Hm. Maybe vladr should look at it!
Does replacing with different DOS4/GW make the DOS4GW errors go away?

[OT]
I tested a simple DOS game today (pong60.zip, it's out there) that used CWSDPMI extender. I tested it regular, and then, due to something I read, removed CWSDPMI. Other than the color/BW switch not working after removing CWSDPMI, the game ran fine in XP.

Let's not forget that games that use CWSDPMI may not NEED it in 2000/XP. There's a DPMI program called DOSX that is part of Windows, provides most things needed.

So if your game uses CWSDPMI and doesn't work, try removing or renaming CWSDPMI - it may improve (or harm) things, but if the game isn't working, it's worth a shot.

Originally posted by Schadenfreude Does replacing with different DOS4/GW make the DOS4GW errors go away?

Well, the DOS4GW is apparently part of the game's main executable, TEX4.EXE. Might be able to force use of another DOS4GW (much like was done with "System Shock"), but I have my doubts about that helping.

WireKnight, I did some tests with the new video drivers, but the results were still the same. Just to make sure, I checked config.ini and sound.inf to make sure that all sound cards had ",1" added to their parameters, so they would not be tested. Averything looked fine, but it didn't work.

While I was testng, I decided to try another approach. I removed config.ini, started the game and got the initial screen for sound card detection *without* any mouse cursor! Somehow the game is working with my video card, but now it's having problem with the mouse.

Since you mentioned somehing about editing tex4.exe to solve a mouse problem, can you give me the clue for this?

Thanks,

Okay,

I am running old drivers, I guess I should update....

Anyways, okay,

For the slowdown in the menu, and mouse, etc...

This is a problem with the way that ntvdm handles IRQ8 (The Hardware Timer) in protected mode.

Originally I had used CLI2NOP to fix the problem, but I resulted in a lot of other problems. Poking around inside TEX4.exe I found that if you modify offset 0x000BFB1C, and just change that from CLI (FA) to NOP (90) using a Hex editor fixed this problems with the slow interface and mouse without sacrificing any stability (at least that I can find).

If I get a chance in the next few days, I'll play around some more and see if I can't get more sorted out.

Hope any of this helps
-WK

P.S. As for the "MPEG=Off" if I remember correctly this was the config file equivalent of checking off "Do letterbox scenes in VGA"

Nice information, WireKnight!

Originally posted by WireKnight For the slowdown in the menu, and mouse, etc...
....
Poking around inside TEX4.exe I found that if you modify offset 0x000BFB1C, and just change that from CLI (FA) to NOP (90) using a Hex editor fixed this problems with the slow interface and mouse without sacrificing any stability (at least that I can find).

Very, very nice. This was the kind of thing I was advocating for old BUILD games. Question is, how did you come up that one address? Were you just replacing "FA"s one-at-a-time at random? Mine didn't match up exactly on the address, had something else there... So I picked the closest neighbor at 0BFAE4 and changed it. Appears to work very well, smooth mouse, smooth panel operation... Fairly stable so far...

Also, I found that my MIDI problem was a setting that didn't get set back properly on the .VLP file. With this hack, I only encounter a slight bit of lag when playing MIDI in-game. Very nice.

As for the "MPEG=Off" if I remember correctly this was the config file equivalent of checking off "Do letterbox scenes in VGA"

Crud...Appears you're right. On="VGA mode", Off="Use Letterbox" mode. Got my hopes up that there was a way of getting a "full-color" version.

If I get a chance in the next few days, I'll play around some more and see if I can't get more sorted out.

Yes. Concentrate. Use your Psychic powers to heal the data...Concentrate!

Hope any of this helps

Sure did. Maybe you can find a fix for the SB16 problems (probably not as I heard that there were bugs in the DOS drivers).

Didn't it use Miles Sound System? Or if not, can't you steal drivers from the other Tex adventures? (I'll never understand why Access didn't use the same basic engine for all their games, they're all so similar..)

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

Also, I found that my MIDI problem was a setting that didn't get set back properly on the .VLP file.

