Topic: Issues with OP and Vista - need help

[Reffet]

I know I said this was for issues that I am have with op and vista but first off, does the op mod changer work on vista? I keep getting a run-time error 339  Component 'MSCOMCTL.OCX' or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid.  This pops up when I try to run it. I would appreciate any help I can get in this. Thanks

Eagerly waiting to get back in the game and get schooled! 

[Reffet]

Ok, fixed that prob. Next on list...(Checks list) Hmm, oh yes.  Stability on gsa/dynaverse.  Lets see, after yet another reinstall and making sure that av was disabled, the game seems much more stable on single player. currently I have my computer out on the DMZ my firewall is off as well as av when playing online so if you can think of any other suggestions that may help I would appreciate it. I will be setting up the game to play on Pestalance's hc server. (Keeping fingers crossed.)

[Pestalence_XC]

That is where you problems will start.. Vista and Dynaverse servers do not interact well.. you may move just fine for a min or so.. then the server will seem like it locked up for avout 1 to 2 min.. then you wil be able to move again, and then lock up.. there is no work around for this as of yet.. You can play on it .. but when it goes to Campaign mode.. you may want to consider Dual Booting with XP to play in a campaign or just to have fun On the D2..

Check your PM's and I can explain more.

[Reffet]

That is where you problems will start.. Vista and Dynaverse servers do not interact well.. you may move just fine for a min or so.. then the server will seem like it locked up for avout 1 to 2 min.. then you wil be able to move again, and then lock up.. there is no work around for this as of yet.. You can play on it .. but when it goes to Campaign mode.. you may want to consider Dual Booting with XP to play in a campaign or just to have fun On the D2..

Check your PM's and I can explain more.

If I dual boot, will I have to also create a partition that will hold the game or can the xp os still accesses the c: drive?

[Pestalence_XC]

You will have to keep partitions separate.. as such, you will have to install the game to the XP drive..

Basically Partitioning is taking C drive and changing it to C and D drives on the same harddrive.. each partition is mutally exclusive. one partition will be for Vista and the other for XP.

Basically you will have a Vista Drive .. which will also include Programs to run on Vista.. and then you will have an XP drive which will hold the programs installed to XP.. You will not be able to run a Vista installed program from XP and you will not be able to run a XP installed program from Vista..

Basically think of it as having 2 different computers in 1 box.. You do NOT want to cross drives, except to transfer files..

[Reffet]

ok That is what I figured, need to make sure I give it enough room.  I do have a copy of xp pro to but it is currently installed on my daughters computer which is on my network here, will that work or will I need to obtain a new copy?

[Pestalence_XC]

If it has been more than 120 days since XP was installed on your daughters computer, then you are good to go.. MS stamps hardware on their servers when you do an install, that stamp remains for 120 days, after which, the stamp drops off and then you can install the OS to a different machine.

[Reffet]

ok going for the dual boot thingy here, only one problem. really big problem. I cant partition my drive! Folowing the instructions my computer tells me that there is no available space on drive to make a partition, event tho I have over 100 gig left. (Banging head against wall.) 

[Pestalence_XC]

Turn off all programs starting with the system and kill associated services.. Seems like something is taking free space on your system.. Norton and McAfee can cause this problem as well.

[Raztax]

I know this is an oldish thread, but I seem to be having the issue with the map movement hanging when running OP in Vista on the Dyna.

Anyone tried running OP in an XP virtual pc on Vista? Also does anyone have experience with running the server kit on Vista? I would rather use Virtual PC or VMware to emulate XP if I only have to run the game on XP. If I need to run the server on an XP box as well, then I think I may need to make other arrangements such as a second pc, or just downgrade to XP. Though Vista has been running so well for me (with the exception of OP) that I almost hate to go back to XP.

I'm wondering if the movement issue in OP on Vista has something to do with direct play connections since OP was designed for directX 6 and Vista runs directX 10 which is missing some of the files that earlier versions of directx used. I actually had to install the directx 9 SDK on my vista box to replace the missing files in order to get Neverwinter Nights 2 to run in Vista.

Also, in the previous post about installing XP and having it tell you that there is no space available for a partiton...is the drive you are trying to partition a SATA drive? If so, you will almost certainly need to install the drivers for the sata controller before XP can partition it.

cheers

[Pestalence_XC]

The server kit works just fine on Vista.. I run Hardcore on Vista 64 bit.

OP will hang on Vista in the Dynaverse with map movement, ship purchase, etc.. it is a problem with the way Vista impliments the frankenstein network code in the EAW and OP games.. I am working on work arounds and I found 1 link that may help with the game, although I haven't attempted the Gaming Tweak as of yet.

http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=2574

The problem with the movement in Vista and OP is that Vista is not designed for :

DirectX 8 technologies ... the format was flawed to begin with.

Outdated programming languages (OP was created at the end of C++ 6.0 life cycle and at the release of Visual .Net)..

Now Vista will operate programs just fine using these technologies so long as they were written uning programming standards... Much of OP's programming standards went out the window in relation to the network code.

