The Master Troubleshooting List Supplement: Junk Yard

[Mac_Bug]

There is an other SB Live Control Bar problem
If the bar is up when Homeworld is running. I get a Hw hanup when clicking on the top of the screen.
The problem is solved if i exit the bar before i start Hw.

I have
Asus P2B w/pentium II 266Mhz &4 MB ram
Asus Isdn card
SB Live
Creative Voodoo 2 w/8MB x2 in sli
Creative DVD 2x w/Mpeg card
ATI all in wonder rage II AGP
13 GB + 3GB harddisks.
Logitech Mouseman w/wheel
Kiss CD burner

-Petter L

RUNDLL32 caused an invalid page fault in
module KERNEL32.DLL
That's a GPF I got when my desktop was in 32-bit mode when I started Homeworld fresh. It cause an assortment of wacky problems if I went in and out of Homeworld with the Alt-Tab key. Try 16-bit mode for your Desktop and see if the problems stop (for any of you who have a lot of GPFs).

-Danziger :^)

*If you have HW set to open gl be sure to leave your desktop at 16bit at startup of the program, most likely rundll32 error is caused when it tried to initialize directx/opengl and change resolution/color depth, best solution is to leave your desktop the resolution you play HW in. Also known problem that HW switches back to software mode if escaped out and temporarily minimized.

Logon Screen Lockup Solution
My machine would lock up after clicking on the internet button. Everything else would run fine and dandy. I found that having an outdated WINSOCK would cause this so I downloaded WINSOCK2 and now it runs flawlessly.

Hope this helps someone!
-raven
raven@vvi.net

*it is recommended that you dial up to your isp BEFORE going to multiplayer games in HW because some users have reported that HW seemingly froze at login when in fact if you dont have it set to auto dial it is waiting for you to hit the connect button in windows.

Just thought I'd share this fix for those that have similar video problems.
To wit: HW crashes to desktop at random and reboots the machine when changing video mode or resolution.

Cured this with the switch "/nofastFE" that disables fast front end rendering. Whatever the heck that is....

-FreaKed

I was having massive problems switching between video modes (yep even switching from OpenGL to software). Would either crash to the desktop or respond within homeworld with an unable to switch between blah blah error.

Able to change now with running the command line homeworld.exe /disableavi

This has worked for me with all versions of the voodoo video driver.

Interestingly the game falls ass over when in window mode.

-kanec

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've noticed a couple of other threads indicating that other people are having the same problem I am with HW and a G400, but I cannot find a solution that works ... Grrr
HW crashes to w98 whenever I try to run it in either D3D or OpenGL modes - regardless of resolution or colour depth ... The game seems to last anywhere from 5 secs to about 1-2 min before it crashes.
-Decromin
*Usual caused by out dated drivers etc. Be sure to upgrade to the latest DirectX version and latest drivers.

I experience choppy sound in the movie scenes in btw missions, I now know why.I have a pentium pro, dual I might add box at 200mhz, w/sb pci 64 and Dia.Stealth 3 s540 pci savage 4, just thought it might inform others!
Sound Blaster cards and choppy audio with 3D accelerated games
Creation Date: 29-06-1998
Revision Date: 29-06-1998
ArticleID: OZ980059

The information in this article applies to:


All Creative Audio Cards
PCI 3D Accelerators

SYMPTOMS
When playing a 3D enhanced game, the user may experience choppy audio. The problem gets worse as the graphics detail level, refresh rate and game resolution is increased. The problem does not exist when software rendering mode is enabled or in normal use under Windows


CAUSE
The static or choppy sound being experienced is possibly due to the video card 'hogging the bus'. Some PCI video card manufacturers over utilise the PCI bus to ensure top performance. The card continually writes information to the PCI bus (which is also the master bus) and fills it with information , not allowing other devices to properly transmit or receive data from the CPU. This can actively hinder performance of other devices in the system that rely on the CPU. For more information on this feature, contact the video card vendor - it may be referred to as PCI sharing; automatic bus retries or queue checkin


RESOLUTION
In order to improve the quality of the audio playback, it is suggested that the user first try various options within the game itself to reduce the amount of data flowing through the PCI bus. Options such as reducing the game resolution, and graphics detail and for 3Dfx Voodoo cards, lowering the refresh rate for the appropriate 3D acclerated resolution may also improve audio quality. Failing this, it is recommeded that the user revert to generic drivers for the graphics chipset in use instead of the optimised driver from the card manufacturer

-nightcrawler

Internet connection drop outs due to packet resend interval setting error.

