CMBB does not work for me! Damn!

[Bluefish]

Everthing goes smooth until I click 'play game' button on the menu screen and I crash to desktop everytime. Downloaded demo twice and still nothing. Anybody got a clue?? Would appreciated greatly. :confused:

[Gen. Sosaboski]

Nope, but I get a little bit farther. It freezes when I click the start scenario button. D/led DX 8.1, thinking it would help, but it didn't.

[Schrullenhaft]

You need to provide more specs on the computer you're running such as platform, OS, memory, video card, drivers, DirectX version (if applicable), motherboard, resolution that you're running at, etc.

[ September 01, 2002, 05:30 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[Bluefish]

Pent III, 500 mhz, 128 Ram, 16mb blaster banshee vid card. Crappy I know but CMBO ran like a champ!

[Schrullenhaft]

Which Windows version are you running ? What DirectX version and video driver do you have installed ? What is your current resolution and what resolution have you selected for CMBB (I'd suggest running at 800x600) ? What color depth are you running at (I'd suggest 16-bit color, aka 'thousands').

I haven't checked out the Banshee myself (I do have a Diamond version to use). I know the drivers are quite dated and they may have a problem with the texture sizes in CMBB. Did you run CMBO with graphical high res mods ?

[Bluefish]

Win ME, 16 bit color, 800/600 res, I'm off to get the latest dirX now. I hope that helps.

By the way, thank you for taking time to help me

Yes CMBO ran great at high res. except smoke, which was the low res blocky type.

[ September 01, 2002, 06:56 PM: Message edited by: Bluefish ]

[Schrullenhaft]

When I meant 'high res' I was speaking of graphics mods that had higher resolution textures than what was included on the CMBO CD rather than a high resolution for the screen (such as 1024x768). Since CMBB uses high resolution textures it may cause problems with certain video cards and drivers that can't handle them.

DirectX 8.1 may not help your problem. It might even cause more problems. I'll see what I can do to get a computer up with a Banshee in it to find out if there is a way to get it working, but there's a better than 50/50 chance that CMBB might not work with a Banshee.

[LoD]

Hi everyone,

I downloaded the demo, tried to run it, failed. Was going to attribute that to my poor system specs (K6-2 300 Mhz, 128MB RAM, Voodoo 1 - and you're calling yours 'crappy', Bluefish ), until I visited the board and stumbled upon this thread. The symptoms listed in the first post are identical to what I experienced - ie. the game loads normally, but when I click on Play Game it briefly displays "Scanning for Scenarios" and crashes to Windows with no error window. I can enter the Join Multiplayer menu normally. And CMBO works fine on mine comp.

Any help would be greatly appreciated .

PS. I've just had an idea - since I can enter the load PBEM menu, can someone send me a PBEM file from the CMBB menu, so that I can test whether it is possible to enter the main game? My addy is in the profile. Thanks in advance .

[ September 02, 2002, 01:34 PM: Message edited by: LoD ]

[Bluefish]

hehe, I get just as far as you. I was gonna ask for the same thing but I've just about given up hope. On an other note, I can't even open up the read me file. It says error blah blah. How about you?

[Schrullenhaft]

LoD - If you actually have a Voodoo 1, then CMBB probably isn't going to work with it. There were problems with the Voodoo 1's in CMBO and I believe that support for the Voodoo 1 & 2 may have been removed from CMBB, but I'm not absolutely sure on that. Unfortunately I don't have any Voodoo 1's or 2's on hand to test with.

Unforatunately there is quite a difference between loading up the menus/scenarios and actually being able to get to a 3D screen.

I suggest looking through the diretory structure where you extracted the CMBB Demo to and check a look at the Scnearios folder to see if it actually has the scenarios in it. Did you run into any problems during the extraction process ? CMBB Demo takes up approximately 129Mb of disk space. If you're far short of that, then your extraction may not have finished properly.

Bluefish - sorry I haven't gotten around to installing the Voodoo Banshee as of yet. I have it pulled, but I have to finish repairing another computer first. I'll stick it in a machine and let you know the results. I will probably try the latest official drivers for it and probably some of the third party ones you can get from VoodooFiles.

[LoD]

Schrullenhaft - well, I had over 2 gigs free space on the partition I was installing the demo, so there should have been no problems with that. Everything looks fine and dandy as far as directory structure goes, all files that should be present are present.

As for the 3D graphics, that's why I'm asking for the PBEM file - should it work, that means that the problem is not in the Voodoo card. Otherwise, well, I'd better plan a hardware upgrade (finally). I'm thinking it's the former, since the game makes no fuss about the 3D driver during setup. Regardless, could you send the file to me? I'd be much obliged .