What setting is that? Does it need a fix?
V.

Originally posted by vladr What setting is that? Does it need a fix?

No, no. Nothing like that. Just an apparent mistake by me while switching configurations repeatedly.

Went back and confirmed MPU401 and Sound Canvas both work on port 330 with identical results. "Roland MT 32" or "Roland LAPC-1" still cause an instant crash.

I did note that FM music is dreadful, plays way too slow and induces a lot of lag during the game. This is true even if you select SoundBlaster 1.0 so it's not an OPL3 issue. Fortunately, the MPU401 MIDI music using the GS Wavetable is excellent and seems to play properly.

Crashes when you select MT-32 in VDMSound or in the game?
V.

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

Went back and confirmed MPU401 and Sound Canvas both work on port 330 with identical results. "Roland MT 32" or "Roland LAPC-1" still cause an instant crash.

Originally posted by vladr Crashes when you select MT-32 in VDMSound or in the game?

The game. Choosing MT32 in VDMSound while the game is set for MPU401 just results in weird music.

It would, heh, since MT-32 uses different instruments.
Now, if you were using the MT2GM map and it still sounded weird, that might be something to look at. Even then though, I doubt it. 😀

Originally posted by Snover It would, heh, since MT-32 uses different instruments.

Give me some credit here...we've had a LOT of discussion about MT32 and how it works differently. I was just pointing out that it wasn't VDMSound causing the crash, it was "Pandora".

Besides, you seem to gripe about not having MT32 emulation yet approximately every other day. How could we forget about all that?

What? There's still no MT-32 emulation? 😉

Originally posted by Snover What? There's still no MT-32 emulation?

Well fine then, I'll go back to my old grumble: "Where's the GUS emulation?" and that classic variant "How is it that "GusEmu" works just fine for this DOS demo, but won't work with a single Gus-Compatible game?!"

Fine, just don't do it here, since this is the VDMSound forum, not the GUSEmu forum 😉

Originally posted by Snover Fine, just don't do it here, since this is the VDMSound forum,...

Well I'm talking about the GUS emulation in VDMSound. Vlad was open to it, but it all kind of fizzeled out when the GusEmu author didn't show an interest in sharing.

...not the GUSEmu forum

That's another thing... where IS the GusEmu forum? 😜

WireKnight wrote:

Originally I had used CLI2NOP to fix the problem, but I resulted in a lot of other problems. Poking around inside TEX4.exe I found that if you modify offset 0x000BFB1C, and just change that from CLI (FA) to NOP (90) using a Hex editor fixed this problems with the slow interface and mouse without sacrificing any stability (at least that I can find).

WireKnight, my copy of tex4.exe does not have a CLI at the address you mentioned, probably because it's a localized version of the game, with Portuguese subtitles. There are a few CLI instructions nearby, around 0x000BFB00 and 0x000BFCFF, but changing each one of them at a time did not help. The game either locked with no mouse at the first screen of simply crashed back to DOS. Can you post the sequence of bytes before and after the CLI you changed, so I can try to find the correct one around?

Thanks,

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

Very, very nice. This was the kind of thing I was advocating for old BUILD games. Question is, how did you come up that one address? Were you just replacing "FA"s one-at-a-time at random? Mine didn't match up exactly on the address, had something else there... So I picked the closest neighbor at 0BFAE4 and changed it. Appears to work very well, smooth mouse, smooth panel operation... Fairly stable so far...

I tried that address too, since there wasn't an FA at the one WireKnight suggested, and changed the FA at 0BFAE4 to the 90. The game works wonderfully now. I used to have to dual-boot into a Win98 Partition to play this game, and now I don't have to. Thanks for all your help, guys.

Would someone be so kind to send me the modified 'tex4.exe' to my mail-address? I'm not experienced in using hex-editors and actually I don't even have one.

Maybe I should have said 'Hallo' first. It's great this forum exists! I'm really glad, maybe to be able to play some of my very old favourites, without having to throw out my momentary system config.

Ciao,
Malko