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(New questions) BGEE crashes during character creation

ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
edited March 2019 in Troubleshooting
I recently purchased BGEE from GOG. It installed smoothly, and seems to run fine right up to the point where I start to create a character, then the problems begin.

It won't generate or load any pre-made characters from the menu (nothing happens) and it crashes if I attempt to create a character, as soon as I try to select gender. It also crashes if I attempt to import a character (that was made with this same game on a different machine).

Note: Trying the "alternate renderer" option made the game crash right on startup, so that's not the solution (and I found this forum by searching for a way to revert that setting outside the game).

After reading this thread:

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/60263/bgee-crashes-during-character-creation?

It looks like a graphics card driver update MIGHT be the solution, from the answers given above (please feel free to add other suggestions if you think that might not be the problem), however it's challenging finding out which is the latest driver that will actually work with my graphics card and operating system.

Here's the info from DxDiag:

Display Devices
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 4000
Manufacturer: NVIDIA

Display Memory: 64.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.9371 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 10/22/2006 12:22:00, 4527488 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: nv4_mini.sys
Mini VDD Date: 10/22/2006 12:22:00, 3994624 bytes

I have DirectX 9.0C and Open GL 2 on my system (Win XP SP 2).

The big question is, IS there a newer version of a driver from NVIDIA that will actually work on this card and this operating system?

NVIDIA's driver search page only goes back to the GeForce 5 series, so no help there. And their archive page for Win 2000/XP drivers doesn't give enough information (for me) to make a selection:

https://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_archive.html

It should be simple to find the most recent driver that works with my card and system, but so far multiple searches have proved inconclusive (and I want to download from the NIVIDIA site, not from a 3rd party site).

Also, does this line of information:

Driver Date/Size: 10/22/2006 12:22:00, 4527488 bytes

...refer to the actual driver issue date, or just the date that the driver was installed on the system? If the latter, it could of course have a much earlier issue date.

Naturally I want to be sure I have the correct drivers before attempting to install any.

If anyone can point me to a definitive answer on how to actually find the correct, latest driver that will work (and/or another solution to this issue), I'll be extremely appreciative.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer on this!
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Comments

  • GusindaGusinda Member Posts: 1,915
    Hi @Shinsei and welcome to the forum, the latest MX 4000 series NVidia driver I could find was here. It is dated a little after the ne you are running at the moment (06 Nov 2006), more likely the same just packaged later but certainly worth a try. The 'official' Windows supported ones are way back to 2003/4.

    Is it only BGEE that you have pruchased, and I am guessing that since it is a recent purchase, it is v2.5.17.0).

    A thought: after the video driver change (advised to reinstall DirectX 9.0c after you update drivers), as a quick test, start XP in Safe mode and see if the game runs. Also, is there any reason that you stayed with SP2 and didn't go to SP3?

    Fingers crossed
    Gus
    JuliusBorisov
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    Hi, Gus, thank you for your fast and friendly reply!

    Using the link you gave me as a starting place, I noticed that some (not all) of the drivers on the archive page have a "products supported" tab like the one you listed. With that as a guide, I was able to find one that is even more recent that lists my video card as supported.

    That one is dated May 17, 2007 so hopefully has a better chance of resolving these issues.

    To answer your question, I actually purchased three different "Enhanced" games just this week: BG1, BG2 and IWD. So is it safe to assume that any issues I encounter with BGEE may also apply to the others?

    This was the first one that I installed and tested.

    The exact version number may have shown on the screen during installation, not sure where else to check though. The listing in GOG says version 2.5 and the bin file used for installing says:

    setup_baldurs_gate_enhanced_edition_2.5_(23121)-1.bin

    Does that sound like the version you mentioned?

    On your suggestion to re-install DirectX 9.0c after updating the video drivers: How would I do that? I think the only way I've ever installed DirectX is in the course of installing a game that included it.

    It has also been many years since I last installed a video driver, so I'll have to look up the procedure and hope to find a step by step guide for Win XP.

