WinXP crash on start, even with latest patch

[tomc]

(this occurs both with and without the latest patch from your website).
I have a Toshiba Satellite (3Ghz) with ATI Mobility Radeon 7000IGP graphics card. I'm all updated from Windows update, and Tosh's updates.
On starting the game, I get a brief snatch of music on a black screen, and then a Windows error saying the application has crashed, another brief snatch of music (still on black screen), and then the program exits.
The demo ran fine.
Clicking the more info. in the Windows erorr box says:
AppName: darwinia.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: atioglxx.dll
ModVer: 6.14.10.4203 Offset: 000cd5f9

[Darksun]

Does it create a preferences.txt? If so can you try setting the line bootloader to bootloader = none? It could be a problem with the bootloaders, which would explain why the demo ran

[tomc]

Nice idea, thanks but it still crashes in the same place. It's almost as if it crashes when it wants to start a 3D render of any sort on this system. (NB this comment is Greeba posting from tomc's laptop, I've played the game through at home and have encouraged tomc to buy a copy. So, I know the firsttime bootloader is similar to the world view and they may have similar issues...)

[Darksun]

Hmm, well, it could be a problem rendering the world map, again, this wasn't in the demo.

Maybe it's something to do with Toshiba's graphics drivers, try getting the Omega drivers from http://www.omegadrivers.net/ and see if that helps

[tomc]

Tried 'em, still crashes :(

[NeoThermic]

So we have no blackbox? Does it create the prefrences.txt? If so, try set:

Code: Select all

RenderPixelShader = 1

to:

Code: Select all

RenderPixelShader = 0

See if that helps. What we want is Darwinia to crash out and create a blackbox.txt, or for Darwinia to work, both of which will help solve the problem

NeoThermic

[tomc]

Did think of that pixelshader setting 'cos I've heard the older radeons don't have dx9 rendering compatability. Didn't help when I saved it as 0 in preferences.txt. Blackbox.txt doesn't get created (I assume it lands in the Darwinia directory if it does...), the app exits with a fatal exception as described above.

[NeoThermic]

Did think of that pixelshader setting 'cos I've heard the older radeons don't have dx9 rendering compatability. Didn't help when I saved it as 0 in preferences.txt. Blackbox.txt doesn't get created (I assume it lands in the Darwinia directory if it does...), the app exits with a fatal exception as described above.

Darwina only uses DirectX for sound, not for rendering; thats done with OpenGL.

My main suggestion then would be to try drop every detail to low (low is either 3 or 4 for most settings) and see if that works. If not, paste the preferences.txt here, and we shall have a go at getting something.

NeoThermic

[tomc]

OK, here's the preferences.txt that gets created when I delete it and run the game until it crashes:

Code: Select all

ServerAddress = 127.0.0.1
BypassNetwork = 1
IAmAServer = 1

TextLanguage = english
TextSpeed = 15
HelpEnabled = 1

SoundLibrary = dsound
SoundMixFreq = 22050
SoundMasterVolume = 255
SoundChannels = 32
SoundHW3D = 0
SoundSwapStereo = 1
SoundMemoryUsage = 1
SoundBufferSize = 512
SoundDSP = 1

ScreenWidth = 1024
ScreenHeight = 768
ScreenWindowed = 0
ScreenZDepth = 24
ScreenColourDepth = 32
ScreenRefresh = 60

RenderLandscapeDetail = 1
RenderWaterDetail = 1
RenderBuildingDetail = 1
RenderEntityDetail = 1
RenderCloudDetail = 1
RenderPixelShader = 1

ControlUp = key E
ControlDown = key Q
ControlLeft = key A
ControlBackwards = key S
ControlRight = key D
ControlForwards = key W
ControlChatLog = key TAB
ControlZoom = key Z
ControlDeselect = key SPACE

ControlMouseButtons = 3
BootLoader = firsttime
UserProfile = NewUser


[NeoThermic]

OK, here's the preferences.txt that gets created when I delete it and run the game until it crashes:

Lets give this one a spin?

Code: Select all

ServerAddress = 127.0.0.1
BypassNetwork = 1
IAmAServer = 1

TextLanguage = english
TextSpeed = 15
HelpEnabled = 1

SoundLibrary = dsound
SoundMixFreq = 22050
SoundMasterVolume = 255
SoundChannels = 32
SoundHW3D = 0
SoundSwapStereo = 1
SoundMemoryUsage = 1
SoundBufferSize = 512
SoundDSP = 0

ScreenWidth = 640
ScreenHeight = 480
ScreenWindowed = 0
ScreenZDepth = 24
ScreenColourDepth = 32
ScreenRefresh = 60

RenderLandscapeMode = 0
RenderLandscapeDetail = 3
RenderWaterDetail = 3
RenderBuildingDetail = 3
RenderEntityDetail = 3
RenderCloudDetail = 3
RenderPixelShader = 0

ControlUp = key E
ControlDown = key Q
ControlLeft = key A
ControlBackwards = key S
ControlRight = key D
ControlForwards = key W
ControlChatLog = key TAB
ControlZoom = key Z
ControlDeselect = key SPACE

ControlMouseButtons = 3
BootLoader = none
UserProfile = NewUser


See if that does anything. Cross those fingers as well, I've heard that helps

NeoThermic

[tomc]

Tried it. Crash, no black box.

Any other suggestions ? A debug build ?

[Darksun]

Just doing a quick google, it seems that the atioglxx.dll driver can get corrupt, or something. It also seems you're using an older version of it. The most common advice is to download the omega (or standard) drivers, and extract just the atioglxx.dll drivers from them and use it to overwrite your existing file.

[tomc]

Darksun, I've already tried your suggestion from up-thread.

[Darksun]

Well, the problem is the ATI OpenGL drivers, google for information about fixing atioglxx.dll, you might find something

[tomc]

Nothing obvious (remmber the issue occurs wiht these latest Omega things as well as the offical Toshiba ones) on Google, or the openGL part of the driver control panel.
I'll fire off an email to Toshiba about it, you never know, they might buy the game :-)