TCP/IP fix available at MSN

I went through the threads recently but did not see this one. (Might have missed it
-Complexcity

If you get a " Heap file " error , it could be you dont have enough virtual memory , so go into systems and then virtual memory and set it to " Windows automatically blah blah blah.."
I would suggest not to use virtual memory manually unless you have at least 64 ram .

-SockMe

If, like me, you purchased your Voodoo2 from Best Buy, and have long since thrown away the CD that came with it, here's the scoop:

Best Buy, to my knowledge sold mainly Black Magic Voodoo 1000 models (may be wrong, but I'm sure this model was one of the more popular), with 12 megs memory. Well, I got it working *wonderfully* in HW, great frame rates, rich color, wonderful sound...errr...

Anywho, here's what I did:

Installed DX7
Downloaded the DX7 reference drivers from www.3dfx.com for the Voodoo2
Got mad cuz the Voodoo2 sucked....
Reinstalled DX7
Got madder cuz the Voodoo2 still sucked....
Remembered I still had the original drivers from STB (the wonderful people that manufactured the Voodoo2 Black Magic).
Went to their site http://www.stb.com
Hunted for the drivers...
To find drivers: Click on STB Legacy on the lower right side of the screen.
Click on "Support" in the upper left.
Click on "STB Legacy Product"
Click on "Multimedia Series"
Then dwl the drivers.

THEN:
Make a folder, extract the files from the driver file.
Go to the control panel-->System.
REMOVE your Voodoo2
Restart Windows...
Wait...
Wait...
Wait...
Enter logon password...
Wait...
Wait...
Rememer to hurt the guy from that made Norton Systemworks.
Windows should say, "OH! Lookie what I found!" and tell you it found your Voodoo2, and it still wants to use the DX7 drivers.
Let it go ahead and use those drivers. Now, go back to Control Panel-->System, click on the Voodoo2 icon-->properties-->Update driver.
Point it to the folder that has the new Voodoo2 drivers...They should be older (duh!).
If you have to restart, restart. Go into HW, and you should notice that Voodoo2 DX7 option is still available. Select that, and viola!

If you look at your drivers under control panel-->system you will notice that windows is still using the DX7 drivers, but the preformance is much much better!

Hope that helps people, and not a random glitch...random glitch...random glitch...

-Nobody N. Particular

UberJumper

Few tips on finding whether problems are being caused by the video or the sound:
1. Be sure you are not running any other application. Terminate all programs through CTRL-ALT-DEL, leaving only Systray and Explorer.

2. Be sure that nothing is set to "always on top", even the taskbar.

3. Try running Homeworld using all the available renderers. If the problem persists even in software rendering mode, chances are, it's not video related. However if in SW the game runs without hitches, it's the video drivers.

4. Disable your sound card through the Windows Device Manager and run the game. If you still get crashes, it's not because of the sound card. If you don't, you probably need to find new sound drivers or lower the number of audio channels in the game.

The above steps are just in order to better isolate the problem.

-Shin

How to do a clean install of your video card just in case it was futzed up:
If your video card drivers have an uninstall feature:

1. Uninstall it.
2. Install the preferred drivers.

If your video card drivers do not have an uninstall feature:

1. Go into the Windows Device Manager
2. Look for your display adapter settings
3. Change your display adapter to Standard PCI Graphics Adapter (VGA)
4. Reboot
*You should boot into Windows at 16 colors*
5. If you know which dll's or files are part of your old video drivers, delete them. Be careful or you might delete a file which is not part of your video drivers. This is often not necessary since the new drivers usually replace all the old driver files. However if they do not replace the old files and by some Windows fluke, they load mismatched versions of the driver files, you have to delete the old files.
6. Install your new drivers, usually by an exe setup that comes with the drivers. If not, extract the driver files into a folder and go into Display Adapter settings again and have windows detect the drivers in the folder. Even if Windows says it has a newer version of the drivers, be sure that you end up with the drivers in the folder since they are the ones you want to install.

