Black Dahlia PC game (1998) pending successfully running on DxWnd...
Window hooker to run fullscreen programs in window and much more...
Status: Beta
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Hello Mr. Ghotik & My friends,
How are you doing???
I have been trying to run this Game called Black Dahlia PC game (1998) on DxWnd latest version V2_04_93 Build.rar.
I have downloaded this game from:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
But when I asked them to help they said that old-games.com have more than 9000+ games to offer so I may find another game rather than helping me with Black dahlia.
Game have worked some how but it still lacks smooth running.
Looking arround and freezing cursor are still challenges to be fought against.
Can you please help me in details what setting should I choose and what setting should I avoid, please??????
Thanks
Sincere,
Victor
OBS!!! Sorry I forgot to mention that I am running Windows 10 Home Edition along with i7 Intel processor, 64GB DDR4 Rams and 512GB SSD Harddisk.
Thanks
Victor Lee
Last edit: gho 2018-10-18
Hello Victor.
Unless you have a registered account or something else to speed the bandwidth, you should deserve a prize for nothing else that having successfully downloaded +4GB from that awful freeware site that let bits drip at an embarassing speed.
Fortunately there are more and faster sites to pick. Let me do some testing and I'll report you ASAP.
Uhm... I got a 8CD french text version with english audio. There is also a winXP patch, but with DxWnd the game runs also without applying it, so I'll leave it as is. The game starts with DxWnd default options, just hooking the Win32 executable "bd_win.exe", rather fast and smooth on a modern pc, but there are quite a lot of problems with the cursor and video refresh.
I'm putting here some screenshots just to check if this is the sort of problem you're having.
Last edit: gho 2018-10-18
After some attempt to improve the vieo quality (IMO not so bad, after all, you can bare some glitches...) it seems that we have another more relevant issue to mind about: it happens quite frequently that the mouse control gets blocked. The curious thing is that the game is perfectly working, and if you move the cursor you can scroll / rotate the view, but the game cursor no longer moves and you can't click on the sreen icons. The onl way to continue is to exit the game and restart it with the "resume" game menu option.
This is not a good thing!
P.s. could you post here (or somewhere else) your game executable? There's a possibility that it was patched and could behave better than my copy....
Last edit: gho 2018-10-18
Doing more tests, I realized that the cursor block happens almost everywhere in the game and no matter the DxWnd configuration: it is sufficient to wave the mouse quickly to left and right and after a little time the cursor becomes blocked. It reacts to clicks, for instance a right click opens the pop-up menu, but then you can't select any entry than the current one. Weird, but it seems the biggest problem to fix so far.
Hello my friend gho,
Sorry I have not been able to write you before now as I was not aware through emails.
My Internet knowledge is not much, but if you like and provide me with your email address I can send you 2 DVDs carrying all files that you dont have right now, but that is if you feel you can trust me???
If not I can provide you with my email address here and you can send me your mail info in my email???
If there are other free alternatives to upload 4+GB online I) would like to learn that of you.
Please let me know what's your pleasure???
Also you are right game cursor freezes while exploring things but not when just looking arround.
I live in Norway.
Timezone may be different but I promiss to check back atleast every 4 hours.
Thanks a million for your answers and helping efforts.
Thank you
Best regards,
Victor Lee
Hi Victor
No need to hurry, but you can get email notifications about the topic updates by registering with the "subscribe" or "follow" buttons up in this page.
I'm pretty sure that no email account could bare 2DVD of attachments. But there's no need to send everything, in effect I only referred to the game executable bd_win.exe that is way smaller, only 650kB approx. If you can't upload it here (not all SF users are allower to use the "Add attachments" link) let me know, I'll send you my private email.
You're right, the game cursor freezes usually while exploring things and not so often when just looking arround, but I could swear that I freezed the cursor just by moving it quickly from left to right and back without clicking the buttons, so with no effect on the game. I tried to analyze the phenomenon with a debugger, but running the game in a debug session seems to fix all problems.
Weird ...
