T3D no longer runs on my box
by David Chan · in Torque 3D Professional · 09/30/2009 (4:26 pm) · 19 replies
T3D no longer runs on my machine. We even grabbed the latest build off SVN and no dice. I run any version of the .exe and I don’t get any errors, all that happens is that the process continues to run in the background eating about 25% of my quad core machine’s CPU, but no splash screen or anything else. I’ve updated DirectX and the ATI drivers and no change. I added a second sound card before GDC and it worked after I tested it, but when I came back from GDC no dice. I am running an Intel Quad Core 2, 8GB RAM, ATI 4870X2, Windows Vista 64. Any suggestions you might have to get it working again would be greatly appreciated.
About the author
Got my start at BioWare in 1999. First project was MDK2 and last project was Mass Effect. Since then I've worked on indie titles and other games like Prey and Splinter Cell. Got my start at pureLIGHT late last year as the Product Manager.
#2
09/30/2009 (4:38 pm)
Hey there :P ATI cards are all kinds of awesome. I am actually okay with either ATI or nVidia as I've had both. 
#3
Update or rollback your sound drivers? (I can't play any Call of Duty games in multiplayer without using an older driver for my sigmatel card)
Then Event Viewer for crippling errors (Iastor timeouts corrupt data) and then Diskcheck.
edit: You didn't delete/remove the older DX did you? Isn't Dx March09 needed to run T3D.
09/30/2009 (5:57 pm)
Quote:
I added a second sound card before GDC and it worked after I tested it, but when I came back from GDC no dice.
Update or rollback your sound drivers? (I can't play any Call of Duty games in multiplayer without using an older driver for my sigmatel card)
Then Event Viewer for crippling errors (Iastor timeouts corrupt data) and then Diskcheck.
edit: You didn't delete/remove the older DX did you? Isn't Dx March09 needed to run T3D.
#4
Don't know which project you're trying to use, but it may just be a case of the exe/dll build being out of date with the current externals being used as it was for me.
And yes, ATI cards are awesome! Even though I'm currently using nVidia ;D
09/30/2009 (6:02 pm)
Are you using the 1.0 or 1.1 branch? I had to recently rebuild both the FPS Genre Kit and FPSExample builds in the 1.0 repo in order to use them locally. I'm usually more current than any of the builds in the repo in any case so I'm not sure if that holds true for 1.1 also.Don't know which project you're trying to use, but it may just be a case of the exe/dll build being out of date with the current externals being used as it was for me.
And yes, ATI cards are awesome! Even though I'm currently using nVidia ;D
#5
@Steve: March SDK was required to build without having to tweak the source, but no particular runtime should be required. The latest drivers usually ask for the latest redist runtime, too.
@David: I had an issue in beta 5 which cleared up with the 1.0 release, which looked sorta similar to yours. When using my laptop+external screen, I couldn't go fullscreen on either. Tabbing to the desktop gave me a proper crash, though.
Michael's suggestion to clean & rebuild fully is all I can come up with, too :/
09/30/2009 (6:35 pm)
The latest run of ATI cards are all rainbows and unicorns, and I'd gladly take an unwanted 4870 off anyone who might feel bad about their purchase, and want to avoid a paper trail :P@Steve: March SDK was required to build without having to tweak the source, but no particular runtime should be required. The latest drivers usually ask for the latest redist runtime, too.
@David: I had an issue in beta 5 which cleared up with the 1.0 release, which looked sorta similar to yours. When using my laptop+external screen, I couldn't go fullscreen on either. Tabbing to the desktop gave me a proper crash, though.
Michael's suggestion to clean & rebuild fully is all I can come up with, too :/
#6
09/30/2009 (7:18 pm)
The problem happens no matter what the build. I've tried it with the release .exe and with a build we compiled here off SVN. I could try disabling my other sound card temporarily.
#7
09/30/2009 (8:09 pm)
Since you've got new hardware in the equation it's possible that an existing pref setting is causing a conflict. Have you tried running deletePrefs.bat to see if regenerating new ones would help? 
#8
One thing to try is to remove the 2nd sound card and see if that solves the issue.
Another thing to try is to edit your scripts\client\prefs.cs file and set a different $pref::SFX::provider (valid options are XAudio, DirectSound, and None).
09/30/2009 (9:06 pm)
If I had to take a wild guess (albeit slightly educated), I would be suspicious that the SFX system might be hanging because of the second sound card or the sound card drivers.One thing to try is to remove the 2nd sound card and see if that solves the issue.
Another thing to try is to edit your scripts\client\prefs.cs file and set a different $pref::SFX::provider (valid options are XAudio, DirectSound, and None).
#9
go to the creative openal page and download the driver from there. its granted newer than what you have and will solve the issue.
toying with the T3D settings is worthless unless you totally cut openal from the source as the provider check will issue the openal check an lock the app into an infinite loop.
