Originally posted by Unregistered Strife freezes about 30% into it's loading bar.

You're in a bad place here. Worse if you're not running XP (there's a reason we ask for things like the OS in posting guidelines).

Strife is based on the DOOM engine, which means it has the same problem that all DOOM and BUILD games have on NT: POPF.

The short version of the story is that XP can run these titles with reduced quality and performance (when compared to DOS and Win9x). NT and 2000 cannot run them without modifying the executable with a tool like CLI2Nop.

Unlike just about very other DOOM-based title, STRIFE never had it's source code released. That means there are no NT-compatible ports of it.

Where you go from here depends on what OS you are running.

XP Proffesional...

I have used CLI2NOP before on Duke3d and Shadow Warrior

Would it work for Strife too?

Duke and Shadow would freeze too without CLI2NOP, but i thaught CLI2NOP only fixed Duke , Blood and Shadow Warrior.

I play Heretic , Hexen and Doom through Jdoom, but there is no such port for Strife which really hurts.

Ok, i just used CLI2NOP on Strife, the program told me strife.bat had 0 Occurances, i found this to be odd, Duke and Shadow had 60 or so each.

And, went into the game and it still died on loading.

Originally posted by Unregistered XP Proffesional...

Basically go to the Problem Children thread and read the BUILD Games post, starting from Common Problem #3.

Basically, everything there applies to Strife.

I have used CLI2NOP before on Duke3d and Shadow Warrior

Would it work for Strife too?

I would advise against that. By virtue of the way it works, it will reduce the stability of any program modified by it. Not needed for XP.

Duke and Shadow would freeze too without CLI2NOP,

I'm pretty sure that's the fixPOPF bug with the GUI LaunchPad.

I play Heretic , Hexen and Doom through Jdoom, but there is no such port for Strife which really hurts.

Correct. Source code was never released. The closest thing to a port is Vavoom. It will load up the game, but it's not truly playable...

BTW, just so you know, I was never able to get anything beyond minimal audio with very poor performance.

I should let you know, i read the thread you refered me to and did everything i could, still locks up.

All i have is the latest version of VDM installed (No seperate updates, cant find any anyway) and the Launchpad.

I removed the Launchpad, rebooted, went back in and it still locks up

I will clarify it locks up when the little red ball is about 75% to the man on the right of the screen before it locks up, not 30%, bad estimation.

I can get sound, but not using VDM, What i *can* do, is go to the games Setup,exe, setup the sound blaster to have the same settings that VDM uses, Go into the game (no VDM) and sound plays, somtimes, and when it does, (like when i punch a guard in the back) the game slows to about 4 fps for the duration of the sound playing.

When i talk to a character, it does the same, can't understand a word they say.

Sound Blaster PCI 128 is my sound card, Funny i need sound blaster emulation, I already have a Sound Blaster card

Originally posted by Unregistered ...read the thread you refered me to and did everything i could, still locks up.

All i have is the latest version of VDM installed (No seperate updates, cant find any anyway) and the Launchpad.

Go back and re-read the thread and you will find under Solution #2 a step-by-step guide on an update VDMSound installation, after it says to copy the files from the 2.04 Update zipfile you will see the link for that file. Those are the "Update 1" files.

BTW, I forgot to mention that Problem #4 was irrelavent as there are no VESA video options in STRIFE.

I removed the Launchpad, rebooted, went back in and it still locks up...

Not necessary, all you need to do is choose the "Run with VDMS" option that doesn't have the musical note to activate the non-GUI version of VDMSound.

I will clarify it locks up when the little red ball is about 75% to the man on the right of the screen before it locks up, not 30%, bad estimation.

Does this happen when you right-click on STRIFE1.EXE and choose the "Run with VDMS" that does NOT have the musical note? (This is presuming you are using IRQ 7 and not 5)

I can get sound, but not using VDM, What i *can* do, is go to the games Setup,exe, setup the sound blaster to have the same settings that VDM uses, Go into the game (no VDM) and sound plays, somtimes, and when it does, (like when i punch a guard in the back) the game slows to about 4 fps for the duration of the sound playing.

This sounds like you are using XP's Built-in SB-emulation. Only thing is, that uses IRQ 5.

