I decided to go through my old games collection and attempt to get some of the classic back to work. 4x4 Evolution 2 is one of them, but it refuses to run at all. Using the default configuration it does start in windowed mode, but after complaining about not detecting RAM or disk space properly it just crashes.
I have attempted various tweaks and compatibility settings, but I am lost. Currently with forcing to Windows XP and OpenGL it starts in fullscreen, then crashes. I have looked around to see if there was anything in regard on getting it to run on newer hardware and OS, but so far nothing.
The game is considered abandonware and should be downloadable from various sites.
EDIT: I have made... progress? So apparently it works within my Win7 virtual machine, but not my actual machine. Now if only I could figure out what that should tell me. Strange.
Last edit: Vincent Sylvester 2018-06-23
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Waiting to make tests on my genuine Win10 64bit, I made a few tests on a game RIP Win7 64 bit.
The game runs pretty well there, with the following notes:
The error messages at startup about insufficient (or negative) resources can be eliminated by setting the "Compat / Limit available resources" plus "Hook / Inject suspended process" flags (you must set them both) but honestly the game starts and works also with the warning messages, so this setting is not necessary.
The RIP seems to have problem with OpenGL rendering (I red somewhere that there should be this option), so better leave the Direct3D8 setting (the RIP crashes otherwise).
There are some problems with the game set to 16 bit color depth, they disappear setting it to 32 bit.
I'll do more tests later ....
I removed the profile and added it again, not changing any settings from the default ones it sets and I can get to the Setup screen, but as soon as I hit on Run it crashes. I only managed to get to the Setup screen once, now it crashes on the Warnings. I selected Limit available resources, now it crashes on start.
It's very slow to respond to the input of the buttons so I wonder if I may have to go full emulator to get it to work, frustrating cause the game is a lot of fun.
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I apologize but recently I got some time to work on this only on my Win7 portable, so likely everything I found so far is not yet of any interest for you. Anyway, I found that enabling the "No Hook update" flag the crash in rendering change is fixed and the game can work flawlessly in all three video renderer modes, Direct3D8, Direct3D8 with T&L and OpenGL.
Hopefully tonight I will try to work also on the Win10 pc.
In attach some updated stuff....
Using your attached version and switching to TRIGL.sll for rendering I was able to get to the Setup screen. It reacts to inputs very slowly when going through the warnings and then just crashes trying to run the game itself.
I switched the "Limit resources" back on and got to the Setup screen immediately though. Then trying to run game me an error: "Attempt to initialize CRT more than once" According to a quick search this is supposed to be resolved with an application reinstall, which is strange as I have just installed the game from CD less than a week ago. Possibly the CD version is different from the downloadable versions, so I may try one of them instead.
Anyways, thanks again for all the effort and don't worry, I have time, no need to rush things :)
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The OpenGL mode is ok, fast and smooth, but the 3D world isn't properly connected ... what am I saying? Well, take a look at the openGL screenshot and immagine yourself running in a cubic world: apparently the cube faces are separated by a black line! This didn't happen on Win7, but remember that most oddities, including the slowness, could be due to the OpenGL drivers rather than the operating system.
Win10 doesn't like 16 bit color rendering, the "Emulate 16bpp D3D8 backbuffer" flag works on Win7 but makes the game crash on Win10!! Much better turning it off and bare a few instants of a few oddly colored splash screens. I may see why this happens and try a fix. Or maybe we could try d3d8to9 to bypass d3d8 completely.
Running the game with 16bpp virtual color depth on Win10 is a pain. If you only care the gaming, much better setting the game to 32bpp and enjoy the race with no further problems. For those (like me) with a masochistic attitude, running the game at 16bpp is a good challenge: thare are many parts of the dxwnd source that need some fixing!
I tried an iso version I found online, installed on my main drive, still just crashing for some reason. I wonder if there is an issue with my gpu drivers or running it on nvidia surround as window, but I seem to be running into the error I posted about. Starting to look like unless you can reproduce that error or I can figure out a way to log what's going on I really do have to try and get an emulator of sorts.
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All three logs show no errors. I got a doubt: are you using the original game or a cracked exe? I'm not sure, but the game could have a copy protection schema no longer supported on Win10, and in this case if you own the game you can legally download and us a cracked exe. To cut it short, maybe you can try using this attached exe, maybe it changes something...
Unfortunately the most I can get to is the Setup screen still. I think I am sol with this game and will have to resort to emulation to play it. I been looking around to see if there was some guide as to why this refuses to run on Win7 or what I could try to fix this, but it seems more unique to my machine. At least a working DxWnd profile so there something good that came out of it :)
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Apparently the patch they provide does make the game run again. I was able, using opengl to get the game to run, windowed and performance is good too. It seems to have been a combination of the dll that it came with and some settings.