Vista will not recognize Visual Basic programs.. which was outdated in 1999.. However OP does not use any Visual Basic programming that I know of.

Like I stated, I have been working on Dynaverse Compatibility for a while now.. the link above has a network configuration for Vista that may just work.. however I think part of the problem may be in the way Vista emulates the program itself.. I have seen slight map problems as well in Single Player. I'm not sure if that is related.. but it is not as pronounced as Multiplayer Dynaverse.

OP was not designed for DirectX 6.. It was designed for Initially DirectX 7 (EAW) and upgraded during programming to DirectX 8.1 during Development and patch support.. Vista is a combined DirectX technology of DirectX 9.0c and DirectX 10.1.. vista uses both.. however older DirectX native support has been stripped, which may also cause part of the issues.. DirectX 9.0c in Vista can emulate DirectX 8.1, but it doesn't do it perfectly.

I don't know why you had to install the DirectX 9 SDK since Vista has DirectX 9.0c built in natively..

For NWN 2, to install correctly :

Turn off AV

Make sure UAC is turned ON, and use Tweak UAK (a program to DL) and put UAC into Quiet Mode.. do not turn off UAC.

Insert CD into PC, cancel the auto launch, open My Computer, go to your CD/DVD drive and explore content, find setup.exe, right click and select run as administrator and install.

After installing, right click on desktop Icon, click properties, click Compatibility tav, put check into Run as Administrator, Disable Visual Themes, Disable Desktop Composition, set compatibility mode to XPSP 2, click OK.

Navagate to the folder of NWN2, right click on the folder, select Properties, click on Security Tab, and under each user make sure that each user has full control, click apply, go to General Tab and uncheck Read only, click OK .. in pop up window, make usre that you put dot into all files and subfolders, and click OK.

Next download latest patch and save to Hard Drive. Do not run yet. Find the patch file on your system and right click and select Run as Administrator. After patch installs, UAC may pop up asking to reinstall using correct settings.. say YES.

After all files are installed , turn Anti-Virus back on.. game should run correctly.

As for the previous posts.. the problem was the the Anti-Virus was still enabled along with a disk monitoring tool.. this prevented Vista from partitioning the Hard Drive.. After the tools were disabled, he was able to partition the Hard Drive just fine and install XP without incident.. the Dual Boot worked great..

It makes no difference if the HDD is SATA or EIDE.. the guide I created works just fine... 98% of Vista computers use SATA drives including my system which I based the installation guide off of.

Now as for Drivers.. once you install XP, you do have to DL and install the device drivers rated for XP on systems built with Vista hardware.. the drivers will be made for XP on all hardware until at least 2010. The first thing you have to install to XP is the device drivers since XP will not recognize most Vista compliant hardware upon install and will render under generic Microsoft drivers.. You should have an XP drivers disk for all of your hardware that you must create yourself prior to installing for Dual Boot.

now the problem using an XP emulator in Vista with OP.. OP may not recognize the networking in the Vista environment.. I have tried this with several configs and failed.. Dual Boot turned out to be my only option.. results may vary with different hardware configs.

[Raztax]

I was afraid that XP in a virtual pc on top of Vista may not work since the underlying OS is the one that has the issue in the first place.

With NWN 2 I installed directx 9 because after installation, launching NWN 2 would toss an error complaining about a missing DX9 dll file which actually was missing. Installing version 9 wrote in the missing file, and it has worked great ever since.
I currently have UAC turned off because the only software that ever gave me any grief over it being turned off has been adobe software.

On another note, how do you find Vista 64 compared to Vista 32? I am currently running 32 home premium because it came with the pc, but I do have 64 bit ultimate kicking around and was considering installing it.

The only reason I mentioned sata drives is because not all sata controllers have native XP drivers. It's reasonably common to have to install sata controller drivers from floppy disk during XP setup so that it can recognize the drive. Unless you are installing the OS to an ide drive, in which case, it's easy enough to load the drivers after the install. Vista is much better, but still has the 'load driver' option during setup because not even vista can auto detect all sata controllers.

Thanks for posting your link, I will certainly have a look at your guide. I'm glad someone has been working on this stuff for a while now 

[Pestalence_XC]

I just answered this for SFHQ about 20 min ago.

Vista 64 bit is much more stable.. the Ultimate edition can handle over 120 GB system ram

there are differences to file structure.. such as x64 and x86 software can install to Program Files (x86) 64 bit only software installs to Program Files, and 32 bit only software installs to Program Files (x86)

If that sounds confusing.. let me explain.

Vista x64 as 2 separate Program Files directories.
Program Files, which is x64
Program files (x86), which can run both 32 bit or 64 bit software.

Vista x64 can render 32 or 64 bit natively.. most programs, except IE will run 64 bit upon launch.. IE runs in 32 bit mode because of flash player plug-in.. however you can manually run IE in 64 bit from the start menu and you can even run IE in safe mode (No Plug-ins) from the start menu as well.

Programs like Movie Maker, Media Player and DVD maker run 64 bit natively.. in the case of Media Player.. if you add codec packs.. I recommend Vista Codec Pack and install the 32 bit versio first, then the 64 bit version.. When you launch media Player.. it is native for x64.. however if you have problems you can launch Media Player out of the Program Files (x86) directory path (32 bit).