For super Socket 7 Motherboards: (K6-2/3 platforms)

Be sure you have the best AGP drivers for your board. If you don't know which is the "best" set, go for the latest set.

Ali chipsets: www.acerlabs.com
VIA chipsets: www.viatech.com

The AGP drivers have to be installed prior to the video drivers in most cases and as I have personally experienced being a previous owner of a ASUS P5A-B.

DirectX issues:

Install the latest DirectX version (8.1 as of this post) after you've installed your video drivers. It's always best to have the setup exe tucked in a folder somewhere.

While you're at it, you might want to be sure that your DX media drivers are also up to date.
www.microsoft.com/directx

-Shin



Completely uninstalling Homeworld:
1. Save any files (saved games, recordings, screenshots, etc) by copying them to another folder (ex. C:\Temp)

2. Uninstall Homeworld via the game's uninstall option. Do not use automatic uninstall, use custom uninstall and have the uninstaller remove every trace of Homeworld.

3. Run REGEDIT and check if the following keys are still there:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Sierra On-Line\Homeworld
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Sierra Online\Setup\HW_USENG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WON

You might want to delete the keys if you still find them. Be careful about playing with REGEDIT, if you delete something you shouldn't, you might have to reinstall Windows.

4. Delete the entire Homeworld installation target folder.

-Shin


If anyone is having problems with Homeworld mysteriously quitting right in the middle of a game and throwing you to the desktop, I strongly recommend closing ALL programs except bare essentials. Leave only systray, explorer, and your internet connection if needed. This has fixed my problems.
-Fatalenergy




-->A WAY TO INCREASE HOMEWORLD'S PERFORMANCE ON YOUR COMP, WITHOUT REDUCING GRAPHICAL DETAILS!
Uber Jumper requested that I post this message here, so more people could benefit from it:

The other day I found a way to make Homeworld run faster on my comp. I'm sure many people already know how to do this, but I though maybe there are other newbies just like me who could take advantage of this...
I have a 500 mhz AMD K6-II w/3Dnow! + 128 mb SDRAM + 3DFX Voodoo Banshee.
At first I put all the graphic options of the game on the highest setting possible (with a ressolution of 1024x768), and I didn't get any slow downs. But as I progressed through levels, and the number of units on screen increased, there was so much slow down that it seemed that I was watching a slide show rather than playing a game.
-I could have brought down my resolution and the graphical quality, but the graphix were too good and I didn't want to do that.
So if you are a guy like me, who doesn't want to lose the nice graphics and if you can't stand slow downs, here are some good solutions.
(*note; these solutions are only for those who meet the system recommendations for Homeworld stated by Relic, and still get slow downs - like me

1)--If you have a AMD K6-II or better, you should turn on the 3Dnow! support. Most games automatically detect 3Dnow! if your computer has it, but with Homeworld, you have to turn it on manually.
Creat a shortcut of Homeworld, right click and go to properties. In the target box Add the command:

/enable3DNow

2)--If you have a Pentium III, add this command instead:

/enableSSE

3)--Run the game, and in the menu go to the OPTIONS menu, then click on the VIDEO menu. There is a bar labled "detail treshhold". This bar determines the distance where the game will reduce the units details. For example, when you are zoomed in on a ship, the detail is 100 percent. But if you zoom out, since you can't see the units details from far away anywayz, the game will reduce the units details, to take some load off and increase the game's speed. If you want the best detail, increase the tresh hold detail, ---HOWEVER! do not check the circle labled "full detail". If you check this circle, the game will have 100 percent detail for all units, at any distance, even if you can barely see them. This will reduce the game's performance a LOT! So be usre it is unchecked; it's simply unnecessary to have it on. What's the point of having full detail of a unit, if you can barely see it???
This is very important, and I can gaurantee the game will run a lot faster.

