sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 10:16:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 09:46:

About QUAKE 2 issue, the problem occurs always, regardless of settings.

Edit: If I start game without rendition and then launch RReady and put vid_ref v1k, it still gives the "couldn't create window" error.

Shims it is then.

Quake 2 is a well behaved game, it shouldn't be giving you grief.

It is a well behaved game. SW, OGL and 3Dfx MiniGL runs well. Redline doesn't do like that Anyways I would need the next instructions (till then I am trying to make Grand Prix Legends work, it crashes)...

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 10:20:

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 10:16:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 09:46:

About QUAKE 2 issue, the problem occurs always, regardless of settings.

Edit: If I start game without rendition and then launch RReady and put vid_ref v1k, it still gives the "couldn't create window" error.

Shims it is then.

Quake 2 is a well behaved game, it shouldn't be giving you grief.

It is a well behaved game. SW, OGL and 3Dfx MiniGL runs well. Redline doesn't do like that Anyways I would need the next instructions (till then I am trying to make Grand Prix Legends work, it crashes)...

Got Grand Prix Legends to work ON A BLACK MENU. It strangely needed the No Ghost shim on top of the DxWnd Handle Exceptions setting. The game would otherwise crash innocently.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 10:36:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 10:20:

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 10:16:

Shims it is then.

Quake 2 is a well behaved game, it shouldn't be giving you grief.

It is a well behaved game. SW, OGL and 3Dfx MiniGL runs well. Redline doesn't do like that Anyways I would need the next instructions (till then I am trying to make Grand Prix Legends work, it crashes)...

Got Grand Prix Legends to work ON A BLACK MENU. It strangely needed the No Ghost shim on top of the DxWnd Handle Exceptions setting. The game would otherwise crash innocently.

GPL support is currently incomplete.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 10:20:

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 10:16:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 09:46:

About QUAKE 2 issue, the problem occurs always, regardless of settings.

Edit: If I start game without rendition and then launch RReady and put vid_ref v1k, it still gives the "couldn't create window" error.

Shims it is then.

Quake 2 is a well behaved game, it shouldn't be giving you grief.

It is a well behaved game. SW, OGL and 3Dfx MiniGL runs well. Redline doesn't do like that Anyways I would need the next instructions (till then I am trying to make Grand Prix Legends work, it crashes)...

No I mean it's well behaved with RReady. What's in the log file?

If you chuck those two files in the baseq2 folder does it run and the ref_v1k file in the root game folder AND keep the launcher running does it run?

Is there a shim to restrict resolutions to 1280x1024?

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 10:57:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 10:20:

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 10:16:

Shims it is then.

Quake 2 is a well behaved game, it shouldn't be giving you grief.

It is a well behaved game. SW, OGL and 3Dfx MiniGL runs well. Redline doesn't do like that Anyways I would need the next instructions (till then I am trying to make Grand Prix Legends work, it crashes)...

No I mean it's well behaved with RReady. What's in the log file?

If you chuck those two files in the baseq2 folder does it run and the ref_v1k file in the root game folder AND keep the launcher running does it run?

Finally I got the problem. The fullscreen setting that I had to change was in config.cfg, not the one in RReady. And I had to set it to 0, instead of 1

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:07:

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 10:57:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 10:20:

It is a well behaved game. SW, OGL and 3Dfx MiniGL runs well. Redline doesn't do like that Anyways I would need the next instructions (till then I am trying to make Grand Prix Legends work, it crashes)...

No I mean it's well behaved with RReady. What's in the log file?

If you chuck those two files in the baseq2 folder does it run and the ref_v1k file in the root game folder AND keep the launcher running does it run?

Finally I got the problem. The fullscreen setting that I had to change was in config.cfg, not the one in RReady. And I had to set it to 0, instead of 1

Phew! That's a massive relief.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 09:46:

A few games that still don't have an answer to the EmulateHeap bug is: Jane's Longbow 2 book reading screen, GTA Vice City Win98 […]
Show full quote

A few games that still don't have an answer to the EmulateHeap bug is: Jane's Longbow 2 book reading screen, GTA Vice City Win98 compat mode, Lords of the Realm...
Most of these games don't use RRedline at all. vHexenII was our subject. Although DxWnd attached magic to EmulateHeap somehow, without it the game would run 1/15 times.

My suggestion saying this was: consider setting shims individually over compatibility mode.

Also EmulateHeap isn't the only problem; there's problem with EmulateGetCommandLine because Windows no longer sets up DOS lengths paths anymore (by default)... but all of this is a topic for later.

You can disable Win98 compatibility for vHexen II from Rendition settings. In the lower section you can set it to current windows.

The list of shims I have is this:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dep … d-windows-vista

It seems to be missing a whole lot.