Now3 as for UAC.. TURN IT ON.. get Tweak UAC and put UAC into Quiet Mode. This is a security feature that ties your security center in with Windows Defender to block programs from changing your computer's start up config and even Windows operating system files.. UAC makes Defender check for changes on program installs / operations... Say you go to a site.. an Active X control is trying to imbed into your Start Up system files.. UAC will notify you through with Windows Defender and asks you if you want the program to alter your system or start up config.. this is a major security tool..

The problem with UAC out of box is the annoying requests at each and every program launch..

Using a program called TweakUAC will allow UAC to protect the system, but remove the annoying pop ups on application launch when you set it to quiet mode.

Following the instructions I posted above will help ensure program compatibility and proper functionality.

If Vista was missing a DirectX file.. then Download the latest Redistributable DirectX install run the program (about 84 MB) and it extracts to a folder of your choosing.. after extraction, go into the folder and run the setup.exe.. it will completely reinstall all DirectX files and also reset your system registry including missing DirectX files.. having the DirectX 9 SDK installed is just taking up space that is not necessary.

As for XP and Vista set up for Drivers.. that is ONLY if you are running your SATA drives in RAID mode (2 or more physical drives).. Vista supports over 380 Sata controllers and the Microsoft Drivers should be adequate to install Vista.. Drivers would only be needed after Vista Install as part of the mainboard driver updates.

Now you do have to install drivers for Vista if you are using your SATA drives in Raid 0 or Raid 1 config.. Vista does not have native support for Raid configs.

As for Vista x64.. nice and stable.. great memory management.. takes a couple of days to get use to the x86 and x64 structuring.. but it is easy to adapt and learn... games that have x64 support are much smoother and have deeper graphics than their x86 counterparts.. However MMO games that require PunkBuster.. you have to play them online in 32 bit mode as Punk Buster is not supporting x64 tech as of yet.. however you will learn your options when you get games with x64 options like Hellgate London or Crysis.. Crysis you can launch in x86 or x64 modes.. there are servers for both online.. the x64 does not have Punkbusters on them and as such, some people cheat.. same for x86 servers.. those without punkbuster enabled may allow for people to cheat. Hellgate London allows you to choose to install as 32 bit or 64 bit.. this game makes no difference to how it interacts with the online servers.. in game you have the choice of having Vista use DX9 or DX 10.. this is dependant on your Vid Card and system memory.. unless you have 4 GB system ram and a vid card that is DX 10 capable and running at least 512 MB memory.. I would play Multi-Player in DX 9 mode. If you have a good graphics card and at least 4 GB system Ram.. then DX 10 is fantastic online.

People misconstrew Vista's DX version.. what Vista is in DirectX is a Hybrid of DX 9.0c and DirectX 10.1 .. running a DXDIAG you will see DirectX 10.. however as proven with older games.. Vista also has DirectX 9.0c integrated natively as well.. if the OS was DirectX 10 only, the game wouldn't be able to give you the option to downgrade DirectX to a lower version mode.

Another misconception for people with XP systems.. the current DirectX packages is that the package is DirectX 10 only.. this is not true.. DirectX 9.0c and DirectX 10 are developed together.. installing the package to an XP system.. XP will ignore and block DirectX 10 components and registry settings.. XP will not recognize DirectX 10.. and as such, only DirectX 9.0c will be upgraded.. on vista, both DirectX 9.0c and 10.1 upgrade.


Hope that this helps.

[Pestalence_XC]

Update to my previous postings.. I have tried several different methods of attempting to get OP client on Vista to be compatible with the Dynaverse.. I believe that the game's required Windows API sets for DirectX 7 have been removed from Vista (which were present in XP), as such, Vista can not emulate DirectX 7 effectively enough to render DirectX 7 direct play in Vista to give stable consistant connection to the Dynaverse servers for map movement, repairs, re-supply, ship purchase / review, or news, serious map hang ups are when Vista Client returns from mission, player can not move off of hex for about 1 to 2 min, which in a heavily contested area could spell trouble with all players being dropped or locked up on the server in that hex if a mission is launched after Vista client returns from game.

The only work around that you can do to play Orion Pirates on the Dynaverse currently is to set your Vista Computer up as a Dual Boot machine.. You will need to follow my Dual Boot guide located in Engineering section, you will need to locate XP drivers for all of your hardware prior to using XP to its full extent, You will also need to update XP (Microsoft Updates, getting both Optional and Important updates [Optional meaning that you need components of .Net components in XP]) after getting Dual Boot completed properly, as well as update Adobe Flash Player, Shockwave player, Adobe Air, Sun Microsystems Java Runtimes, and last but not least the latest DirectX version (November 2008 as of this posting).

Now to play OP on Vista correctly, you do need to follow the proper installation instructions (found in other places on this board) to get full functionality for Single Player, Gamespy Arcade and TCP/IP connections and/or Game Ranger.

But to play on the Dynaverse, you must play using Windows XP.