Exult runs but quits at the starting red fuzzy screen ?!?!?!

[Vendetta]

I am running WindowsXP

I am running Ultima 7 Black Gate

Exult will run and load ultima7 and i see the introduction screen then i see the "Journey Onward" screen

When I select "Journey Onwards" I see this red fuzzy screen

Then Exult just quits

why does it happen ???

Any help is much appreciated

When I check the stderr.txt file i get the following :-

What could be wrong !!!

Am I missing some files in my ultima 7 game ???

Exception attempting to load Serpent Isle 'paperdol.vga', 'gumps.vga' or 'shapes.vga'
Do you have Serpent Isle and is the correct path set in the config for Serpent Isle?
Support for 'Serpent Isle' Paperdolls and Multiracial Avatars in 'Black Gate' DISABLED.
Digital SFX's file specified: jmsfx.flx... but file not found
============================
An exception occured:
Error opening file f:\ultima7\ultima7\gamedat\npc.dat
errno: 2
============================

[Vendetta]

I understand someone had this problem before how did you solve it ???

[Dominus]

make sure that you have the paths are set correctly.
and please post your stdout as well.

[Vendetta]

I got the game working now

Thankz for all the help.

What I did was to create a character and journey onwards and it works

[Dominus]

it could have been that either your game you played before got corrupted or that you had played with the original game before...
Good that you have it running now.

[wjp]

This is probably what happens when you try to journey onward with a gamedat from the original. This is why I think we should have our own gamedat directory. ("quicksave" has my vote)

[ratavA]

I have same problem!And the STATIC folder disappeared form Black Gate folder...What's this about.No offense but installing Exult was one big letter magic hell.

[wjp]

> No offense but installing Exult was one big letter magic hell.

Could you explain what you mean? Any suggestions for improving our installation procedure are appreciated, but we can't do much if you don't tell us what's wrong.

[ratavA]

I had to edit the confiq file 7 times before it runned to the gaming point.There a thousands of noobs like to both Ultima and Engi-nerdish installation.The manual doesn't explain if do i have to move the static to anywhere if i only have BG.And i still wonder if it would work if i would just installed Exult to the same folder as my U7.I have bad english,so does have many others have.By the way, i can't get big letters to work in BG.I press caps lock and still they're small.So how do i fix it?All paths should be correct by now, but STATIC just disappeared.

[ratavA]

The game gives me 2 kinds of errors when i try to "journey onwards".
1)In create character screen:Everything goes fine untill i click "journey onwards".It still gives me the "Red fuzzy screen", but then it stops and Exult quits itself:No error messages, not a thing.Once musics stopped to play when it was about 5-2 secs to crash.
2)In main menu, when i choose "journey onwards" it gives me the "Red fuzzy screen", and after a while it Exult quits with error message something like this "C++ Runtime error C:/Ultima 7/Exult.exe abnormal program termination".I have on BG, i followed the orders of readme like a slave.What's wrong??And as for a last note, i couldn't find STATIC folder in my Black Gate folder after this incident.

[wjp]

Check stderr.txt and stdout.txt to see if there are any error messages there

[ratavA]

There was error messages in stderr.txt...It appears that my BG lacks of some files!...But you could make installation easier.Some suggestions:
1)Stop thinking that everybody has both BG and SI.
2)Explain how we should modify those files.
3)Explain what is the correct folder for Static subfolder?
4)If we have to modify the confiq.txt, what's the point of the Installer asking where do i have BG/SI?
5)Explain if it is possibke to skip the, horrible, painfull part of 2.3 just by installing Exult to BG's/SI's folder?
Last note:I am not from USA, i am not an control freak or "Engi-nerd" and i am under 18.

[wjp]

> 1)Stop thinking that everybody has both BG and SI.

Hm, where do we think that? IIRC, the installer tells you to keep the path field empty if you don't have one of the games

> 2)Explain how we should modify those files.

Which files?

> 3)Explain what is the correct folder for Static subfolder?

Any folder is ok, as long as you enter the correct path in the installer.

