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Graphical bug in BioForge

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First post, by doesnt_matter

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Hi everyone,

I'm trying to play the BioForge demo with DOSBox 0.72 and it basically works fine, but it has a weird bug which never appeared on my real 486 back then:

Almost every time I run the game, I only see the polygon grid of the 3D elements and the rest of it flickers over the screen. I made some screenshots, so you can see what I mean:

bioforgexu3.th.jpg

It seems that it doesn't matter how you configured DOSBox, I tried so many combinations of settings, I disabled everything, I switched the cpu core many times, but nothing helped. A few times, it looked perfectly well as it used to on a real system, so I thought I got the "right" settings, but the next time I started the game, the bug appeared again 🙁

I really don't have a clue what to do. DOSBox doesn't even report any problems. Did anybody have this problem, too?

Just tell me if you need more information or the game files (it's just the demo) to try it yourself.

Reply 3 of 21, by doesnt_matter

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I don't think that the files are corrupt. I tried it on MS-DOS in QEMU too and it works perfectly normal there. Maybe Origin used some dirty hacks to render the polygons which doesn't work properly in DOSBox. Maybe it was a hidden bug which was fixed in the full version, I don't know. I only know that this makes the BioForge demo almost unplayable in DOSBox.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the game files here, so you could try it yourself and find out the cause. It's not that important to me now (it's just a short demo), but maybe it helps to improve DOSBox.

Reply 4 of 21, by MiniMax

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Why post the files here? Give us a link to where you got it from.

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Reply 7 of 21, by MiniMax

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And that file has never been a freely distributed demo. It is some ripped version of the full game.

Link deleted. Thread closed.
Restored. Unlocked.

Last edited by MiniMax on 2008-05-13, 18:41. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 8 of 21, by MiniMax

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Maybe I was too quick to delete and lock this thread...

Feel free to see if you can get the demo to work. I can't even install it.

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Reply 9 of 21, by doesnt_matter

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Okay, first of all, I have to say that it was my fault that I forgot to explain how to get the demo running, so MiniMax thought it was an illegal version.

Well, the link I posted before was the version that was stored on a PC magazine CD. I don't know why the installation program doesn't work, maybe they put their installed files on the disc instead of the original ones. It's also possible that it was a quickly done preview demo.

So, please do not use the installation program, it doesn't work properly. I've uploaded a fixed version, so you'll have less problems to get it run:
http://rapidshare.com/files/114676780/bioforge_demo.zip.html

After you extracted the files, please follow these steps:

1. You have to configure BioForge by editing the RED.OPT file. This is the configuration file. Please check if you got the right sound and music settings there. In my fixed version, I turned sounds and music on, so you should hear anything.

2. BioForge needs the correct absolute path where the game files are. Otherwise it won't start. So, please look in the RED.OPT file for the Dir= parameter (it's somewhere in the directory section), I set it to C:\BIOFORGE in the fixed version. If you put the game files somewhere else in DOSBox, you need to correct this parameter.

3. Now the BioForge demo should work by executing BIOFORGE.EXE. In DOSBox, there's a big chance that you experience my above described graphical bug. This bug only appears in DOSBox, so I hope you find out why.

Good luck.

Reply 10 of 21, by MiniMax

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No such problems here. Default 0.72 config produced the following on Windows XP:

Attachments

  • bioforge_000.png
    Filename
    bioforge_000.png
    File size
    25.94 KiB
    Views
    1565 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • bioforge_001.png
    Filename
    bioforge_001.png
    File size
    25.46 KiB
    Views
    1565 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • bioforge_002.png
    Filename
    bioforge_002.png
    File size
    26.37 KiB
    Views
    1565 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

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Reply 12 of 21, by MiniMax

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I think I ran it 2-3 times, no problems at all.

Are you on Windows? Linux? Mac?
What kind of graphics card?
Tried different output modes in DOSBox?
Tried tweaking the hardware accelleration in your graphics driver?

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Reply 13 of 21, by doesnt_matter

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I'm using DOSBox 0.72 on Arch Linux, but this happens on my laptop with WinXP, too.

Anyway, I found out something very interesting: This bug only appears if I start BioForge within a DOS file manager like UFO or Norton Commander. If I start it in the plain shell, everything works perfectly fine. Strange, isn't it?! 😒

I just don't know if this is a bug in DOSBox or in the BioForge demo.

Reply 14 of 21, by DosFreak

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Sounds like a feature to me, AFAIK noone tests launching games from internal file managers in DOSBox here at VOGONS.

So it's probably a bug in DOSBox.

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Reply 15 of 21, by wd

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Sounds like a bug in the game+NC combo to me, especially with conv
memory/umb sizes. So disable the latter, use loadfix -f before starting
your NC (possibly followed by a loadfix 32 or similar).

Reply 16 of 21, by doesnt_matter

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@wd:
Okay, I tried that. I disabled umb, I used loadfix -f and I even started the file manager with loadfix. But this bug still appears.

After this all, it really looks like this is a bug in DOSBox, because this combination works perfectly fine on a real DOS system.

Reply 17 of 21, by Qbix

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well you can't conclude that.
the game might be bugged, but that it never showed on a real system. (yes that is possible, there are more games that suffer)

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Reply 18 of 21, by doesnt_matter

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Well, I never said that this is not a bug in the game (I'm sure Origin did something with it). I just don't know the technical details why this happens and why this only appears by using a file manager in DOSBox. There's just the possibility of a bug in DOSDox.

So, please don't take it personally 😀
Maybe you can find out more.

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