trouble running TGE

#1 I am assuming you are talking about TGE 1.4 or 1.5 versus T3D?

The only thing I see as an issue is the video card. It's pretty low as far as specs. Realistically though, it should run TGE just fine. Get the latest driver you can. Is this a laptop or desktop?

In fact, I would recommend updating whatever drivers you can. Check your sound card. You would not believe the number of issues this can cause..... Finally, check your USB drivers, I am betting they are old as well. Just some suggestions. I hope they help.

Ron

#2 I've had that "No Signal" message on my computer every day that I let the computer "sleep". Each time I wake it with a mouse move or keyboard button, it takes a moment for the drivers to load up. Usually less than 3 seconds.

I'd guess the 1GB memory is the bottleneck.
Windows will use up the majority of memory, which leave little room for Battlefield 1942, and windows will start to use your HD as spare memory when it runs low.
After TGE loads up, it's leaving little space remaining for the video drivers.. and they don't get loaded...?
That's just my guess. Memory sticks are cheap. Try getting 3GB or more.
TGE is great because it can run on nearly anything that is ancient.

There is a good chance that after you've made your game, it could use less memory to play, then you will need to have for development.

#3 I'm going to say that there has to be some issue with drivers somewhere. Tribes ran fine on a machine with much lower specifications than the one you list and TGE 1.5.2 specifically also in my own personal experience - I've owned TGE since 2004 and it compiled and ran fine on mid-range gaming systems at the time.

Check your console.log file to see where it stopped, it might give a clue as to where to look. Did you compile and run it from that system or did you compile it on another system and copy it over? Or are you running a version that comes with one of the books on Torque programming?

#4 Thank You Kind Gentlemen for your responses .
The TGE I have installed was provided from a cd that came with the book 3D Game Programming All-In-One . I do not know the version but it comes with many files that get the engine running to the point where all I have to do is begin playing around with the assets and editor and Im certainly not capable of creating those files . The machine is an old throw away but I have the restore disc as well and have restored the OS but when I when I suspected that perhaps it was the usb keyboard or mouse , I plugged in a ps/2 KB and it read it as a ps/2 mouse . It will say new hardware found ps2 mouse , IDK , seems funny . Today I managed to get the high definition audio bus drivers installed , hoping that would somehow help and it didnt .
In the console log file , the one made during a crash , the final line says
intitializing direct input , something like that , and it does not go on to say that the keyboard has been acquired . I have the log copied if it would help to see it . I certainly appreciate you taking time for this and Im looking forward to , hopefully , resolving the problem . The same TGE runs swell on my compaq laptop . The celeron is gateway desktop and I do not have a sound card at this time , I do plan to pick up an old turtle beach or sound blaster , soon . Finally Id like to mention that the engine will start and will sit on all night until I begin to move with the mouse or keyboard then its only a matter of seconds before it crashes . Thank You Gentlemen .

#5 That's very weird. A copy of the console.log (or cut and paste the last few lines) would be helpful, but it really sounds like USB or system drivers, or maybe that motherboard has a firmware update that it needs. Or it might need an older version of the DirectX SDK - technically DirectInput was deprecated before DX9 IIRC, though TGE 1.4 should have been ok with DX9.0c.

#6 Hello again
here is what i copied from the log file plus something from windows error reporting i found in the system information . The stuff from the error report seems to be pointing to the open al part of it but im not sure . It only reports from Jan. 2 and Ive tried the engine several times since then , practically daily . Does this require an audio card just as the open gl requires a graphics card ?

*** Phase 3: Mission Lighting
Successfully loaded mission lighting file: 'fps/data/missions/book_ch6_ebee522e.ml'
Mission lighting done
Mapping string: MissionStartPhase3Ack to index: 2
Missing spawn points group MissionGroup/PlayerDropPoints
Mapping string: MissionStart to index: 11
Mapping string: SyncClock to index: 12
Could not register dust emitter for class: LightMaleHumanArmor
Could not register dust emitter for class: LightMaleHumanArmor
Could not register dust emitter for class: LightMaleHumanArmor
*** Initial Control Object
Activating DirectInput...

Thats it . thats the end of the file when it crashes .

****
i found this in Start-allPrograms-accessories-systemInformation-
softwareEnvironment-windowsErrorReporting
****
----------------------------------------------
1/2/2013 3:33 AM Application Error
Faulting application tge.exe, version 0.0.0.0,
faulting module openal32.dll, version 0.9.7.2,
fault address 0x000036d9.


1/2/2013 3:43 AM Application Error
Faulting application tge.exe, version 0.0.0.0,
faulting module openal32.dll, version 0.9.7.2,
fault address 0x000036d9.


1/2/2013 3:43 AM Application Error
Faulting application tge.exe, version 0.0.0.0,
faulting module openal32.dll, version 0.9.7.2,
fault address 0x000036d9.


1/2/2013 3:44 AM Application Error
Faulting application tge.exe, version 0.0.0.0,
faulting module openal32.dll, version 0.9.7.2,
fault address 0x000036d9.