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:15:

You can disable Win98 compatibility for vHexen II from Rendition settings. In the lower section you can set it to current window […]
Show full quote

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 09:46:

A few games that still don't have an answer to the EmulateHeap bug is: Jane's Longbow 2 book reading screen, GTA Vice City Win98 […]
Show full quote

A few games that still don't have an answer to the EmulateHeap bug is: Jane's Longbow 2 book reading screen, GTA Vice City Win98 compat mode, Lords of the Realm...
Most of these games don't use RRedline at all. vHexenII was our subject. Although DxWnd attached magic to EmulateHeap somehow, without it the game would run 1/15 times.

My suggestion saying this was: consider setting shims individually over compatibility mode.

Also EmulateHeap isn't the only problem; there's problem with EmulateGetCommandLine because Windows no longer sets up DOS lengths paths anymore (by default)... but all of this is a topic for later.

You can disable Win98 compatibility for vHexen II from Rendition settings. In the lower section you can set it to current windows.

The list of shims I have is this:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dep … d-windows-vista

It seems to be missing a whole lot.

You can download Microsoft ADK, and install Compatibility Toolkit from there. You should get most things there.

I checked your MechWarrior 2 video. It is Mercenaries, andit gives the same problem. You missed a step I said.

First you'll need to run the game on Direct3D. Then exit the mission and then launch on RRedline. That's when you'll get the flickering issue (copyback=0)

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:15:

You can disable Win98 compatibility for vHexen II from Rendition settings. In the lower section you can set it to current window […]
Show full quote

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 09:46:

A few games that still don't have an answer to the EmulateHeap bug is: Jane's Longbow 2 book reading screen, GTA Vice City Win98 […]
Show full quote

A few games that still don't have an answer to the EmulateHeap bug is: Jane's Longbow 2 book reading screen, GTA Vice City Win98 compat mode, Lords of the Realm...
Most of these games don't use RRedline at all. vHexenII was our subject. Although DxWnd attached magic to EmulateHeap somehow, without it the game would run 1/15 times.

My suggestion saying this was: consider setting shims individually over compatibility mode.

Also EmulateHeap isn't the only problem; there's problem with EmulateGetCommandLine because Windows no longer sets up DOS lengths paths anymore (by default)... but all of this is a topic for later.

You can disable Win98 compatibility for vHexen II from Rendition settings. In the lower section you can set it to current windows.

The list of shims I have is this:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dep … d-windows-vista

It seems to be missing a whole lot.

For "Die by the Sword" GOG version.
~ 16BITCOLOR EmulateGetCommandLine EmulateHeap

works really well. No more random crashes. Added to the launcher.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:34:

I checked your MechWarrior 2 video. It is Mercenaries, andit gives the same problem. You missed a step I said.

First you'll need to run the game on Direct3D. Then exit the mission and then launch on RRedline. That's when you'll get the flickering issue (copyback=0)

Yeah because the window is DirectDraw based. You can't force a DD window to be an opengl one or vv.

I'll check that out now.

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:45:

For "Die by the Sword" GOG version. ~ 16BITCOLOR EmulateGetCommandLine EmulateHeap […]
Show full quote

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:15:

You can disable Win98 compatibility for vHexen II from Rendition settings. In the lower section you can set it to current window […]
Show full quote

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 09:46:

A few games that still don't have an answer to the EmulateHeap bug is: Jane's Longbow 2 book reading screen, GTA Vice City Win98 […]
Show full quote

A few games that still don't have an answer to the EmulateHeap bug is: Jane's Longbow 2 book reading screen, GTA Vice City Win98 compat mode, Lords of the Realm...
Most of these games don't use RRedline at all. vHexenII was our subject. Although DxWnd attached magic to EmulateHeap somehow, without it the game would run 1/15 times.

My suggestion saying this was: consider setting shims individually over compatibility mode.

Also EmulateHeap isn't the only problem; there's problem with EmulateGetCommandLine because Windows no longer sets up DOS lengths paths anymore (by default)... but all of this is a topic for later.

You can disable Win98 compatibility for vHexen II from Rendition settings. In the lower section you can set it to current windows.

The list of shims I have is this:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dep … d-windows-vista

It seems to be missing a whole lot.

For "Die by the Sword" GOG version.
~ 16BITCOLOR EmulateGetCommandLine EmulateHeap

works really well. No more random crashes. Added to the launcher.

I don't recall the game needed EmulateGetCommandLine and EmulateHeap when I tested it 3years ago (where's the crash/problem that needed you to add this, more curiously why EmulateGetCommandLine). By the way, the other compatibility "modes" (such as color modes, run as admin, disable FSO) work as a protective layer that enables FaultTolerantHeap (introduced in Win7) that takes care of such EmulateHeap problems.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:50:

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:45:

For "Die by the Sword" GOG version. ~ 16BITCOLOR EmulateGetCommandLine EmulateHeap […]
Show full quote

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:15:

You can disable Win98 compatibility for vHexen II from Rendition settings. In the lower section you can set it to current window […]
Show full quote

You can disable Win98 compatibility for vHexen II from Rendition settings. In the lower section you can set it to current windows.

