Drakan hangs on startup

[GryffynLocke]

I've finished Drakan on a G400 16MB with the 5.30 drivers (with busmastering enabled) with no problems. It is a beautiful game. Earlier versions of the PD drivers gave me some graphic glitches but those were all fixed with 5.30. I use DX 7, but as I recall the game worked fine with 6.1. Do you by any chance have a CL Soundblaster Live! card? I've heard there have been many problems with that one. If you do, make sure you have the latest drivers for it. Basically, my point is it might not be the video card that is causing the lock-up.


Good Luck

[GryffynLocke]

Ooops. I see you don't have a CL card. I really need to read all the other responses before I open my big mouth. Still, I know the G400 should play Drakan with no problems under the right conditions, so it might very well be something else in your configuration. Sometimes setting everything up to be able to play the damn game is more challenging than playing the game itself.

[xortam]

Muad'Dib, I hadn't tried disabling bus mastering so I gave it a try ... nope. The new 5.41 drivers didn't help either. I haven't had any other games hang up on me so far.

GryffynLocke, I'm using DX 7. Was that the demo version that you were running with PD 5.30?

I do have DOS TV enabled in my G400 BIOS. I'd be surprised if that is causing the problem.

[Kruzin]

DING DING DING DING DING!!!!

I would NOT be surprised if that is the problem. Turn OFF that DOS tv-out support!!!!

It is known to cause many odd-ball problems with various Windows games and apps. Only use that when you are actually using DOS mode (not booting into Windows at all for that session). It's an entirely different BIOS, that is not fully compatible with Windows video calls.

I didn't even think to ask about that one....

[GryffynLocke]

I was running the full game, but it worked before any patches were applied, so the demo should (I assume) work as well. I agree the DOS TV selection should be turned off. My G400 isn't the dual-head variety, and I haven't had nearly the amount of problems others seem to be suffering. In fact, this is the most stable video card I think I've ever owned. I wonder if the lack of dual-head capability and the added compatability problems is the secret of my success?

[John Rambo]

My spec:PII 400(112x4),128MB RAM,ABITBH6,G400DH32MB PD5.30, voodoo2, sblive,.,,,Agp2x,Busmaster enab,..no special settings

DRAKAN+444patch+bump on+all efect on and max+32bit.

Absolutelly no problems !!!!no crashes!!!

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sorry, some crashes(critical error message) when I ran it with command DRAKAN.EXE +fpstest, it`s a benchmark test http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum4/HTML/001867.html

regards
John Rambo

[xortam]

Well Kruzin, disabling the DOS TV output didn't help. I use this option so I can remotely monitor my system booting up using a TV. This isn't a feature that should be toggled on and off all the time since it requires a BIOS flash. I hadn't read anything about this setting causing problems. Can you tell me what you know about the changes in the BIOS? I would think that it would just supplement the BIOS to support DOS interrupts: Though, if there was a squeeze on BIOS memory space, they might have to trim out some other support. Do you have any links to information regarding the BIOS change and/or known problems.

In response to others, thanks but I'm only interested in hearing from people who have the same problem or who have the demo version working. I know that numerous people have been able to get the full game at least started.

[xortam]

After keeping this thread alive for four days, it finally caught the eye of someone who's seen this problem before. daniele, Thanks!!! You've triggered the solution. The demo apparently doesn't like being run in a 32-bit color depth. I had forgotten about the engine options after I set them on install (Doh!!!) Surprising it doesn't support 32-bit but maybe Psygnosis and Surreal have been listening too much to the marketing hype at 3Dfx. I went back yet again to read the ReadMe file and at the end found

Starting the game from a 24 or 32-bit desktop may cause the game to drop out immediately after it is started.

Not exactly my symptom, but it should have alerted me. I think I tried the 16-bit desktop but I forgot about the engine settings.

Does anyone know if 32-bit is supported in the full version? Will it do 1280x1024x32?

Its now time to check this baby out and see what all the fuss is about. I'm always a sucker for a great looking game.

[Muad'Dib]

32-bit works just fine in the full version. Glad you finally got the demo working.

[daniele]

Hello!

When I got Drakan Demo I had the same problem you have: black screen and music keeping on playing.

Reading some documents, I found that Deakan is sensible to Windows Desktop settings.

So I changed my 1024x768x24 bit to 1024x768x32 bit and everything worked and is still working with all Matrox features enabled, PD 5.30 and Liveware 2.0.

Oh, I was forgetting: in the Drakan Demo engine options I chose 1024x768x16 bit resolution.

Hope this can help.

Bye!
Daniele

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PIII 450 Mhz@450
Mobo: MS6163 PRO
RAM:256 Mb
HD: QUANTUM KA 7200 rpm 13 Gb
DVD SAMSUNG SD-606F
SBLive! (Value)
G400 Max 32Mb DH
Monitor Flatron LG FT795 plus