Home, sweet home again!
Ok, I see from the log that there's a failure in the backbuffer surface creation.
This is odd, but I think should be no big problem to fix: usually, the most annoying thing in the emulation mode is the handling of the ZBUFFER surface (I still don't know if and how to manage it properly..), and this is not the case.
But the problem is to grab a copy of the game: it seems to be one of the rarest game in the universe! And the producers didn't even bother to build a downloadable demo version to try instead.
I'm still trying to find it out (I believed I even bought a copy some years ago, but I couldn't find it yet!). Have you any suggestion?
Stay tuned for news.
GHO
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The game is abandonware, the devs went bankrupt, you would only find it physical on ebay and the likes.
Otherwise download any version from http://thepiratebay.sx/search/vangers/0/99/0 which is legal, considering the IP belongs to nobody now.
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Ok, now I can start to work seriously.
The CreateSurface problem is fixed now (that was easy!) but another one has just appeared.
And the program seems tough (it refuses the debugger's attach!). It won't be as easy as I hoped....
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1) the easy one is that the game opens the primary and the bakbuffer surface separately. It may seem normal, but so far all games open them both by setting the backbuffercount filed of the CreateSurface method, and the current logic had to be fixed
2) the game checks the surface reference count upon releasing it, and since dxwnd adds extra references by its own, the counter was not 0 as expected.
While the first problem has been fixed, the second requires some better understanding of the reference count behaviour to produce a patch that will work correctly for all games, but that doesn't prevent me to release an experimental dll version (to be replaced to the one of the current v2.02.33 release) that makes "Vangers" working (tested both on the patched/unpatched english/russian game versions).
So, here attached there's some stuff that may delight you.
You can head to the download section where the v2.02.34 release supports Vangers.
The only problem left (one, but tough!) is the palette problem. So far, I came to the conclusion that it's a Win7 bug or something related to the movie show, since the problem is related just to the movies in the CD. Furthermore, the problem looks as if the avifile library would mistake the surface encoding using a YUV color schema instead of RGB, or vice-versa. I'm still thinking about that.....
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hello, one of the original game developers of Vangers here. We made some improvements to the original game, it should soon be available and running smooth on modern systems. Just letting you now since there is not so many people who still remembers it!
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Hei! It is a great pleasure to me to meet (even virtually through the net) the author of such a beautiful and visionary game like Vangers.
I'm very happy to hear that the project is still alive and I'm very curious to see the game improvements.
If you planned do adapt it to modern systems, likely you'll need DxWnd no more, but in any case I'll be happy to contribute to the project if I can.
In the meanwhile, I take advantage of this post to tell that recent release of DxWnd (v2.02.65) fixed the color issues and can manage Vangers using the export file here in attach. I also add some screenshots to show everyone at least what I can of this great game!
Great job, cartoonka!
GHO
p.s. for a better game experience, select "Keep aspect ratio" and "Desktop work area" flags.
Yes, I remember it as a very tough game, I had a hard time managing the reference counter checks.
Later I'll try the full rip, but if you want you could post the logs of the default activation with the errors.
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I started to mind the russian RIP this evening. The setup.exe file is reported as infected, so I tried to do without it. Since the files are all in place, the only missing thing were the registry keys, and looking at the dxwnd.log file it is possible to discover what keys the game is exactly expecting. Of course, you can't get the values, but often these are easily guessed.
In effect the game only requires the following registry configuration:
But there were at least two serious bugs in the virtual registry code to be fixed before getting the game to work. This is good: that part needed some testing.
Then, with default settings the game returns a ddraw error 1, where 1 is a reference counter that should have been 0! This is still to be investigated, but it is easily patched with the "return 0 refcount" flag.
At this point the game works, but here there are problems wwith the cursor: it often blocks itself or disappear, making it very difficult to know what you're doing.
Well, enough for today. Tomorrow I'll try to fix the cursor.
edit: it was easy, either set emulation to GDI or set the clipper to ON.
Last edit: gho 2017-02-10
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-
2017-02-11
Last edit: 2017-03-04
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Running Vangers with 'Emulate Primary Surface' causes an instant crash. (which is pretty much required to run the game properly)
Log: http://pastebin.com/my7Xsibn
I'm on vacation with limited internet connection, games and PC platforms.
From september I'll be back with a better support.
Please, be patient!
GHO
Home, sweet home again!
