Am I the only one who's having problems with vesa ?

Okay, Univbe (Scitech Display Doctor) or any other VESA programs that enable MORE VESA modes under NT4/2K/XP do not work in NT. This is due to the way that NT does not allow full access to linear modes. Programs like NOLFB work by allowing the program that you are using to "fallback" from using Vesa 2.0+ modes to Vesa 1.2 IF THE PROGRAM THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO RUN SUPPORTS IT.

Now, to add to this problem it seems that NVIDIA card's have more trouble accessing VESA modes that ATI Card's. (ATI card's seem more compatible with VESA under NT).

Just list the games that you are trying to run and we'll tell ya wether they work or not. It's far easier that way than going through a lengthy discussio on VESA compatibility/incompatibily between graphics cards under NT operating systems. 😉

Heh. I was waiting for someone else to post that, I knew I'd go on for far too long if I tried writing a reply. 😀

Look I registered :), took me a while finding my system specs (for whatever purpose they might serve?)

Erm.. it's not really a well known game, I think I've outgrown it but ever since the gui of VDMsound was released I felt compelled to reinstall the bugger.

I'm talking about X-men: "Children of the Atom" which has is own univbe config thingy. I can upload it for U to try.

I think my problem is the Gforce.. it has no vesa support whatso ever.. (I guess)

Yes the: Enable basic vesa support looked really sexy 😀

It's not that GeForce has no VESA support. It's just spotty and/or shitty. 😀

If you were running this under DOS, I'd recommend you view this site.
http://unirefresh.demonews.com/videoproblems/

I know it mentions using VBEPlus to get the game running. But VBEPlus shouldn't work in Windows 2000/XP, and there are no comparable programs (yet) that do a similar thing.

Now, if X-Men uses UVBELib (they kinda give you instructions how to find out on that page, it sounds like it might too), then the UVBELib solution MAY work. You'd need to find out which version it came with, and use the right version. You'd probably still need NOLFB (search our forums), and even then, it may not work right.

IF you use the command "xmenpc.exe -u" it won't use UNIVBE at all. It'll be much slower, but it may work somewhat.

You _could_ try VBEPlus too, just to fool around. The only reason why is the author's comments:

Several users have reported that loading VBEPlus and/or UniRefresh solves the problems. I have once downloaded the 8bit version of XMen and confirmed that only after loading VBEPlus the game will run. (didn't matter what resolutions VBEPlus added, as long as it was loaded did XMen run well). I am not sure why this helps.

I'm not sure how VBEPlus works, maybe you could load it with no resolutions added at all - I'm not sure if resolutions HAVE to be added.

My personal solution to this problem would be to emulate the actual "X-Men: Children of the Atom" arcade game to play this, using ACE (Another Capcom Play System Emulator), Calice32, Final Burn, Final Burn Alpha, Kawaks, MAME, or Nebula. Sure, it may be different, but then you're actually playing the arcade game (but if you don't own the game and have downloaded the ROMs, it's quite illegal...)

If you break your PC trying any of this (although I'm not saying it's possible, I'm not saying it's not), I can't be held responsible. 😀

Let us know what you try, what works, what doesn't, and how you make out. 😀

Thanks !

I'll try tomorrow, and let U know.

If you break your PC trying any of this (although I'm not saying it's possible, I'm not saying it's not), I can't be held responsible.

That sounds unnecessary cryptic.

Kyl3 wrote:

That sounds unnecessary cryptic.

...in the response to...

If you break your PC trying any of this (although I'm not saying it's possible, I'm not saying it's not), I can't be held responsible

That is a disclaimer. There are so many variables when it comes to PC's, there is always the possibility of strange, unexplained events when you change something.

By the way, the GeForce3 seems fine for VESA in Win98, not so in WinXP.

I think I tried all of it.. This is what i've come up with:

- Added modified univbe.drv file (ver5.3a)
- Run with vbeplus (No way to tell if it worked.. works under dos though)
- Run with vbeplus AND vbe15 (Doesn't work either)
- Run with vbeplus & vbe15 & nolfb
- any other combination.

Xmen doesn't say it needs a vesa driver, it just quits.. even without the modified univbe.drv, ofcourse I have mscdex support on. (Is required) this is under XP.

I wonder if vesa is the problem here, vbeplus & the new univbe work lika a charm if I boot with my win98 bootdisk. What the hell is my problem then:

I have sblive dos drivers, but they need emm386. I don't own win98 anymore.. and i could not found emm386.exe (needs to be a proper win98(se?) version downloadable on the internet.

Though I can play without sound now.. Maybe someone can upload emm386 for me somewhere, or mail it !

thnx!

Kyl3 wrote:

I think I tried all of it.. This is what i've come up with:

- Added modified univbe.drv file (ver5.3a)
- Run with vbeplus (No way to tell if it worked.. works under dos though)

[/B]

The error in Win98 is that the UVCONFIG supplied with X-MEN reports "No supported SuperVGA chip detected!" with my video card. Then it proceeds to running XMENPC.

XMENPC reports this:
"X-Men cannot initialise a 360x240 256 colour graphics mode.
Run the UVCONFIG program."

