VOGONS


First post, by rikumasan

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Ok I'm just going like 30 degrees of mad crazy here trying to get Glidos to work. I'm trying to get Tomb Raider: Unfinished Business to run and Glidos just doesn't seem to want this. I've downloaded and installed VDMSound, Glidos, a million programs that are supposed to make TR: UB compatible with XP but to no avail. I keep getting told by the program that I have the wrong TOMBUB.exe file. So I read the installation instructions seeing as how it told me to do so, and I discover I need some voodoo patch. Ok, that's fine, so I try to do that and I can't cause none of the download sites work! Grr!! Must kill internet and all that stuff. Am in need of mad help. Please. Crazy now.

ToolBanner.txt

"I know you well, better than one might think. I know you better than I know myself."

Reply 2 of 16, by rikumasan

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Thanks for the link, Glidos now finds the correct tombub.exe. Except now it won't run the game at all, it gives me a tan colored screen and another window pops up and the description of it in the taskbar is "Warning". When I close the warning window Glidos closes and it gives me the message "Read Failure" or "Read Error" I can't remember which. Anyway it can't be the CD being all sorts of messed up because the CD is brand new and it worked fine before I installed Glidos. I just want pretty graphics. I'm so close to getting it to work now, just need a bit more help.

ToolBanner.txt

"I know you well, better than one might think. I know you better than I know myself."

Reply 3 of 16, by Dino

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

You say you have a brand new CD and it worked fine before you installed Glidos. Is your CD Tomb Raider Gold; that is, do you have Unfinished Business on CD or did you download the free Gold levels?

If it worked without Glidos, I assume your system is not Win XP, as the original Tomb Raider didn't work (for me anyway) on Win XP. As far as I know VDMSound is only for Win XP.

I have Tomb Raider Gold and both Tomb Raider and Unfinished Business work for me out of the box on my Win ME system, but they did not work at all on my newer Win XP system.

I used Bokkie's TR1 XP Advanced Installer to install Glidos and VDMSound and now it works for me on Win XP with beautiful graphics (The Caves level is even more spectacular with Gambit37's High Res Textures). On the Tomb Raider Gold Disc 2, under 3DPATCHES\3DFX is the tombub.exe file that got installed in my C:\TOMBRAID directory (not by me) and which Glidos is happily using.

That tombub.exe file is 868,075 bytes long and has a modify date of 2/16/1998 12:03:36 on the CD.

The tombub.exe file from www.eidos.fr is 867,563 bytes long and has a modify date of 2/17/1998 14:17:00 (on my HD), and it is a recompile; that is, it was done from the source code, so it must be official.

I substituted the French file for the one from my CD and it works with Glidos with no trouble in the game.

After the Statistics at the end of the game (The Hive level) there are credits. These consist of five .pcx picture files. On my Win ME system these five files take 45 seconds to play, and then the Title screen, another .pcx file, comes on.

On the Win XP system with Glidos, after the Statistics there is 45 seconds of black screen and then the Title screen comes on. The Title screen is a .pcx file and it is displayed. I don't know why the credits aren't displayed.
This happens with both the original tombub.exe file from the CD and the French one.

Reply 4 of 16, by Glidos

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

The warning may well be that you have only software OpenGL support. This is the case when using the original Windows-supplied drivers for your video card. OpenGL is a competitor to Microsoft's Direct X, so they strip that out of the vendors drivers. If you get the latest drivers from the manufacturer's web site, then you may find everything works.

Reply 5 of 16, by rikumasan

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

If it worked without Glidos, I assume your system is not Win XP, as the original Tomb Raider didn't work (for me anyway) on Win XP. As far as I know VDMSound is only for Win XP.

No I'm running Windows XP. The only reason the game ran was because i was using WinXP compatibility mode, which was running under an emulated Windows 95 environment. This is terribly frustrating, but I digress.

The warning may well be that you have only software OpenGL support. This is the case when using the original Windows-supplied drivers for your video card.

I have all of the current NVidia drivers for my GeForce 2 GTS PRO. So I always use hardware OpenGL support, that is when the game requires it. Other than that I am totally down with some hardware rendered Direct3D, which from what I understand, Tomb Raider does not, nor will probably ever have Direct3D support.