[krm]

I have the same problem. Demo loads fine. After I select 'start game' I am booted to the desktop. System specs:

P3 500

Voodoo 2

SB Live

320 MB RAM

Win 98

I think I may have affirmed your voodoo 2 theory.

[Schrullenhaft]

What resolution are you able to select when you first install CMBB Demo ? If it tells you 640x480, then it isn't going to work. The screen should come up with buttons cluttered and overlapping each other. I'm not sure what the scenario listing will look like either (possibly unable to see the right hand side). When you finally try to launch into the 3D portion of the game it may not come up.

Right now anyone who selects 640x480 during the selection process (which will appear successful) will get a message that CMBB needs to run at 800x600 and the game won't run. The Voodoo 1 & 2's seem to be fooling CMBB at this point (because the main resolution is on the primary display card, I assume) and allowing the user to go in when they've set it for 640x480.

Because of the minimum resolution requirements (and the larger textures) CMBB is going to behave differently from CMBO. CMBO may very well run with the Voodoo 1 & 2's, but CMBB isn't as far as I'm aware. The Voodoo 1's typically have 4Mb, which isn't enough to run a Direct3D app at 800x600 (possibly at 640x480 - which is why it is working with CMBO and the default textures). The Voodoo 2's are a bit of a question since they have either 8 or 12Mb of VRAM to my knowledge and should be able to run a Direct3D game at 800x600 (if memory requirements alone are all that need to be met). To my knowledge the Voodoos are a bit different in their memory requirements (I can't remember if it is due to some sort of 16-bit to 22-bit color conversion in hardware or what) and they tend to require a bit more memory than you may suspect at certain resolutions.

LoD - you're saying that the extraction did finish at one point without errors ? I know some people have had errors extracting the files and it's possible that not all files were extracted. However since both users are crashing when attempting to load the scenario screen, that seems to be the common point of failure.

I'll have to send you a setup file when I get home today since I don't have the Demo at work.

[Schrullenhaft]

LoD - I tried to send a PBEM to the email address you have listed in your profile, but the mail bounced back as undeliverable. Do you have another email address ?

[Schrullenhaft]

OK, I've tried out the Voodoo Banshee, but I don't have any good news to report.

I tried it out in both Windows 2000 and Windows ME. I couldn't get the 1.02.02 Beta drivers (the last set provided by 3dfx) to load up properly in Windows 2000, so that became a bit of a loosing struggle. Windows 2000 will load up its own driver for the Banshee, but after installing the 3dfx drivers I can't seem to get Windows 2000 to recognize the card in the exact manner with the drivers it originally provided (the driver says it's a Voodoo 3, though an info panel recognizes that it's a Voodoo Banshee).

Under Windows ME I've tried both the 1.04.00 (?) driver from 3dfx and the CD version of the Diamond Monster Fusion driver (a bit older I'm sure). However neither of them could get CMBB to run properly.

Under both Win2K and WinME I ran into the problem of either crashing out when the scenario list was to be brought up (usually with the latest drivers) or that each screen would have to be minimized or Ctrl-Alt-Del performed to refresh the screen after each selection (which gets really frustrating, obviously).

With the Diamond Monster Fusion drivers (under WinME) and the Microsoft drivers (under Win2K) I was able to get to the 'Loading 3D Graphics' screen, but the computer basically locked up graphically at that point (the cursor still worked and you could hear sound, but the screen wouldn't refresh and you couldn't Alt-Tab, etc. out of it).

Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot out there for the Banshees. I downloaded one 'Banshee Control' applet, but it didn't help. Suprisingly (in the DirectX 3D tests) the latest drivers were really fast (but that wouldn't translate into actual performance within CM).

Under WinME I've been able to run CMBO with the drivers, but CMBB refuses (typically crashing and disappearing when trying to load the scenario listing).

I will communicate these problems to Madmatt, but I don't think that there is much that can be done at this point. The Voodoo Banshee uses part of the Voodoo2 core for its 3D functions (its a bit slower than a Voodoo 2 supposedly, though it has a higher 'GPU' clock than the Voodoo 2's).

So as far as I see it the Voodoo 1's will definitely be out. They just won't meet the minimum VRAM requirements (especially since the way they function requires a bit more VRAM than you may normally suppose). The Voodoo 2's (probably the 12Mb versions I'm not sure about the 8Mb ones) and Voodoo Banshees seem like they should function. However I don't know at this point if there is something that can be done with CMBB (a minor code fix) or if it is something with the drivers (possibly the textures being too large, etc.). I don't expect a solution before CMBB is release (which means that it won't function for those using these cards at the moment). If we're lucky a patch can fix this problem, but quite possibly not.

