Troubles with starting the game

[Connor]

Hi, ive install exult to the folder and set the path to the respective folders where i have the game.

When i launch exult, i hear the music but there is nothing in the little screen. just the background of my wallpaper.

What should i do?

[Gunnar]

Post your config file, stdout.txt and stderr.txt. That will help us to solve your problem

[Connor]

Stdout file.
---------------------------------------------------------
Exult version 1.2
Built at: Jun 12 2004 03:31:19
Compile-time options: NO_SDL_PARACHUTE, HAVE_ZIP_SUPPORT
Compiler: Microsoft C/C++ Compiler, version: 13.0.9466

Platform: Windows XP Service Pack 2 Version 5.1 Build 2600
Exult path settings:
Data : data\.
Digital music : data\\music

1 Midi Devices Detected
Listing midi devices:
-1: Microsoft MIDI Mapper
0: Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth
Using device -1: Microsoft MIDI Mapper
Music player: Internal Win32 Midiout Midi Player for Exult and Pentagram.
Black Gate : found
exult_bg.flx : found
Serpent Isle : found
exult_si.flx : found
Starting a BLACK GATE game
Game path settings:
Static : c:\games\u7andsi\ultima_7\static
Gamedat : c:\games\u7andsi\ultima_7\gamedat
Savegame: c:\games\u7andsi\ultima_7
Patch : c:\games\u7andsi\ultima_7\patch

Serpent Isle : found
exult_si.flx : found

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stderr.txt
========================================

Trailing slash in path: "data\"
...compensating, but go complain to Colourless anyway
Digital SFX's file specified: jmsfx.flx... but file not found

=========================================




U7.cfg file

s 388
220 7 1

[wjp]

exult.cfg, not u7.cfg

[Connor]

Thanks here it is.






c:\games\u7andsi\ultima_7


(default)


jmsfx.flx




c:\games\u7andsi\serpent


(default)


jmsisfx.flx




1




yes



yes


gs


normal




yes


gm



no


0




no


0



1.0000


-1




yes



no




yes


no


no


yes


no


yes


no


no


no



0


original


no



8


yes


yes




320


200


2


2xSaI


no


no



1.00


1.00


1.00

[Dominus]

sounds to me like a graphic drivers issue. Please install the latest drivers and tell us if that helped it.

(I deleted the duplicate thread, btw)

[Connor]

thanks i downloaded the latest drivers and it works! you guys rock!

[palidor13]

I'm have the same problem, here is my config.
Any help most appreciated.






c:\uc\ultima7


(default)


jmsfx.flx




c:\uc\serpent


(default)


jmsisfx.flx




1




yes



yes


gs


normal




yes


gm



no


0




no


0



1.0000


-1


no


gm




yes



no




yes


no


no


yes


no


yes


no


no


no



0


original


no



8


yes


yes




320


200


2


2xSaI


no


no



1.00


1.00


1.00

[Dominus]

see the solution that worked for the original poster.

[Uther]

I'm seeing a similar issue but the proposed solution doesn't work for me. Any help would be appreciated. My files are below:

---------------------------------------
stderr.txt:

Trailing slash in path: "data\"
...compensating, but go complain to Colourless anyway
---------------------------------------

---------------------------------------
stdout.txt:

Exult version 1.2
Built at: Jun 12 2004 03:31:19
Compile-time options: NO_SDL_PARACHUTE, HAVE_ZIP_SUPPORT
Compiler: Microsoft C/C++ Compiler, version: 13.0.9466

Platform: Windows XP Service Pack 2 Version 5.1 Build 2600
Exult path settings:
Data : data\.
Digital music : data\\music

1 Midi Devices Detected
Listing midi devices:
-1: Microsoft MIDI Mapper
0: Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth
Using device -1: Microsoft MIDI Mapper
Music player: Internal Win32 Midiout Midi Player for Exult and Pentagram.
Black Gate : found
exult_bg.flx : found
Serpent Isle : found
exult_si.flx : found
---------------------------------------

---------------------------------------
exult.cfg:






c:\games\ultima7


(default)


jmsfx.flx




c:\games\serpent


(default)


jmsisfx.flx




1




yes



yes


gs


normal




yes


gm



no


0




no


0



1.0000


-1




yes



no




yes


no


no


yes


no


yes


no


no


no



0


original


no



8


yes


yes




320


200


2


2xSaI


no


no



1.00


1.00


1.00




---------------------------------------

[Uther]

Actually, to clarify my issue (since it's not exactly the same), Exult appears to start fine and I can see the main menu but once I either select BG or SI, Exult simply disappears.

[Dominus]

First what is your graphics card and what is the driver version of it?
Also please look for this entry in exult.cfg:


yes


and exchange the yes with no (this way we are going to eliminate problems with the sound driver).
Please report back

I hope we can get this sorted out.

[Uther]

Hey Dom,

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, disabling the audio didn't help. The other information is below:

Graphics card: ATI Mobility Radeon X300
Driver version: 6.14.10.6568

[Dominus]

hmm, can't find a fault there

What versions of the games do you have? Floppy versions, Ultima Collection, or ...?

[Dominus]

hmm, we really should do a debug version of releases that lists all file activity to narrow down those errors...

