Schrullenhaft

You may need to load the VXD for the AGP port (Via GART). The VIA AGP port probably isn't fully supported with Win98 1st Ed's drivers (2nd Ed probably doesn't either). Via's Driver website: http://www.via.com.tw/drivers/index.htm I suggest downloading the AGP 4.02 driver, the "Via 4-in-1" drivers v. 4.20 & 4.17. Tom 's hardware page mentioned some issues with AGP performance and the 4-in-1 4.20 drivers, so the 4.17's are posted still. I would install the 4.17 4-in-1 driver first, see if that fixes your problem. If not then go to 4.20 and then install the 4.02 AGP patch.

A search on "iMac rev b" turned up the following thread: http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/004862.html The basic gist is that you need to get the latest ATI drivers from either Apple or ATI and make sure you are running at 800 x 600 (or is that 832 x 624 ?) or lower resolution. Oh... and get the latest Game/Sound Sprockets. There's also the possibility that your downloaded file is corrupt, so you may want to try another download or reinstall of CM. [This message has been edited by Schrullenhaft (edited 05-25-2000).]

Uh... this is probably a bad guess. Although you aren't getting any overheating with your currently over-clocked Athlon, I would suggest possibly cutting back the over-clocking a little to see if this helps (say down to 700Mhz or so). It MAY be possible that the amount of floating point done by CM may be crashing on your over-clocked CPU (though the system doesn't seem to crash in anything else). I'm not sure if an "unhandled exception error" could even be related to floating point errors.

Definitely not a tank expert, but my guesses: 1) T-60/T-70 (captured) 2) T-35, Finland '39/'40 3) KV-1, 203mm artillery bombardment 4) Uh... BT-5/7 chassis w/T-70 turret Obviously I'm not employed as a photo analyst.

These are the latest drivers I could find from S3 (which you may already have as you indicated). I've included the URL to the S3 ID program that can identify the exact chipset, amount of memory and video modes available to it. As other members have pointed out S3 has a bit of a problem implementing DirectX without bugs. Since this is an older chip there will be no further drivers developed for it. S3 Trio 3D (365/366): http://www.s3.com/customer_caretechnical_supportdriversS3_Graphic_AcceleratorsTrio3D_%28365%5E366%29.htm S3 chipset ID program (run from DOS prompt): http://208.202.167.131/swlib/enduser/s3id.exe Upgrading to another card is probably your best bet. From what I could guess your system probably doesn't have an AGP slot (few boards that have built-in video have AGP slots available). That leaves you with upgrading to a PCI video card. Several users here have indicated that they are doing fine with the 3dfx Voodoo3 2000 PCI 16Mb.

Unfortunately NeoMagic doesn't provide reference drivers for their video chipsets. There's also a good chance that the drivers I have listed here won't fix your problem either, but it may be worth a try (find out where your current driver is so you can reinstall it just in case something doesn't work). Toshiba's website (you'll have to cut & paste this URL): http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/supp_tech_model_index.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1150061550.0959108362@@@@&BV_EngineID=falhkkjfmgdbfdkchmcfgkcgl.0&Product=Portables&Famil y=Tecra&Model=8000&CheckPage=&Center=Download A generic MagicMedia 256AV driver on the Windriver's site: http://www.windrivers.com/script/drivers.asp?company=256av

I don't know for sure, but I believe that the "blocky smoke" is probably still an issue with even the latest drivers from 3dfx. To fix your current problem I would suggest reinstalling DirectX 6.1 (I no longer see this version on Microsoft's website, so you may have to get it off of a game CD). Then install your old driver (off of your original Voodoo3 3000 CD). This will hopefully get you back to working with the Gold Demo. If you intend to use the latest drivers (it looks like you downloaded the latest WHQL certified drivers; there is a BETA 1.04.07 driver also) you may have to upgrade to DirectX 7.0a. As for the Talonsoft games not working with DirectX 7.0a, there are work-arounds for some of the games (others may just be completely incompatible). DirectX 7.0 will be slower than v. 6.1.