There are two things I've neglected to try at this point. I forgot to apply the AMD patch for Windows 2000 and AGP (I don't know if my service pack already has it or not) and I didn't reduce the AGP Aperture in the CMOS/BIOS setup (which sometimes helps with some problems). I'll try these tonight and report my findings.

[ September 05, 2002, 02:40 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[LoD]

Schrullenhaft - yes, send it to lod@ask-klan.net.pl please then. Sorry about that - I've been having some problems with the civguild address lately.

[spwaw]

If anybody use quincuncx antialaising,get it off.I use 6x 0r 4x antialaising optoin and game run fine for me.

Use to get odd crash when use quincuncx.

[LoD]

Well, thanks to Schrullenhaft, I was able to test the thing. And, believe it or not, it turns out that Voodoo 1 handles CMBB's battle graphics!

Unfortunately I now have to wait for the patched version of the demo. Unless some kind soul would send me savegames for all 5 starting variants ...

[wade]

Can anybody send me a pbem to. Epley_w@hotmail.com or if that doesnt work w_epley@yahoo.com

Thanks

[Schrullenhaft]

A bit of good news for Banshee owners under Win 98/ME:

I've been able to get around the 'scenario listing crash' with a particular version of the Banshee drivers. Using v. 1.03.04 for Win9x/ME I've gotten CMBB Demo to run just fine. The only problem is that the initial 2D screens may require that you Alt-Tab to get them to refresh. The only other problem I've seen is the 2D control portion of the 3D screen may be corrupted with horizontal streaks when you first load the 3D screen - just Alt-Tab and everything is fine. I haven't checked all the details with the full version and this driver, but this looks like the best solution at the moment. I ran at 800x600, 16-bit color. I can't recall off hand if transparency worked with this driver version or not.

Under Windows 2000 I've confirmed that the driver that is included with that OS (5.0.2080.1) will work with the 3D portion of CMBB. It still however suffers from the 'scenario listing crash'. Transparencies work with this driver version (which may be the same version that WinXP has).

I've notified Madmatt about these problems and we'll see if there is anything that can be done. The full version will have these same problems as far as I'm aware, but hopefully a patch at some point in the future might rectify these problems.

[ September 09, 2002, 03:50 AM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[klapton]

I also had the problem with CMBB exiting to desktop after clicking on Play Game.

My system is:

P200 MMX, 64Mb RAM, Banshee 16 Mb, DirectX 8

I was using drivers 4.10.

I updated to 4.12 using a file obtained from web site Voodoo Files, and now CMBB runs fine. Only the textures on vehicles, smoke and fire seem to be somewhat low-quality.

[Ozgur Budak]

I have the same problem; whenever I click "start" button it crashes to desktop. I tried all resolutions in vain...

My system:

PII233

Voodoo2 12Mb Memory

256RAM

Win98 2nd edition

I have the latest driver for voodoo2 supporting directX.8.0 (I have 8.1 installed)

I have CMBO and it runs quite well.

[Schrullenhaft]

Ozgur Budak - I'm not sure if trying an older Voodoo 2 driver may help or not. With the Voodoo Banshee I was able to get past the 'scenario list' crashing by using a slightly older driver (the latest for that card was 1.04.0x).

This 3dfx Voodoo 2 archive (maintained by an individual) has a pretty decent list of Voodoo 2 drivers (though possibly not all that are available). Of course there is also x3dfx (click on the Drivers link to the left) and Voodoo Files which usually has one of the more complete collections of drivers, especially 3rd party ones.

klapton - When you say '4.12' drivers, what is the 3dfx designation for these drivers ? Are they 3dfx Reference drivers or are the OEM (Creative, Diamond) or even 3rd party drivers from an individual ?

Typically I've found the textures to be OK, but all of the Voodoos from the 3 on down show the background 'sky' bitmap in an extremely fuzzy view. Otherwise most of the bitmaps look fairly good.

[Ozgur Budak]

I've tried old reference drivers of 3dfx; OEM drivers; 3rd party drivers: no result, crashes to desktop. out of idea

Can someone send me a pbem game file?

Thanks

my mail: budak@egenet.com.tr

[ September 12, 2002, 06:27 PM: Message edited by: Ozgur Budak ]

[klapton]

>klapton - When you say '4.12' drivers, >what is the 3dfx designation for these drivers ? >Are they 3dfx Reference drivers or are the OEM (Creative, Diamond) or even 3rd party drivers >from an individual ?

I will check what is the correct designation of the drivers. Apparently, they came from 3dfx and were designed for DirectX 7 (although I have DirectX 8). I have Win98, by the way