I could be wrong, but I think that a cursor block ALWAYS happens when the cursor image gets updated, like when exploring things but also when you accidentally move the cursor over a game "hot spot" where the cursor icon changes. Then, there could be some concurrency problem if, for instance, the cursor and the scene are drawn by independent threads.
Hi Ghotek,
Are there aqny sites where I can upload all 4+GB most possibly in .rar parts, so that you may download them????
Other alternative could be if you please please provide me with email I can send you 4+GB in maximum possible parts, but please remember to tell me your email adddress and tell me your maximum possible attachment size????
Btw what is max attachment size for here???
Also if nothing else works I can send you 2 DVDs for free. You may keep the work as a thanks for help, oh and I cover shipping charges so it's 0 for you to spend, but please provide me with your postal address????
Is Ghotek your first name???
Please provide me with the link to page where I can add my email for discussion update subscription, as I have been failed to find it myself???
In The end!
I have used newest Dxwnd (V2_04_94Build) now.
And you know what????
You are absolutely right!
It freezes both on moving arround sometimes, exploring and cursor experience update.
Could you possible fix this problem???
Thanks
Victor Lee
Thank you, but since you see the same type of problems I got, I think I have no need of your files, they should be the same ones I already have.
Here on SF PM channel you can send private mail to SF users, but unfortunately attachments are not allowed.
Ghotik is not my first name (not even my second name and I bet you may find noone here in Italy with such a name ...). It is my nickname and username on SF board.
The page where you can add your email address is somewhere in your SF user profile (look at the top of the page, menu command Me -> Profile): SF will register it and keep it confidental.
I'm working to try fixing the cursor freezing problem. I have some theory, but it's just too early to be sure. Some tech posts will likely follow in the hope that some other volunteer-hacked may help me ....
Stay tuned.
Thank you for your analycis.
I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Anyone is willing to enlist in the "Black Dahlia" rescue team?
The game has a very delicate synchronization. When a change of cursor shape occurs (but maybe not only there) the game stops detecting the actual cursor position and moving the cursor texture . The result is curious, all the resto of the game works and you can even left-click (to do actions) or right-click (to open the game mini-menu) with the mouse, but you can't do anything in any other place of the gamescreen.
One possible culprit seemed a MsgWaitForMultipleObjects call that stopped receiving wake-up events, but in reality that could be caused by DxWnd itself when filtering window messages by its own. Does the game have the same problem without DxWnd? ....
Look at what I found here: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/black_dahlia
Among other things:
and a little later
I wish that could be true, but honestly I think that the cursor blocked problem may depend on a synchronization issue maybe influenced by CPU speed, number of processor, operating system or who knows what. In any case, it is clear that the problem doesn't depend exclusively on DxWnd.
Hi Ghotek,
Thanks for investigating this matter on GOG forum.
You wrote:
"Honestly I think that the cursor blocked problem may depend on a synchronization issue maybe influenced by CPU speed, number of processor, operating system"
In that case above, what setting should I choose in Dxwnd for Black Dahlia???
Thanks
Last edit: Victor Lee 2018-10-21
Hello again Ghotek,
Could you please provide me with all best settings I should choose in DxWnd while running it with Black Dahlia???
I'll appreciate if you please provide me with all settings, preferably on a .txt file attachment???
Thank you
Have a nice early in the morning,
Best regards,
Victor Lee
The default setting seems as bad as anything else: the game runs, but it's unplayable because of the cursor blocked bug. I'm afraid you'll have to wait for a fix, whenever it will be made.
Hi,
Do you mean a fix made by you???? OR A fix made by Take2Interactive (Black Dahlia Making Firm)????
Thanks
BTW!!! Could you please provide me with best settings rather than default settings????
Thanks again
Have a great day ahead of you
Victor
I mean a fix made by me, if I will ever come to that.
In the meanwhile, baring this nasty cursor bug, you can import this export file (use DxWnd File -> Import menu command and select the attached file).
Care to answer me???