Your laptop MAY need new drivers. I've listed below the websites for downloading updates. The Toshiba site has an update for your video display (you should have an S3 Virge MX video card), your sound chip (which is the Yamaha OPL3-SA3), and an update for your BIOS (which probably won't address your problem). I would suggest installing DirectX 7.0a FIRST if you don't have it installed already (download from here): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=16819 This is the page for the Toshiba 2540CDS updates (the URL doesn't display correctly here so you will need to type the full address in): [url=http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/supp_tech_model_index.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0161688106.0959016177@@@@&BV_EngineID=galhkkkhfkfbfdkchmcfgkcgl.0&Product=Portables& Family=Satellite&Model=2540CDS&CheckPage=Technical&Center=Download Download and install the video driver AFTER you have installed DirectX 7.0a. The sound driver is probably the same version you already have. The BIOS update is optional. It mostly addresses power saving issues. If you do update your BIOS follow the instructions listed in the download (and make sure you are plugged into an AC outlet). With everything updated you then need to delete the "prefs" file for CM. When you launch CM again it should go through the available resolutions. Considering the color depths available to your laptop I would suggest 800 x 600 as a max (this is the laptop's maximum resolution for the LCD). [This message has been edited by Schrullenhaft (edited 05-22-2000).]

I'm not very familiar with the Voodoo series of cards, but I've been told that there is a "DirectX" setting in the control panels for it. This should be under the Display Control Panel - Settings tab - Advanced button. One of the tabs here should probably relate to the Voodoo (3dfx) and there will probably be a button or checkbox to disable the Voodoo's DirectX usage. This may possibly require a reboot once you've made this change. Once you've done this you will probably have to delete the "prefs" file in CM. Hopefully the next time you load up CM the resolutions you will be picking from will be DirectX accelerated by the TNT2. [This message has been edited by Schrullenhaft (edited 05-21-2000).]

As Madmatt mentioned, if the game is locking up after a specific amount of time it could very well be a heat-related problem. Since you mentioned sound being related to your lockup I would suggest changing a sound related setting (assuming you're running a PC). Run x:\Program Files\Directx\Setup\DXDIAG.EXE and this will launch the DirectX diagnostic/setup. From here go to the Audio tab and then adjust the slider in the middle of the tab for "Audio Acceleration". I'd suggest sliding it all the way to the left to see if this helps or not. Since you are able to play for quite awhile, then I would think that this won't affect your problem, but it may be worth a try.

I'm under the impression that you will not see a "graphical" representation of wind. I.e. - your smoke will not drift in the direction of the wind (it may disappear quicker, however). I believe you will get sound effects representing windy conditions. I have no idea if wind is calculated into the shell trajectory. Quite possible though.

Lobo - One problem you may run into with some of the newer name-brand laptops is that ATI has taken over the video chip market for them. If it isn't an ATI video chip, then it probably doesn't have 3D acceleration (and you will end up using software-based rendering, which can be significantly slower). There may be clones out there that may have some other 3D video chip (some old NVidia chipsets ?), but laptop clones can be quite questionable quality-wise and few of them offer any 3D performance enhancement.