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

***
This is copied from the same log file
***
-----------------------------
OpenAL Driver Init:
OpenAL
Vendor: Creative Labs Inc.
Version: OpenAL 1.0
Renderer: Software
Extensions: EAX 2.0, EAX 3.0, EAX Unified, and EAX-AC3
---------------------------------------------------------

I would post a picture that I have showing the audio options on the start up page of the TGE which simply would show the audio driver being openal but i couldnt paste it . and again , Thank You for your help Gentlemen .
plus , I just thought this , that the date might not be correct on that machine .

#7 Hmm - well, you can always try downloading the latest openAL dll. Looks like that's using 0.9.7.2 and the latest is 6.14. Available from Creative Labs

#8 Richard , i downloaded and installed openAL dll ver 6.14
now it says this is the log file
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
OpenAL Driver Init:
OpenAL
Missing OpenAL Extension function 'EAXSet'
Missing OpenAL Extension function 'EAXGet'
Vendor: Creative Labs Inc.
Version: 1.1
Renderer: Software
Extensions: EAX EAX2.0 EAX3.0 EAX4.0 EAX5.0 EAX3.0EMULATED EAX4.0EMULATED
AL_EXT_OFFSET AL_EXT_LINEAR_DISTANCE AL_EXT_EXPONENT_DISTANCE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The engine is still working as described above and there is nothing new in the error reporting thing . Thank You

#9 Weird. Sound drivers are up to date?

#10 Okay , heres what I did . I went online with it and updated everything I could . I used the update driver utility thats in the device manager . I installed the service pack 3 . In every attempt to update drivers It said no better driver was found , this includes the universal serial bus drivers and the sound drivers so , I am going to assume that the drivers are up to date . And , I am sorry to say , it had no positive effect concerning the TGE . but at least it has explorer 8 and MS essentials now :), Ive been wanting to check out ms essentials for a looong time :).. I think I like it . Anyhow , besides any further advice you might have , and I do appreciate your helping me with this , do you feel that it is too soon to try out a cheap old ebay sound card , I dont want to waste the money if thats not the cure though . Thanks again .

#11 Is it possible the disc is scratched? and if it's the same disc I have, it's TGE v1.1.2

#12 Britt Scott , The disc appears to be in great condition . Its the disc that cam ewith the book and I cant find the version number anywhere . the only thing Ive seen with a number on it is the error report that says ver 0.0.0.0 so , I dont know . Thanks for your attention , I guess its a problem with the machine , that I might need more RAM or a sound card or both . Ive restored the OS and I installed , uninstalled and reinstalled the TGE from the disc . I havent been able to find the system requirements for the TGE but i dont think that they are very demanding . Thank You and the avatar looks cool :)

#13 From the book..

Quote:System Requirements
Processor Pentium II/500MHz minimum
Operating System Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
Video Card 3D graphics accelerated video card, NVidia GeForce 2 - 32MB
equivalent or better
Display 17-inch recommended
Input Devices keyboard and mouse
Memory 128MB minimum with 256MB recommended
Hard Disk 4GB minimum

This is the version, I'm seeing...

#14 Wow - that's a blast from the past....

@James - drop me a line, my e-mail is in my profile.

#15 Britt , Thank you for that picture you posted , with it I was able to determine that indeed mine is v1.1.2 as well . Also I found the specs in the introduction section of the book just as you had printed . +1 for you and Thank You . This is quite baffling to me , as , by now , Im quite sure that you have no trouble believing . It seems that the requirements are exceeded by this machine and it runs like dynamite on my sempron laptop with integrated nvidia and vista . I have also ran the engine with stunning reliability on a 64x2athlon and ati express 200 using XP pro 5 1 2600 svc pack 3 which is the same as i am using with the celeronD with the exception that CeleronD is running the home edition . Thanks for hanging in here and today I have nothing much new to add to the situation . It did crash a couple times during searches for the ati2dvag dll with the blue screen telling me that the dll had gotten caught in an endless loop , and a couple references to video driver malfunctions in the event veiwer but I really didnt understand it well , and of course the engine crashed on me a couple of times with the only real reference I could find being ones referring to TGE as the faulting module . well , Thanks Again

#16 dear kind Gentlemen ,
YOOREEKAAAAH! IVE FOUND IT ! sort of . I managed to locate a couple referrences to similar problems . They warned of this graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT) malfunctioning during website visits while yet playing thier new games flawlessly . They recommended getting the newest drivers from AMD/ATI , so I did . Alas , it did not fix the problem so , I uninstalled the vid-card and resorted to the integrated ATI Radeon Xpress 200 on the board (i think thats proper terminology , IDK) well guess what , the TGE ran just fine , at least for the 3 minutes I played around in Chapter 6 . So thatll be cool with me and I guess we can get back to work helping with more advanced issues around here , unless anyone would like to say something about the problem with that card , It seems weird , I wonder if somehow it were confused on which drivers to install but what do I know :)Thank You all . Jim

#17 Yeah at least you got the problem narrowed down.

#18 well , I redid the OS again and this time I didnt install the Xpress 200 video controller software . Instead , I installed the 2600 XT software . Perhaaps Im still making some procedural < is that a word (nevermind) mis-step but it still didnt work for me . I went back to the xpress 200 and no problem . Anyhow ,very exciting stuff now . Thank you gentlemen , again , for helping . TGE is gonna be a ball . +'s to GG .