    (I didn't change from SP2 to SP3 because everything I wanted to do was working fine in SP2. Do you think it would be worth the extra work to manually update to SP3 at this point?)

    My roommate just installed the same game on a newer machine with Win XP SP3 and has a different issue: upon launching the game, there is a big, blurry gray screen that has the word "beamdog" across it in what looks like a very grainy video display. Eventually it gets to the main game "landing" screen, after missing most (or all) of the opening movie. Is this perhaps another graphics card/driver issue? After that point the game seems be playable, however this probably doesn't bode well for viewing the in-game movies.

    Thanks for any additional guidance you can offer on this. I've downloaded the driver from NVIDIA (although the download is 32.5 MB instead of 40.7 as listed on its product page) and will look into the procedure for updating drivers.

    If you can help us to get the enhanced editions of these three games working completely, it may save us hours of work that would be involved in falling back on the original versions (and all the extra patching and modding they would require).

    Thanks again for your help!
    JuliusBorisov
  • GusindaGusinda Member Posts: 1,915
    edited March 2019
    @Shinsei, no probs, glad to help out...

    To download directX 9.0c, go to this link (Microsoft Official Site) and hit the red download. It should be named 'directx_Jun2010_redist.exe' and MS will try to get your to download a bunch of other stuff; just ignore them and say to continue to download. Start the file (double click), and it will ask where to unpack the files. You can place it in a temporary folder (not sure whether you have multiple drives so I will use C Drive), so type in: C:\DirectX. It wont exist yet so tell the program to create it.
    When complete, navigate to the folder using Windows Explorer and run 'DXSetup.exe'. This will install DirectX onto your system. Once installed, you can delete the folder, back it up onto external media or just leave it there depending on your resourses available.
    Reinstalling it every time you update your drivers is a good idea, not necessarily a requirement, but a good idea as some driver installs may overwrite some of the DirectX drivers which can be a bad thing especially if they are older.

    For your video card driver, it is likely that there will be a setup.exe to run the install and automate the config, most companies do it that way. For some of the more advanced users, they can use the .inf file for installation but you would end up with the same result anyway.

    For your roommates problem, it certainly sounds like a driver. I would start by seeing if the alternate engine works (and there is an updated DirectX installed). If that doesn't work, then could you run dxdiag from the run commmand, save the result and upload the text file. Actually, if yours still doesn't work, could you do the same. It will present more info that what was typed in. Need to make sure that the roommates system is OpenGL 2.0 compatible (being newer I would expect that it would but depends on the driver).


    Windows XP SP3: The patch installs a bunch of security updates and updates some of XP's programs. It depends on what you use it for. Some applications wont install inless you have SP3 but sounds like you probably don't use those. Also, having said that, with XP no longer supported by MS, most of your websurfing is not likely to be with Internet Explorer (if it is, then I would definately update to SP3), but with a third party application. The holes that were security that were closed with SP3 would be the main concern, especially if you use wireless networking.


    We should be able to get it going, I have had them running on some very old and slow beasts.
    Hope this provides some success.
    Gus

    Edit: If you wanted to install XP SP3, then you can get it here. It isn't an MS site but 'Major Geeks'.
    JuliusBorisov
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    Hi, Gus, here's an update with a couple of questions for you:

    I have a firewall that likes to butt in at some random point during an installation, stop the process and then ask me if I want to treat the app as an installer. Of course by then it has cut off the process, possibly messing up some file(s) that the installer was writing to the disk.

    That means I can't be 100% sure that the initial installation was perfect. So I decided to completely uninstall BGEE, do a system restore, and then do a clean install with the network cable unplugged and the firewall disabled. That should give it every chance to install perfectly.

    I've already done the uninstall and system restore steps. Before I reinstall BGEE, I am going to defragment the C drive again. Then I plan to do a clean install, test the game, and then do the video drivers update and re-install DirectX 9.0c per your suggestions.