Excuse the length of this post (it's my latest novella ). It's a cut & paste of previous suggestions I've made. These instructions are a bit generic and may be used by almost all users, with a few changes, under Win 9x: Since you had a previous video card or more specifically a previous 3D card you may want to clear any of the VooDoo 2 drivers that may still possibly be present on your system. To clear previous video drivers from your system you will need to: First check to see if there is an uninstaller for your current driver. Run that first. When it is finished and it has you reboot (or reboots for you) remember to press the F8 key to get the command prompt-based Startup Menu. Then: 1) Boot in SAFE mode (#3). 2) Go to Control panels - System control panel - device manager tab - click on the plus next to Display Adapters. 3) Delete/Remove ALL video drivers listed here. You may notice that there are several drivers listed here, depending on how many different video cards your computer may have had and how many times you may have installed drivers. 4) Once you have deleted the video drivers listed close up the control panels and go to the Start Menu. 5) Go to Run on the Start Menu and type in "regedit" (without the quotes). 6) This brings up the Registry editor. Any changes made here take effect IMMEDIATELY. There is no save function so any mistakes that are made are permanent (to a degree - backups of the registry can be created and restored, but not from within regedit). 7) Go to the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" key (click on the plus sign like the Device Manager) - ENUM - PCI. 8) Once in the PCI key you will want to click on the "VEN...." keys one at a time and then select the "item" below the initial key. Read through the lines in the right frame of the Registry editor. You will find text in there that describes this key. We are looking for keys that have "Display" in them. Looking further down you will see the name of the display adapter as it would appear in the Device Manager. You may also want to look for your VooDoo 2 adapter (by whatever name it may be using) and delete it too. 9) Since we deleted all of the display adapters in the Device Manager we may find nothing here. If we do, then we will want to delete it. Highlight (in the left frame) the "Ven..." key and then click delete (on your keyboard should be fine). Make sure your mouse doesn't wander and you end up deleting the wrong key. 10) Load up Explorer (file manager) and go to Windows/inf/other. In here we are going to look for .inf files that are descriptors for ATI video cards in particular and any other VIDEO cards in general. You may be able to tell what device the .inf is for by its name; other times you will have to open the file up in Notepad and read through it in order to determine what it is for. 11) Once you have deleted the .infs (if you found any) you can reboot your computer. During startup the computer should discover your display adapter. Hopefully it will just use the "Standard SVGA" driver" and not detect it as an "ATI compatible" or something else. 12) Some video cards have "flashable" BIOSs. Most of the time these BIOS upgrades address certain DDC (monitor detect), power saving or minor chipset related issues. On occasion some of these upgrades are necessary for "full" compatibility with the latest drivers (but this is VERY rare however). Be very careful in applying these updates as you can "kill" your board by flashing it incorrectly. Make sure the BIOS you upload to it is for that model (there can be differences in the BIOS versions depending on the amount of RAM on your board, etc.). 13) With the "Standard SVGA" as your display driver install/reinstall DirectX 7.0a. It may or may not detect your video card (usually doesn't if you have it set to a Standard SVGA). 14) Notes on Directx 7.0a: If you are running a version of DirectX older than 7.0, then you will probably need to upgrade to 7.0a (the "a" revision I think fixes some controller input problems primarily i.e. - joysticks, etc.). One word of warning however - some older games may NOT be fully compatible with DirectX 7.0. Their graphics may get messed up, completely hang or not even start up. Another caveat, unfortunately DirectX 7.0a is SLOWER than 6.1 (I think Charles mentioned this before on the board). You may notice a speed decrease in your system with it loaded up. However some of the feature sets of the latest drivers may have been written with a specific version of DirectX in mind, so it may be a necessary evil (they may mention that a certain version of DirectX is "required"). If your video card has 4Mb or less of memory, then there is a good chance that the drivers that come with DirectX 7.0a will possibly be the latest that are available (DirectX detects the chipset of your video card, so a Diamond video card