Game dont want to run

[Dr.Fusselpulli]

Hy over there, I had buy Combat Mission: Shock Force (Paradox vers.) on Amazon during the christmas days. I had patched it up to 1.10 paradox and than 1.20 paradox.

The game runs, but I had a lot of false colors in the game (bright green, red orange, white and yellow in the 3D view). I thought it must be a problem with my video-card, reinstall all software corresponding to the card and installed the new driver (ATI Catalyst 9.3.1). But now the game don´t want to start anymore.

If I try it, the CD starts to rotate, the computer makes his work, the combat mission shock force button appears in the task bar, and after a second it disapers already and the computer is quiet again. No dialog box, nothing.

My system is:

Operating System: MS Windows XP HE

Video Card: ATI Radion 9800XT with 256MB

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3000+

RAM: 2GB DDR SDRAM

DirectX: 9.0c

Anti-virus software: Avira AntiVir 9.0.0.429

can someone help me?

[Schrullenhaft]

I sent you a reply for your support ticket already, but the basic suggestion comes down to uninstalling CMSF and reinstalling the version on the Paradox CD and then trying to run the game (without patching it yet) and see if it works.

Is your Avira Anti-virus the 'free' version or is it the full retail/paid version ? If it is the 'free' version, then you may want to update since the 9.x series has been retired. If it is the full/retail version, then you'll have to consider the costs of upgrading since version 10.x is out now. The 'free' version has not caused us any problems in the past (other than some 'false positives' for some of our compressed files with eLicense in them). The full/paid version however might behave a bit differently since there are some added features with some of the versions.

[Dr.Fusselpulli]

It is the free version, I will update it soon...

so, my problem could be some OpenGL problems or something like that.

I have tried FulMark v1.6.5 to proove. It neither don´t run.

The other programm, OpenGL Extensions Viewer 3.0 gives me a

dialog box before it shut down after I try to starts it.

So, is there possible a problem with ATI Videocards, or does I only forgot something? :confused:

[Schrullenhaft]

The AMD/ATI video cards should work fine with CMSF. However there appears to be some sort of problem with your driver (Catalyst) installation with the drivers not supporting OpenGL. The support should be there (its part of the driver install), so I'm not sure what is happening.

The OpenGL driver file is 'atioglxx.dll'. I don't know if something has happened to this file or what, but you're having a very strange issue with your drivers.

Make sure that you have updated your .NET installs (Microsoft/Windows Update) since the Catalyst Control Center is dependent on them. However even without that, the OpenGL drivers should be installed.

[Dr.Fusselpulli]

That sounds pretty awesome. Maybe the solution of my problem. Thank you, I will try I.

[Dr.Fusselpulli]

Okay, now I deleted all ATI files with Driver Sweeper 2.8.0 on my system, than I had reinstall the catalyst 9.3.1 driver, and in the end I updatet my windows XP(32) with the Servicepack2. No success.

The atioglxx.dll with 11.568kb is found in Windows/system32 and also in Windows/system32/ReinstallBackups/0003/DriverFiles

lower versions of the file, with less kb are also found in the folders 0000/DriverFiles till 0002/DriverFiles

Nothing changed with the OpenGL test-programs.

OpenGL Extensions Viewer 3.0 still shout his dialog box:

System.AccessViolationException: Attempted to read or write protectet memory. This is often an idication that other memory is corrupt.

at openglex.Win32.oevClientInitialize()

at openglex.oevDetect.backgroundWorker1_DoWork(Object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)

and FulMark v1.6.5 says nothing, don't want to start just as much as the Game. Strange... really...

I am already contacted the AMD costumer Support. They say the game is not our problem, please try the newest driver for the best OpenGL solutions. But does it work together with CMSF?

[Schrullenhaft]

If neither OpenGL utility runs, that indicates that your system's capability of rendering OpenGL is having a problem. THAT ALONE will prevent CMSF from running since it is an OpenGL game. While CMSF not running is our issue and not AMD's, the lack of OpenGL support is, technically, their issue.

The '\Windows\System32' file of 'atioglxx.dll' is the current driver. The other files would appear to be backup copies of one sort or another of previous installation/installation attempts. You can ignore them and their various versions.

Driver Sweeper was the program that I was looking to recommend earlier, but for some reason had a problem finding on the Guru3D website. It should have done a decent job in cleaning out any different driver versions of the Catalysts.

With the Radeon 9800XT the latest driver you can use is the Catalyst 10.2 and we're fairly certain that that driver does NOT work with CMSF. The next candidate would be Catalyst 9.3.1/9.3, which avoids the 9.4 - 9.9 Catalysts that have a known OpenGL bug.

Interesting that you recently upgraded from a plain-vanilla Windows XP or Service Pack 1 install to Service Pack 2. Have you run all of the Windows Updates yet ? The .NET (2.o) installs and updates would be necessary for the Catalyst Control Center, but the driver itself (DirectX and OpenGL) should continue to function without such files. Usually you should get a warning if the Catalyst Control Center installer can't find the required .NET files during the installation process.

The OpenGL Extension viewer is also dependent on the .NET (2.0) libraries to my knowledge. So if those aren't there that could cause an issue. If those are already present, then something else is going on here (most likely). This utility just reports on OpenGL capabilities of your video hardware and drivers and it has a small test you can execute, much like the DirectX Diagnostic.

In fact, though it doesn't have a direct impact on CMSF, you may want to run the DirectX Diagnostic and see how it runs. To do this go to the Start/Windows Menu > in the 'Run' command type in (without quotes) 'dxdiag'. This will run the DirectX Diagnostic. Go to the 'Display' tab and click the 'Test Direct3D' button and see how well it does with the 'rotating cube tests'. These are all very simple tests that just show that DirectX is working in the most basic fashion. The OpenGL Extension viewer also has similar tests for OpenGL.

What security software are you running on this computer (anti-virus/anti-spyware/anti-malware/firewall/internet-security/system utility) ? Some of these programs/utilities may need to be temporarily disabled in order for software to install fully in many cases.

[Dr.Fusselpulli]

Hi Schrullenhaft, firstly, I wish you a happy new year.

I have download and installed a file called "NetFx20SP2_x86.exe" I think that could be a ".NET 2.0" file?

I use Avira AntiVir 9.0.0.429 Personel (free-version)

The 'Test Direct3D' on DirectX works very well.

But nothing changed, neither the test-programs nor the game want to start.

Maybe I try to reinstall my windows... some people in an Radeon ATI Forum suspect the error in the OS. And I think this can be true. But, if I reinstall, I simultaneous update my hardware components, with a new HDD. I think it would be senseless, if we still try to fix the problem at the moment. So I will come back in a few month. Having a new fresh system. During the time I can read the manual again and again and again...

...by the way, thank you for the effort and the really great service.

It seems to be not a CMSF error. See you later. :cool: