G400 and GabrielKnight3 problems

[Rich]

The G400 does not seem to like sierra games in general, including Gabriel Knight 3. The game loads into a black screen, where it freezes.
Any suggestions or similar findings?

Thanks,
Richard McQuillen

[HollyBerri]

Hi, Richard... I just finished GK3 with a G200 a couple of days ago...great game, stick with it, you'll be glad you did play it.

Now about that black screen... I think you've played Sierra games before this, so you're familiar most likely with the endless wait for The Stupid Rock to load. Now the stupid rock is gone, and we have in its place a slightly less endless wait.... for a black screen (void of space I guess) with stars and a wireframe logo.

So it sounds to me like the logo is starting to load, but doesn't... freezes before even displaying the stars.

Which frankly makes me wonder if your install went correctly, or if your CD might not be defective or dirty.

Try uninstalling and reinstalling. Also... copy the .brn files from CDs 1, 2 and 3 to your HDD. That's a suggestion to overcome other problems you will encounter running this game.

If you have stuttering in the cutscenes after the intro, don't be alarmed (be p.o.'d), that's a known problem on the GK3 forum, but no one seems to have a fix, and no patch is available (yet).

But it's a great game; if you're like me, your jaw will drop a number of times for a number of reasons, you will laugh at a few in-jokes if you've played previous games in the series, you will be glad to see some progress in the ongoing sub-story, and you will be enraged at the traditional Sierra "endgame-that-you-are-dropped-into-unexpectedy-with-not-a-clue-what-to-do-about-it-other-than-die-a-hideous-death-multiple-times".

The SIDNEY walkthrough helps a lot.

Good luck! Keep us posted!!!

-------------------
Holly



[This message has been edited by HollyBerri (edited 09 January 2000).]

[Rich]

HollyBerri,
In the readme file, sierra seems to indicate support for the G200, albeit in software mode... the g400 is not mentioned, so i don't know if I am unique or not... I tried all 3 different installation types... they seemed to go ok.

If I click on the GK3 icon.... I get a black screen with my mouse pointer... in 640x480... it hangs.... when I ctrl-alt-del... it says gabriel knight[not responding].

If I start the game without the CD loaded...it says please insert cd. If I do... then I get the famous "sierra introduction"...followed by the black screen, where the program freezes and responds like above.[not responding]. The sound and video work for the sierra introduction.... but I think the game doesn't work because of the G400. I've had other problems with Phantasmagoria, etc... but only sierra games.

Thanks for letting me know the game works on the G200...hopefully someone has tried it with the g400.

Richard McQuillen

[HollyBerri]

Actually, Richard, I'll try it myself on the G400 in a few hours... just had to do a forced HDD upgrade (literally 2 days ago), so I don't currently have much of anything installed. Since I had just finished GK3, it was not first on my install list (unlike, say... ICQ )

And I was not doing GK3 in software, afaik... when I looked at the options screen, it did say "Primary display driver", as opposed to "Software renderer".

OK... I'll see what happens with the G400, but there's a few things I know from reading the Sierra forums for this game.
[list=1][*]This game seems to be a memory hog... I had a few 'unrecognized fatal exceptions' while running it, which problem seems related to running out of memory, and is solved by a reboot. Is it possible that you have such a ton of stuff running in the tray that you can't even load the game? What all do you have in your system tray, anyway?
And what are your system specs (other than the G400)?[*]The very start of the game (if you're running it for the first time), is the intro video, or else it's the load/restore/intro screen. If directly to the video (I know there's a button for it on the load screen, but I don't remember if I had to choose that the first time... knowing Sierra, I probably did not), I wonder what version of DirectX you have, and if it's installed properly (for instance, do you have the Media layer for DX6?) If it's the load screen... well the load screen has a lot of music. You're getting sound in the Sierra logo (a deep, building horn, a starshower and small fanfare), but the actual orchestral music never starts for the load screen? The problem might not be the G400. It might be your soundcard... sound often-- if not usually-- initializes before video, and often if it's working, but the video is not, you'd get the music playing but a black screen.[/list=a]

I think it's time to pony up with your system specs... it's starting to sound like you have a little config problem that Sierra brings out...You might also go to the Sierra folder in the Programs folder in the Start Menu... they have a system check utility to see if your system can run the game (or at least they always have had it in the past... I'm not sure after the breakup). That might also tell you what the problem is....