    It was surprisingly difficult to find driver update instructions for Win XP. Here's the article I did find:

    https://support.trionworlds.com/hc/en-us/articles/203364548

    Could you take a minute to look that over and see if it seems to be a good procedure? Apparently they think it's best to remove the old drivers before installing the new ones (I am assuming that Windows will still give me a basic video display between those two processes, so that I can, y'know, see things on my screen to install the new drivers).

    I realized after posting that we actually bought four Enhanced Edition games this week, not three: BG1, BG2, IWD1 and PST. So we do have a pretty fair investment in sorting out these issues.

    To re-cap, my plan is: 1) reinstall and test BGEE. 2) Update video drivers, 3) reinstall DirectX 9.0c, 4) test the game again and 5) post the (hopefully successful) results here.

    Do you have any more suggestions before I start on this process?

    Thanks again for all your great help!
    JuliusBorisov
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    @Gusinda Forgot to ping. Just in case this gets the above post noticed sooner. ;)
  • GusindaGusinda Member Posts: 1,915
    Hi @Shinsei, all looks good. In the past I have used the NVidia driver removal but that was only for problem installs. In the most, I just use the driver itself which would go through and do the driver update without user intervention. I did own a Geforce 4 series card (MX440 from memory with XP installed) and can't recall any problems with driver installation. The only time I do recall having to use it was with a GeForce GTX 260M, and it is was due to a Windows update that smashed my original driver...

    The GOG BGEE install shouldn't have anything to do with the Firewall when installing (unless you also have Galaxy installed - even then I am unsure as I don't use Galaxy). Is it the internal firewall or a third party?

    The plan looks good. I would adjust slightly by installing DirectX 9.0c before BGEE for the initial run (then again after the driver update if required).

    BTW, how did your roommate go?

    Best of luck, you should enjoy all of the games when it's all up and running.
    Gus

    JuliusBorisov
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    @Gusinda

    Hi, Gus, thanks for your helpful reply.

    On the firewall: It's also a process monitor, so if it sees anything changing registry keys or any other "suspicious" activity it halts the activity and asks for instructions. It pretty much does it every time I install anything, and I don't want it messing up such a huge installation.

    (Any tips on a better free Firewall/process monitor than Komodo would be appreciated!)

    The roommate is watching to see how my process of updating goes before changing anything on their computer, as their computer is also a vital workstation. But the "alternate rendering" was tried, and only resulted in immediate crashes every time the game was launched.

    It's got a completely different card (ATI) and system (Dell dual something-or-other) so it will require research to find newer drivers for that and update them, provided the driver updates help on my machine.

    (You mentioned getting your games working on "old, slow beasts"... my system is a Pentium 4 with a 2.4 GHz processor and 2 GB of RAM, which I still think of as pretty peppy. Would that be "old and slow" by current standards?)

    From what you said, you don't recommend removing the old drivers first, just letting the new driver installer take care of the updates, correct? I do like that idea better, just wanted to confirm that that is what you meant.

    Thanks again for your help!
  • GusindaGusinda Member Posts: 1,915
    @Shinsei, yeah, i'd leave them and install over. If problems show up, then I would look at removing using the NVidia tool. The P4 should be no problems. I have had it running on a Tablet (HP Omni 10) with an Atom processor, 2GB RAM and a lesser video card (integrated). Things slowed down a bit when battles are intensive but nothing you couldn't think past if it is the only thing you have and need a BG fix! That is the good thing about turn based battles, but to answer the direct Q, by todays standards... If you consider that one year in computing technology is equivilant to six months in development (particularly in the golden years of Moore's Law), then yes 'old and slow'. :)

    If you get your roommate to do the DXDiag report, then we can have a look to see if there are other problems. Crashing when it is set to DirectX (default 0 is OpenGL, 1=DriectX) seems very stage. There could be another solution (and I would be insterested if it works, by trying the driver used to solve a different problem in this thread. It was used because the OpenGL driver was a problem but it might also work in this situation. It was tested with Windows 10 and an Intel Video card, but the driver itself isn't only for Windows 10 (use the 32 Bit version). Just place the driver into the root of the game folder and run the game. If it crashes again, we can at least rule out the OpenGL.

