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First post, by thecrankyhermit

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I ran this game fine on my last computer, which had a Pentium 4 2.4Ghz, a Geforce 6800nu, and ran Windows XP Pro.

My current computer will not run it. It has a Core 2 Duo 2.53Ghz, a Geforce 9600GT, and is still running Windows XP Pro (32-bit).

I tried reinstalling fresh. I run anox.exe, and I get this:
anox.png

(yes, I do own the game... I bought it when it was new and actually possible to locate a copy of)

So next, I install the 1.01 patch. I run it again. Now this appears for a split second:
anox.png

Followed by this:
anoxn.png

I tried various compatibility modes, running different bat files, and playing with the setup config, but it changed nothing.

Next, the unofficial 44 build. No change. Then the incremental 45 build. No change. Then the incremental 46 build. No change.

How do I make this game work again?

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 3 of 31, by DosFreak

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thecrankyhermit wrote:

Didn't change a thing. In any event, I had DEP set to "essential Windows programs and services only" to begin with.

If it's a gaming system it's best to set that setting instead of the other (It's set to essential for all client OS's anyway). The amount of games with DEP issues is crrrrraaazzzy.

Isn't there a Build 46 patch for Anachronox?

The only time I've had Anachronox crash for me was issues with video card drivers. When I had an ATI X800 I had to switch OGL ICD's otherwise I couldn't run the game.

I guess if you wanted to narrow it down you could try switching graphics cards between the systems and/or copying the install from your old computer to your new computer.

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Reply 4 of 31, by thecrankyhermit

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Yes, there's an unofficial 46 build. I have it installed.

I don't have the old computer any more. Even if I did, I wouldn't be able to swap graphics cards, because the old one uses AGP and the new one uses PCI-E.

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 5 of 31, by thecrankyhermit

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I just tried copying the installation directory to my laptop, and it works on my laptop. Obviously, I can't swap graphics cards with my laptop (it uses an ATI Mobility 9200, BTW), but does this shed any light on what's going on, or how to make it work on the desktop?

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 6 of 31, by Davros

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Ive just tried anachronox and it crashes for me 🙁

ps: from the 1.02 patch readme
"If you want to make the game run faster or you are having copy-protection incompatibility issues with your dvd-rom drive you can play without the cd by copying the contents of CD-2 to any directory on your hard drive (like c:\anoxcd) and adding to your game shortcut:
+set cddir c:\anoxcd
"

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Reply 7 of 31, by DosFreak

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thecrankyhermit wrote:

I just tried copying the installation directory to my laptop, and it works on my laptop. Obviously, I can't swap graphics cards with my laptop (it uses an ATI Mobility 9200, BTW), but does this shed any light on what's going on, or how to make it work on the desktop?

You could try a Glide Wrapper, DGVoodoo or Zeckensack. Not sure if they work with Anachronox or not.

You could also try installing the earlier driver for your video card and try to narrow down where it stops working by trying different driver versions

(Start at lowest and work your way up).

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Reply 8 of 31, by thecrankyhermit

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Glide wrappers don't work in OpenGL mode, right?

Anachronox uses WickedGL, and when I tried using dgvoodoo to play in WickedGL mode, it loaded and displayed the Eidos logo, with the music, but the logo didn't move and my system wouldn't respond and I had to hard-restart it.

Just tried Zeckensack's. The game simply said "Couldn't load renderer," same as if I try WickedGL mode without a Glide wrapper at all.

Edit - just found and tried the 174.16 drivers... and they seem to work. I'll keep a log here as I run trial and error.

195.62 - breaks Anachronox
191.07 - breaks Anachronox
190.62 - works
190.38 - works
185.85 - works
181.22 - works
174.16 - works

So, there we have it - 191.07 and higher breaks Anachronox.

Now to see if I can find a way to make it work without needing old drivers.

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 10 of 31, by thecrankyhermit

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I think I've found the culprit file. It is:
nvoglnt.dll
Described as:
NVIDIA Compatible OpenGL ICD

By using a debugger while the game worked with old drivers, I got a list of every binary that the game loads symbols from. I made backups of each file, and then reinstalled the new drivers.

