VOGONS


First post, by davidmorom

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On dgVoodoo 2.62.3 Wipeout XL/2097 works perfectly, but with version 2.63 and newer the game crashes silently after the PRESS START splah screen.

I tried several combinations of settings, and the result is always the same.

Reply 2 of 19, by ZellSF

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2.63+ is crashing here too, even in compatibility mode (which isn't required here for 2.62.3). Nothing interesting in (attached) log. There are some warnings, but I also get them with 2.62.3, which works fine.

This is a unpatched Wipeout 2097 install.

Filename
AAA.LOG
File size
472.01 KiB
Downloads
117 downloads
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

Maybe a weird question, but is it possible to get the PowerVR version working? It should be using Direct3D and not the PowerVR API, but it's still checking for the card. I'm a bit curious why.

Reply 3 of 19, by Dege

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Could you share the executable with me plz? I can't remember what installation I have aside from it's no-cd patched.
It still works fine for me in XPSP2 compat mode.
In your log the last entries are

[11884] loadSample(contelim.wav)	
[11884] loadSample(nrg_low.wav)
[11884] start controlled sound

In mine, those are followed by

Wipeout2.exe	attempting malloc
Wipeout2.exe attempting malloc
Wipeout2.exe attempting malloc

Running the game with AppVerifier revelas that the game always over-reads a memory area, so it's suspicious that memory corruption is the reason and it's up to your luck if it crashes or not.

Maybe a weird question, but is it possible to get the PowerVR version working? It should be using Direct3D and not the PowerVR API, but it's still checking for the card. I'm a bit curious why.

I guess it drives D3D in a little different way to workaround some driver-specific problems which is incompatible with 'normal' D3D, and that's why it wants to make sure if a PVR card is driven.

Reply 4 of 19, by davidmorom

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This is my executable. Original unpatched, directly from the 2097 CD image.

I realised that if I dont use dgVoodoo at all, the same problem ocurrs (in one of my computers, the other cant even start the game without dgVoodoo), so maybe the problem is not related with dgVoodoo, as you stated before. The weird thing is that dgVoodoo 2.62.3 makes the game run flawlessly (beside the double speed issue).

Attachments

  • Filename
    Wipeout2.rar
    File size
    252.46 KiB
    Downloads
    180 downloads
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 6 of 19, by davidmorom

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I guess that is because the excecutable is from 2097 and your installation is from XL. Try renaming "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Psygnosis\Studios\WipeoutXL" to "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Psygnosis\Studios\Wipeout2097" (my installation uses that name). Don't know if there are other differences between version which may prevent the game from running.

Reply 7 of 19, by Dege

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Indeed, I have Wipeout XL installation. I duplicated the registry settings as you suggested but it's still complaining about corrupted installation.

What about this executable? Does it work for you?

Attachments

  • Filename
    Wipeout2.rar
    File size
    248.55 KiB
    Downloads
    146 downloads
    File license
    Public domain

Reply 8 of 19, by davidmorom

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Tried that executable on a XL installation and on a 2097 installation (had to rename several files), and it works on both of them, but ¿where is this executable from? It is NoCD patched and is completely different from XL and 2097 original EXEs from the CD images. This executable don't display the ingame pause menu frame, the loading percent numbers are bigger than they should and are cutted off, and the speed of the game is normal, not double speed, without limiting the framerate to 30, which is a problem this game always had on fast computers. Also, the intro movie is not played, and the launcher allows selection between D3D and software, which all other executables I tried doesn't.

Reply 9 of 19, by Dege

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I didn't remember this, I thought it's just a plain no-cd version, but I think I encountered a page on the net years ago, a project that was for fixing WipeoutXL on modern computers.
I cannot find it now, no matter what I google, but the fix I downloaded is attached.

Attachments

  • Filename
    woxl_patch.rar
    File size
    249.48 KiB
    Downloads
    173 downloads
    File license
    Public domain

Reply 10 of 19, by Dege

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I installed the original version of this game from the CD.
Indeed, dgVoodoo version earlier than 2.63 seem to work, otherwise crash.

It turned out that the game releases certain DDraw objects and later uses them, so the crash is due to using released ptrs. Which either works or not, in general, it depends on a lot of thing, the environment, the memory allocator, etc. The point is, the result is unpredictable.
I also built the debug versions of some pre-2.63 versions to check them out but they also crashed (the debug version relies on a crt memory allocator that apply various guards to reveal such kind of bugs).

So, pre-2.63 versions worked (survived) for some reason. It's not a dgVoodoo bug, I can't fix it.

I patched my original exe to keep those objects and let them leak, now the game seem to work without crashes.

Reply 11 of 19, by ZellSF

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It it possible you can provide instructions for patching the exe? This has a lot of different versions floating around, and being able to use dgVoodoo's frame limiter might be nice (and supersampling, though less important).

Reply 12 of 19, by Dege

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Unofrtunately not really. I don't think I can provide a uniqe byte pattern to search for and overwrite.
Maybe I could patch different version one by one (if they are usable my CD). Say, I could publish the patch for my game version, and I could add your if that's different, and so on.
(Reminds me my ancient patcher for POD executables... 😁)

Reply 14 of 19, by ZellSF

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That's Wipeout XL.

Wipeout XL 2097 isn't a thing. Wipeout XL and Wipeout 2097 are different region executables.

Thanks though, I'll probably try that next time I play the game (hoping I can combine it with a nocd patch somehow).

Reply 16 of 19, by davidmorom

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Hi Dege! Is nice to see some light about this topic. Once more time, you are the best fixing what original devs screwed decades ago.

I tested your patched executable in my XL installation, and it worked flawlessly. It can even be NoCD patched using the patches released back then.

Regarding the region of the executables, you can tell that you EXE is from the american XL version by searching the string "xllogo.ppm" inside, in the european 2097 version this file is named "2097logo.ppm".

Both executables are the same size (769024 bytes), but a simple HEX compare reveals hundreds of thousands of differences. Despite that, I succeded at applying the same patch by searching for the same HEX patterns, they are almost the same but at different addresses (what leads me to think that both executables are indeed the same, but with different offsets). Anyway, I didn't dissassemble or debug anything, so I can't be 100% sure if it is correct, but at least it work. You can take a look into it if you want.

By using the FPS limit option present in the latests versions of dgVoodoo, at 30 fps, the speed problem is completely gone. The NoCD patched executables can be combined with a winmm wrapper for playing with music (I use dxwnd winmm.dll ogg wrapper). In my opinion, this is the definitive setup.

I post a ZIP file containing both original exes from XL and 2097 versions, their corresponding dgVoodoo fixed versions (the 2097 one is not 100% sure, let's wait for Dege opinion), an their corresponding NoCD patched versions. Hopes this helps someone.

Regards!

Attachments

  • Filename
    XL_2097_EXES.zip
    File size
    1.79 MiB
    Downloads
    172 downloads
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 19 of 19, by Parni

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Highly interesting thread! Nice to see Wipeout hardcore fans still in 2021! 😀 I just discovered today that my burned ISO version doesnt work = ask for the CD even its inside the CD station. Maybe I try your executables.

Has anyone got the IPX multiplayer patch to work?