may be detected as an S3 Virge, etc.). These "generic" drivers MAY solve some problems since they are, uh... tested... by Microsoft (or at least "approved" in some way). The point here is that DirectX may have the "compatible" driver for your card, rather than the actual manufacturer. This will be true for cards that are several years old (in general). These generic drivers however don't have all the frills that some of the manufacturer's modified drivers will have (Diamond for example), so you may be giving some things up (occasionally that may mean a little speed improvement being given up also). HOWEVER, some people have reported problems with CM and the generic drivers/DLLs that come with DirectX. Check with your card's manufacturer or the OEM chipset manufacturer's website for newer drivers. If there are any that mention DirectX 7.0 compatible then DEFINITELY get those, however most older video cards will probably not mention much in the way of DirectX and if they do they may refer to older versions. It may be worth the time to download them anyway in case they offer a fix that the generic drivers from Microsoft don't address. For those with 8Mb or larger amounts of video memory, then either the "reference drivers" from the OEM chipset manufacturer (i.e. - NVidia, S3, etc.) or the manufacturer's drivers are what you'll need to upgrade to (DirectX typically doesn't have the direct drivers for higher end 3D cards). Sometimes you'll be given the choice between "Beta" and "WHQL certified" (or just "Certified") drivers. It's a toss up between the two. Beta drivers sometimes fix problems, speed up the card or give you additional features, but they can also be very buggy. WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Lab - if you really wanted to know) certified drivers have supposedly been submitted to Microsoft for approval and have passed some sort of testing. These drivers may not have all the fixes (and are often several revisions behind the latest drivers), but are supposed to work (with Windows at least - not your game !). Better manufacturers will sometimes document the reasons/fixes in their drivers. You obviously won't see CM being listed, but you may find similar issues with other games that may apply to CM. Some sites/manufacturers are good enough to post past revisions of drivers. On occasion you will find that the latest video drivers will be buggy and you will need to go back to an earlier version. If your manufacturer doesn't post the older drivers then you need to hold onto your older drivers (be they either on a CD, diskette or zip file). 15) Once you have DirectX loaded up (and you've rebooted), now is the time to load up you specific drivers. A note for ATI video card owners: When you update your drivers you may get a GPF during the installation. A common cause for this is that your video memory is being cached. You will need to disable this in your CMOS and then attempt the installation again (you can re-enable this feature after the installation). If you have a non-Intel based chipset and a Rage 128 / 128 Pro, then you may want to get the older, rather than the latest drivers (some VIA chipsets may be fine however), which are available at the ATI website (just somewhat hidden): The first set here worked for Maus when he was having problems with the latest ATI drivers and his board. v. 4.11.6216 (which worked for Maus): http://support.atitech.ca/drivers/win98_4116216.html v. 4.11.6263 (newer, but not newest): http://support.atitech.ca/drivers/win98_4116263.html I have two different ATI Rage 128s (and a 128 Pro that uses the same family driver) and both work fine with the latest 4.12.6269 driver (transparencies, switching apps, etc - no problems have been duplicated). There are also settings in your CMOS that you can modify that may affect the behavior of your video card. These settings (and their names) will vary BIOS to BIOS and some may not be available at all (or applicable depending on what bus type your video card is). You can experiment with "VGA Frame Buffer USWC" (caching) and/or Video Memory caching (whatever your BIOS may have). You can also upgrade your motherboard BIOS (if you can identify it). BIOS upgrades for your motherboard may "patch" CPU microcode (primarily for Intel PIIs & IIIs) or possibly "fix" AGP problems and other issues (like hard drive sizes). However, be VERY careful with updating your BIOS if you haven't done it before - it can ruin your whole month if it goes bad. Another note for those who are running into lockups in CM. You may want to turn off your "audio acceleration". This can be done in DirectX's DXDIAG utility (/Program Files/Directx/Setup/DXDIAG.EXE), on the Audio tab there should be an acceleration slider in the middle of the tab. It's one more thing to possibly try (though most problems are probably due to video issues).