If I copy all of those files to the game's local path *except* the old version of nvoglnt.dll and try to run the game, it crashes as before. If I copy that one too, it gives this instead:
nvvers.png

So... any ideas of what to try next?

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 11 of 31, by DosFreak

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Could try the OpenGL extensions viewer and do a comparison between ICD's:
http://www.realtech-vr.com/glview/

Can't remember if Anachranox had a software renderer or not, I know Quake 2 does. As far as emulation goes the only other option would be MESA3D but not sure if there's any recently compiled Windows versions of that or not.

If this affects Anachronox it would be interesting to try other OGL games from around that time (and same/similar engines).

Once you have all that info you could try contacting NVIDIA and/or posting all the info on their forums.

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Reply 12 of 31, by thecrankyhermit

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I'm running the viewer, and it's displaying a ton of abstract info. What am I looking for, and how do I "compare" the two files using it?

Anachronox has no software renderer. Just OpenGL and 3DFX.

Also, I just tried Quake II, from Steam. Works fine in software mode, but if I switch to OpenGL it simply exits with no message.

Other games I have tried that do not work:
Hexen II (same crash message)
QuakeGL (same crash message)
Quake II (software works fine, switching to OpenGL makes it exit with no message)

Quake III works just fine.

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 13 of 31, by DosFreak

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You're looking for the extensions that the ICD in the driver supports. Possibly the newer driver is missing the an extension or extensions that the older driver has.

Found this: http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33835547
has some settings to try.

IMO: Stop playing 8 +/- year old games 🤣!!! How about you wine abou the game
not being updated / patched by the developer to take better advanage of
todays hardware. There you actully have more of an argument!

uggh, Why can't idiots just DIE?

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Reply 15 of 31, by thecrankyhermit

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It doesn't crash now! But new problem: The characters don't animate. At all. When I walk, Sly Boots just glides around the floor like a trenchcoated chess piece.

Quake II works just fine. I'll see what happens when I reinstall, use patches, etc.

...

Reinstall and reapplication of patches fixed everything. I probably broke animations myself when monkeying with the config files (or the legacy binaries) in the struggle just to get the thing to launch. It works now. There's some slightly annoying artifacting on the text, but it's hardly a game breaker.

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 16 of 31, by thecrankyhermit

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New problem. After the first fight tutorial where Boots is shown how to attack, Boots falls out of the map after landing the second blow. The remainder of the tutorial has an oddly behaving camera, since it's confused where Boots is, but is completable. But then Boots is trapped outside of the level, and can't get back into it. It's like what happens if you play Quake II and noclip out of the level, except there's no way back in.

....

Ok, I can't seem to reproduce this consistently. IIRC, it had this problem before when I ran it through the GCT Setup tool. But when I just ran anox.exe, the bug went away. But when I ran the GCT Setup tool again, it's away again.

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 18 of 31, by Jorpho

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I remember I used to be able to persuade some OpenGL games to use my Voodoo2 by copying 3DFXVGL.DLL to the directory of the game's executable and renaming it to OPENGL32.DLL.

But I reckon this nhancer thing is the way to go.

Reply 19 of 31, by CrisGer

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I am studying Anachronox right now and have several suggestions: try using only the 1.01 official patch. the three patches that follow were all community made with some help from former developer employees. You lose EAX sound support with the first of the unoficiial patches which really cuts down on the immersion and the quality of the game experience. You do need to re install and be sure you have untamperred files to have it run with 1.01. I am running fine with the FX 900 drivers, in fact they work better than anything earlier. Ditto for Omikiron which was also done by Eidos and of equal quality. Both are unique and wonderful games. Good luck, it is worth the effort..when everything is working right it is simply amazing. With the tools that they released there is hope for a sequel once we track down the writers and get the polot of Planet Anachronox or what it was planned to be.

the old Planet Anachronox forum and all the posts about technical stuffa are still online tho they are locked and the site itself is gone... you just have to look hard for them. I am trying to get them re opened so we can have a semi official place for such techincal sharing.

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