The list of shims I have is this:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dep … d-windows-vista

It seems to be missing a whole lot.

For "Die by the Sword" GOG version.
~ 16BITCOLOR EmulateGetCommandLine EmulateHeap

works really well. No more random crashes. Added to the launcher.

I don't recall the game needed EmulateGetCommandLine and EmulateHeap when I tested it 3years ago (where's the crash/problem that needed you to add this, more curiously why EmulateGetCommandLine). By the way, the other compatibility "modes" (such as color modes, run as admin, disable FSO) work as a protective layer that enables FaultTolerantHeap (introduced in Win7) that takes care of such EmulateHeap problems.

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:46:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:34:

I checked your MechWarrior 2 video. It is Mercenaries, andit gives the same problem. You missed a step I said.

First you'll need to run the game on Direct3D. Then exit the mission and then launch on RRedline. That's when you'll get the flickering issue (copyback=0)

Yeah because the window is DirectDraw based. You can't force a DD window to be an opengl one or vv.

I'll check that out now.

The problem appears only after the game has been run on a different API (I don't know why there shouldn't be a DD window earlier, but there should be one after you clearly exited a D3D session)

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:50:

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:45:

For "Die by the Sword" GOG version. ~ 16BITCOLOR EmulateGetCommandLine EmulateHeap […]
Show full quote

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:15:

You can disable Win98 compatibility for vHexen II from Rendition settings. In the lower section you can set it to current window […]
Show full quote

You can disable Win98 compatibility for vHexen II from Rendition settings. In the lower section you can set it to current windows.

The list of shims I have is this:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dep … d-windows-vista

It seems to be missing a whole lot.

For "Die by the Sword" GOG version.
~ 16BITCOLOR EmulateGetCommandLine EmulateHeap

works really well. No more random crashes. Added to the launcher.

I don't recall the game needed EmulateGetCommandLine and EmulateHeap when I tested it 3years ago (where's the crash/problem that needed you to add this, more curiously why EmulateGetCommandLine). By the way, the other compatibility "modes" (such as color modes, run as admin, disable FSO) work as a protective layer that enables FaultTolerantHeap (introduced in Win7) that takes care of such EmulateHeap problems.

Before the launcher set the string to "~ RUNASADMIN 16BITCOLOR WIN98"

This caused the app to randomly refuse to startup or produce slow mo menus. When it did start up it it took a long time to escape a black screen.

Not sure the commandline param's needed.

Trawled through the list and didn't really notice anything to restrict resolutions. for hexen 2. Will have another trawl now.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:51:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:50:

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:45:

For "Die by the Sword" GOG version.
~ 16BITCOLOR EmulateGetCommandLine EmulateHeap

works really well. No more random crashes. Added to the launcher.

I don't recall the game needed EmulateGetCommandLine and EmulateHeap when I tested it 3years ago (where's the crash/problem that needed you to add this, more curiously why EmulateGetCommandLine). By the way, the other compatibility "modes" (such as color modes, run as admin, disable FSO) work as a protective layer that enables FaultTolerantHeap (introduced in Win7) that takes care of such EmulateHeap problems.

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:46:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:34:

I checked your MechWarrior 2 video. It is Mercenaries, andit gives the same problem. You missed a step I said.

First you'll need to run the game on Direct3D. Then exit the mission and then launch on RRedline. That's when you'll get the flickering issue (copyback=0)

Yeah because the window is DirectDraw based. You can't force a DD window to be an opengl one or vv.

I'll check that out now.

The problem appears only after the game has been run on a different API (I don't know why there shouldn't be a DD window earlier, but there should be one after you clearly exited a D3D session)

Restarting the game after toggling renderers (without copyback) should work, but you're right in that it's not ideal. The same problem would occur when switching from Rendition to Direct3D.

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:58:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:50:

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:45:

For "Die by the Sword" GOG version.
~ 16BITCOLOR EmulateGetCommandLine EmulateHeap

works really well. No more random crashes. Added to the launcher.

I don't recall the game needed EmulateGetCommandLine and EmulateHeap when I tested it 3years ago (where's the crash/problem that needed you to add this, more curiously why EmulateGetCommandLine). By the way, the other compatibility "modes" (such as color modes, run as admin, disable FSO) work as a protective layer that enables FaultTolerantHeap (introduced in Win7) that takes care of such EmulateHeap problems.

Before the launcher set the string to "~ RUNASADMIN 16BITCOLOR WIN98"

This caused the app to randomly refuse to startup or produce slow mo menus. When it did start up it it took a long time to escape a black screen. Without it it wouldn't run at all on my system.