All I'm wondering about is, why the game won't run and what the mysterious warning is. What the deuce am I doing wrong. Then of course there's this other equally mysterious warning, "Read Failure". What could it mean. I think I'm dumb. That has to be it. Or Glidos is being dumb, one or the other. No offense to the program, I'm sure it's wonderful. I'll find out. Hopefully. Grr.

ToolBanner.txt

"I know you well, better than one might think. I know you better than I know myself."

Reply 7 of 16, by rikumasan

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

This must be terribly difficult for everyone, including me. I really really appreciate the help everyone has given me so far, but it just refuses to run. Maybe it's my computer just hating me, I'm running a P3 700 with an NVidia Geforce 2 GTS PRO and some Compaq motherboard whose identity remains a secret to me. I don't know if that could be a problem. I'm using an OEM copy of Windows XP Home for use with a Dell computer. On top of all of this Tomb Raider mess, I can't get Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries to work either, but that's a DOSBox problem and has nothing to do with Glidos.

Maybe I'm just doing something terribly wrong. I followed all the directions on the Glidos page. I installed Tomb Raider, played it in crappy graphics mode (which worked fine), then I installed Glidos, then I later installed the 3Dfx Tombub.exe, then finally ran Glidos only to not play it in high-quality graphics. I'm running out of options here. Yes I'm a demanding girl and I'm just being pouty right now. ::is pouting:: I'll shut up now.

We're getting there.

ToolBanner.txt

"I know you well, better than one might think. I know you better than I know myself."

Reply 8 of 16, by Glidos

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

The OEM version of XP could be a problem. It may have various drivers built in, for the motherboard say, which are totally wrong for your computer.

And a few things I should put straight for other readers of this thread: TR1 runs perfectly under XP (well, except for CD audio). The problems that occur are to do with video and audio drivers, supplied by third parties, not to do with XP. The most common problem is bad VESA support. Sometimes the VESA support is good enough, but works only if the program is started from a full screen DOS box.

Windows compatibility modes will have no effect, since TR1 is a DOS program.

The various patches for TR1 under XP are unnecessary, and should be left alone. Just complicates the issue.

Reply 9 of 16, by Glidos

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

If Glidos doesn't work straight away for you, and you are trying to tease it into life, it is well worth making sure that Glidos is set to windowed, not full screen mode, since you get a better view of what's going on.

It is well worth fiddling with the VESASupport setting in glidos.ini. Try both

VESASupport: Yes

and

VESASupport: No

(because I'm lazy, its casesensitive, so don't expect

vesasupport: yes

to work.

If the audio is set up wrong then TR1's initial movies stall, and it looks like the whole thing has crashed. But a few <ESC> characters can get it going again.

Reply 10 of 16, by Glidos

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Oh, and the "Read failure" thing. Glidos is in two bits that talk to each other, one running under DOS, the other under Windows. If you kill the Windows side, while the DOS bit is still running, then it shouts "Read failure", or maybe "Write failure". Actually, you can get that error only if you are some way towards having it working.

Reply 11 of 16, by rikumasan

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

It worked!! Glidos you rock! I'd hug you if I could! And thanks to everyone else who helped. Now all I've got to do is hook you up with some cash so I can get read of that annoying logo.

ToolBanner.txt

"I know you well, better than one might think. I know you better than I know myself."

Reply 12 of 16, by rikumasan

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Oh balls. It worked once, and then I closed it out so I could make the resolution better and now it's doing it again. I'm looking at the Glidos folder though and a new file pops up in there every time I fail to load the game. It's called OpenGLid.err

ToolBanner.txt

"I know you well, better than one might think. I know you better than I know myself."

Reply 13 of 16, by Glidos

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

What's inside OpenGlid.err? Might tell us something. Its just a text file, so NotePad or WordPad can view it.

Reply 14 of 16, by rikumasan

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

It doesn't say anything. All it is is a 0 kb .err file. I opened it with Notepad and Wordpad and there's nothing in it.

ToolBanner.txt

"I know you well, better than one might think. I know you better than I know myself."

Reply 15 of 16, by Glidos

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Um, I don't know. If you've been experimenting with patches and compatibility modes, might be worth removing the lot and reinstalling.

Reply 16 of 16, by rikumasan

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Well I can certainly give that a try.

ToolBanner.txt

"I know you well, better than one might think. I know you better than I know myself."