Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 not running windowed

[monk88]

Hi,

I added my Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 game to the list in the DXWnd, but when I click run, I hear the disc spinning but the game does not open.

I have WindowsXP. I tried to modify some of the settings after it didn't start, nothing too drastic, hope that didn't mess anything up. I put the window size in 640x480 as suggested.

I have no idea how to make it work, please help.

[gho]

From my last configuration, it seems that the game should run with no problems. It's possible I broke something in the last releases (I made some quite radical changes) so I'll have to test it again and check if the suggested exported configuration needs an update.
Since I'm unfortunately quite busy for personal (and not so pleasant) matters, that could take a little while: if you're in a hurry, in the meantime I wold suggest to download and try an older DxWnd configuration.
P.s. DxWnd in the default configuiration can handle one program at a time. If the disk is spinning and the game is running, before making further attempts it's necessary to stop the program execution. You can easily do that by the task manager or, even easier, by the Kill command on the right-click pop-up menu on the selected game.

[monk88]

I downloaded an older one, V2_03_02, and tried it out and got some progress. When I add the game and press run, it runs the game, but it doesn't show it in windowed mode.

Hope everything is going to be ok personally with you. Thank you.

[gho]

I tried to recover from my game backups, but the antivirus detected something on the exe and deleted it. I have to look for the CD physical copy, that is annoying (I have tons of disks..)!
If the game starts but no windowed, there might be some quick checks:
1) DxWnd must have administrator's capabilities
2) the target executable Rct2.exe must have NO compatibility modes set
3) it could be necessary to switch "DirectX version hook" from "Automatic" to "DirectX1~6"

Thank you for understanding my problems... so far, so good.

[Gamer DX]

Hi gho, I hope you can get it working. Also, I hope you matters are sorted out.

I don't know, maybe this demo to test with. http://www.fileplanet.com/52826/50000/fileinfo/Railroad-Tycoon-2-demo-%28PC%29

[gho]

The demo is a good idea, no problem with virus or whatsoever. I just do hope that the demo replicates exactly monk88 problems. Perhaps monk88 could download the demo and check if it brings the same problems as the full game.
In any case, the demo with latest DxWnd release seems to work but with some clipping / refresh problem. I'm going to see if I can improve the current situation, that you can easily get whith almost default settings. Here the exported file I'm using, though there are the problem that I told.

P.s. to install the demo in a 64 bit machine you may have to manually copy the files extracted before they get deleted and then download a copy of MicroSoft Setup32.exe to run as an alternative to the unsupported Setup.exe.

[gho]

Ehi, wait a minute! Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 is not the same game as Railroad Tycoon 2!!!!
Oh, my! Now I got two games to fix at the price of one ..... :(
this should be the one: http://www.fileplanet.com/117355/110000/fileinfo/RollerCoaster-Tycoon-II-European-Demo
Fortunately, this demo is quite easier to install. Here are the configuration file and the screenshot. I got no big troubles, I just had to set "DirectX version hook" to "DirectX1~6"

[monk88]

I downloaded the demo, and the configuations you gave, along with changing to Directx1-6. The demo is running in windowed but inconsistently. At first it gave me picture with color, then every time I opened it after that, the game credits would pass, then the windowed screen would be all black.
The Demo version and DxWnd I was able to close and then open back up in windowed mode multiple times. The screen was just black.

My full-version of the game finally started in windowed mode! However there were some problems with consistency. Like you said to, I took off all compatibility settings for the game, ran the latest DxWnd as "user", 'which I believe should have admin rights'. I put the Directx in 1-6, and the game ran in windowed. One small problem being when I went to load a save game, I couldn't see the load screen. I don't know if it's a problem or just the way the windowed mode works, but I just moved the windowed game to the side so I could see it in the future and it wouldn't glitch.

The big problem now being, after the first time my full-version game worked in windowed mode, I tested to see if I could close it and open back up so see if it works everytime. I closed the game, then DxWnd, and opened back up DxWnd to run it, but just like the initial problem it sounds like it's trying to turn on, but doesn't. I don't know why it stopped working, I just want it to work everytime.

edit: when I tried the older version again, V2_03_02, I put Directx in 1-6, and the game would come up in windowed but then get an error saying "windows unknown driver". I put Directx in 10, 11 and the game loaded fine, but not in windowed mode.

[monk88]

Good news, I changed the resolution in the older DxWnd version "V2_03_02" from 800x600 to 640x480 and it works in windowed mode now, no error message. Seems to work and open the game everytime too.

There is one thing. When I move the game window on my desktop, to better look at my reference materials, the window glitches. Am I doing something wrong in that regard, and did I resize it wrong?
I put the pic at the bottom, here.

I am so happy to get it working more, thanks very much gho. It will make building my park so much easier to have my reference materials right there without Alt-tabbing. Now I just hope all the hacking works for the game too!

[Gamer DX]

Hi, the demo doesn't work for me with DxWnd, the window closes after the DxWnd splash. Thx for the correct demo link.

[gho]

Can you send a logfile? If the game stops immediately, it shouldn't even be so big....