Possible "Alwarren bug" solution.

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Vindicator
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Possible "Alwarren bug" solution.

Post by Vindicator »

Greetings,

I had a Drakan save game which consistently crashed when transversing between Alwarren and the Islands level. I found that unchecking "Always Freelook With Rynn" in the Options->Controls section before transversing allowed the level to load. I tested it a several times, and the results seem consistent.

I accidentally overwrote that save game (quicksave), however I did load the Islands level from developer mode, and played it to Alwarren, and back. There was no crash when I exited Alwarren in that game (perhaps I had skipped doing too many things), however after playing the Islands level a little more and attempting to re-enter Alwarren, I now get a consistent crash. I tested several more times both with "Always Freelook With Rynn" activated and deactivated. The results were a consistent crash with "Always Freelook With Rynn" activated, and successful transversal with it deactivated (it did not crash once).

I am unsure if this is already known, as I did not find such a solution - the best I could find was here: http://www.planetdrakan.com/gibletclub/ ... sttips.htm

If this works as consistently in other players' games that exhibit the crash, then perhaps this could be a solution to this bug.

---
Drakan version: Build 375/445

System used:
XP Pro SP2
AMD Athlon64 X2 4400+
GeForce 7800GTX (Driver version v81.98)


*Edit1: Minor corrections.
*Edit2: Minor corrections. Drakan version added.

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Arokhs Twin
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Post by Arokhs Twin »

Thanks for letting us know, I don't think this had been mentioned before, thanks for the tip.

AXE
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Post by AXE »

I notice the system that you are playing with! and yet you manage too play the game, Good for you!

Vindicator
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Post by Vindicator »

Greetings,

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Arokhs Twin</i>

Thanks for letting us know, I don't think this had been mentioned before, thanks for the tip.

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
You are welcome, I do hope it helps.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by AXE</i>

I notice the system that you are playing with! and yet you manage too play the game, Good for you!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Thank you, and yes, apart from some sporadic crashes, I managed to get through the game. I do experience the crash when attempting to select the difficulty level. I did try toggling the "Always Freelook With Rynn" option before selecting the difficulty level, however it seems to have no effect.

Some time ago, I tried testing with the "set Difficulty" line in the Drakan.cfg file, however, when observing the damage-done debug information I could not percieve much, if any differences. (I only tested on the first level of the game.)

Also tried creating a Windows XP compatability patch for it, which achieved nothing.

Recently, (after many years, on and off, of failed attempts) I managed to get it working in Linux, and made a save game at the beginning for each difficulty level.

If it is wanted, I can offer them for your websites, though I imagine dedicated players as yourselves would have the game fully working and could create them. Nonetheless, they are ~460KB compressed with 7-zip.

AXE
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Post by AXE »

I did not know that the game would run under Linux! This intriques me. Which Linux do you use? Did you install from cd, or copied game folder. Does the 445 patch work too?

Yes I would host the save game files for it, if truely it works in Linux. This might open the door for it to run stable as a server platform!

Vindicator
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Post by Vindicator »

Greetings,

I will try to give what information I can:

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by AXE</i>

Which Linux do you use? Did you install from cd, or copied game folder. Does the 445 patch work too?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
I used STUX GNU/Linux from http://gpstudio.com/ because it is distributed with Nvidia drivers which can be installed during the startup sequence. I am unsure about drivers for graphics cards from other manufacturers. I wanted to run Linux as a LiveCD, however I had no success manually installing graphics card drivers with other live distributions. I think it could be done with an internet connection, however I did not want to download drivers every time I started it. If you intend on installing Linux to a volume, I think any Linux distribution which supports WINE and graphics drivers for your accelerator may work.

After starting STUX I opened the volume where I had the Drakan folder (preinstalled) and the latest WINE, and copied them over to Linux desktop.

