Search these forums for threads on Duke Nukem.

Basically if you've lowered all the quality settings and if you've tried VDMSOUND (make sure you've applyed UPDATE1 otherwise VDMSOUND will not work) then your only other option (and the best one for BUILD games) is to play the game in DOS.

You'll only be able to run BUILD games with the LOWEST quality you can have it at. It sucks, I know. 🙁

Now I'm curious, why is it that I can run Duke Nukem 3D (with either VDMSound or XP, it doesn't matter) at maximum settings (I tried fiddling with the conf and it doesn't stay stable beyond the maximum 8 digital channels and 22Khz mixing defined by the setup program) and it runs as smooth as glass but others can't?

Demos of Blood and Redneck Rampage also run flawlessly (with maximum audio settings). The only build engine game (granted, I've only tested these 4) thats ever given me serious grief is Shadow Warrior.

LSD wrote:

Now I'm curious, why is it that I can run Duke Nukem 3D...

Like I had said in another thread. It's unknown. Perhaps it's related to the chipset as I remember running BUILD with VDMSound in XP when I had a SBlive, but now I mostly get lockups. I had gone back to 98SE, simply to get back my performance and (at the time) my 640x480 or higher video modes.

Well, mark down your settings, make note of what version you're running, make a checksum of your files, etc. so in case it's ever useful, the info is there. 😀

You have to use an utility called "CLI2NOP" that eliminates useless audio interrupts from the game. Remember to use the 2-pass option. I have Windows XP and it worked for me! The real problem with Duke3D is the resolution (I can play only at 320x240, even with Duke Nukem Atomic! Sigh!). Why don't create a full DOS emulator???

I attach CLI2NOP to my message.

Greets

[edit by Snover: please do not post duplicate software, especially the version that is not in Deep Thought, since the one in Deep Thought is superior.]

XP has that facility built in. As of update 1, VDMSound 2.0.4 supports it too (but only under XP).

As for the resolution, do a search of the board for NOLFB, that'll allow you to use higher resolutions in 2k/XP (not sure about NT4, DosFreak?). Depending on your video card though you may be capped at 1280x1024. My TNT1 wasn't affected (I got it all the way up to 1600x1200) but DosFreaks GF4 was.

TFI wrote:

You have to use an utility called "CLI2NOP" that eliminates useless audio interrupts from the game.

It also punches a few holes in the program as well. The more thoroughly it is used, the less stable the resulting game. Very few people have managed to get a stable BUILD game with audio under NT/2000.

If you start having seemingly random lock-ups and crashes after using this hack, now you'll know why.

NOLFB works the same under NT4/2K/XP for BUILD engine games or any other game that has a "fallback" mode to vesa 1.2 from Vesa 2+. I've tried all three OS's myself for BUILD engine games with NOLFB and they all displayed the VESA....on my 9700. Now on a Nvidia card they may/may not. (ATI seems to be more compatible with VESA under NT OS's than NVIDIA card's)

Well, DosFreak, you've got to remember that most VESA games don't usually run above 640x480, and if they do, they DEFINITELY aren't intended to run above 1024x768. (Not to mention that would be overkill since most games with variable resolutions are 2.5D, and also textures and sprites aren't going to look any better, and those are the most important things.)

Snover wrote:

Well, DosFreak, you've got to remember that most VESA games don't usually run above 640x480,...

Well, 800x600 isn't all that uncommon.

...and if they do, they DEFINITELY aren't intended to run above 1024x768.

True. 1024x768 seems to be the point of “diminishing returns”. Going up to 1600x1200 just seems to burden the video card. Like to keep mine at 1024x768 as it's good for big open areas with "far-away" bad guys.

For those of you stuck runding Build engine games under nt/2k/xp, Ken Silverman released a patch that will let you use high resolution vesa modes for most if not all build games. You can get it on his page at http://www.advsys.net/ken/build.htm

Heh. Thanks, but we've known about this for a while. Just do quick search (at the top of the page) on the forums for NOLFB. Be aware, however, NOLFB is not a cure-all. Works great on my GF3, not-so-great on a GF4.