Those two steps I quoted from you above makes the demo work in Win98. 😀 And I didn't need VBE15. The video card was a nVidia RIVA TNT 2.

Try running "XMENPC -U" at your command prompt in WinXP, or use VDMS LaunchPad to add it to your configuration for XMen. Does it give you this error message? The -U switch prohibits UVCONFIG from running.

- Run with vbeplus AND vbe15 (Doesn't work either) - Run with vbeplus & vbe15 & nolfb - any other combination. Xmen doesn't sa […]
Show full quote

- Run with vbeplus AND vbe15 (Doesn't work either)
- Run with vbeplus & vbe15 & nolfb
- any other combination.

Xmen doesn't say it needs a vesa driver, it just quits.. even without the modified univbe.drv, ofcourse I have mscdex support on. (Is required) this is under XP.

I wonder if vesa is the problem here, vbeplus & the new univbe work lika a charm if I boot with my win98 bootdisk. What the hell is my problem then:

I have sblive dos drivers, but they need emm386. I don't own win98 anymore.. and i could not found emm386.exe (needs to be a proper win98(se?) version downloadable on the internet.

Though I can play without sound now.. Maybe someone can upload emm386 for me somewhere, or mail it !

thnx!

Try bootdisk.com. 😀

Other tests:
1. Just for the heck of it, in XP, open a command prompt full-screen, and then load VBEPlus, and tell me what happens. Standard disclaimers apply. 😀
This guy claims it works, but it shouldn't. It should just crash.
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=uuand19U … 4%40tkmsftngp08

If VBEPlus or a similar program could run in Windows XP, then we wouldn't have these problems. 🙁

A possible working configuration "could" be Windows XP and using XMENPC -U, or using Windows XP + NOLFB + XMENPC -U. But it depends on your video card, and Windows XP.

These problems are so hard to figure out. There may not be a nice solution other than booting into DOS.

For those following along, you can get the demo here:
http://www.demo-files.com/view.php3?53

Oh, and there's patches here:
http://www.patches-scrolls.de

Er, crap, that was me.

DosFreak wrote:

Now, to add to this problem it seems that NVIDIA card's have more trouble accessing VESA modes that ATI Card's. (ATI card's seem more compatible with VESA under NT).

Funny you say that. According to many people, drivers released for Ati Radeon cards since April disable Vesa support. My friend was happy to his Radeon until he tried to play System Shock and Terra Nova.

When asking Ati about about legacy support it is like talking to a wall. There is no answer.

That's really odd, now. See this thread:
showthread.php?threadid=517

Those games have trouble under NT operating systems anyway. It's hard to say "It was VESA". When we do not know if that was really his problem....

Beside's from my testing, video card driver's in NT do not seem to modify VESA at all...at least from all the testing I have done. It seems to be more of a bios function/NT access. I think a very few rare occasions may have been caused by different driver revisions but I've only ever heard this for different NVIDIA det's and I have never experienced this personally.

DosFreak wrote:

Those games have trouble under NT operating systems anyway. It's hard to say "It was VESA". When we do not know if that was really his problem....

Marauder didn't say his friend was running them under NT....

... and yes, System Shock has MASSIVE problems under Windows NT/2000/XP, Marauder. And it's not necessarily video-related. Search our forums.

Originally posted by Unregistered

Those two steps I quoted from you above makes the demo work in Win98. 😀 And I didn't need VBE15. The video card was a nVidia RIVA TNT 2.

Try running "XMENPC -U" at your command prompt in WinXP, or use VDMS LaunchPad to add it to your configuration for XMen. Does it give you this error message? The -U switch prohibits UVCONFIG from running.

I tried this, and the other suggested try-outs allready... In dos I mean actually a win98 bootdisk... The bootdisk does not include emm386.exe which is required to load the sblive driver for support.

I think the problem is XP, I made a batch file which ran vbeplus, vbe15, nolfb in any thinkable combination.. These drivers load perfectly.. but somehow I get kicked out of the game.

Probably NT's work.. with the bootdisk the game works like a charm, except for the sound (emm386.exe). My problem is I don't own win98... I do own win95 so it should be legal for me to download it.

I suppose 😀, maybe I should quit bugging this and try to find the rom.

Kyl3 wrote:

I tried this, and the other suggested try-outs allready... In dos I mean actually a win98 bootdisk... The bootdisk does not include emm386.exe which is required to load the sblive driver for support.

Did you try Bootdisk.com?

I think the problem is XP, I made a batch file which ran vbeplus, vbe15, nolfb in any thinkable combination.. These drivers load perfectly.. but somehow I get kicked out of the game.

Me too - maybe there's a way to get it so we see the error message. Anyhow, I doubt we're gonna get it working (unless Vlad wants to try.)

I suppose 😀, maybe I should quit bugging this and try to find the rom.

Um, that's what I would do if I felt morally irresponsible and pirating a game. 😉 Best solution, probably.

er, that was me. 😀

As I see it, if the version you have doesn't work, it's perfectly acceptible to get another version that DOES work for free.