[wjp]

Uther: are you sure the stdout.txt/stderr.txt you gave above are taken directly after such a crash, and not after quitting exult normally?

[Uther]

Dom,
I installed from the original floppies. I have already gotten this to work on my Mac (everything works fine) , it's just this Windows laptop that seems to be having problems. That would lead me to believe that it is not a problem with the game files. I figured there must be something wrong on this machine (since this obviously doesn't happen for every Windows user) but I'm not sure what Exult might be interacting with or what might need to be enabled/disabled to get this working.

wjp,
Yes, those are from directly after Exult simply disappears. I had uninstalled (and then deleted the existing stderr.txt and stdout.txt files) and then re-installed. I then tried to start Exult. The main menu comes up and whther I choose Black Gate or Serpent Isle the window goes black for a few seconds (like it normally does when it is loading the game menu) and then I get the standard Windows dialog box telling me that there was a problem and do I want to send an error report to Microsoft. No matter what option I choose in this dialog, Exult simply disappears.

I've tried capturing the information from the error report that is generated but Windows doesn't allow you to copy and paste the text of the report. I could take screenshots if you think that would help.

[wjp]

Could you try if the latest Exult 1.4.x snapshot works? (The windows binary snapshot on our download page.)

[Dominus]

"Install from original floppies" - the add-ons as well, or just the "plain" games?
I'm asking because we had problems with the floppy installed versions of FoV and SS but that was fixed after the 1.2 release (I *think* so at least).
Which leads me to asking what version of Exult you run on the Mac. The 1.2 or did you compile a newer version yourself?

IWith wjp's suggestion of using the 1.4x snapshot, I'd also recommend deleting the contents of the gamedat dir in both the BG and SI dirs.

[Uther]

wjp,
I tried installing the 1.4 snapshot but that didn't work either. This time Exult just went away without the dialog box I mentioned earlier.

Below is the stdout.txt and stderr.txt files (the .cfg files looks the same as the earlier one I had posted. I had disabled the audio as well as per an earlier suggestion by Dom):

---------------------
stderr.txt:

Fatal signal: Segmentation Fault (SDL Parachute Deployed)
---------------------

---------------------
stdout.txt:

Exult version 1.4.01cvs
Built at: Oct 15 2005 15:08:04
Compile-time options: USE_FMOPL_MIDI, USE_EXULTSTUDIO, HAVE_ZIP_SUPPORT
Compiler: gcc, version: 3.4.4 (mingw special)

Platform: Windows XP Service Pack 2 Version 5.1 Build 2600
Exult path settings:
Data : data
Digital music : data\music

Black Gate : found
exult_bg.flx : found
Serpent Isle : found
exult_si.flx : found
---------------------

Dom,
Yes I have FOV and SS installed (from their original floppies) as well. Perhaps that is the problem.

I'm using the official v1.2 binary on my Mac.

I deleted the contents of both GAMEDAT directories but saw the same crashing behavior (using the 1.4 snapshot).

[wjp]

Did installing the add-ons produce a file called usecode.new in the 'static' directory? If so, try renaming that to 'usecode', overwriting the already existing 'usecode' file.

This is probably not what causes the crash, but it is something that will cause trouble further on.

[wjp]

Do you have write permission in the BG and SI directories?

[Uther]

I don't have any "usecode.new" files, only the "usecode" files (SI "usecode" file is about 2Meg, BG "usecode" file is about 1.4Meg).

[Uther]

Yes, I have write permissions for both the ULTIMA7 and SERPENT directories (and sub-directories).

[Uther]

Dom and wjp,

I've tried a few other things and I think the problem is with the actual game files themselves and not Exult. I tried running BG and SI in DosBox (using the same game files that I used with Exult) but it crashed as well each time. Interestingly, Pagan runs just fine in DosBox and Pentagram on my Windows machine.

The strange thing is that these same BG and SI game files work perfectly fine with both Exult and DosBox on my Mac (OS X 10.3.9) but they don't work with either application on my Windows machine.

At this point I'm just going to try a fresh install of the game to see if that helps. I appreciate your help in trying to figure this out. Thanks.

[Dominus]

When you do a fresh install and if it works then, can you compare it to your old install (you've got to keep that then ) and see what is different, which files are different and so on...
Just maybe the Mac install did some voodoo and changed a file in a mysterious way

(for the Dosbox try, did you delete contents of the gamedat dir again? Important since Exult and the original really don't like each other)

[Uther]

Dom,

Well, I didn't need to re-install, it appears that the files on my thumbdrive were corrupted in some way. I had copied the files from my Mac to my thumbdrive and then from the thumbdrive to my Windows machine. Before going through the bother of re-installing I decided to wipe the thumbdrive and re-copy the files (since everything continued to work on the Mac and simply recopying from the thumbdrive to the Windows machine didn't help).

Nothing out of the ordinary had happened during the first copy or the second copy so I don't know what the difference was but it worked. I figured it had to be something simple that I was overlooking and it turns out that it was. Anyway, I appreciate the help (Dom and wjp). Thanks again.

[Dominus]

ok, then, I'm glad all worked out in the end.