-In addition, try running the game on OpenGL if possible. D3D is famous for being slower than Glide and OpenGL. That's why Quake games have always been on OpenGL
I recommend installing the GLsetup drivers that are included on the Homeworld CD (*note: install at your own risk, but it was fine on my Banshee)
-What is GLsetup? well it's basically the newest compatible drivers for many different cards. The point of including on the CD is that so you won't have to go searching all over the web for the newest compatible drivers for Homeworld. If you already have the newest drivers, then it's ok. But if you are not sure if you do, try GLsetup.
Again, do this at your own risk

Hope this helped all u Homeworld lovers with not so powerful comps. Enjoy!

If you still got questions, e-mail me at cydronate@hotmail.com

-Cydronate

When You're Having Graphics Problems
and you're using mods
If you've installed more than one mod (i.e. Kadeshi, Turannic, ST vs. SW, B5) and the graphics are looking wierd, here's what to do:

Go to C:\Sierra\Homeworld\ (or wherever else you installed HW)
Delete all folders like "R1" and "R2"
Reinstall ONE mod.

-ceejayoz


Also, the /dsound and /dsoundCOOP switches may provide a tiny performance boost as well.

UberJumper

[Mac_Bug]

System(s):

CPU: Pentium 200 (non-MMX)
Memory: 96MB
Video Card: Tseng Labs ET-6000 (driver date 7-14-97)
Creative Labs' Voodoo2 (driver date 6-17-99)
Sound Card: Creative Labs' SB-16 PnP (driver date 7-14-97)
OS: Win95 OSR2 (4.00.950 B)
DirectX: 7.0
Videomode: 3dfx OpenGL @ 640x480
HW 1.03
DX 6.1

Initial Problem:

Homeworld hangs and dies during launch.

Other Information:

DirectX 6.1 drivers were mixed in with DirectX 7 drivers

Solutions:

Complete reinstallation of DirectX7

Final Questions:

None

Credit:

Sandman

System(s):

None

Initial Problem:

No sound in Homeworld

Other Information:

File named "HW_Music.wxd" is only 1Kb

Solutions:

Copy the 99+MB HW_Music.wxd from your CD Rom to the directory it's installed into

Final Questions:

None

Credit:

UberJumper


Initial Problem:

Invalid cd prompt

Other Information:

Installed from one CD-Rom drive and tried to play on another

Solutions:

Use the /cdpath switch on the end of the command line to specify the CD rom drive on the computer that's having the problem.

Final Questions:

None

Credit:

UberJumpber

Initial Problem:

In 3DFX OpenGL all of the colors appear too bright.

Other Information:

None

Solutions:

Chech the VooDoo2 Control Panel in Display Properties and check the GLIDE Gamma configuration. Try turning it down and running Homeworld again.

Final Questions:

None

Credit:

SauloB
UberJumper

300 Mhz AMD
64 Meg
Creative Labs Voodoo 2 chipset
latest 3dfx reference drivers (2.56)
WinGlide(3.03)

Initial Problem:

The black screen lookup problem occurs immediately after the two intros at startup.

Other Information:

Turned off HW acceleration and startup Homeworld with the /sw switch. Everything worked until the video mode was set to the 3Fx GL drivers. At that point a fatal trap in the Glide module occured.
Tried setting GL_Force 0 in the autoexec.bat which yielded nothing.
Put the 3.0.0 version of glide3x.dll in the Homeworld directory which yilded nothing.

