The Settlers 4 game does normally don't work on modern NVIDIA hardware (2006 and newer (starting from GeForce 8xxx)) or under VirtualBox at all - but with DxWnd I did manage to run the game with both :)
The minimum two settings that need to be set for the game to start are:
-"Forces HEL"
-"switch VIDEO to SYSTEM on fail"
I did call this profile "Settlers 4, the, with NVIDIA or VirtualBox", as at least with AMD/ATI graphics cards and with VmWare this settings are not needed and the game can run there with normal hardware acceleration (not sure about INTEL, though, but I think it also works there without this settings).
Could this be please included in the next release? Thanks :)
I have an original CD version of this game. Trying to get it to work I don't get any of the common errors, it just flashes black and that's it. I tried a few common tweaks I know, but so far I got nothing still.
According to pcgamingwiki Settlers IV uses SafeDisc copy protection which is disabled on Windows 7 and 8 and more permanently removed from Windows 10. To run the game in this case you either need a nocd hack to bypass the copy protection or if you are running on Win7 or 8 you can re-enable SafeDisc support.
EDIT:
Looking at the log it appears that your OS version is 6.2 (Windows 8).
To summarize you need to make a registry edit. When I used to run Win7 and 8 I used the following values:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\secdrv]"Start"=dword:00000002
Saved using notepad as "SafeDiscEnable.reg". Then run the reg file and it should update the Windows registry. After that a reboot is needed and SafeDisc games should again work. At least from real CD-ROM discs not sure if it works with cdimages and virtual drives.
And then to disable the SafeDisc support you can use the same process with the following registy values:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\secdrv]"Start"=dword:00000004
Last edit: dippy dipper 2023-01-04
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Interesting, it's a Win10 install. The registry key still exists and is set to 2, so that's strange. It's a fresh install so no upgrade from previous either. I'll try the nocd method though, because I am not getting anything from the cd drive at the moment, so whatever is going on it's not loading that regardless.
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OK, maybe I read the log file wrong but I did see a reference to OS=(6.2) which should be Windows 8. Anyway if you are running under Windows 10 then the registry change does nothing. Your best bet would then be to find a nocd hack which has its risks or just buy a digital version of the game from GOG.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Offtopic for gho:
What does dxwnd use to get the Windows version number for log files? For example GetVersionEx is deprecated and reports 6.2 (Windows 8) now for Windows 10.
EDIT
Created a new topic.
Last edit: dippy dipper 2023-01-05
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Uh oh, after applying the 1516 patch then the 1516a patch, grabbing the files from the Disk 2 it finally decided to run. Not sure if any of the settings really have an effect and I still have to fix the resolution, but it... every few times... does start and run.
The Settlers 4 game does normally don't work on modern NVIDIA hardware (2006 and newer (starting from GeForce 8xxx)) or under VirtualBox at all - but with DxWnd I did manage to run the game with both :)
The minimum two settings that need to be set for the game to start are:
-"Forces HEL"
-"switch VIDEO to SYSTEM on fail"
I did call this profile "Settlers 4, the, with NVIDIA or VirtualBox", as at least with AMD/ATI graphics cards and with VmWare this settings are not needed and the game can run there with normal hardware acceleration (not sure about INTEL, though, but I think it also works there without this settings).
Could this be please included in the next release? Thanks :)
Last edit: Adrian Kalla 2015-10-18
Sure, thanks!
I have an original CD version of this game. Trying to get it to work I don't get any of the common errors, it just flashes black and that's it. I tried a few common tweaks I know, but so far I got nothing still.
According to pcgamingwiki Settlers IV uses SafeDisc copy protection which is disabled on Windows 7 and 8 and more permanently removed from Windows 10. To run the game in this case you either need a nocd hack to bypass the copy protection or if you are running on Win7 or 8 you can re-enable SafeDisc support.
EDIT:
Looking at the log it appears that your OS version is 6.2 (Windows 8).
So the official Microsoft information on re-enabling SafeDisc support can be found here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/ms15-097-description-of-the-security-update-for-the-graphics-component-in-windows-september-8-2015-6a1e4fc4-0821-79d4-d25c-02728a6fdf30
To summarize you need to make a registry edit. When I used to run Win7 and 8 I used the following values:
Saved using notepad as "SafeDiscEnable.reg". Then run the reg file and it should update the Windows registry. After that a reboot is needed and SafeDisc games should again work. At least from real CD-ROM discs not sure if it works with cdimages and virtual drives.
And then to disable the SafeDisc support you can use the same process with the following registy values:
Last edit: dippy dipper 2023-01-04
Interesting, it's a Win10 install. The registry key still exists and is set to 2, so that's strange. It's a fresh install so no upgrade from previous either. I'll try the nocd method though, because I am not getting anything from the cd drive at the moment, so whatever is going on it's not loading that regardless.
OK, maybe I read the log file wrong but I did see a reference to
OS=(6.2)
which should be Windows 8. Anyway if you are running under Windows 10 then the registry change does nothing. Your best bet would then be to find a nocd hack which has its risks or just buy a digital version of the game from GOG.Offtopic for gho:
What does dxwnd use to get the Windows version number for log files? For example GetVersionEx is deprecated and reports 6.2 (Windows 8) now for Windows 10.
EDIT
Created a new topic.
Last edit: dippy dipper 2023-01-05
Uh oh, after applying the 1516 patch then the 1516a patch, grabbing the files from the Disk 2 it finally decided to run. Not sure if any of the settings really have an effect and I still have to fix the resolution, but it... every few times... does start and run.
Adding the profile here for reference.