Problem with demo not starting with Win98SE solved

[HJ]

Hi all.
I managed to solve my own problem with Doms II demo not starting, so I'm posting this in hope that people who experience the same problem might be able to sort it out as well.

I'm running Win98SE, Athlon 800Mhz, 256MB RAM, and ATI Radeon 7200 with latest catalysts drivers 3.8. I was unable to start the demo: the game would change resolution of my desktop, and then just not initialize at all, so I had to restart my computer. I noticed that there was a text file in my installation directory named stderr.txt that read:
Fatal signal: Segmentation Fault (SDL Parachute Deployed)
I also noticed that there is a file called sdl.dll in the directory, and also that the same file exists in the Dominions I demo directory which was running properly. So I just replaced the sdl.dll file in the Doms II dir with the one from the Doms I demo, and the game now runs without a problem.

I would also like to thank Johan K for pointing out some helpful switches, namely:

-dd (I believe this is a debugging mode of a sort that creates a log.txt file in your Doms II directory; mine read:
-------------------------
----- DOMINIONS ---------
-------------------------

dbglevel 2 pc_endian
datapath='.'
savepath='.'
temppath='C:\WINDOWS\TEMP/dom16882'
)

Another one is:
--window --res 640 400 (which runs the game in a window mode)

The window would appear very briefly, and then disappear when using those switches, and the game wouldn't initialize at all. But the exchange of sdl.dll seems to have done the trick.

So, without much ado ('cause I have a game to play ), I hope that people who experience the same problem under Win98 will find this info helpful.
Cheers,
HJ

[PvK]

Interesting. I didn't have that problem at all with my Win 98SE machine.

PvK

[HJ]

Well, I don't have a clue what the SDL is, or why there was a problem, or why did this fix the problem. I'm just happy that it did.

[Johan K]

This error message The OPENGL32.DLL file is linked to missing export GDI32.DLL:Gd;SwapBuffers will appear if your opengl and gdi dlls are incompatible with each other. A windows 98 reinstallation will cure that. But that solution might not be desirable for everyone I guess.

Thanks to Phill for finding this out.

[Ranger]

Windows98 Fix
I downloaded the SDL.DLL from http://www.megaone.com/stuntmania/downloads.html, unzipped the sdl.dll and put it in the C:\Program FIles\Dominions2demo\ directory. Be sure to over wright the existing sdl.dll.

[Jason Pratt]

I had the same problem (on a Windows ME machine, which I suppose isn't surprising given that they're basically the same as Win 98); with the same solution.

However, when I reach the main screen I now find my mouse is invisible. (It comes back when I exit to normal desktop.)

This, to put it mildly, is disconcerting. {g} Thoughts? Anyone else had this problem?

[Johan K]

Try running in a window (press alt+return) or reduce graphics acceleration by two notces in the control panel (system, I think).

[Jason Pratt]

Thanks; I discovered Last night (by accident while trying to improve the fps ) that resizing the window did bring the mouse back. I haven't tried the other fix yet--I may test it out just to verify (for others) if it works, but I don't want to fuzzle up my system too much. I still play other games, and I may need that accelleration (especially on an older computer).

Notably, I expect the problem is my Voodoo 5500 AGP card--the drivers are outdated, because the card itself is outdated. A very nice card that has served me well for years, though... too bad Voodoo went out of business.

[sachmo]

So in Win98, you can get the mouse to appear by playing the game in a window. Is this something that can be fixed, or is it just one of those things?

[PvK]

As I mentioned before, I've never had any problem seeing my cursor in Win98. There are probably multiple ways to get messed up, and multiple ways out of them. First place I'd try would be the Control Panel mouse/cursor settings. Using a generic cursor can help. Also, some video cards may have special mouse cursor settings which one could try turning on or off.

PvK