Copy of the exception:
HOMEWORLD executed an invalid instruction in
module GLIDE3X.DLL at 0217:03ac2aa1.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0217 EIP=03ac2aa1 EFLGS=00010202
EBX=00000004 SS=021f ESP=00b8fb14 EBP=c61434c0
ECX=00000002 DS=021f ESI=03afc160 FS=11f7
EDX=00000006 ES=021f EDI=04b7e734 GS=3e6e
Bytes at CS:EIP:
0f 0e 8b d1 0f 6e 5c 24 18 c1 e1 02 0f 6e 46 08
Stack dump:
00000040 0005a604 00000002 00000002 03ac016f 03afc160 c6a03000 00000002 00000000 00000003
04b7e734 00b8fb8c 04b7e7ec 009952a8 00000000 03afc160

Solutions:

Install the old drivers from Creative over the new one's installed earlier. Set HW accelaration off at the 'System->Performance->Graphics' tab, run 'homeworld.exe /sw' to come up in the software mode, set the OpenGL to 'Direct3D' and then reset the HW acceleration to full.

Final Questions:

None

Credit:

UberJumper
Tanqueray

Windows 95
PII 266
64 Megs Ram
Diamond Monster 2
S3 Virge based 2D card
Direct 7
Awe 64 sound card

Initial Problem:

Black screen after the intro avis

Other Information:

Using the /disableavi command switch yielded nothing

Solutions:

Right Click on the desktop, choose display properties, click settings, click advanced, click performance, drag the slider to the left, click ok, click ok and then try the game.

Final Questions:

None

Credit:

UberJumper

Initial Problem:

After the initial mis-fire of the hyperdrive, you never can jump out again.

Other Information:

The enemy mothership was destroyed before told to

Solutions:

Wait untill intel tells you to destroy the enemy mothership

Final Questions:

None

Credit:

UberJumper

System(s):

PIII 550
256 mb
Soundblaster Live Value
ATI XPert 98D AGP
Win98

Initial Problem:

Explosions and other effects are clouded in black

Other Information:

None

Solutions:

Using the Homeworld Video Tweaker, enable additive alpha

Final Questions:

None

Credit:

LittleMan
UberJumper

[Mac_Bug]

-Heap allocation error

Voodoo 3 2000 video adapter
PIII 550 CPU
64 meg. RAM
Sound Blaster Live sound card.
Windows 98 SE
HW with 1.05 patch.
I installed the latest 3dfx drivers for my video card (before you say it, I know I could go back to my old drivers but I would like to figure this out if possible.) Now when I attempt to start the game I get through the 2 splash screens then I drop back to the desktop usually with an error message (not a Microsoft style message) that says "Error allocating heap of size 26620723" then a message "Couldn't initialize default rendering system". If I try to run the game again I get the Microsoft message "Invalid page fault in module RGL.DLL at 067:03aa7300". Now I know that RGL.DLL is a HW related DLL so I was hoping someone has seen this before. The game ran beautifully before the updated drivers and I have been playing it with no problems through ALL the previous 3dfx driver updates.

UPDATE: Scrubbing old video drivers and re-installing the game does not help. I have already pitched my swap file. Tried the MTL with no luck.

Mondrigore

Try adding the /sw /nodebutint command line switches to see what you get. The /safegl switch MIGHT help.
I think your system MAY be having issues with the OpenGL settings on you card. That's a guess thou.

Try /noswddraw or /noglddraw...heck...try them both.

-Uberjumper

-Monitor blackouts with GeForce2 GTS on AZZA PT61BP 440BX chipset
The card dies after game starts. U cannot revive it. Its like someone pulled the powerplug. The monitor reports "sleep", recieves no signal.
-SirMolle
I have four ideas in mind right now:

1. Your monitor drivers need reloading/updating
2. Your BIOS needs to be tweaked according to the specifications of AGP cards (no video shadowing, etc etc)
3. You have a bad video card
4. You have a bad monitor

Shin

Heres the report;

1. Upgraded all drivers related. This includes BUS drivers from Intel.
2. Made sure to grab latest driver for Geforce II GTS.
3. Turned off all pwer saving settings both in BIOS and in Windows
4. Upgraded BIOS
5. Made sure to have DX7a
6. Grabbed latest OpenGL

So.. now we are set to check.

Tried various resolutions and various color settings. Tried OpenGL and D3D.

None of the above helped. The problme got better and worse.

Last resort was Mac's suggestion on IRC. To tweak the AGP port.