------------------
Holly

Yeah, yeah, system specs, whatever...

System 1, (up and in the shower--i.e. Configuration Mode):

DFI 2BXPL, Celeron 333 (not currently o/c), 1 stick 128MB PC100 SDRAM, Maxtor 20GB HDD (woohoo!), Phillips Mag 107B 17" monitor;
Acer 10X DVD-ROM, HP 8100i CD-RW;
G400 MAX , Diamond Monster Sound MX300, Iwill Ultra66 controller, Trend 10/100 Fast Ethernet controller (disabled), Cirrus Logic v.90 PCI modem;
USB webcam and Acer 620 USB scanner;
....and a PS/2 keyboard and mouse ( )

System 2 (still in bed with the covers over its head):

A-Trend 6130 LX board, PII-266, 1 stick 128MB PC100 SDRAM, Maxtor 20GB HDD (yes, I bought 2; they were on sale!!);
Nakamichi 5-disk CD changer;
Iwill Ultra66 Controller (yes, I bought 2), Trend 10/100 Fast Ethernet card (bought 4), and my trusty old cards-- G200 8MB SGRAM , Ensoniq Soundscape, Boca Research 33.6 ISA modem;
...and a standard keyboard and PS/2 trackball (Logitech Marble, fyi )

Well, you asked....! All right, you didn't ask.... tough noogies.



[This message has been edited by HollyBerri (edited 09 January 2000).]

[Broken]

Well, for what it's worth, I've been playing this game with a G400, and I've had no problems. Runs great in 1024x768. Not much of a solution, I know, but at least you know it runs on a G400

What version of DirectX are you running? And what PD?

PIII 450, 128mb RAM, G400 DH 32mb RAM, PD5.41, DirectX 7

[derah]

I installed GK3 and ran it a bit to see if the G400 max can play my favourite games. Clean install and smooth opening video. Ran it with G400max as primary driver, 1024X768X16bit.
I did notice that sometimes when I change the camera angles to investigate an object, Gabriel's upper body dissappears...

------------------
ASUS P3BF 440BX MB,Intel PIII 500 Mhz, 128MB RAM,Fujitsu 13 GB HD, Acer 50X CDROM, Matrox G400 Max (ver 5.41/turbo), SB Live MP3+(ver 4.06.654) sound card with Liveware3.0, DX7.0

[Rich]

I didn't want to do something, but I guess I'll try it tomorrow... reinstall my old diamond stealth.(yuck). Anyway, first I'll see if the G400 works with your system and GK3.

Since only sierra games give me problems, i don't think its a hardware config error, but here they are:
System Specs:
Abit BH6 mobo
Celeron 450A
64 mb ram
6 GB 7200 RPM Fujitsu HD
Ensoniq Audio PCI(using recently upgraded SB PCI-64 drivers)
Pioneer 6x DVD
Iomega ZipCD 4xCDRW
USR 28.8k modem/ Cable modem
Matrox Millenium G400 (Dualhead)
HP Officejet 630

Win 98(updated), DX7

I got tons of stuff in the sys tray... but i tried unloading it before running the game.

I also tried uninstalling dx7, and installing dx6.1a from the cd.

PD 5.41.008 ... Bios Update also.

[Rich]

Update:
I wasn't waiting long enough for the game to start. I was waiting about 30 seconds... and the game took about 50 seconds to respond... to show the initial intro. I did change to newer video drivers ... Matrox PD 5.50 Beta... but I don't think they're what made the difference. Also I do not have DVD Max enabled anymore... but again I think i just didn't wait long enough. Not accustomed to waiting a minute during a black screen...while task manager says not responding...On a PII-450.
Anyways,
Thanks for your help.

Richard McQuillen
"Now about that black screen... I think you've played Sierra games before this, so you're familiar most likely with the endless wait for The Stupid Rock to load. Now the stupid rock is gone, and we have in its place a slightly less endless wait.... for a black screen (void of space I guess) with stars and a wireframe logo.

So it sounds to me like the logo is starting to load, but doesn't... freezes before even displaying the stars.
"

ps. Thanks for all the help Holli... great observations...although the install was fine...don't know what the deal was with the wait.