VOGONS


First post, by Unregistered

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Just wanted to let anyone wishing to run Realms of the Haunting -- the best game of this type ever made(!) -- how I got it working with the help of VDMSound on an XP box.

NOTES:
(a) There are two versions of ROTH as far as I am aware: a UK (European) and a USA version. I originally bought and played the UK version (back in '96), I recently purchased the USA version from eBay (UK). The USA version allows you to use your mouse to pan your view (up, down, left and right -- in the style of most modern 1st person shooters). The USA version also allows you set the 'arcade' difficulty (4 levels) as well as the 'adventure' difficulty (2 levels). The UK version only has a 2 global levels (easy or hard). Your UK save games are NOT compatible with the USA save games!

(b) You will need to install the game through VDMS, otherwise your sound card won't be detected when playing the game. You *can* change your settings at a later date if you wish, by running 'install.exe' in your installed directory.

(c) Game machine is a P3, WinXP Pro, SoundBlaster Live, NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500. I am also running VDMSound 2.0.4 and the VDMSLaunchPad.

(d) The following solutions were used on the USA version of the game.

============================

With *both* the UK/USA versions I encountered two problems:

1. The default movement keys (cursor keys) caused Adam to rotate and keep on rotating! Weird. Likewise the jump key made Adam bob up and down like a small boat in a stormy sea!

2. Stuttering sound/video, with additional 'pops'.

Intially I used the Launcher to create a default configuration (and a desktop shortcut). To customise your settings for the game, right-click on the shortcut and select 'Properties' and hit the 'VDMSound' tab, then the Advanced button.

The following Properties were changed from the Launcher default:

Performance: Cap DOS timer frequency -- Checked
Performance: Try to reduce CPU usage -- Checked
Performance: Low Usage (slide control)

Joystick: Enable Joystick (Gameport) emulation -- UNchecked

AdLib: Enable AdLib (FM) Emulation -- UNchecked

============================

The keyboard repeat problem was fixed (through the above) and by customising my movement keys, so that I was NOT using the cursor keys. This is a bit of a problem for the UK version, where you cannot customise your movement keys .... grrrrr.

The sound problem wasn't totally cured. However the stuttering is gone and the game still 'crackles' a little; but it's nothing that will affect your enjoyment of the game.

Good luck!

Robbie

Reply 1 of 8, by Nicht Sehr Gut

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Originally posted by Unregistered Just wanted to let anyone wishing to run Realms of the Haunting

*raises hand*

NOTES:
(a) There are two versions of ROTH as far as I am aware: a UK (European) and a USA version.

Yep. Never saw the "Gremlin" version, but I remember the company from when I was there.

The USA version allows you to use your mouse to pan your view (up, down, left and right -- in the style of most modern 1st person shooters). The USA version also allows you set the 'arcade' difficulty (4 levels) as well as the 'adventure' difficulty (2 levels).

Glad to see that somebody enhanced the program, and actually in a useful way.

1. The default movement keys (cursor keys) caused Adam to rotate and keep on rotating! Weird. Likewise the jump key made Adam bob up and down like a small boat in a stormy sea!

Yep, "stuck-key" syndrome, as described here.

2. Stuttering sound/video, with additional 'pops'.

Encountered this as well, but it sounds like it may be worse for you.

The following Properties were changed from the Launcher default: Performance: Cap DOS timer frequency -- Checked Performance: T […]
Show full quote

The following Properties were changed from the Launcher default:

Performance: Cap DOS timer frequency -- Checked
Performance: Try to reduce CPU usage -- Checked
Performance: Low Usage (slide control)

AdLib: Enable AdLib (FM) Emulation -- UNchecked

Hrmm...I always disable the stick control, but hadn't thought to try the other settings. Will give this a shot.

The sound problem wasn't totally cured. However the stuttering is gone and the game still 'crackles' a little; but it's nothing that will affect your enjoyment of the game.

Don't know if it would help, but Swil said he got around that by disabling the built-in emulation:
showthread.php?threadid=1048&highlight=Realms+Haunting

Reply 2 of 8, by Robbie_c

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Glad to 'meet' another ROTH fan. I've raved about this game sooo much over the years. If I had to list the top 3 games of all time: this baby would be hard not to pick for the top slot. It's such a shame that they never completed ROTH 2. (I don't know if you recall but there was mucho talk on the Gremlin website and then they suddenly pulled the idea?)

Anyway, thanks for the links to the other pages. Sadly none of the ideas fixed my 'popping'. To be honest I'm treating it as a quirk rather than an annoyance! 😀 It's just great to be playing it again. I tried installing it a couple of years ago (under XP) and couldn't get the sound to work, and a game like this without sound ...

Hrmm...I always disable the stick control, but hadn't thought to try the other settings. Will give this a shot.

I found the page refresh much, much smoother with them set as detailed in my top post.

EDIT: Typo.

Robbie

Reply 4 of 8, by Nicht Sehr Gut

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Originally posted by Unregistered The following Properties were changed from the Launcher default: Performance: Cap DOS timer f […]
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Originally posted by Unregistered The following Properties were changed from the Launcher default:

Performance: Cap DOS timer frequency -- Checked
Performance: Try to reduce CPU usage -- Checked
Performance: Low Usage (slide control)

Joystick: Enable Joystick (Gameport) emulation -- UNchecked

AdLib: Enable AdLib (FM) Emulation -- UNchecked

Sure enough, starting with a fresh .VLP shortcut and using these settings eliminates the "stuck-key" issue. After testing, I only occasionally got a "stuck" response. Even then, it was only momentary and quite rare.

I still get occasional "crackling" in the audio, but it appears that there are two factors:
1) For me, it only seems to happen in cutscenes. Not within the game itself.
2) The crackle/pop seems directly related to volume. As long as audio stays at a low level, I hear no crackling. The louder it gets, the more pronounced the "crackling" (and no, it's not just the volume of the noise changing).

My guess is that it's FMV player portion of the game that's having the problem. Right now, however, it appears that ROTH is running at 99% compatibility.

Originally posted by Snover Increasing the size of the audio buffer might do good to remove some of the cracking, at the expense of slightly laggy sound.

Doesn't appear to have much of an effect. Also tried switching between WDM drivers, card-specific drivers, WaveOut, and DirectSound out.

No change.

Reply 5 of 8, by Pheener

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I'm trying to run the UK (Gremlin) version of the game, but as far as I can tell, the sticky key problem won't go away, even with the solutions listed above. I don't get much video stutter, but the popping/clicking exists... I can ignore it pretty easily, though.

Have there been any developments that I'm unaware of in the running UK/ROTH on XP universe? I know Dosbox doesn't support it.

Thanks!

Reply 6 of 8, by Littlefiz

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I dont know if this will help you pheener as it sounds quite stupid but... did you use the numpad ? I tell you because I had the same problem and thought that this solution didn't work for me untill I tried using the keys with numbers (not the ones with only arrows). God knows why but thats what happened to me 😀

Good luck if it still doesnt work.

Reply 7 of 8, by Pheener

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I actually did, and it worked. I apologize for not replying earlier about it, heh. So, it's playable, but not great. Still, the game is totally worth it.

It's also weird having to have my left hand all the way over there, hehe. 😄

Thanks for the help!

Reply 8 of 8, by Guest

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hi thought i'd put my thoughts in regarding the spinning round of the main character, in XP when the game loads and you select either play new game or load, once its started, without touching the direction keys check if the num lock is off or on, if its off turn it on or if its on turn it off this makes the character move fine on mine (dont use shift and num lock use fn (next to left ctrl) and num lock) hope this helps