Maximum on my mobo is 2x, I changed it to 1x.

With AGP on 1x it works. Seems like my mobo has some issues with AGP.

The mobo is a AZZA PT61BP jumper with 2mb BIOS. Could be good for people to know this if anyone encounters the same problem. It has INTEL 440BX chipset.

Thanx for the help guys.

Shin, what went wrong- I got rid of the Open Gl setup compleatey, went to standard pci/agp mode, and installed the detonator 3.68 set, and now it wont let me choose anything other than 640x480 res in 256, 16 bit, or 32 bit. This is wierd, I thought that the driver would improve the system, but it has mad it worse. I installed the origoinal drivers after the first screw up I think, and it worked fine, then I did what you recommended( I dont blame you ), but now it is like this. Any help appreciated
Also, I installed another 128 mb of pc-100 sdram to my system, but HW still playes like it has 64 megs still( my comp has now 92 total), do you know what the deal is? It is as slow as if the ram wasnt there- are there any settings that I maybe missed?

And another thing(march sucks), HW now crashes after the relic and sierra statup, snd I read the other threads, so does that mean that I need to manually delete anything homeworld? OR just install the patch again before playing?

Thanx in advance for any help.

-Vlakorados

Daishi, all Detonator Drivers (3.68, 3.77, 5.08, etc.) are for all lines of NVIDIA cards which are derivatives of the TNT chipset (GeForce included).
The drivers are to be found somewhere (hehe, forgot the link ) in www.nvidia.com

Vlakorados:

I suggest the following:

1. Look for your monitors driver download site.
2. Download and install the new drivers by choosing to change the monitor drivers and having Windows search for the new drivers in the directory where you placed them. They usually come in the form of .inf files.
3. If that still doesn't work. Try reinstalling 3.68.
4. Remember NOT to install GLSetup.
5. Do not install any third party video-related applications, yet.

-Shin

BIOS settings, depending on your BIOS, can be somewhat complicated to what-hell-is-this hard.
First your CMOS settings control varrying on-board components, these, if you do wrong, can totally mess up your computer to the point where it won't boot and it'll just sit there and hum. settings in here include your processer speed, and on some board wheather or not you want to overclock it, and to what degree, In my CMOS RAM type and HD type where also some of the things in there.

You have your chipset controls, which enable/disable ports, port speed, and a slight amount of video and sound control. This is where you may have problems, because on a very few BIOS, such as mine, you can set the voltage the is outgoing to cards and things on-board. If your card is under powered it may not have the ability to use all of its onboard RAM, its CPU may not be working at full speed, stuff like that.

SOme BIOS come with preset settings for best performance and optimal perforce, some times more.
Well I hope this helps somewhat.

-Daishi

What video cards did you guys have installed before this? Make sure that card didn't leave behind anything. My wife's got an onboard video card on her system at home, when I installed another vid card in the system, I couldn't get beyond 640x480 until I uninstalled the prior drivers.
Have you lowered the AGP rate of your mobos/cards to 1x? With Creative's drivers, you should be able to set the AGP speed from the creative systray applet.

-Uberjumper

Yes I know what your thinking.
/enable3Dnow

well it works for my brothers k6-2 350.

Nothing on Earth works for my 550.

Right I know for a fact that this is not HW specific. 3DNOW is not enabled full stop on my PC. If anyone knows any hacks, or downloads for the 550 chips I would appreciate it. ASUS claim I need to update directx, I think ASUS need a new Bios update. anyway here are my stats

K6-2 550
128MB
Voodoo5 5500 64MB AGP (hehe)
Soundblaster 16PCI
Rockwell 56K Modem
Asus P5A-B M/B Bios 1010
ALI AGP drivers 6.5
Directx 7.0 (would 7.0a help??)

Anyway thats it. Motion blur is real fun. At least when the action slows down due to screen jerking, it doesn't jerk it slowly blurs. Disorientating but better than jerking.