    Depending onwhat you roommate has, then the plan would be:
    - Install BGEE
    - Test run of the game, didn't work?
    - copy OpenGL driver into root of game, didn't work?
    - remove OpenGL driver from root, install DirectX and change to alternate engine, didn't work?
    - update video drivers, install DirectX and test game, didn't work?
    - copy OpenGL driver into root of game, change settings back to default engine (OpenGL) and test, didn't work?
    - run DXDiag from Command Prompt and upload the saved report and we can go from there.

    For yourself, further research has shown a small prob. You will need to run the alternate engine (DirectX) as the MX4000 series of cards could only support up to OpenGL 1.3. BGEE needs 2.0 to run. You could try the OpenGL file anyway, the most it will do is to halt the system and a restart is easy. It wont destroy anything.

    For the firewall, there are lots of products but because you are running XP, your choices would be limited. I was using a Avast and with regular scans using MalwareBytes but if your happy with Comodo, then I'd stick with it. It rates 'reasonably' (these can be so subjective at times) well and is better than nothing which is what a lot of people are using...

    Gus
    JuliusBorisov
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    @Gusinda Thanks for your reply. Apologies in advance for the long post ahead...

    I've now spent days (including several hours today) working on getting everything lined up for BGEE to play. My system has been reverted to the pre-install status and freshly defragmented, preparatory to doing all the installations we discussed... and now from what you said in your last post it sounds like a video driver update may not address the problem.

    (I could have sworn that somewhere on my system it said OpenGL 2.0. But maybe that was just inside the BGEE options menu, stating that it was using it, not that I had it?)

    I'm not sure we're quite aligned in our communication about the roommate's experience. The game launches without any opening display or animations (just a laggy gray screen with "beamdog") and eventually gets to a very stutter-y movie, which has to be skipped, then seems to be playable after that point.

    Setting it to "alternate renderer" causes it to be unable to launch at all (crashes at startup). Roommate was able to create a character and start playing the game using the default (OpenGL) renderer, although movies probably won't work unless the current problem is fixed.

    On my machine, the opening animations and movie play beautifully, and everything seems lovely until I try to create a character (or import one). It seems that as soon as a portrait may need to display, that is when it crashes (there's a message box stating a problem... do you want that text?).

    Are you suggesting that we test the OpenGL driver in the root folder of the game on BOTH machines?

    And do you still think I should try updating my video drivers, or would that be a waste of time? I did find one dated 7 months later than the current version, for whatever that is worth.

    It really seems that the problem (on my machine) happens at the point where a portrait should display, or a similar action, that makes the game just say "nope" when I try to select gender or import a character. It's hard to see how that could be caused by my version of OpenGL (or even graphics drivers), when the opening movie and everything else look great up to that point.

    The roommate is waiting to see what can be done with updates to my system before risking any changes on their machine, understandably. We're both hoping we don't have to just resort to the classic versions of all these games, and the extensive modding that would entail.

    Is there any point in trying the OpenGL driver on my system? And given that the game looks and behaves wonderfully up to the character creation point, does this really even sound like a graphics display problem?

    I can copy down the error message that it displays at that point, in case it helps. Do you want to see it? (Of course I would need to install the game again first in order to see it.)

    According to the roommate, there are no special animations at the character creation part of the game, but that is where portraits start to be displayed. Perhaps that is significant.

    I've basically spent all afternoon defragmenting my system and getting ready to install things, and now I'm not even sure where to start. Do I need to somehow get a better video card (that would run on my machine) or is there some hope that this can work with my current hardware?

    Sorry if this sounds a little scattered, but I'm now wondering how to proceed with this new information.

