Originally written by Ken Silverman > we here at VOGONS have had some issues using NOLFB and: > 1. GeForce 4 I know about this […]
Show full quote

Originally written by Ken Silverman
> we here at VOGONS have had some issues using NOLFB and:
> 1. GeForce 4

I know about this because I have a GF4. I can assure you that it has
absolutely nothing to do with NOLFB and that I don't have a solution for it yet. Would fixing this be grounds for another "booby" prize? 😀

> 2. Redneck Rampage

Sorry, I don't have it installed on my computer currently.

> Come to VOGONS (http://www.vogons.org) to check us out. 😀

Yes, I browse the DOS forums from time to time. It's a great site.

The "booby prize" comment was referring to this comment earlier in my lengthy email: "The graphics programmer who figures out how to improve VESA support in Windows NT/2000/XP, to improve VBE 2.0 support in old applications, wins the booby prize.

😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

Hell, I'll give him a REAL prize. 😀

He may take you up on that. 😉

...

Well, with the GeForce4 issue, at least, since he owns one. 😀

> ...GeForce4... If you do know what the problem is and want to talk about it a little,... All I know about the problem right […]
Show full quote

> ...GeForce4... If you do know what the problem is and want to talk about it a little,...

All I know about the problem right now is this: the vertical refresh rate of the 800x600 VESA mode is approximately 37fps, and higher resolutions have even lower vertical refresh rates. No monitor would support a refresh rate that low. You seem like a resourceful guy. If you could find some kind of low-level reference with information about the GF4 I/O port map, I would take a look at it. Of course, I could always write random values to to random ports until it works, but that's like waiting for monkees to write Shakespeare.

So he (and I) am on the case. I don't think I'll find that GeForce4 info, but then again, I've never tried. I think I'll email Mr. AdvanceMAME (Andrea Mazzoleni), maybe he'll know.

> Seems to be locking up when the movie file tries to play in the beginning. Maybe it's a problem with VDMsound because I get […]
Show full quote

> Seems to be locking up when the movie file tries to play in the beginning.

Maybe it's a problem with VDMsound because I get the same kind of lock ups in Duke Nukem Atomic when I run it the second time (with VDMsound support) in the same CMD.EXE session. If REDNECK is initializing and uninitializing the sound library twice at startup, that would explain it.

-Ken S.

Vlad? Do you know if either of those games are doing that in XP with VDMSound?

Stiletto wrote:

Do you know if either of those games are doing that in XP with VDMSound?

There is a fixPOPF bug if you are 1) running XP 2) you installed "Update 1" on top of VDMSound v2.04 3) you installed the GUI and 4) if you used the GUI (or the GUI's VLP shortcut) to launch a BUILD game (or certain other games).

Try using the right-click "Run with VDMS" shortcut that does not have the musical note on the game's executable (or batch file).

This seems to be limited to BUILD games but I've seen it happen to a few others. It almost certainly will be gone in the next release.

Next release slated for 2010. 😉

I don't think Vlad reads these boards. I'm gonna hafta bitchslap him.

I imagine that DPMI_mapPhysicalToLinear can also be used to map a DMA buffer's physical address to a linear (VM) address for sound as well, so games may work fine if they don't detect the SB but crash when they detect and try to use the SB -- independently of VESA. I believe that the real problem is not as much DPMI_mapPhysicalToLinear as it is that some games try to map a huge (i.e. 2^32 bytes or so) chunk of memory (which is what Allegro does in MAME IIRC).

I stil don't get it why RR would work with XP's emulation but not with VDMSound. Can someone enable debug output in VDMSound, make sure fixPOPF is on, make sure the game's .cfg files are not read-only, setup the game for port 200 IRQ7 etc. and run the game, then put the VDMS.LOG file on the VDMSound forum where I can take a look? Unless the game crashes because "Run with VDMSound" enables EMS whereas XP's emulation doesn't... weird. So also try to disable EMS (from LaunchPad is using LaunchPad with the 'fixPOPF=1' added to the custome configuration tab, or in VDMSRun.pif if using the "Run with VDMS" without an icon).

Thx,
V.

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

There is a fixPOPF bug if you are 1) running XP 2) you installed "Update 1" on top of VDMSound v2.04 3) you installed the GUI and 4) if you used the GUI (or the GUI's VLP shortcut) to launch a BUILD game (or certain other games).

Try using the right-click "Run with VDMS" shortcut that does not have the musical note on the game's executable (or batch file).

This seems to be limited to BUILD games but I've seen it happen to a few others. It almost certainly will be gone in the next release.

Also, running the VDMSound dosdrv before nolfb (either from the command line or a batch file) causes a similar issue. I honestly can't see how NOLFB can interfere with VDMS's POPF fix though...

About the low refreshe rate....