-Allattar Shade

You sure you don't have 3DNow disabling commands in autoexec or config? Maybe there's a tweak option in the V5 drivers that allows you to enable or disable enhanced instruction sets? Maybe 3dfx forgot to support 3DNow? -Shin

The problem you are reporting with the video has nothing to do with /enable3dnow. I'd hazard a guess that he's running at a lower resolution and bit depth and different video mode than you?
There's a post on how the videos are rendered somewhere in the archive, different video modes mean the videos run slower or faster.

Is that the only indication that your system is NOT using 3dnow?

UberJumper

Well apart from the dramatic, and I mean dramatic, performance increase he gets overall when using the enable3dnow command switch. I do not get this, I observe nothing.
And his PC runs faster than mine.

it takes the piss really.

that and things like freespace 2 run like a dog.

I am seriously thinking about either ditching the M/B or the Chip. One or the other is a useless pos. Hmmm might wait to see if I get another bonus so I can upgrade to an Athlon. -original

Perhaps he gets a performance increase because his video card can't handle all the 3D and so falls back on CPU, while your video card has no problems hence the CPU is not doing any 3D to begin with... just an idea... don't know how you would check it.
As for the jerky logo, I doubt this is the cause (as I think the logo is read from the HDD not the CD drive) but I have seen systems (mine included) where an intro screen is loaded from the CD which has a small buffer and continually stops/starts so while the system can processes the information fast enough, and the CD can supply information to the buffer fast enough the data is just not being supplied to the computer with a high enough rate to display smooth animation...

-NathanM
I think the Voodoo3 (even the PCI) is pretty close to an SLI rig (two Voodoo 2's ) so your old Voodoo 3 may have been good enough to deal with all the 3D... though I don't know enough about how they work to be sure...
As for the 3D Now! have you tried checking your system setup with a benchmarking utility, eg SiSoft Sandra 2000. This will tell you if the benchmarking utitility thinks it supports 3DNow!. Obviously if it says no, then it must be either disabled or non supported on your current setup. If it says yes then either the software hasn't actualy checked (just read from a look up table having found out what CPU you have) or the problem lies between the OS and HW, as opposed to between the Hardware and the OS...
shareware version of sandra 2000 avaliable here

http://www.sisoftware.demon.co.uk/sa...html/dload.htm

-NathanM

NathanM is right about the benchmark software.You wont neccesarily need to use SiSoft. There are several utilities to check this, I suggest you try www.tweakfiles.com and check out what they have to download. This may not solve your problem but you can at least narrow down the source of it. Also, most vid card have fan sites or even company sites where you can download programs to tweak your video card. You may not neccessarily want to do any tweaking with it but they usually give you information about your card and system such as whether or not 3D/now is enabled or not. Check out the Voodoo boards and ask around. I used to have a Voodoo card and most of the people there were pretty cool about helping people out with stuff like this.

-IcecreamLT.Dan

OpenGL won't work in W2K. Try using NVIDIA's official 5.22 drivers. Your Video capture won't work in W2K anyway.
Please post your full specs in the format specified in the MTL.

I'm running W2K fine except for that occasional mouse/keyboard lockup which is weird because the system is still running, but the mouse and keyboard don't respond.

-SHin

I've had Homeworld installed and running before, but now, after a reformat and move to win98 SE, from win98, I cant get it to install... Homeworld gives me an error (Corrupt Install File) when copying "homeworld.big" I've mailed tech support, and they've given me a few suggestions...all dead ends...Then they said that I should buy a replacement CD, but I know thats not it, because it runs on my friend's machine. Anyone know if this is fixable?

-MrYenko

Try copying the install information from the cd, to your hard drive and then installing.
You will not need the following directories:

Acrobat
Att
DirectX (make sure you say no when it asks you to install it)
GlSetup
Missionman
PDemo
Yes

Once you copy everything else, run the HWsetup.exe and follow the steps.

If you have problems copying the files, try turning off DMA support for your CD rom drive (right click my computer icon, properties, device manager, click CD rom drive, click properties, uncheck the DMA box).