    For the roommate's computer, we could try dropping the OpenGL driver into the root of the game to see if the opening movie will play correctly, yes? Their video card is newer and should support OpenGL 2.0 (it's a 128MB ATI Radeon X1300).

    Could we just start with what I would need to do now to give the game a chance to work on my system? Or is my video card a 100% deal breaker? (Hoping not to have to find a new/used video card, or buy a new computer.) Apologies if I seem a bit "dim" at this point, but a step by step set of suggestions for my system would be greatly appreciated.

    Again, my apologies for the lengthy post. I realize that this has taken more of your time than the typical support request, and I'll do my best to implement any suggestions you can offer.

    Thanks again for your help and patience!
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    edited March 2019
    @Gusinda I just checked out the download site for the .dll that you mention in the other thread, and there are 17 available versions. Can you tell me which one of those we would want to use in testing?

    Thanks again!

    Edited to add: The specs for the newer driver I was going to install say: "Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0c and OpenGL® 2.0 support " and this driver info also says that it supports my card.

    However, from what you said above, that would only apply if the hardware (card) is built to support OpenGL 2.0, correct? In other words, with my card would that driver still work at most things, but fail at OpenGL 2.0?

    Thanks for clarifying.
    Post edited by Shinsei on
  • GusindaGusinda Member Posts: 1,915
    edited March 2019
    @Shinsei, there is an OpenGL driver (only get the 32Bit version) at the bottom of the post that was the best one that I tested. I just put the link there to where I got it from for others to check if they wanted.

    Yes, you did mention that it was a movie playing prob... being old and slow myself... well we know how that story goes.

    I would still go ahead with the install, the worst would be to fall back to the classics, but I would be pushing to get the EEs to work.

    I will do some more research to with your card and OpenGL 2.0, but failing that, DirectX 9 should work. I noticed in the same page that your card only supported to DirectX 8 but my card, which also says that it only supported to DX8 definately went to 9.

    When you install BGEE and run it (at least once), it will build it's saved game area in your documents folder. Have a look in there and you will see the baldur.lua, open it with a text editor (I use Notepad++ which is free as a notepad replacement) and you will see what the driver is with the line starting:
    SetPrivateProfileString('Graphics','version','OpenGL version ...'

    Gus

    Edit: and yes, I would also try that OpenGL driver on your system as well, it wont hurt.
    JuliusBorisov
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    edited March 2019
    @Gusinda Hi, I'm pretty sure it said OpenGL 2.0 when I opened the .lua file before (in order to recover from the "alternate renderer" crashing situation). I'll have to install the game again to see.

    Are you saying that that line will be indicating what version I actually have, and not just what version the game wants to use?

    Thanks again!

    P.S. I think you posted before I finished editing the above post. Read back about my driver info? Thanks!
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    edited March 2019
    @Gusinda Oh, hey, the folder and file are still there. That line says:

    SetPrivateProfileString('Graphics','version','OpenGL version 1.5.7 - build XXXX')

    (I also use Notepad++)
  • GusindaGusinda Member Posts: 1,915
    edited March 2019
    @Shinsei, yeah, that would be a porblem. Find the line:
    SetPrivateProfileString('Graphics','Backend','0')
    and change the 0 to a 1 to get DX working.
    See what the Graphics version says then...

    Gus

    I just read your post a little better... The game isn't installed, just the docs folder is still there. You prob wont get anything yet. When you do get it going, it should say somehing like:
    SetPrivateProfileString('Graphics','version','DirectX 9.0c')
    JuliusBorisov
  • GusindaGusinda Member Posts: 1,915
    @Shinsei, having a quick think about your roomie's PC, it may be that the codec isn't right. It should play properly inside the game itself but I am wondering what would happen if another codec was downloaded. Ask the roomie to download and install VLC. It is a self contained media player with stacks of codecs that it installs, then give BGEE a go. It might pick the VLC codec instead.

