You can edit the VDMS.INI file to enable DOS timer cappage.

I think this is known problem with TR. Something to do with having a joystick setup but not plugged in. If you have a joystick setup then delete it. If you don't then make one. Something like that will fix it. I've had this problem myself under W98, and fixed it by fiddling with the joystick section of the control panel.

well, I tried to add a joystick configuration, and that seemed a bit more stable, but the game locked up when I hit <ESC> to load a new game, and I had to kill it manually.

Also, I've read the vdmsound readme and help file, and I can't figure out how to enable the DOS timer cappage. I'm sure it's right there in front of me, but I can't find it. 🙁

I'll poke Vlad with a sharp twig and get him to answer that one for you. *teehee* // loves poking things with sharp twigs

The timer cap is not in VDMS.INI; it's in Windows (pif properties) and is called "Idle sensitivity" in there.
V.

vladr wrote:

The timer cap is not in VDMS.INI; it's in Windows (pif properties) and is called "Idle sensitivity" in there.
V.

cool, I found it! I'll try that and let you folks know how it worked. thanks.

well, adjusting the "Idle sensitivity" to High didn't help. Lara still jumped around randomly. Oddly, the game plays great for about 30 seconds - I can move, jump, fire, all when I want to, then lara takes over, forcing me to manually kill the game. I'm not sure it's a key-stroke buffering problem. Oh well, I guess I'll play with the older graphics.... 🙁

This is dubious as all get-out. Let's eliminate some possibilities.

First, temporarily rename your present "Tomb Raider" directory (something like TombRaid-GliDos, so it's easy to remember which one it is).

Now, install "Tomb Raider" again. This time, choose "No Sound Card" and save your settings. Now run the game without GliDOS in silence for about 5-10 minutes.

Does it work properly? Or do you still "lose control".

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

This is dubious as all get-out. Let's eliminate some possibilities. […]
Show full quote

This is dubious as all get-out. Let's eliminate some possibilities.

First, temporarily rename your present "Tomb Raider" directory (something like TombRaid-GliDos, so it's easy to remember which one it is).

Now, install "Tomb Raider" again. This time, choose "No Sound Card" and save your settings. Now run the game without GliDOS in silence for about 5-10 minutes.

Does it work properly? Or do you still "lose control".

Thanks for the continued suggestions. Tomb Raider works just fine when I install without sound.

I can 1) run tomb raider without sound support, 2) with sound (by loading dosdrv at the command line) or 3) with sound by running the vdms launchpad. however, when I try to use glidos, lara jumps around like crazy.

here are my specs again:

1.1Ghz athlon thunderbird
1GB RAM
GeForce 4 ti 4200 (64MB RAM)
onboard (soundblaster compatible) sound
win2k (w/ sp3)

Thanks again for the help! Even if I don't get glidos working, it's nice to get the feedback.

Originally posted by Unregistered Tomb Raider works just fine when I install without sound.

Ok, that severely reduces the odds that it's an OS anomaly.

2) with sound (by loading dosdrv at the command line) or 3) with sound by running the vdms launchpad. however, when I try to use glidos, lara jumps around like crazy.

Don't jump to the end here. Are you saying you have tried VDMSound with the standard "Tomb Raider" and that audio works properly? (CD audio won't be present as that is done by GliDOS, but otherwise...)

Make sure that the standard TR install is working properly with VDMSound (sound chosen and used...should be a SB16). BTW, this is easier with the GUI Launchpad, but it's not necessary either.

If that works, reconfigure it to use no sound card again. This time, try running it with GliDOS in silence. Same results?

Originally posted by Nicht Sehr Gut Don't jump to the end here. Are you saying you have tried VDMSound with the standard "Tomb Raider" and that audio works properly? (CD audio won't be present as that is done by GliDOS, but otherwise...)

Yes exactly - if I do an installation of Tomb Raider with sound, and load VDMsound (either through the command prompt with 'dosdrv' or through the launchpad) Tomb Raider runs perfectly, albeit without the ambient background music.

If that works, reconfigure it to use no sound card again. This time, try running it with GliDOS in silence. Same results?

Yes. I installed Tomb Raider again, without sound, and started it with GliDOS - with the same results. This time, I tried Tomb Raider at all the different resolution options via GliDOS, and that didn't help. Also, I disabled "Force Texture Smoothing." I also commented out the 'dosdrv' line in the Glidos .bat file that was placed in the Tomb Raider folder just to make sure that VDMsound wasn't being loaded at all.

None of these options helped, although when I played in 640x480 without "Texture Smoothing" it took longer for lara to start jumping around - plus, she did so for only about 20 seconds, then she would revert to my control - until I manually made her jump or fire her gun, then she would jump around again. doh.

Also, just to be clear, I disabled all the unnecessary running processes on my computer first, to make sure that it wasn't some 3rd party app that was causing me grief. 😀 (I did that after it I realized that running just the GliDOS launcher - without running a game yet - caused my MobyDock to stop working correctly. After that, I disabled everything else before trying GliDOS....) Although to be honest, other than MobyDock, the PGPsdkserver, and a little dealy to make my desktop icon text transparent, I don't have a lot of other stuff running.

