F12 once you load DosBox, follow the other DosBox instructions to mount your Apoc install directory and the CD drive and you're away! NO other drivers needed

 

Note: It's not my fault if this doesnt work on your machine

[Ion Mage]

I wasnt using DOSBox, just VDMSound.

 

And I wasnt using DOSBox because said laptop is a meager 1.2 GHz Celeron, runs apoc in DOSBox VERY slow. A solution to my VDMSound issues would be preferred.

[Pete]

Sorry...

 

To be honest, when I was looking at VDMsound as a solution on my old PC, it didn't seem to work too well for me either. I know you got yours working the first time around tho but it seems to be fairly random whether it works or not.

 

It sounds very much like the updated video drivers are your problem. Perhaps there's a newer version of the drivers out there that might be more compatible?

[Ion Mage]

Thing is, I got the drivers to fix a video issue. Basically, heres the order of things;

 

Installed apoc

It doesnt work

Installed VDMSound, and ocnfigured Apoc to autoload it

It works. Surprisingly well

Monitor starts failing

Called tech support, and they install a whole new monitor on it. Keep in mind its a laptop, so monitors are a bit more complex for those

The video drivers I had dont seem to work with said new monitor, so they send it to the warehouse to get new drivers, which DO work

I get laptop back, and it works again! The monitor is functioning!

Oh wait, Apoc is giving me this problem now. Wierd...

 

So, I dont want to toy with the drivers, at least not in the area of installing new ones, in fear of my monitor failing again.

 

As stated before, its like the DOS prompt is being drawn OVER the game, even though its running, because I can hear the sound, and hitting escape registers the 'button press' sound, and exits the game.

 

Maybe it was just an older version of Apoc I was using, who knows. I'll try DB again, I guess. But if someone knows whats wrong, that would be swell.

[Ion Mage]

Alright, tried DB tonight, and this time it just plain didnt work! Just jumped straight back to the exit message.

 

So, I tried removing the VDMSound load line from XCOM3.bat (using VDMSOund does admittedly require the no-cd patch), and the game loads... and still gives me the red text thing, as the game runs under it regardless. Of course, the red text wasnt as plentiful, but only because VDMS isnt loading alongside the game.

 

What this means is, it isnt VDMSound doing it. I dont see why new drivers would futz with DOS games having the DOS prompt drawn over them, and actually, I believe I had some other DOS games running just fine with my current setup!

[Pete]

Just for info, as I didn't see it above (possibly goig cross-eyed ), what are the tech specs and operating system of your laptop (if XP, which service pack is installed).

 

Also, what other programmes are running on your machine when you load it up?

 

It's all quite strange, but sounds like some stupid interfering programme to me... can't think what though!

[Ion Mage]

WinXP. Service pack 1. Was SP1 when it ran.

1.2 GHz Celeron

Integrated video system

256 MB RAM

 

Only programs that run are zonealarm and the windows update thing (which I CANNOT get to go away... should I get SP2? I heard initially there were problems but I'm hearing of that less and less). Was this way in the past. Definately not any other interfereing program, I tried ctrl-alt-deleting most of them to no avail. And yes, same deal as before, when it ran.

[Pete]

I'd definitely get SP2 if you don't mind the large download. It'll certainly show up more updates to most of your laptop's drivers.

 

After updating you can't got back to SP1 though, but that's not really a reason not to upgrade.

 

What you might want to do after upgrading though is run the System Restore Tool (Start->Programmes->SomethignOrOther->System Restore Tool) and make a restore point BEFORE updating any drivers with Windows Update after upgrading to SP2 - just in case one of the drivers disagrees with your laptop, and you then have the option to return to a good set of drivers.

 

Before all that though, just humour me and turn ZoenAlarm off completely if poss, and re-try Apoc.

[Ion Mage]

Alright, I'll install SP2 when I get the chance too.

 

ALready tried removing Zonealarm (laptops are easy to disconnect from the net, see). No go.

[Pete]

Gah, I was a good 33% sure it was ZA then as it's been known to interfere with quite a few things in Windows (including cookies on some websites bizarrely...).

 

Oh well, onto the next option. Let us know how SP2 goes.

[Ion Mage]

Alright, since it was taking WAY to long to install SP2 on the laptop, I opted to get some DOSBox action on my desktop. I reinstalled the game, and transferred the campaign in progress to it, by copying the SAVEGAME folder over. DB worked fine until I tried loading a game. Is Apoc wierd with savegame transfers?

 

EDIT: Belay that, I got DB working on the laptop, and it still seemed to crash at the loading of a save, and this is the original install that made said save file. I tried varying my cycles and even frameskip. Very wierd.

[Ion Mage]

So... anyone got an answer to this new development, DB crashing on a savegame load?

[Bomb Bloke]

DB crashes, or Apoc crashes?

 

What exactly happens? Does the screen go black? Just is just freeze up? Does the mouse cursor still move around?

 

I've succesfully transplanted Apoc save games in the past.

[Ion Mage]

In DB, once I start loading the file, it just never loads. Its like the load time is a year. Whether its crashing or just taking literally a year is hard to say, I believe DB was still running in the task manager.

[Blehm 98]

well, now i try, and instead of doing absolutely nothing, dosbox plays the intro video, then it says press any key, and then the program's over

 

why won't it play the game, it always shows the video, but for some reason it won't play the game, as if the part about "play game" was left out of all my files