    If that doesn't work, they could also go to the game's folder \Movies and there are a bunch of .wbm files (the movie files), right click and select 'open with', choose VLC and see if that plays. If not, we will see what to do next.

    Gus
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    @Gusinda Hi, roomie has VLC Media Player already installed (version 1.1.5). The app's date says November 2010.

    VLC does not recognize those as media files. And there is no "open with" option, only an "open" option.

    In the .wbm file properties there are no associated programs to open them. And it looks like if we associate the file to VLC there will be no way to un-associate it (there is already a file type (.bin) that is stuck in VLC that way now).

    Using VLC to browse to the files by ordering it to display "all files" and then opening a .wbm file ("logo") caused VLC to nearly freeze -- and ran the CPU usage up to 100% -- so that we had to "end task".

    What can you tell from this information?

    Maybe a more recent version of VLC or a codec patch is needed? Over to you!
  • GusindaGusinda Member Posts: 1,915
    @Shinsei, would want to update VLC, it is sitting at 3.0.6 right now (I am running a 2.x version [currently downloading the new one] and it has no problems with playing the .wbm movies. The .wbm format is 'relatively' new in comparison to the old .bik, AVI and MP4 etc formats.

    Gus
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    edited March 2019
    @Gusinda That's what I thought.

    Of course my next question is, what is the newest version of VLC that will play on Windows XP?

    (We'll of course be searching for this as well...)
  • GusindaGusinda Member Posts: 1,915
    @Shinsei, v3.0.6 is all good for XP as well, just make sure you grab the 32Bit version (the one on the main page here).
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    edited March 2019
    @Gusinda All right, thanks! We'll be testing that soon (although it's getting late and may not get to test until morning at this rate).

    Will it be OK to install the new VLC right over our old version, or do you think we should uninstall the old one first and do a fresh install?
  • GusindaGusinda Member Posts: 1,915
    edited March 2019
    @Shinsei, I forgot to mention something that has been a problem in the past... When you install BGEE, don't accept the default install folder (which is likely ot be in 'Program Files/somewhere'. Always install outside of the system folders *and that should be for any game you install). My recommendation is to install in C:\Games\ unless you have another drive, in which case, install onto that. There have been problems where the operating system has prevented the game operating correctly due to security reasons, and when you go to mod the game, you will be better off.

    The other is for the roomie, when playing the movie files from VLC, the 'intro' and 'blackpits' movie is located in the movies folder within your language folder. I assume your language is english so the folder would be GAME_FODLER/lang/en_US/movies.

    Gus

    Edit: You can install over the old one and if you have any custom configuration, it will still keep it.
    JuliusBorisov
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    @Gusinda Actually all games purchased from GOG seem to install in C:\GOG Games so I think that's covered automatically, but thanks for the tip (it may come in handy at some point).

    The roomie just checked, and says that all of the movies are in a folder called "movies" inside the main Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition folder.
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    @Gusinda Thank you for all your helpful advice.

    Roomie is calling it a night, but will install and test the VLC fix tomorrow morning and we'll report back on that.

    Meanwhile, with all the various factors on my system, do you have a suggested sequence to try?

    Reinstall DirectX 9.0c
    Install updated video drivers
    Install BGEE
    Copy OpenGL .dll into the BGEE root folder
    Testing at various points

    If you can put those into a recommended sequence for me, I'll see how far I can get.

    Thanks again!
  • GusindaGusinda Member Posts: 1,915
    edited March 2019
    @Shinsei, the way I would do it is:

    Remove or rename current documents saved game folder from
    ..\Documents\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition

    ..\Documents\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition.old

    Reinstall DirectX 9.0c
    Install BGEE - Attempt to run and let it build the documents folder component.
    Copy OpenGL .dll into the BGEE root folder - Test Run, if it doesn't work remove OpenGL driver.
    Change baldur.lua line:
    - SetPrivateProfileString('Graphics','Backend','0') to read SetPrivateProfileString('Graphics','Backend','1')
    Run Game - If it doesn't work
    Update Video Drivers
    Reinstall DirectX 9.0c
    Test Game, if it doesn't work run DXDIAG and upload saved report.


