Windows NT and some problems... (AOE2 and DirectX)

[aliem 0]

Okay. I'm new here... and I've been looking for a site like this for a while. I'm using Windows NT 4.0 SP6.1 on this rig and don't feel like upgrading even though I have legal version of Win2000Pro.

 

I've installed Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings with the Conquerors expansion... and I've played it before no problems on this exact machine... and there's a big problem that prevents me from playing at all. As soon as I start up a map, single player, multiplayer... whatever... the map just scrolls up to the top of the screen.. and when I try to move the screen around it just pulls back to the top. I've reinstalled and installed patches with no avail... It does the same exact thing. I remember a year or two ago when I first played this game I had the same problem... but somehow fixed it. Unluckily I forget what I did.

 

I don't have time to ask about DirectX so I'll post that later on today.

[ConQueso 0]

You'll probably want to install the latest patch for Conquerors if you haven't already:

 

Also, from what the MS tech support says, you need to update your video card drivers.

 

Congrats on finding the site, and welcome. The people here have helped me in many ways, part of the reason why I try to return the favor.

[aliem 0]

Yes, latest video card drivers (intel integrated on this one... i have better) and yes i have the latest patch.

 

Okay now... about directx. DirectX 3 doesn't go very far... and I hear of people having DirectX 4 or 5 on their WinNT4.0. How would I go about doing this? And I cannot find any sites containing DX4 or 5.

 

Thanks for your input and I plan on visiting here often as a WinNT/2000 user.

[ConQueso 0]

Hmm... I'm not the one to ask about upgrading DX on a NT system. Hopefully someone else will chime in regarding that. You could probably find such information in a thread search, it's probably in here somewhere.

 

 

As for the up-scrolling. Have you tried tapping whatever keys are bound to scroll up before trying to scroll back down? Perhaps even unbind these keys in the options menu? And is the game running in normal priority?

 

Perhaps a command line parameter might solve the problem, though I doubt it. If you do figure it out, please be sure to post your results.

[ConQueso 0]

Oh, also, as it's seems to likely be video related, have you tried lowering your video acceleration? (Display properties > settings > advanced > troubleshoot > drag slider right) If this doesn't solve the problem at the setting most to the right that actually allows the game to run, than it might not be video related.

[ConQueso 0]

The game's requirements list NT 4.0 SP5+ and no directX information. So apparently whatever DX is inherent with NT 4 SP5+ should do the trick, at least for this game.

[aliem 0]

too bad my display/settings doesn't have an advanced option.

 

and yes... i know it works on nt4 without direct x... it's just a problem that seems to only happen on this system

[ConQueso 0]

Oh. Oops.

 

I don't know NT 4.0 well.

 

Anyone know if there is any video hardware acceleration tweaking ability in NT?

[adamvjackson 0]

I know AOE2 runs in Direct3D mode, as opposed to OpenGL, so a version of DirectX is required, you might want to try posting a question on the Microsoft news server.

 

Server name: msnews.microsoft.com

Newsgroup: microsoft.public.games.ageofkings

 

No username or password is required to access that server, by the way.

[aliem 0]

thanks for showing me the newsgroup... I've never used one of those before. If I don't get help from there... I'll either have to expect it from this forum or just live without AOE2.

[aliem 0]

okay.. i posted my problem there... took me a while because I've never used outlook express.

[jmmijo 1]

I don't think you're going to get too much game support under NT4.x just because there are DirectX issues. There is some sort of hack out there that seems to allow NT4 to have up to DX6 installed but I can't remember where, perhaps I saw it on this very forum as well

 

I understand you not wanting to upgrade to say 2K/XP but for many games this is a requirement due to the DX requirements of so many games now a days.

 

If I find that hack link this may help out but don't count on it. Also another possible issue is the use of the onboard Intel graphics, this is great for a general purpose workstation only. You want to play games and/or graphics work you should consider another graphics option, especially if your board has an AGP slot on it

[aliem 0]

Hehe, I know more about computers than you probably all think. I own somewhere around 26 systems... and the one I'm trying to get aoe2 isn't one of my best ones... but it sure is better than a lot.

 

I'll search around the forums for the directx6 hack... hopefully it'll do the trick if i can find it. thanks for the input

 

if you're wondering I don't give names to my systems. :x

[aliem 0]

Hooray! I did it myself... without really downloading anything... just replacing some DX3 files with DX7... risky but it worked! w00t w00t. I'm most definately coming back to these forums... thanks for all the support.

[adamvjackson 0]

Out of curiousity, did you have to rename any of the DirectX 7 files, or do/did they have the same filenames?

[ConQueso 0]

Also, for anyone else that might have this issue, please post what files you swapped (for any of those brave enough to try).

[aliem 0]

Hm, well I didn't rename anything... I didn't actually replace anything either... Direct x 7 had a lot more files... so I just put in the direct x 7 files that direct x 3 didn't have at all... i didn't want to try and get too risky, but i will try actually replacing them sometime.

[ntexpert 0]

Be careful if your going to replace the native NT DX files with DX7 versions. The DX7 versions were never designed to run on NT and may crash the system. You might want to try the un-official dx5 patch instead. The dx files are from the 1st win2k beta and were found to work correctly on NT. Also, some DX7 distrobutions were designed for Win9x, and definitely should not be installed on NT.

 

Chris