Victor, the fuss you're making on this thread is discouraging anyone who may want to help me and is making me harder to concentrate. Time for fixing a "nasty bug" is by far unpredictable and the task requires dedication and calm. Everything you may need by now is in my previous answers and in DxWnd help pages. I'm working on this game, but I'm also ready to protect myself against annoyances, you're warned.
Last edit: gho 2018-10-21
I apologize ghotik.
My intensions were never to provoke you. I was just unsure if echonomical motivation was the solution in this case as I have never in my life programmed a single thing.
Today I have learned that "Time for fixing a "nasty bug" is by far unpredictable and the task requires dedication and calm."
I apologize and say I am sorry.
I hope that we can still be friends??? :)))))
Thank you for all of your efforts and answering my questions.
I appreciate good work and great communication.
Thank you again
Victor
Definitely your lucky day: this evening I tried to have a look at the program syncronization. So I put trace instructions in all synchronization calls used by the game, in particular these: InitializeCriticalSection
EnterCriticalSection
LeaveCriticalSection
DeleteCriticalSection
At the first attempt I almost blow my HD because the EnterCriticalSection and LeaveCriticalSection calls are used so often that they produced GBytes of traces in little time. But with my astonishment, the cursor problem disappeared!!
Then the conclusion: a small delay in these operations reduces or eliminateds the problem. I replaced the delay introduced by the log I/O operations with something less harmful and here it is, the game is running like a charm.
Of course this is kind of a quick & dirty solution, but it seems A SOLUTION in any case. So, waiting for something more strict, Victor you can use the release in attach.
Instructions are simple:
1) install last DxWnd release (you already did it)
2) replace DxWnd.exe and dxwnd.dll with the files in the attached rar archive
3) import the new "Black Dahlia.dxw" import file
4) update the game configuration setting the game pathname in the "Path" field in DxWnd main tab configuration.
5) The setting I chosed for you is a fake fullscreen mode with blacked borders and proper aspect ratio, but you can change the parameters in the main tab to fit your tastes. Read the help pages (Help -> View Help menu command) to know better.
Goodnight.
GHO
Tech notes on Black Dahlia problems:
there's an interesting speech here https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20140911-00/?p=44103 that explains why it's not so strange that critical sections may show a different behavior on different OS. The temporary fix introduced to relief the Black Dahlia cursor problem is far from optimal, IMO it just reduces the chances of the problem rather than eliminate it and, even worse, it adds a CPU workload that should be tuned for the CPU performances. In effect, the delay cycles introduced there that fix the problem on my Win10 now seem excessive on my Win7 portable: the CPU workload is high, the game is slower and the cursor shape transitions are difficult.
To be investigated a possible replacement of critical sections with mutex.
Help request: is anyone aware of a similar problem in other games / programs? And of some fix?
@Victor: did you sleep well? It seems you went to bed a little too early and waked up a little late ... ;)
Last edit: gho 2018-10-22
Ghotik!!!!
You did it!!!!
You are the man!!!
Not only you are the man! You are the alpha male who fixed my game!!!
Its problemfree now!!!
Words are not enough to ... I don't know how to thank you enough!!!
Please provide me with your paypal address I would like to donate to support your cause???
A Thousand thanks ghotik. You are the MAN!!!
Best regards,
Victor Lee
How did you do that???
I am impressed!!!
:-)
50% intuit, 50% sheer luck: as I said before, I thought it was a synchronization problem, so I looked into the PE structure to find dependencies and saw calls to critical sessions. To know more, I hooked these calls, finding two very interesting things:
1) the calls were repeated countless times
2) the debug printout was reliefing the problem
Reading more, now I know that critical sessions had an evolution in time and OS releases, their behavior depends on the number of CPU and it is perfectly possible that their misuse could generate compatibility problems. So here there was a patched release with a simple delay in the wrapped calls, but I'm now working on a more stable solution.
Stay tuned, by next release the "Black Dahlia" trick will have to be activated by some configuration flag, so you'll have to follow directions to keep compatibility and play safely your game.
P.s. how old are you? Too old to start learning language programming? That may amuse you ...