Several users reported problems with the ATI Rage Mobility video chipsets. The following was a solution posted by "Eridani" that involved the BETA demo, how well it holds up for the GOLD demo I don't know: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>If I start a game in 1024x768 resolution and then set my laptops resolution down to 800x600, when I click on combat mission on the taskbar the cursor works perfectly. I now have 3 clones of combat mission running, one was started while I was 640x480 native, one 800x600 and the third 1024x768. I am now in 800x600 and the 640x480 and 1024x768 both work flawlessly. if I switch up to 1024x768, then the 640 and the 800 will both work, but 1024 won't anymore. It seems that if CM changes the native resolution when I maximize it, everything works, when it just uses the native (windows) rez, the cursor goes haywire... I don't know if this helps at all... It makes sense to me though... any idea if this will keep happening with the gold version?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

G2A - You seem to be under the impression that BTS will come to your house, take away your pirated copy of CM and spank you. BTS will not become an "enforcement" agency. They will utilize the law as it is written/interpreted and enforced by agencies given the power to do so (in the US and other countries). Given the nature and size of crimes it will be almost fruitless to pursue individuals who own a pirated copy of CM. On the other hand stopping people who are distributing it via hard copies or the internet is very much worth their time. I see nothing fascist about allowing BTS to pursue people who are stealing from them. I highly doubt that they would report an individual that was using CM without a license. Persuasion of one sort or another would probably be more effective. I can see it now... troops in black w/ body armor, helmets and MP5s and a big fat "BTS" logo on their back. My "karma" statement was meant in terms of a company getting bad sales of future products because customers have learned of their bad products and support. I forget what the latin term is for "consumer beware".

Just to contribute uselessly to this topic... I highly doubt that BTS will be able to track down INDIVIDUALS who have a pirated copy of CM, but a website/USENET group can be LEGALLY forced to take down their posting of the copy. I don't think anyone here wants to create an Orwellian state, but these are criminal acts that are being perpetrated by these pirates. And pirating ANYONE'S software is just not good. Even if you hate the big companies, you make the "intellectual property" marketplace that much harder for the little guy by pirating. Sure some programs end up riddled with bugs and the developer doesn't support them as they should. Hopefully such developers experience karma at some point in their existence.

This will probably NOT fix your freezing problem, but it will give us a clean slate to start from. Before launching CM I would suggest that you go to the "system tray" in the lower right hand corner and turn off/shut down/exit any utilities that are running here. We want to eliminate any interference these programs may cause while you are running CM (though they may NOT be causing the freezing). Utilities like antivirus checkers, anti-lockup, program schedulers and various other utilities can be accessed from these icons. After you've closed down everything you can from the system tray you will need to "ctrl-alt-del" to bring up the "Close Program" dialog box. In here will be all running programs/utilities. At a minimum we will need "Explorer" and "Systray" left in the list. Highlight a program and click the "End Task" button. You may have to try this upto 3 times with some stubborn programs. Ctrl-Alt-Del until you are left with the previously mentioned two programs (though you may want to leave any graphics/gamma/sound utilities running if it affects the appearance/sound of CM). With all of this done, now run CM and see if it freezes. If it does (and you don't have this problem with other programs) then we're either talking of a driver/hardware conflict or a problem with CM executing on your machine (maybe a particular routine in the game just craps out on your drivers, etc.). Oh... you may also want to reduce the resolution on your video card and see how well CM runs. You can also try the latest "reference drivers" from Nvidia or other websites like reactorcritical (which have newer reference drivers than Nvidia's corp. site).

If you are using an overclocking utility on your GeForce card, then I suggest you set it back a couple of "clicks". CM seems to be a bit more sensitive to overclocking than some other games may be. This type of lockup will usually happen very quickly (i.e. - once the map is displayed in setup, etc.) Where are you seeing these lockups ? Are you able to play the game for awhile and then get locked up ?

Didn't quite make it to London yet ? The "Shuttle EPAT external ATAPI Adaptor" is a parallel port to IDE device driver. Do you have an external CDROM/Zip/LS-120/Hard drive that you hook to your parallel port ? If not, then a piece of hardware that you installed drivers for installed this by default (even if it doesn't use it, the manufacturer is covering all bases by installing all variants of the driver). If you're sure that you don't hook up something to your parallel port (other than your printer), then you can probably highlight this driver and click "Remove". As for your VooDoo 1 disappearing... I'm not sure where in the Device Manager it would pop up. I'm guessing that it may show up under "Multimedia Devices" (though I'm not sure what name it would go by). The "Unknown Device" that keeps on popping up (and is listed in the Device Manager with a big yellow question mark icon) may be your VooDoo 1. I would suggest deleting this item (the same way you did with the EPAT driver). On your next reboot you will need your drivers for your VooDoo ready and when the Unknown device is discovered again you can point it to the directory or CD (probably the root of the CD) and hopefully the drivers should correspond to your Unknown device. Let us know what works.