09/30/2009 (9:49 pm)
That issue you get is to 99% an issue with openal on vista64go to the creative openal page and download the driver from there. its granted newer than what you have and will solve the issue.
toying with the T3D settings is worthless unless you totally cut openal from the source as the provider check will issue the openal check an lock the app into an infinite loop.
#10
I disabled (but didn't physically remove) the second card and deleted the prefs and still no luck. I tried and Source and UE3 run with no problem, so I'm not sure what that means.
@Matt
I'll give that a try.
09/30/2009 (10:19 pm)
@MattI disabled (but didn't physically remove) the second card and deleted the prefs and still no luck. I tried and Source and UE3 run with no problem, so I'm not sure what that means.
@Matt
I'll give that a try.
#11
did you turn it off in windows or in the bios. if In windows I would try turning the onboard audio from auto "default setting" to off.
10/01/2009 (1:11 am)
Quote:I disabled (but didn't physically remove)
did you turn it off in windows or in the bios. if In windows I would try turning the onboard audio from auto "default setting" to off.
#12
10/01/2009 (1:32 am)
I can't turn off the pro sound card in the BIOS. The machine originally ran off the on-board sound. I disabled that when I installed the Emu card. Now I've tried disabling them alternately and it doesn't help.
#13
10/01/2009 (12:37 pm)
Hey James, you are the man! Installing the newest OpenAL fixed my problem. 
#14
10/01/2009 (12:46 pm)
Man I hate OpenAL.
#15
Doh ... I could have mentioned that myself but I'm so used to using it I forgot it's there.
I don't even know anything about audio but have just been using it since the heady days of TGE.
10/01/2009 (12:48 pm)
OpenAL for the win!Doh ... I could have mentioned that myself but I'm so used to using it I forgot it's there.
I don't even know anything about audio but have just been using it since the heady days of TGE.
#17
Its not Audio, its OpenCrap and OpenCrap only.
Be it the long time broken Vista64 Support or the massive problems it has with hardware acceleration, anyone using OpenAL should really be severely punished ...
Going the cheap way as a dev although you know that you are going to punish your users if usable options would only cost slightly more than nothing is something I do not understand and all I have for such devs is the hope that they create a mega flop and go out of business ...
anyone caring that little about the game experience really doesn't deserve anything else ...
OpenAL is an option for one project type only and thats GPL
For anything else you either get IrrKlang or FMod ...
PS: yes I'm pissed by such devs. out of 13 games I bought the past 14 months, only 3 worked without me realizing that they use opencrap and deleting the dlls they were using so it uses my system installed one. Even the just recent release of Osmos on Steam suffered from this ***** yet even worse, they include an openal installer but a seriously outdated one which broke my system install.
10/01/2009 (2:25 pm)
I think its unfair to put that onto AudioIts not Audio, its OpenCrap and OpenCrap only.
Be it the long time broken Vista64 Support or the massive problems it has with hardware acceleration, anyone using OpenAL should really be severely punished ...
Going the cheap way as a dev although you know that you are going to punish your users if usable options would only cost slightly more than nothing is something I do not understand and all I have for such devs is the hope that they create a mega flop and go out of business ...
anyone caring that little about the game experience really doesn't deserve anything else ...
OpenAL is an option for one project type only and thats GPL
For anything else you either get IrrKlang or FMod ...
PS: yes I'm pissed by such devs. out of 13 games I bought the past 14 months, only 3 worked without me realizing that they use opencrap and deleting the dlls they were using so it uses my system installed one. Even the just recent release of Osmos on Steam suffered from this ***** yet even worse, they include an openal installer but a seriously outdated one which broke my system install.
#18
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edit:
Just a random thought, would totally uninstalling OpenAL have also fixed this problem?
10/01/2009 (3:23 pm)
Is OpenAL really that bad? It's just something that's been lingering on my system for aeons. Admittedly I don't actually use it for anything, it's just there.Quote:That's not in a friendly spanking by Playmate Bunnies way is it?
anyone using OpenAL should really be severely punished ...
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edit:
Just a random thought, would totally uninstalling OpenAL have also fixed this problem?
#19
Yep. If there's no OpenAL DLLs, the OAL support won't initialize and just be skipped.
I've had my share of fights with OpenAL (the weirdest bugs being on guess what platform... Mac of course) but overall I have to say I still very much prefer it over XAudio2 and since after it has come to prominence again when Vista came around and lost support for EAX and such through DirectSound, it overall also seems to have improved in quality very noticeably.
10/01/2009 (4:11 pm)
Quote:Just a random thought, would totally uninstalling OpenAL have also fixed this problem?
Yep. If there's no OpenAL DLLs, the OAL support won't initialize and just be skipped.
I've had my share of fights with OpenAL (the weirdest bugs being on guess what platform... Mac of course) but overall I have to say I still very much prefer it over XAudio2 and since after it has come to prominence again when Vista came around and lost support for EAX and such through DirectSound, it overall also seems to have improved in quality very noticeably.
Torque Owner James Brad Barnette
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