I hadn't specified my motherboard:

PcChips M810LMR with SiS730 chipset; onboard sound uses the AC97 Codec.

Some of you might think that's the problem right there!! :p

Okay, so, are you using the keyboard or a controller? If a controller, have you tried it with other games, and does it work correctly? also, try disconnecting the controller and making sure that it's completely gone from the Game Controllers CPL.

If you're using a keyboard, is it USB? PS/2?

Sorry I missed all this discussion. I should have said...

Loads of people have this problem and it is TR thinking it is getting joystick input when it isn't.

On XP I'm not sure how that would work because the joystick input would have to come through VDMSound, but it seems to me very unlikely that a new problem would arise that looked so similar.

Originally posted by Unregistered None of these options helped, although when I played in 640x480 without "Texture Smoothing" it took longer for lara to start jumping around

Hrmm. Well, that certainly sounds like GliDOS is the source. Unfortunately, it makes zero sense. I must defer to Paul's judgement on this one.

Only other thing I can think of is manually disabling the stick control in the VDMS.INI file (of course, if it was that, it should have lost control with the command-level VDMSound without GliDOS).

PcChips M810LMR with SiS730 chipset; onboard sound uses the AC97 Codec.

Some of you might think that's the problem right there!! :p

Well there you go...I've had so much trouble with on-board audio chips that I'm about ready to blame them for cattle abduction and mutilation.

Loads of people run into problems with onboard audio... except me. I always go for onboard audio now because in every case its worked perfectly for me. But I may be the only one.

I've just reread some of the posts here, and maybe what I said earlier was wrong. The joystick problem used to just make the menu ring go round on its own, and make Lara move, but it didn't make her shoot.

Have you tried starting the Glidos server, but not pressing the start buttin, and instead starting the voodoo tomb.exe with the VDMSound launcher? You can set the "Cap DOS thingy" then.

Snover wrote:

Okay, so, are you using the keyboard or a controller? If a controller, have you tried it with other games, and does it work correctly? also, try disconnecting the controller and making sure that it's completely gone from the Game Controllers CPL.

If you're using a keyboard, is it USB? PS/2?

Snover, I'm using a USB keyboard.

Glidos wrote:

Loads of people run into problems with onboard audio... except me. I always go for onboard audio now because in every case its worked perfectly for me. But I may be the only one.

I've never had problems before, and I'm almost certain i'm not this time. 😀

I've just reread some of the posts here, and maybe what I said earlier was wrong. The joystick problem used to just make the menu ring go round on its own, and make Lara move, but it didn't make her shoot.

Have you tried starting the Glidos server, but not pressing the start buttin, and instead starting the voodoo tomb.exe with the VDMSound launcher? You can set the "Cap DOS thingy" then.

well, I think I really messed things up this time, though I don't know how. 🙁
I decided to reinstall tombraider, and reinstall glidos. after installing tombraider, I copied the voorush tomb.exe from the cd into the tombraid directory.

however, when I run glidos now, I get a warning message: Warning! you are running a non-accellerated opengl. things can get really slow."

now, no matter what I do, I can't get glidos to work - I always get that error message, and when tombraider starts, it's reeeeaaallly slow. I have to kill it manually. I've tried reinstalling glidos and tombraidera few times with no luck.

what have I done now?? 😀

...so here's what I did, though glidos still isn't working:

I uninstalled vdmsound and it's launchpad; uninstalled tombraider and glidos; ran regclean, rebooted, installed vdmsound plus update, then launchpad. rebooted.

installed tombraider, and tried it with just vdmsound and vanilla graphics. works great.

tried with glidos, and same problem - lara jumps around like crazy. I was wrong however when I said she was firing her guns too - I think that was just me button-mashing the keyboard trying to regain control. all lara does is jump around doing backflips, side-flips and rolls.

so I commented out the Joystick section in the vdms.ini file, and tried glidos again: no dice.

then I started glidos, without using it to start the game, and instead launched tombraider using the vdmsound launchpad icon. I unchecked the joystick emulation feature in the launchpad's "advanced" section. again, this didn't work. (I did get a nifty error message saying the screen's resolution failed to change, and when the game started it was like looking at lara through reversed binoculars!)

I'm willing to bet at this point that it ~is~ a joystick issue, but other than commenting it out in vdms.ini, I don't know how to disable this in tombraider. I'm about ready to throw in the towel, but I'll try a few more things if people have some more ideas. thanks for all your help so far!

however, when I run glidos now, I get a warning message: Warning! you are running a non-accellerated opengl. things can get really slow."

That's a common one. It means that the driver for your graphics card does not include OpenGL support. If you grab the latest drivers from the chip manufacturer's web site then all should be well. Microsoft don't seem to like OpenGL, so the drivers you get after insalling Windows never include accelerated OpenGL; you always need to install the latest drivers.

If it used to work and now doesn't then maybe you deleted a dll or something. Still the answer is to install the latest drivers.