System requirements...

[Lynx-Eyed]

Hi Guys!

Do i have any chance to run EXULT with this? :

- Intel Pentium I. 133 MHz
- VESA 1.2 VBE compatible video card
- DirectX8.1b

When i try to run EXULT, it exits with a missing DLL error.(opengl32.dll)
Is it a requirement to have a 3DFx card?

See Ya!

[Dominus]

hm, seems like there is accidently OpenGl support compiled into the version you use. OpenGl is not 3Dfx specific, btw...
Which version of Exult was this with? Latest official beta or snapshot? It it's one of them try the other and please report back if that works.

[Kagehi Kossori]

Another nasty quirk is that opengl32.dll is only found in the installs for newer cards. Most old ones use opengl.dll. I had this exact opposite problem trying to run a free version of the Truespace renderer from a sample CD. It wouldn't work with the new opengl32.dll driver that my NVidia card used and I had to hunt down the old version and drop it into the program directory. I would say odds are Exult is specifically looking for the 32 bit (and expanded/improved) version, but your VESA card either doesn't have any opengl installed at all or is using the old and incompatible version.

Either way, try installing OpenGL drivers and see if the problem goes away. I am pretty sure it works with non-opengl cards too, but will tend to run slower, since it has to emulate the hardware features. I am not 100% certain though.

[Colourless]

Um, please don't talk about things which you don't really know about.

Opengl32.dll should not come with graphics cards since it is actually part of Windows itself. What graphics cards come with is call an OpenGL ICD. The ICD is a driver that is loaded by opengl32.dll. It does not replace opengl32.dll. An ICD is not required to use OpenGL since opengl32.dll contains a complete software implementaion of OpenGL1.1. However without hardware acceleration via an ICD will be very slow.

If a graphics card comes with an opengl32.dll either one of 2 things will be true:
1) It is the original opengl32.dll from Microsoft
or
2) It is a partial implementation of OpenGL is likely designed to be purely used with certain games, such as Quake.

Early versions of Windows 95 did not come with OpenGL support, so they do not have opengl32.dll. An update for Windows 95 includes it. You can download it from Micorsoft here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... engl95.exe

You should note that while Exult wants OpenGL to run, it doesn't by default actually use it. Whatever you do, if you do not have a 3d graphics card with OpenGL acceleration, you should not set Exult to run in OpenGL mode (see the documentation).

That said, a Pentium 133 will likely run Exult fairly poorly under all circumstances. Running the originals in Dos would likely be a much better experience.

-Colourless Dragon

[Kagehi Kossori]

Hmm. Ok, my bad.. I wasn't aware that OpenGL32.dll was part of the OS. I based my assessment on the reality that newer cards are likely to impliment newer features and this the dll would need to match the card. After all, not all cards have all features and some older ones are flat out broken. Though of course, that doesn't seem to stop the driver from using the broken feature...

[Lynx-Eyed]

This problem has occured w/ the last official beta version of EXULT.
Hm...this is getting harder and harder. Colorless Dragon suggested,
that i should use the original DOS version of the game, which works
perfectly w/o sound & music effects. However, installing my DOS
SoundBlaster driver and thus becoming a part of memory as a TSR,
the game's setup program reports approx. 300 BYTES(!!!) of free
conventional memory, which is of course really absurd. DOS' s 'mem'
command reports more than 600K of it, which would be more than enough.

So here i am, being really sad, 'cuz im a real ULTIMA fan.
Previously, i thought opengl32.dll is a part of the DirectX package and
that's why i mentioned it before.
Anyway THANKS for the help guys!

Fare thee well...

Lynx-Eyed

[nadir]

It's Colourless not Colorless

[artaxerxes]

You could still use a combo Linux/Dosbox.

As amazing at it seems, the latest dosbox can play the original Ultimas, including sound and all!

Artaxerxes

[wjp]

Dosbox won't run fast enough on a P133.

[flohdaniel]

With such a system you should run Ultima with a DOS-Boot-Disk having no trouble. It is a system from the mid-90's, and the game is from '92. Why using Exult?

[Dominus]

perhaps because of:
http://exult.info/faq.php#improvements

and that BG runs too fast on such a machine.