> 4)If we have to modify the confiq.txt, what's the point of the Installer asking where do i have BG/SI?

There should be no need to modify exult.cfg just to be able to run the games, if you entered the paths correctly in the installer. What did you have to change in exult.cfg?

> 5)Explain if it is possibke to skip the, horrible, painfull part of 2.3 just by installing Exult to BG's/SI's folder?

These two steps aren't necessary, as far as I can tell. The last time I tried to install Exult in Windows (I'm usually using Linux), I just ran the installer, pointed it to my BG installation (I don't have SI installed in Windows), and it worked without a problem.

[ratavA]

2)Confiq.exe of course!
I just had to edit it beacuse Exult said it couldn't detect BG.

[ratavA]

Oh yes, if we don't need to do so, why does Readme say we have to?

[wjp]

> Oh yes, if we don't need to do so, why does Readme say we have to?

Because you do need to on most platforms. In Windows the installer just takes over that part.

[Dominus]

2.) you must mean exult.cfg. You can of course install Exult anywhere you want to. I was jsut giving an example in the documentation section 2.3.

But you are right that I should state that on Windows the installer asks where BG or SI is installed. If you made a mistake in the installer and gave the wrong path then you can also run the installer once more (or of course edit exult.cfg yourself).

Most of the options in exult.cfg can be changed from within the game but some people like to know where to change stuff outside of the program and for them the exult.cfg explanation is needed in the Documentation.

P.S.: if you still experience a crash after the fuzzy red screen (plasma screen) delete the directory named "gamedat" in the same dir you have the blackgate installed.

[Ignitus Dragon]

Whats an "engi-nerd"? We have to have Serpent Isle to use the paperdolls- thats kinda annoying but can you fix it where theres paperdolls without breaking any copyrights by copying the Serpent Isle paperdoll? Methinks I talk too much about paperdolls

[wjp]

If you don't have SI installed Exult uses the normal BG paperdolls in BG.

To use SI-style paperdolls in BG without having SI would require drawing new paperdoll art for every (wearable) item.

[Dominus]

Or we would violate copyrights by providing the paperdoll.vga file....

[Ignitus Dragon]

What if you just changed the colours to a brighter tint, changed a few "muscle" lines, wouldn't that provide a loophole in the copyright clause? *giggle*

[Craig Hartel]

I'm having the same exit problem after the red screen

I just bought Ultima Collection CD, and i can't figure out what is going wrong. I thought I did everything exactly like the documentation says. I even put my executable files in both my D:\Ultima7 dir and the sub folder D:\Ultima7\STATIC, and by switching the all of the paths to either one or the other. Thanks for the help in advance.

this is exactly what my error log file says:

Exception attempting to load Serpent Isle 'paperdol.vga', 'gumps.vga' or 'shapes.vga'
Do you have Serpent Isle and is the correct path set in the config for Serpent Isle?
Support for 'Serpent Isle' Paperdolls and Multiracial Avatars in 'Black Gate' DISABLED.
Digital SFX's file specified: jmsfx.flx... but file not found
Error reading saved monsters. Clearing list.
Exult Exception: Error opening file d:\UC\Ultima7\STATIC\schedule.dat
Trying /schedule.dat
============================
An exception occured:
Error opening file d:\UC\Ultima7\STATIC\schedule.dat
errno: 2
============================

[Craig Hartel]

ok, i changed the paths, and it added serpent isle, but it still closes after journey onward.

my error file now says:

Digital SFX's file specified: jmsfx.flx... but file not found
Error reading saved monsters. Clearing list.
Exult Exception: Error opening file d:\UC\Ultima7\schedule.dat
Trying /schedule.dat
============================
An exception occured:
Error opening file d:\UC\Ultima7\STATIC\schedule.dat
errno: 2
============================

[Dominus]

please locate the file schedule.dat and report back. And post the content of your exult.cfg file as well, please. Thanks.

[Craig Hartel]

i got it working now, thanks

[Dominus]

please tell us what went wrong!
Good it works now!