    For the movies, most are except for 'intro.wbm' and 'blackpits.wbm' which should be in your language folder.

    Hope that makes sense
    Gus

    JuliusBorisov
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    @Gusinda All right, after I get some sleep I'll do that sequence and then report back. Thanks again!
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    @Gusinda Hi, I'm getting ready to start that process, and I had another thought about your OpenGL .dll workaround:

    I don't want to give up if the advanced .dll you linked to doesn't work, because if that's "too rich for my system" in some way, it seems it would still be worth trying that same workaround with an OpenGL 2.0 .dll in the root folder.

    I'll try yours first, of course, but in the meantime, would there be a way to find a (clean, trustworthy) source for an OpenGL 2.0 .dll (that is compatible with XP) that I could try next, if that first one does not work? We may as well give your workaround every chance to work, before proceeding to trying other things.

    I'll have to go offline to start these processes, but I'll wait a bit in case you get a chance to see this and respond.

    Thanks, and have a great day!
  • GusindaGusinda Member Posts: 1,915
    @Shinsei, the OpenGL driver should be fine as the card will ignore everything that it can't understand. However, if you want to try specifcally something for XP, then go here and grab the 6.x driver (32 Bit version). Having said that, because the card only support 1.x, then it unlikely it is going to change much, just worth a try to see what happens.

    Good luck with the install and hopefully, you will be 'Gathering your party' at the end of it all...
    Gus
  • ShinseiShinsei Member Posts: 20
    @Gusinda It looks like you may have just posted an answer to the above question... I'll check that now.

    Meanwhile, I have an update on the roommate's situation. The latest version of VLC does NOT seem to contain the codec for .wbm files, at least not specifically.

    That file extension did not show up in the menu of file associations that it was including during installation, and the .wbm files still show up as "windows generic file" icons (with no association) after it was installed.

    But based on a thread (https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/14713/movie-file-format) that we found on your forum, we tried this:

    Copying one of the movie (.wbm) files to the desktop and changing the extension to .webm causes VLC to recognize it as a media file, so that it can be navigated to internally in VLC and opened and played successfully.

    However, when re-testing the game itself: The game still hangs badly on the "logo" movie, creeping along erratically (and the system lags badly, barely responding to mouse clicks in an attempt to click through, just as before).

    On the third hand, if we change the test file extension back to .wbm and then navigate to it through VLC again (forcing it to display by choosing "all files" instead of "media files")... it still plays successfully!

    This means that VLC can now play the movie files automatically if they are renamed to .webm extensions, or individually if "forced" to by choosing "all files" and then opening them. However, again, the game is experiencing the exact same issues that it did before: Horrible system lagging while crawling through the opening movies.

    We are wondering at this point, now that we at least have something on the system that is associated to .webm and also somehow plays the .wbm files (individually), if uninstalling and reinstalling the game might cause it to pick up something that would make the movies play successfully.

    We are also wondering whether there is a way to get the specific codec for .wbm files. A Google search for .wbm codec tries to "correct" to .webm, and basically yields nothing useful.

    Any insights you can offer at this point will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!
  • GusindaGusinda Member Posts: 1,915
    @Shinsei, not sure what version of Windows the roomie has, but if you right click on the .wbm and select 'Open with...' from the context menu, find VLC and select 'open always with' (or something similar), VLC should then be able to open the file when you double click on it. VLC contains the codec for webm file (which is what the wbm file is).

    So if I get this straight, it is now showing the movie but very slowly? If this is the case, get the roomie to try the OpenGL driver in the root. That was a fix for in-game delays, it might fix the problem with the movies showing.

    Gus
  • GusindaGusinda Member Posts: 1,915
    @Shinsei, I have to disappear for a few hours, I will log in when I return.

    Gus
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