VOGONS


First post, by Unregistered

User metadata

Hi,
I have previously made a post with the same problem, where my games freeze right after i launch them with VDMsound.

Back then I got my problems solved by using DosBox, which works great for my Sierra games (except for those one on CD)

Now I have completed my Sierra games and I wanna play something new .... or well... old. And therefore I found the good old Legend of Kyrandia series.

The problem with those is that they wont work in DosBox, and that does the same thing as all other games I try to launch with VDMS.. they freeze up at the first frame in the game.

I have tried running the games manually, with "Launch with VDMS", with the 1.0.0.7 launcher, without any sound at all. I have uninstalled VDMS and installed it again, I have tried to run VDMS without the 2.0.4 update 1. And everytime its the same god damn thing... it freezes up (and this applies for ALL games)..

I am beginning to get a little frustrated, It cant be that it just doesnt work on my system since I have never heard about anybody who had this and didnt get it solved. So it must be me that are doing something wrong.

here are my system specs:

AMD 1700xp+
256mb PC2100 DDR ram
Asus A7V266
MSI GF4 Ti4800SE
SB Live Value
WinXP + SP1 + DX9

I hope there is someone out there who can enlightning me with what I am doing wrong.

/Maniac

Reply 1 of 13, by Nicht Sehr Gut

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Start with the basics. Did I understand you correctly, that you ran Legend of Kyrandia (stick with one title at a time please...) without VDMSound and without sound?

You need to eliminate the possibilities of what is wrong.

First, try a title that has the option of "No Sound" or "No Sound Card", etc... and choose that option. Run the game, does it appear to run properly?

Second, If the game ran properly from the first step, try using XP's built-in SoundBlaster emulation. That will be the equivalent of a SoundBlaster 2.0 (8-Bit audio). Your game's install/configuration program may not recognize the existence of a sound card, try to choose the options manually if possible. It's settings are Address of 220, IRQ of 5, and DMA = 1. Does that work? (Even if doesn't, proceed to the third)

Third, Change the IRQ to 7, then try with non-GUI VDMSound (meaning right click, "Run with VDMS" without the little musical note).

Try those and let us know...

BTW, you're at least the third person I've heard from that has major problems running DOS programs that is using DirectX 9. I'm getting suspicious of this...

Reply 2 of 13, by Unregistered

User metadata

sorry for not making myself clear, what I meant was that I tried to launch the game (LoK2 - Hand of Fate) with "no sound" in the game's setup. And that didnt work

BUT, I after that I tried launching LOK2 on 2 other comps. One with DX9 and one with DX8.1. And on the pc with DX9 the game did the EXCACTLY same thing, it froze up. But on the DX8.1 pc it worked just fine.

After I noticed this I formatted my HD, installed WinXP again, with all same stuff as I had before EXCEPT DX9... and ... what do you.... now it works

So I guess the problem was all along DX9. Now I just hope that there one time will be update which makes it possible to play with DX9

/maniac

Reply 3 of 13, by Unregistered

User metadata

DX9 is making my dos games slow like "Out Of This World" with VDMSound. Speedset doesn't help. They worked fine with DX8.1.

I am using an Audigy with the latest drivers (not hacked Audigy 2 drivers). I am also using latest VDMSound update and Launchpad.

I'm stumped.

Reply 4 of 13, by Snover

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Greeeat.

Vlad, please take a look at the changed APIs in DirectX to make sure they don't conflict with what VDMSound is doing.

Yes, it’s my fault.

Reply 5 of 13, by Nicht Sehr Gut

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Originally posted by Unregistered sorry for not making myself clear, what I meant was that I tried to launch the game (LoK2 - Hand of Fate) with "no sound" in the game's setup. And that didnt work

Which means it's an OS problem...

...the pc with DX9 the game did the EXCACTLY same thing, it froze up. But on the DX8.1 pc it worked just fine.

More and more, DX9 seems to have an odor about it...

After I noticed this I formatted my HD, installed WinXP again, with all same stuff as I had before EXCEPT DX9... and ... what do you.... now it works

!!! I guess that means you didn't try just using a "restore point" in the OS...

Now I just hope that there one time will be update which makes it possible to play with DX9

Well hopefully, DX9 is what will be fixed. If Dx9 is the issue, attempts at patching VDMSound, etc... will not fix this problem.

Reply 6 of 13, by psz

User metadata

To be honest, I don't think it's DX9... Having two machines running XP Pro, and NO problems with DOS games since I've upped both machines to DX9, this doesn't seem to be a problem.

Also, all three of my brothers have WinXP Home with DX9, and I've gotten most of THIER DOS stuff to work with VDMSound at thier houses (One of my borthers has two XP machines, one for him, one for his wife).

My machines:

Mine:
P4 2.53 (recently upped from P3-800)
512MB PC2700
WD 80GB HD
WD 20GB HD
SBlive! 5.1
64MB GeForce 3

Roomates:
P3 800
512MB PC133
WD 100GB HD
SBLive! (NON-5.1)
64MB GeForce 2MX

Youngest Bro's machine:
P3-600
256MB PC100
WD 40GB HD
SBLive (NON-5.1)
32MB TNT2 Ultra

Middle Bro's machine:
AMD 1.2Ghz Athlon
256MB PC133
Maxtor 40GB HD
Generic AC'97 Onboard
32mb Shared Vid SiS

Oldest Bro's machine:
Same as Middle Bro

Reply 7 of 13, by namefunnel

User metadata

Actually, I've had some problems with DirectX 9 that didn't occur with DirectX 8.1. (This does not involve VDMSound directly, but I think it might be relevant). I was attempting to improve the behavior of the game "Journeyman Project 3 - Legacy of Time". Under DirectX 8.1 I have to turn DirectX hardware sound acceleration off to avoid having stuttering audio. I saw on a post on http://www.ntcompatible.com/ that someone found they didn't have to change sound acceleration for a different game with DirectX 9. I thought I'd give it a try, so I set a system restore point and then installed DirectX 9. Unfortunately, the audio in this game stuttered worse than before, and disabling sound acceleration had no effect. I did a system restore back to DirectX 8.1, disabled sound acceleration again, and the game ran fine on my machine. My configuration is:
Windows XP Home with all service packs and critical patches
Dell 8250 with 2.4 GHz Pentium 4
512 MByte RAM
Creative Audigy 2
128 DDR ATI 9700 with TV/out

Reply 9 of 13, by Nicht Sehr Gut

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Originally posted by psz To be honest, I don't think it's DX9...

It could be that the problem only arises when used with a specific combination of hardware, software, and DX9. In any case, like MS suggested, XP users should create a restore point before they install DX9.

Reply 10 of 13, by Snover

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

That's all good and fine for the XP users...

Yes, it’s my fault.

Reply 11 of 13, by Nicht Sehr Gut

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Originally posted by Snover That's all good and fine for the XP users...

They have the option installing GoBack and using it's "save and restore" process (which is a little more involved than I feel comfortable with...changing drive letters and such...) before trying DX9.

They can also attempt to use one of those DirectX uninstallers out there and re-install DX8.1 if not satisfied (presuming that the uninstaller "recognizes and understands" DX9). Still slightly risky...

Reply 12 of 13, by Snover

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

How can you uninstall something so closely tied to the core of the OS?

Yes, it’s my fault.

Reply 13 of 13, by Nicht Sehr Gut

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Originally posted by Snover How can you uninstall something so closely tied to the core of the OS?

With a good degree of nervousness...I presume the makers of the Direct-X uninstall programs know how to piece everything back together (like I said, I'm not sure if there's DX9 version out yet).