I have attached the profile I used to get it running, may need some settings changed, but this seems like its finally working. Hurray!
Very interesting. I had the game working on all my pc, but I think I could apply the patch anyway and verify the differences, it is possibile that I could learn something
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I decided to go through my old games collection and attempt to get some of the classic back to work. 4x4 Evolution 2 is one of them, but it refuses to run at all. Using the default configuration it does start in windowed mode, but after complaining about not detecting RAM or disk space properly it just crashes.
I have attempted various tweaks and compatibility settings, but I am lost. Currently with forcing to Windows XP and OpenGL it starts in fullscreen, then crashes. I have looked around to see if there was anything in regard on getting it to run on newer hardware and OS, but so far nothing.
The game is considered abandonware and should be downloadable from various sites.
EDIT: I have made... progress? So apparently it works within my Win7 virtual machine, but not my actual machine. Now if only I could figure out what that should tell me. Strange.
Last edit: Vincent Sylvester 2018-06-23
Waiting to make tests on my genuine Win10 64bit, I made a few tests on a game RIP Win7 64 bit.
The game runs pretty well there, with the following notes:
The error messages at startup about insufficient (or negative) resources can be eliminated by setting the "Compat / Limit available resources" plus "Hook / Inject suspended process" flags (you must set them both) but honestly the game starts and works also with the warning messages, so this setting is not necessary.
The RIP seems to have problem with OpenGL rendering (I red somewhere that there should be this option), so better leave the Direct3D8 setting (the RIP crashes otherwise).
There are some problems with the game set to 16 bit color depth, they disappear setting it to 32 bit.
I'll do more tests later ....
Last edit: gho 2018-06-26
I removed the profile and added it again, not changing any settings from the default ones it sets and I can get to the Setup screen, but as soon as I hit on Run it crashes. I only managed to get to the Setup screen once, now it crashes on the Warnings. I selected Limit available resources, now it crashes on start.
It's very slow to respond to the input of the buttons so I wonder if I may have to go full emulator to get it to work, frustrating cause the game is a lot of fun.
I apologize but recently I got some time to work on this only on my Win7 portable, so likely everything I found so far is not yet of any interest for you. Anyway, I found that enabling the "No Hook update" flag the crash in rendering change is fixed and the game can work flawlessly in all three video renderer modes, Direct3D8, Direct3D8 with T&L and OpenGL.
Hopefully tonight I will try to work also on the Win10 pc.
In attach some updated stuff....
No worries, games aren't running away.
Using your attached version and switching to TRIGL.sll for rendering I was able to get to the Setup screen. It reacts to inputs very slowly when going through the warnings and then just crashes trying to run the game itself.
I switched the "Limit resources" back on and got to the Setup screen immediately though. Then trying to run game me an error: "Attempt to initialize CRT more than once" According to a quick search this is supposed to be resolved with an application reinstall, which is strange as I have just installed the game from CD less than a week ago. Possibly the CD version is different from the downloadable versions, so I may try one of them instead.
Anyways, thanks again for all the effort and don't worry, I have time, no need to rush things :)
Some (bad) findings from Win10:
Last edit: gho 2018-06-26
Aww you get to play and I don't :D
I tried an iso version I found online, installed on my main drive, still just crashing for some reason. I wonder if there is an issue with my gpu drivers or running it on nvidia surround as window, but I seem to be running into the error I posted about. Starting to look like unless you can reproduce that error or I can figure out a way to log what's going on I really do have to try and get an emulator of sorts.
So, there's no other option: you have to read the DxWnd tutorial about grabbing logs and post here some log files. I'll be waiting ...
I have attached log files of some crashes from different settings using all the logging options, let me know if you only want specific ones.
All three logs show no errors. I got a doubt: are you using the original game or a cracked exe? I'm not sure, but the game could have a copy protection schema no longer supported on Win10, and in this case if you own the game you can legally download and us a cracked exe. To cut it short, maybe you can try using this attached exe, maybe it changes something...
Unfortunately the most I can get to is the Setup screen still. I think I am sol with this game and will have to resort to emulation to play it. I been looking around to see if there was some guide as to why this refuses to run on Win7 or what I could try to fix this, but it seems more unique to my machine. At least a working DxWnd profile so there something good that came out of it :)
I found something: http://www.4x4evolution.net/Revival/downloads/
Apparently the patch they provide does make the game run again. I was able, using opengl to get the game to run, windowed and performance is good too. It seems to have been a combination of the dll that it came with and some settings.
I have attached the profile I used to get it running, may need some settings changed, but this seems like its finally working. Hurray!
Very interesting. I had the game working on all my pc, but I think I could apply the patch anyway and verify the differences, it is possibile that I could learn something