Could try contacting Nvidia by going throug 3dgpu.com/nvnews.net. They seem to have alot of contact with Nvidia.

Also could contact GT Interactive/Monolith...dunno the best way to contact them tho. Anyone know someone on the "inside"?

DosFreak wrote:

Also could contact GT Interactive/Monolith...dunno the best way to contact them tho. Anyone know someone on the "inside"?

Good luck on that. The people involved in the QBlood project (Transfusion at http://www.planetblood.com/qblood/) tried for a good long time before giving up. Problem seems to be the "shared" ownership:

Engine by Ken Silverman
Engine modified/Game Programmed by Monolith for GT Interactive
GT Interactive bought by Infrogrames.

Ken has released his source code.
Monolith doesn't have the rights to theirs (owned by GT interactive)
GT Interactive no longer "owns" BLOOD, Infrogrames has the rights now.
Infrogrames doesn't know and doesn't care about BLOOD.

The closest thing you could probably get from Infrogrames is Blood2. At least they acknowledge it's existence.

DosFreak wrote:

About the low refreshe rate....

Could try contacting Nvidia by going throug 3dgpu.com/nvnews.net. They seem to have alot of contact with Nvidia.

Also could contact GT Interactive/Monolith...dunno the best way to contact them tho. Anyone know someone on the "inside"?

Ken's decided (or at least told me) that he's not going to tackle it after all. Don't throw a hissy fit, people, there's plenty of other irons in the fire...

I'd still like to figure out the Redneck Rampage issue that Vlad last posted about, though...

Don't know if your intrested but I can play those redneck games just fine in 2k, But without sound. I'm talking about Redneck Rampage and Route 66 @ 800x600.

Already known. BUILD games will NEVER work in NT4/2K with SFX without M$ support it seems....not unless we can get the source code for those games, then we might be able to rework the sound code.

Originally posted by Sodapop Don't know if your intrested but I can play those redneck games just fine in 2k, But without sound.

Yes and they should work fine for anyone else in 2000 or XP without audio. But audio is very important, and VESA support isn't supported nearly as well on 2000/XP.
If you have VESA without having to use extra tools, consider yourself lucky.

To everyone here thank you! I got redneck rampage to work on xp [finally] and I dont mean to sound selfsh or anything but (I don't know if anyone has awnsered this question but unfortunatley I dont have time to root through the thread pages)Does anyone know why the graphics quality is so low? or how I can fix it, I know the sound is supposed to be, thats fine but can I fix the graphics?

-thanks again

Sorry but read the thread. It's all described in here. 😀

Hi all, and thanks for all the advice.
I followed, what you said.
It is fine on redneck rampage (dont tried suckin grits and rides again) 1280*1024 without the sound. I use nolfb. With 5 1 5 the sound is a bit like yee_eee_e_e__e_e_aaaaa___aaa___________h___h_hhhhhhh_hhh if you see what i mean. I didnt find how to cope with it, i tried vdm it seems to be a nice software too, but doent work (on the 7-1-5). do you have any idea to supress the "___ _ _ __" ? great thanx anyway...

Originally posted by loopingz It is fine on redneck rampage 1280*1024 without the sound. I use nolfb. With 5 1 5 the sound is a bit like yee_eee_e_e__e_e_aaaaa___aaa___________h___h_hhhhhhh_hhh...

You know, I think 🤣 is used way too often, and frequently not an accurate reflection of what's happening. But when I when read your textual representation of the spoken audio, 🤣. Yes, that's what it sounds likes like.

You need to read the post for "BUILD Games" in the Problem Child child. Just about everything is covered.
showthread.php?threadid=726

Okay sorry, I'm getting annoyed and have gone through here and this crap still wont work. I run the .com thing through command and get that "created by ken" line, and then it goes back to the prompt. If I leave it in the background and run RR.exe, RR just goes black and turns inactive. I even turned off ANY audio and it still does the same. It will do the loading sequence at the start and that's it. What the heck is going on? I wish I had enough room for a dual boot.

Originally posted by Notyou Okay sorry, I'm getting annoyed and have gone through here and this crap still wont work.

Are you referring to an earlier post? The board is stating that this is your first.

I run the .com thing through command and get that "created by ken" line, and then it goes back to the prompt. If I leave it in the background and run RR.exe, RR just goes black and turns inactive.

You're not running NOLFB and RR.EXE in separate command prompts are you? That's what your description seems to indicate.

I even turned off ANY audio and it still does the same. It will do the loading sequence at the start and that's it. What the heck is going on?

Not for the moment. Can you confirm that it will work properly in 320x200 mode? If it can't run that way then something other than VESA is the problem.

BTW, System Specifications please. I know nothing about your PC other than you're not running a dual-boot. Your Operating System and graphics card are the critical items here.