Ok, I see from the log that there's a failure in the backbuffer surface creation.
This is odd, but I think should be no big problem to fix: usually, the most annoying thing in the emulation mode is the handling of the ZBUFFER surface (I still don't know if and how to manage it properly..), and this is not the case.
But the problem is to grab a copy of the game: it seems to be one of the rarest game in the universe! And the producers didn't even bother to build a downloadable demo version to try instead.
I'm still trying to find it out (I believed I even bought a copy some years ago, but I couldn't find it yet!). Have you any suggestion?
Stay tuned for news.
GHO
The game is abandonware, the devs went bankrupt, you would only find it physical on ebay and the likes.
Otherwise download any version from http://thepiratebay.sx/search/vangers/0/99/0 which is legal, considering the IP belongs to nobody now.
do not despair ....
Ok, now I can start to work seriously.
The CreateSurface problem is fixed now (that was easy!) but another one has just appeared.
And the program seems tough (it refuses the debugger's attach!). It won't be as easy as I hoped....
It was tough, but not enough....
I got two problems:
1) the easy one is that the game opens the primary and the bakbuffer surface separately. It may seem normal, but so far all games open them both by setting the backbuffercount filed of the CreateSurface method, and the current logic had to be fixed
2) the game checks the surface reference count upon releasing it, and since dxwnd adds extra references by its own, the counter was not 0 as expected.
While the first problem has been fixed, the second requires some better understanding of the reference count behaviour to produce a patch that will work correctly for all games, but that doesn't prevent me to release an experimental dll version (to be replaced to the one of the current v2.02.33 release) that makes "Vangers" working (tested both on the patched/unpatched english/russian game versions).
So, here attached there's some stuff that may delight you.
Last edit: gho 2013-09-10
This is great, thanks a lot
You can head to the download section where the v2.02.34 release supports Vangers.
The only problem left (one, but tough!) is the palette problem. So far, I came to the conclusion that it's a Win7 bug or something related to the movie show, since the problem is related just to the movies in the CD. Furthermore, the problem looks as if the avifile library would mistake the surface encoding using a YUV color schema instead of RGB, or vice-versa. I'm still thinking about that.....
hello, one of the original game developers of Vangers here. We made some improvements to the original game, it should soon be available and running smooth on modern systems. Just letting you now since there is not so many people who still remembers it!
Hei! It is a great pleasure to me to meet (even virtually through the net) the author of such a beautiful and visionary game like Vangers.
I'm very happy to hear that the project is still alive and I'm very curious to see the game improvements.
If you planned do adapt it to modern systems, likely you'll need DxWnd no more, but in any case I'll be happy to contribute to the project if I can.
In the meanwhile, I take advantage of this post to tell that recent release of DxWnd (v2.02.65) fixed the color issues and can manage Vangers using the export file here in attach. I also add some screenshots to show everyone at least what I can of this great game!
Great job, cartoonka!
GHO
p.s. for a better game experience, select "Keep aspect ratio" and "Desktop work area" flags.
Last edit: gho 2014-03-25
Last edit: 2017-03-04
Yes, I remember it as a very tough game, I had a hard time managing the reference counter checks.
Later I'll try the full rip, but if you want you could post the logs of the default activation with the errors.
Last edit: 2017-03-04
I started to mind the russian RIP this evening. The setup.exe file is reported as infected, so I tried to do without it. Since the files are all in place, the only missing thing were the registry keys, and looking at the dxwnd.log file it is possible to discover what keys the game is exactly expecting. Of course, you can't get the values, but often these are easily guessed.
In effect the game only requires the following registry configuration:
But there were at least two serious bugs in the virtual registry code to be fixed before getting the game to work. This is good: that part needed some testing.
Then, with default settings the game returns a ddraw error 1, where 1 is a reference counter that should have been 0! This is still to be investigated, but it is easily patched with the "return 0 refcount" flag.
At this point the game works, but here there are problems wwith the cursor: it often blocks itself or disappear, making it very difficult to know what you're doing.
Well, enough for today. Tomorrow I'll try to fix the cursor.
edit: it was easy, either set emulation to GDI or set the clipper to ON.
Last edit: gho 2017-02-10
Last edit: 2017-03-04
I know at least two good reasons why a guy may change his attitude: sickness and sex. I wish the second ... ;)
Last edit: 2017-03-04