sheepy wrote:

Hello! I've recently installed Glidos on my computer so that I could play Tomb Raider and Unfinished Business using the amazing […]
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Hello!
I've recently installed Glidos on my computer so that I could play Tomb Raider and Unfinished Business using the amazing TRX texture packs.

My configuration is as follows.
Intel Core2Duo E8400 @ 3.00Ghz
SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio
Nvidia 8800 GTS
Windows 7 32bit

Glidos 1.48
Tomb Raider, English version
Installed by following the instructions on this page: http://glidos.net/install.html?lang=en#instglidos
All the Glidos setting are in the default state, but I changed the resolution, made the game go in fullscreen, installed texture packs and installed the MP3 audio tracks.

Unfortunately, I've been experiencing several issues!

1. TR is slow to enter menu

In game, when I press F5, F6 or Esc I have to wait up to 10 seconds until the game enters the menu.

Yes, new in Windows 7. Some sort of incompatibility between psVoodoo and W7 or the W7 version of the nVidia drivers. I've yet to find out what's going on there. If you swap from DirectX to OpenGL it's a lot quicker. but you may have to fiiddle to get things right on a wide-screen monitor.

2. Music from the main menu continues playing in the opening FMVs.

Whenever I select New Game, or Lara's Home, the music plays all throughout the FMV. Then stops when the game begins.

Perhaps, although you installed the audio pack, you didn't select MP3 audio in the Glidos settings?

3. When I try to play Unfinished Business, I can't.

When I try to play the game, instead of the Unfinished Business menu screen, the regular TR1 menu appears. Then, when I select New Game, the game exits and there is this error:

S_LoadLevel(): Could not open F:\data\egypt.phd\

I haven't checked UB since making a lot of changes. I will as soon as I get a chance. Does F:\data\egypt.phd exist?

4. The game is really jagged.

I read on this forum that anti-aliasing can be turned for Nvidia cards, but I don't know how. 🙁

Hmmm. even without AA, it shouldn't look too jagged. Are you using your monitor's native resolution?

Also, I don't know if it means anything. But I've tried installing the game using this procedure as well: http://www.tombraiderhub.com/faq/tr1.html
When I did, both TR and UB worked fine, except there was no sound effects in game, only the background music.

Do you mean that fixed all 4 problems?

Thank you so much for replying! I really appreciate your effort to help. 😀

Perhaps, although you installed the audio pack, you didn't select MP3 audio in the Glidos settings?

I did, actually. If I don't, there is no dialogue in the game.

I haven't checked UB since making a lot of changes. I will as soon as I get a chance. Does F:\data\egypt.phd exist?

Well, it doesn't because I only have the TR CD, not TR GOLD. But UB is free on tombraiderchronicles.com and other fansites, and it was included in the other installer I tried, that's why it worked when I tried it.

Hmmm. even without AA, it shouldn't look too jagged. Are you using your monitor's native resolution?

Well, it's not unbearably jagged, but I'd prefer it to be less jagged if it can be. So, can this be done using the nvidia setup? And no, I'm not using my monitor's native resolution, since it's widescreen.

Do you mean that fixed all 4 problems?

Ok. Big update. So, I completely uninstalled everything related to this game, including Glidos. And decided I would try the ATR installer once more. While looking over the instructions, I noticed I had used and older version of VDMsound by mistake, and I figured that this must have been the reason for the missing audio tracks. I WAS RIGHT!! I installed everything once more, and the sound was there again. YAAY! Then, when I switched to OpenGL, the menu was much faster. However, the menu music continues to play in Lara's home (in both Voodoo and OpenGL).

To answer your question, no, it didn't solve all the probelms, but at least UB is working now and the menu is good. Music still plays during the opening FMVs (and now, Lara's home as well), and the game is still quite jagged.

But hey, 2 down, 2 to go!

This is all very weird. I have no idea why the downloadable version would be looking for a file on the CD drive. Something messed up there.

Also your solving a problem by installing VDMSound is strange. Presumably on W7, you have Glidos's Dos emulation set to either VDos32 or DOSBox. Either way VDMSound isn't used. Both VDos32 and DOSBox provide their own SoundBlaster implementation, and when the game runs in those environments, there isn't a mechanism by which the game can access VDMSound.

The suggestion about using the monitor's native resolution: if you go back to using DirectX, then you can select "Inhibit mode change (wide screen)". That will keep your monitor in its native resolution and map the game window onto a subarea. The same result can be obtained from the NVIDIA Control Panel, selecting "Do not scale" under "Adjust desktop size and position" (that should work for DirectX and OpenGl). It's also from NVIDIA Control Panel that you can force antialiasing on.

My main suggestion is that you uninstall everything and reinstall using the preconfigured archive. Then I know exactly what version of everything you have. Then I have a better chance of working out the cause of problems.

There's an extra little problem concerning uninstalling on W7: in addition to removing C:\Program Files (x86)\Glidos, you also need to remove C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Glidos. Otherwise any setting changes you have made will be preserved in the new installation.

Glidos wrote:

This is all very weird. I have no idea why the downloadable version would be looking for a file on the CD drive. Something messe […]
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This is all very weird. I have no idea why the downloadable version would be looking for a file on the CD drive. Something messed up there.

Also your solving a problem by installing VDMSound is strange. Presumably on W7, you have Glidos's Dos emulation set to either VDos32 or DOSBox. Either way VDMSound isn't used. Both VDos32 and DOSBox provide their own SoundBlaster implementation, and when the game runs in those environments, there isn't a mechanism by which the game can access VDMSound.

The suggestion about using the monitor's native resolution: if you go back to using DirectX, then you can select "Inhibit mode change (wide screen)". That will keep your monitor in its native resolution and map the game window onto a subarea. The same result can be obtained from the NVIDIA Control Panel, selecting "Do not scale" under "Adjust desktop size and position" (that should work for DirectX and OpenGl). It's also from NVIDIA Control Panel that you can force antialiasing on.

My main suggestion is that you uninstall everything and reinstall using the preconfigured archive. Then I know exactly what version of everything you have. Then I have a better chance of working out the cause of problems.

There's an extra little problem concerning uninstalling on W7: in addition to removing C:\Program Files (x86)\Glidos, you also need to remove C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Glidos. Otherwise any setting changes you have made will be preserved in the new installation.

To be honest, I'm not really bothered that much about the sound in the FMVs. The game now, is working so much better than before and it's good enough for me. I'd try reinstalling the game once more, but I'm so tired of this and I'm worried that the problems wouldn't even be solved if I do. Maybe if I encounter more problems, I will do that and you can help me work things out. 😀

I just have 1 more question:
HOW can I turn on AA in the nVidia control panel? Which file do I select (glidos.exe or tomb.exe)? And what settings should I select (override or enhance)?

Yeah, that's fair enough. I can imagine you don't want to risk losing your hard fought progress.

For the nVidia setting, choose Override for Glidos.exe. You then get a choice of actual setting.

If you just list your current remaining problems, maybe I can suggest little adjustments from where you are.