Not sure the commandline param's needed.

Trawled through the list and didn't really notice anything to restrict resolutions. for hexen 2. Will have another trawl now.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:34:

I checked your MechWarrior 2 video. It is Mercenaries, andit gives the same problem. You missed a step I said.

First you'll need to run the game on Direct3D. Then exit the mission and then launch on RRedline. That's when you'll get the flickering issue (copyback=0)

Could you tell Gho that if an app complains about the the launcher not running, to restart the launcher and then run the app from DxWnd?

Connected drives/network shares/usb drives can sometimes affect licensing. it's not supposed to, but it does..

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:51:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:50:

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:45:

For "Die by the Sword" GOG version.
~ 16BITCOLOR EmulateGetCommandLine EmulateHeap

works really well. No more random crashes. Added to the launcher.

I don't recall the game needed EmulateGetCommandLine and EmulateHeap when I tested it 3years ago (where's the crash/problem that needed you to add this, more curiously why EmulateGetCommandLine). By the way, the other compatibility "modes" (such as color modes, run as admin, disable FSO) work as a protective layer that enables FaultTolerantHeap (introduced in Win7) that takes care of such EmulateHeap problems.

sharangad wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:46:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 11:34:

I checked your MechWarrior 2 video. It is Mercenaries, andit gives the same problem. You missed a step I said.

First you'll need to run the game on Direct3D. Then exit the mission and then launch on RRedline. That's when you'll get the flickering issue (copyback=0)

Yeah because the window is DirectDraw based. You can't force a DD window to be an opengl one or vv.

I'll check that out now.

The problem appears only after the game has been run on a different API (I don't know why there shouldn't be a DD window earlier, but there should be one after you clearly exited a D3D session)

Could the shim EmulateDirectDrawSync help? RReady renders from another thread. I'll mess around with the config tomorrow in Compatibility Administrator.

I never had to use EmulateDirectDrawSync myself. There could be some apps that pre-applied it. That's all that probably needed it. DxWnd did half the work of the shims so maybe they were needed but I never saw.

EmulateGetCommandLine shim shouldn't generally be required. It was needed in Dungeon Keeper because that game's command line options have to be set with a DOS supported path format length.

About the black screen, I am aware of the rendering and synchronisation issue of the menu. I last tested it 3 years ago, I will check again tomorrow (we have Independence Day tomorrow so there's some free time). The two shims don't correspond to fixing the menu issue so it's interesting.

Btw how are you even setting the shims through RReady Launcher?

About the MechWarrior 2 situation, do you mean to say the problem occurs even when doing the same procedure from RRedline to Direct3D? Strange, that is not an issue for me. I only have an issue when I run Direct3D first and RRedline later.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-08-14, 15:20:

I never had to use EmulateDirectDrawSync myself. There could be some apps that pre-applied it. That's all that probably needed i […]
Show full quote

I never had to use EmulateDirectDrawSync myself. There could be some apps that pre-applied it. That's all that probably needed it. DxWnd did half the work of the shims so maybe they were needed but I never saw.

EmulateGetCommandLine shim shouldn't generally be required. It was needed in Dungeon Keeper because that game's command line options have to be set with a DOS supported path format length.

About the black screen, I am aware of the rendering and synchronisation issue of the menu. I last tested it 3 years ago, I will check again tomorrow (we have Independence Day tomorrow so there's some free time). The two shims don't correspond to fixing the menu issue so it's interesting.

Btw how are you even setting the shims through RReady Launcher?

About the MechWarrior 2 situation, do you mean to say the problem occurs even when doing the same procedure from RRedline to Direct3D? Strange, that is not an issue for me. I only have an issue when I run Direct3D first and RRedline later.

Maybe I'm not setting the Shims. I just added the shim names to compatibility strings in the registry. "Die by the sword" has startup and menu issues with redline. Most probably the 'shims' I set weren't being set and the game was running without any settings.

MechWarrior 2 going from dx to redline shows problems. The other way has no issues. So it's most probably a directdraw surface issue with open gl. I did check buffer swaps.

The other thing is mw2 should be able use higher resolutions. I think DxWnd is blocking it. Redline allows the resolution to be changed and the mechanism rready uses to go higher than the target is generally solid.

Team apache is next on my list for now. I have tried pressing escape on the videos before and got a lockup.

I think in terms of compatibility the low hanging fruit had been plucked.

Gpl's exceptions are caused by my code. I had the menus with a black background working reliably at 640x480 without any compatibility settings. Upscaling needs fixes because the game expects mouse coordinates to be in 640x480 range. Some letters were missing from the menu items.

Thanks for all your help, and the Vogons community too. I would've hit a brick wall otherwise.

Happy independence day tomorrow!