tomservo6 wrote:

Hey, I did figure out one little thing. I started the game and started pressing all of the keys to see if there is a keyboard shortcut for everything. So far, I think I can access all of the choices without the mouse. I haven't done any combat yet, so I'm not sure. If anyone has played this game, do you know if you can in fact play without the mouse or know where you can get a manual online to find that out?

JOIN THIS FORUM:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/realmsofarkania

They have a ROA2 manual in their files directory, but you have to be a member to download it. It's a text file, so most of the graphics that can't be represented by ASCII art is missing, but if you need something (like a map), it's either already in the files directory, or you can ask one of the helpful posters there.

As I said, another user of that forum has your mouse problem, but posted about it a year ago. Maybe they've come up with a solution by now, maybe they haven't. As you said, it seems you can play most of the game without the mouse anyhow.

I would recommend that forum for further Arkania-related questions. It looks like a good one.

Of course, if you have problems with OTHER games, be sure to come to VOGONS. 😉

Email me and I'll send you fixed executable without the mouse problem.

-Mok

Originally posted by Mok Email me...

Hey, Mok...I was wondering... could you make some wine out of this water for me?
*heh*

Mok, just upload it here if you can. 😀

Snover wrote:

Mok, just upload it here if you can. 😀

Ok. It's the executable from the patch, so you need to install the game, patch it and then replace the exe file. I haven't tested the game much, but I hope the mouse problem is gone for good 😉

-Mok

Originally posted by Mok ...hope the mouse problem is gone for good

Apparently so. Mouse operates just like it did in Win9x. Seems to run fine on my XP.

Only mystery for me right now is why it is (apparently) always trying to use OPL3 for FM audio, even when I force VDMSound to use SBPro emulation or lower it still has that distorted, inconsistent FM like when a program is using OPL3.

Fortunately, the MIDI works fine and is pleasing to the ear.

I realize this is an older topic but I started the thread so I thought I'd reply as I have been struggling with this issue for some time. The patch you put up does indeed work! After all the crap I've been through trying to reconfigure this and that it was as simple as a little patch. So (if Mok is still here) what exactly was the issue that was causing the mouse problem and was fixed in the patch?

I had trouble with moving the mouse before, but since I installed the patch it works perfect. The only trouble I have now is that whenever I move the cursor, it leaves a trail of garbage where I have moved it. This makes the game unplayable since you cant see anything after a while.

Any ideas what this can be about?

Originally posted by mindglow The only trouble I have now is that whenever I move the cursor, it leaves a trail of garbage where I have moved it. This makes the game unplayable since you cant see anything after a while.

The only thing I can think of off-the-top-of-my-head is that maybe your video card has no hardware support for sprites and is using software to track and update the location of your mouse pointer.

This seems kind of doubtful unless you have a really old video card.

I have an ASUS NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600 and havent had this problem with any other DOS-games.

Originally posted by mindglow GeForce4 Ti 4600

Then I am at a loss about this. I'm using a GF3 and I'm not getting trails at all.

I'm not sure if this is the problem, but are you using an optical mouse? I'd be surprised if that would work at all, though.

Originally posted by tomservo6 I'm not sure if this is the problem, but are you using an optical mouse?

Nah. I'm using a MSoft Optical myself.

There is no reason that an optical mouse would leave fragments on the screen, since the interface is the SAME as it is on "regular" ball mice.

tomservo6 wrote:

So what exactly was the issue that was causing the mouse problem and was fixed in the patch?

Sorry, I am really busy lately, and I had no free time to visit the forum.

Right after reading the current mouse coordinates and checking if they are within the boundaries, the mouse handler callback was sending them back (setting them). This is really stupid, but in dos/win9x it doesn't matter. I guess the driver in XP probably lags in setting the mouse coordinates, and when you moved the mouse, the driver didn't set the previous coordinates yet and when it did, the cursor moved back into the original position. After my change, the mouse coordinates are sent back only if the cursor goes outside of the area specified by the game.

I haven't changed anything in the way the game displays the cursor, so I guess that Asus GF4 might have buggy video bios. I'm using Radeon 8500 and there's no such problem.

-Mok