For future reference, always use IRQ 5 when trying to use XP's SB-emulation, and always use IRQ 7 when using VDMSound. Mixing these up can cause a conflict as the system may detect two (virtual) sound cards on the same IRQ.

Sound Blaster PCI 128 is my sound card, Funny i need sound blaster emulation, I already have a Sound Blaster card

Actually, no. It's not that odd. Understand that in XP, there is no DOS. What you have is a command prompt that has partial compatibility with some DOS programs, but it is not DOS.

NT-based operating systems do not allow programs to directly access any hardware. This is exactly what DOS games do for audio (and sometimes for video and other things as well).

I'm well aware of my sound card settings, was definatly not using the XP emulation but VDMS

Either the musical note option or "Run with VDMS" without the musical note were both exactly the same lockup!

;-/

Anyway, i have given up... This appears to be a game i will only ever get working with XP emulation (1fps when sound is played) or no sound at all, which means, no fun basicaly.

Until someone on this planet rememberes this games exists and manages to find a real solution, I will stick to other games.

Thx anyway!

Typical problem, nothing can be done.

I recently tested it using Run with VDMS shortcut (without musical note), I get sound but it's exactly the same as the XP emulation... 1fps when a sound plays.

Originally posted by Unregistered I'm well aware of my sound card settings, ...

My point was that you didn't see why there was a need for SoundBlaster emulation when you already have a SoundBlaster. Since all DOS programs use direct hardware access (and XP forbids that), emulation is the only way you can get sound.

Either the musical note option or "Run with VDMS" without the musical note were both exactly the same lockup!

Well that's not right. The bug only applies to the GUI Launchpad. If it's locking up with the non-GUI version then something is probably wrong in your OS. I'm betting that you have some piece of hardware that is being given direct access by a software program (certain hardware monitors, controller adapters, etc...).

Until someone on this planet rememberes this games exists and manages to find a real solution,...

This is why I set up a dual-boot. It runs effortlessly in Win98.

BTW, if you change your audio setup to use 1 or 2 "voices" instead of 8, the audio lag is less annoying.

I will try that, i don't know what the voice setting does so i have it on the max for most games.

I don't have a copy of Win98 anywhere to dual boot, Im actualy looking for my old DOS 6.11, to attempt to dual boot that.

I can't find it anywhere,

Regardless, i have one hdd , everytime i attempt to partition it for dual boot (XP and Redhat Linux) the damn thing screws up, never been able to get a dual boot working before.

Originally posted by Gonz...i don't know what the voice setting does so i have it on the max for most games.

It's the number of simultaneous digital audio sounds allowed. Each sound occupies a channel. So "4 Voices" means you can hear up to 4 different sounds at the same time. The more "voices" you allow, the heavier the burden on your processor and sound card (in this case, an emulated sound card).

I don't have a copy of Win98 anywhere to dual boot, Im actualy looking for my old DOS 6.11, to attempt to dual boot that.

If the game is on a FAT partition, you should be able to access it from a boot disk. http://www.bootdisk.com/

These, of course, won't have any DOS sound card drivers, so you'll have to figure that out as well.

Regardless, i have one hdd , everytime i attempt to partition it for dual boot (XP and Redhat Linux) the damn thing screws up, never been able to get a dual boot working before.

XP is always difficult to set up a dual-boot if you try to set it up after XP is installed. However, XP is outright hostile towards Linux and will refuse to install if Linux is detected. If you have a drive with DOS, Win9x, Win2K, PC-DOS, or FreeDOS with a 2 Gig empty partition space; XP will happily install and set up a dual-boot for you (if you choose that).

I still think it's a little odd that the Non-GUI VDMSound would lock on Strife.

The game is on an NTFS partiion 😒

Well the XP side has been pretty much covered.

Your best bet is a dual-boot system and, like I said, that's a major pain after XP has been installed.

Odd, I was testing Strife again last night and it worked great with SFX and MIDI with VDMSound using CLI2NOP with the -p option on Strife1.exe. (Windows 2000 SP3)

Anyone care to confirm?

Originally posted by DosFreak Odd, I was testing Strife again last night and it worked great with SFX and MIDI with VDMSound using CLI2NOP with the -p option on Strife1.exe.

Was it stable? Might give this a try myself. Works on Win98, but only 8-bit audio there.