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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Steel Panthers World At War & Mega Campaigns >> Can't run game

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Can't run game - 6/10/2000 1:38:00 AM

Ozymandias

Posts: 4
Joined: 6/9/2000
From: Portland, OR, USA
Status: offline

This is very strange, I can run the game fine on my desktop, but on my laptop I get the video and then I'm dropped back to the desktop. Both machines are runnning Windows 2000 Pro so I don't think that it's an OS issue, but bejond that I'm not sure where to look. The laptop is a Sony Vaio PCG-Z505S, a Celeron 333 with 196Mb memory, Neomagic Video card (running at 1024x768x16bit), sound etc. Can anyone suggest what to do to get spwaw running on this? Thanks - Guy

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- 6/10/2000 1:49:00 AM

Seth

Posts: 737
Joined: 4/25/2000
From: San Antonio, TX USA
Status: offline

Try reinstalling it. I had that problem the first try. It also crashed if I tried to skip the video by hitting a key. I think it had problems unzipping, so I just unzipped the files again.

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- 6/10/2000 3:01:00 AM

Schrullenhaft

Posts: 24
Joined: 4/24/2000
From: Provo, UT , USA
Status: offline

If you're not doing so already... I'd suggest running the "intro.exe" file (check out your shortcut and see what directory it is pointed to and just change it to the intro.exe) instead of the .bat file that is normally associated with the install. There's a possibility that the Smacker videoplayer doesn't like your machine.

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- 6/10/2000 3:20:00 AM

Ozymandias

Posts: 4
Joined: 6/9/2000
From: Portland, OR, USA
Status: offline

Well I did reinstall everthing, but no luck. I also tried just running intro.exe with no command line, but that just gives me a black screen, pauses a while and then exits. Fom the redrawing that occurs afterwards I suspect that it did change the screen resolution, but I can't tell if it managed to get any further. BTW when I do use the .bat file, the video does show correctly. I did see that there is a log.txt file in the spwaw directory, here it is (this is from running the .bat): ----- opening mono.dat! reading mono.dat! closing mono.dat! Comparing to 'MONO_ON' =BEGINNING ================================================== Entered WinMain Hiding windows cursor... Initializing DirectDraw Creating main window. WM_ACTIVATE_APP -- wParam = 1, lParam = 1292 We're on -- switching back! WM_PAINT (paint_next_time = 0) set worked! BeginSound() WM_PAINT (paint_next_time = 0) DirectSound initialized properly... Hiding cursor (again) Setting gTimer timer setting gTime callback success... wTimerID = 16 Setting 1/10 sec timer Going off to original loop... command line = 'direct' InitHeap mem allocated = 21000000 --- No sign of any error here, but perhaps it holds a clue as to where it failed. Guy [This message has been edited by Ozymandias (edited 06-09-2000).]

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- 6/10/2000 3:28:00 AM

Larry Holt

Posts: 1969
Joined: 3/31/2000
From: Atlanta, GA 30068
Status: offline

What resolution are you running? The game only works at 800x640 not at 1024x760. ------------------ An old soldier but not yet a faded one. OK, maybe just a bit faded.

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- 6/10/2000 3:34:00 AM

Ozymandias

Posts: 4
Joined: 6/9/2000
From: Portland, OR, USA
Status: offline

quote:

Originally posted by Larry Holt: What resolution are you running? The game only works at 800x640 not at 1024x760.

But it should be up the game to sort out the res and not me. Anyway, when I run it on my desktop I start out at 1600x1200 and it copes with resizing the screen quite happily. That said, it may well be a resolution problem, perhaps DirectX (which I assume spwaw uses) doesn't like running at 800x600 on that card. I have other games that work fine on the same machine, but they are all much more flexible about what resolution they run in, and since being a laptop it stretches pixels to manage 800x600 and ends out looking pretty ugly I always choose 1024x768 when I have the chance. BTW I just checked Age of Kings since a) it's a very reliable DirectX game, and b) it allows me to change resulution easily. It runs at 800x600 on the laptop perfectly, stretched pixels and all. Guy [This message has been edited by Ozymandias (edited 06-09-2000).]

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- 6/10/2000 3:40:00 AM

Schrullenhaft

Posts: 24
Joined: 4/24/2000
From: Provo, UT , USA
Status: offline

I'm running the game on a Win98 2nd system w/ DirectX 7.1. Looking at the log.txt file that I have it is a bit longer than yours (probably because it seems to log several events during play and closing of the game). The only differences I could note in the initialization sequence are probably non-consequential (not being a programmer, I'm not sure). I had different values for "lParam" and "wTimer ID". The timer ID I could undertand being different, but I don't know what the "lParam" value could be used for during initialization. Other than the previously noted differences this is a listing of the lines that came after what you had listed earlier: free_sounds() called initializing wsock32.dll get_network_info() free_sounds() called 1) method from make network choice = 2 I AM SERVER! OBEY ME! free_sounds() called I AM SERVER! OBEY ME! There is plenty more of this. Most of what I see in the LOG.TXT are errors regarding opening up .LBM files and calling "free_sounds()". There doesn't appear to be much more in the way of initializing the game. As Larry Holt just mentioned... You may want to reduce your resolution to 800 x 600 to see if that helps. The game autoswitches your resolution down (to 800 x 600 or 640 x 480... I'm not sure how it picks). There is a possibility that your laptop doesn't like the resolution that is being attempted (since most LCD's are fixed resolution - they either reduce the screen area or "chew up" the display with "stretching" to get it to fit on the entire screen). Uh... a bit late in getting this to post. I believe the issue is between the video chipset/driver and what it has to do to drive an LCD and the game. It would be interesting to have you drive an external monitor (no simultaneous LCD display) and see what happens. The driver may adjust to working with the external monitor without the streching (which may be affecting SPW@W). [This message has been edited by Schrullenhaft (edited 06-09-2000).]

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- 6/10/2000 6:15:00 AM

Ozymandias

Posts: 4
Joined: 6/9/2000
From: Portland, OR, USA
Status: offline

quote:

Originally posted by Schrullenhaft: Other than the previously noted differences this is a listing of the lines that came after what you had listed earlier: free_sounds() called initializing wsock32.dll get_network_info() free_sounds() called 1) method from make network choice = 2 I AM SERVER! OBEY ME! free_sounds() called I AM SERVER! OBEY ME! There is plenty more of this. Most of what I see in the LOG.TXT are errors regarding opening up .LBM files and calling "free_sounds()". There doesn't appear to be much more in the way of initializing the game.

Well I know that the machine has sound, other games do OK, but I don't know if there is some particular sound interface that might be different.

quote:

As Larry Holt just mentioned... You may want to reduce your resolution to 800 x 600 to see if that helps. The game autoswitches your resolution down (to 800 x 600 or 640 x 480... I'm not sure how it picks). There is a possibility that your laptop doesn't like the resolution that is being attempted (since most LCD's are fixed resolution - they either reduce the screen area or "chew up" the display with "stretching" to get it to fit on the entire screen).

Actualy I did try that, but it didn't make any difference, I also played with the color depth, again, no difference. Other games manage that screen size on that machine OK.

quote:

Uh... a bit late in getting this to post. I believe the issue is between the video chipset/driver and what it has to do to drive an LCD and the game. It would be interesting to have you drive an external monitor (no simultaneous LCD display) and see what happens. The driver may adjust to working with the external monitor without the streching (which may be affecting SPW@W).

That's take a bit of playing with (since I don't have an accessible monitor handy here, but I may try it if I get time. Thanks - Guy

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