Sounds like a video driver problem (assuming the install went correctly). Do you have problems playing any other Windows games ? We will need more info on the video card that you have (which you should be able to find from Control Panels - System - Device Manager tab - Display adapter). In Device Manager you can also find out which driver version you have by clicking on the Properties button while you have the display adapter highlighted (the actual name/driver of your card), then go to the Driver tab and press the Driver File Details button (depending on what version of Windows you have). As the drivers are highlighted the "File Version" info will be updated (ignore the vmm32 entry - it will correspond to your Windows version). Anyway, what it comes down to is that we would probably recommend that you update your video drivers (though this doesn't always fix the problem and, conversely, MAY create other problems). You can respond back to this thread with the info that you have and we can tell you where to find the latest updates. Another thing to try is to change your resolution and color depth (which can be done from the Display Control panel). With certain cards some people have found that lower resolutions allows them to play.

I don't know about an AFV command structure, you'd have to deploy a platoon (or remanants thereof) of AFVs in each scenario. It would be nice for the heavy-weapons teams/bazooka teams to have some sort of small firearms in addition to their main armament; pistols or carbines at the least. I guess we'll have to wait for a patch if it is really warranted (as I have no proof whatsoever of heavy-weapons TOE).

Just to revive a near-dead issue: I believe the problem that Maus was having with the latest driver is possibly due to the drivers being incompatible with either 1) AMD Athlon / 3D Now extensions 2) Non-Intel chipset on motherboard (AGP issues) I have two different ATI Rage 128s (and a 128 Pro that uses the same family driver) and both work fine with the latest 4.12.6269 driver. The are both running with Intel CPUs and Intel chipset-based motherboards. Maus may have a motherboard that has the AMD Irongate chipset (other than the newest Athlon boards, this was the only chipset available) and it has several AGP issues that may have been brought out by the latest ATI drivers. If you have a non-Intel based chipset and a Rage 128 / 128 Pro, then you may want to get the earlier drivers (some VIA chipsets may be fine however), which are available at the ATI website (just somewhat hidden): v. 4.11.6216 (which worked for Maus): http://support.atitech.ca/drivers/win98_4116216.html v. 4.11.6263 (newer, but not newest): http://support.atitech.ca/drivers/win98_4116263.html [This message has been edited by Schrullenhaft (edited 05-12-2000).]

Although it may have no bearing on your problem you may want to check your G400's BIOS version (which can be either seen - very quickly - at boot or from your Display control panel - Info tabs). The latest rev. is 1.5.22: http://www.matrox.com/mga/drivers/bios/home2.htm The latest driver for the G400 is 5.52.015: http://www.matrox.com/mga/drivers/latest_drivers/home.htm I don't know a lot about the G400, but which version do you have ? A "dual head" display version or a TV out (Marvel) version or just a standard G400/G400 Max, etc. ? [This message has been edited by Schrullenhaft (edited 05-12-2000).]

If you post more details about your system and the exact nature of the problem you're seeing when you try to run CM we can try to help you a bit further.

If you have Windows NT Workstation 4.0 then you're not probably going to be able to play CM on it. Service Pack 3 and above will install DirectX (v. 1.0 - 2.0 - 3.0 ?). DirectX 7.0a or 6.1 WILL NOT WORK with NT. Sorry... Microsquish's idea that NT is used at work and not geared for any kind of gaming. Your next best bet is to upgrade to Windows 2000 Professional which has DirectX 6.1+ as part of the install (if you have to have some of NT's features such as NTFS or what-have-you). If you do upgrade to W2K you may have to check out the availability of drivers for your video card. Some drivers are still in Beta for W2K, so there could be some problems, but it will more than likely work (uh... that's a big guess).