I then:
-updated WINE
-configured WINE with 'winecfg'
<ul><li>Graphics
All defaults
Vertex shader support: Hardware
Enable 'Allow pixel shader'</li>
<li>Audio
ALSA Driver
Directsound Acceleration: Emulation
Enable 'Emulate driver' (May not be necessary)
44100Hz/16-bit</li></ul>
-used command console to get to the Drakan directory (on Linux desktop)
-used command: wine Drakan.exe (case sensitive)

You can peruse some information and user comments about Drakan running on Linux at this link: http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iVersionId=177

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by AXE</i>

Yes I would host the save game files for it, if truely it works in Linux.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
I created the saved games so I could play the game at any desired difficulty level in XP as a workaround to the 'Select Level of Difficulty' crash; they seem to work in both Windows and Linux.

On my computer, graphical performance of Drakan v445 was smooth with the latest WINE release (the version that comes with STUX has problems with enabling sound, shadows, and sometimes minor texture placement problems). With WINE v0.9.36, I did not experience any slowdowns or visual artifacts.

I was able to install the game from CD successfully (from setup.exe, not autorun.exe), however it did not run. I applied patch v444 and it still did not work - I think the game could not detect the CD drive.

The issues I had with v445 were:
-Riot Engine options: cannot seem to access Developer Mode tab via the 'Shift' key during startup (Perhaps the files could be modified to show the Developer tab by default).
-Riot Engine options (Graphics): 'Bump Mapping' option greyed out (May be due to drivers).
-Stuttery and scratchy sound at times (particularly the sounds of Rynn's footsteps seeming to overlap).
-No music (May be due to drivers/configuration).
-Could not seem to set the resolution higher than 1024x768/32-bit (May be due to drivers).
-Multiplayer: went to 'Host game'->'Begin game', then Drakan reported that the connection had failed. Assuming Drakan utilises DirectPlay, I followed the short instructions here http://wiki.winehq.org/DirectPlayGames however I still could not seem to get it to work. (I had no network set up, perhaps this may be a factor.)
-Running the game with the '-dedicated' flag resulted in a large black screen, however I did not see any text.

I cannot determine for sure if there are problems with the configuration of the Linux I have (whether it be drivers/hardware support or settings), or if WINE does not currently support some of the required functions. Therefore, I cannot confirm whether Drakan can currently run with full functionality in Linux.

Perhaps someone proficient with Linux could provide some information, answers and solutions.

Edit1: Minor corrections.

AXE
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Post by AXE »

Hey thankz for the note on Linux! Ya it seems it needs more tweaking, and my problem with Linux has always been having to find the drivers etc. to get most things to work.

Drakon Rider
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Post by Drakon Rider »

>-Multiplayer: went to 'Host game'->'Begin game', then Drakan reported that the connection had failed. Assuming Drakan utilises DirectPlay, I followed the short instructions here http://wiki.winehq.org/DirectPlayGames however I still could not seem to get it to work. (I had no network set up, perhaps this may be a factor.)

after 445 patch it uses WinSock for networking... older versions uses DirectPlay as i think...

>-Running the game with the '-dedicated' flag resulted in a large black screen, however I did not see any text.

we tried to run dedicated server on Linux with some win-emulator a few months ago (spring 2007) too and also got a blackscreen only... the person show me a log of win-emulator with functions, that Engine tried to call from OS (win or win-emulator) but it possibly not supported by win-emulator yet...

Gaia
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Post by Gaia »

I avoided the bug by using some of the solutions.
Well it doesn't worked the first time, but I repeated it again and again with all possible possibilities.

And finaly I came through it by walking backwards and keep using the fire breath as well I looked down the ground.

By the way I didn't turn down the graphic or sound settings :)

Thank you so much for this infos Vindicator :)

missbetty

Re: Possible

Post by missbetty »

Vindicator, this is 2015 and I play this game. THANK YOU! This Alwarren solution for bug works for me, when no other option would work. Just disable free look and it goes on! I have installed every available patch and it didn't work, even those developed specially for solving this problem..
Thank you! Hope you can read it :)
I have Win 7 64 bit.

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