UberJumper

Funny, I've seen that before. Had a Win95 CD that could not be read at all, not a copy or a forgery an actual storebought one. Luckily it was not mine. Sounds like your CD-ROM drive may need cleaning. If none of the other suggestions work try getting a lens cleaning kit and using it then try again

-Alpha_1

Okay, I'm trying to run Homeworld in 3dfx mode, but after a few seconds, it just crashes. It works fine in D3D and software mode and also in regular open GL. I've tried re-installing to separate drives to no avail...
CPU - Athlon 650
Memory - 196Mb SDRAM
Motherboard - ABIT 100 AGP
Primary Video Card - Voodoo3 2000 with the latest drivers
Sound Card - SBLive! Player 1024
CDRom Drives (DVD, CDR etc) - HP CDRW 2224
Operating System and Version - Win98SE
Direct X version. - 8
Homeworld video mode and resolution. - 3DFx OpenGL 800x600
Desktop video mode and resoultion. 16bit 800x600
Homeworld Version - v1.05

-QuiVuX

3dfx OpenGL is not supposed to be able to run for Voodoo Banshee or Voodoo 3/4/5 Chipsets, check the readme.txt in your homeworld directory for more information.
UberJumper

Hello!
I have some problems with Homeworld in our University Lan here.
The Lan is divided in 2 subnets with one router. I and some Friends will play together and start the game but I see only the other people in the Lobby which are in my subnet!
If I make a new gameserver the people in the other subnet can't see the Server and so they can't connect to it.
My Question: Is there somewhere in Homeworld a option or a command where I can connect to a specified IP in my LAN? I think to somewhat how "connect xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (IP)" to join a gameserver from my friends! Can someone help me with this problem?

Thx & C U Pacmaker

You did not say whether you can access
the other subnet from your machines.
ie: if one subnet is 128.20.30.x
and the other one is 128.20.31.x
If you are on the 30 subnet see if you can
ping the 31 subnet.

Take it from there, the way the IP protocol
works if it cant resolve the host it will
pass it onto your gateway.
If your gateway is not set to the router
but maybe something up the stream that
may be a problem. You may also need to play
with subnet masks.

Speak to your System Administrator.

-Wulfius-Khan

Well, the basics of the modem connection is to use Dial Up Networling to connect your computers, then play HW in TCP/IP or IPX LAN (I use TCP/IP, I haven't got IPX to work yet). anyway I'll just post my old how-to since the original thread is most certainly gone:

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Win 98 users need no additional programs. Win 95 users need the latest DUN update (1.03?).
In the network properties, be sure you have the following protocols bound to your dial-up adapter:

1. IPX/SPX-compatible Protocol
2. NetBEUI
3. TCP/IP
4. File and printer sharing (file only)

The primary network logon must be set to Windows Logon.

The Server:

The server will need to have Dial-Up Server installed (just install it with Windows setup). Open up your dial-up networking folder and choose Dial-Up Server from the Connections menu.

Your modem should be shown on the tab.

Select Allow caller access and set a password if you want to. Be sure that your buddy knows this password, as he/she will need it to log on. I think that this password defaults to your Windows password. I use a blank entry for mine so that my friends don't have to put in anything.

For the Server Type it should be the default PPP: Internet, Windows NT Server, Windows 98(95). Don't use encrypted passwords.

Share a folder as read/write capable to be able to check whether the network connection works or use it to communicate by creating files. Creating files like "HEY HOW ARE YOU DOING.TXT" will allow you to talk in a really nutty way.

The Client:

Make a new connection to the person you'll be playing with. Right click on this new connection and select properties. In the Server Types tab select PPP: Internet, Windows NT Server, Windows 98(95). Only enable Log on to network and Enable software compression. Select all three network protocols. You don't need to configure any of the settings for TCP/IP.

Making the Connection:

The server must have selected Allow caller access and is thus waiting for a call. The client must connect to the server using the newly created dial-up connection.

After the modems shake hands, the client will have to log on to the server. Use the appropriate user name and password.

When the two computers are connected the blinking modem will appear on the system tray.

The client must then "run the server". The server's computer name which appears on the identification tab of the Network applet in the Control Panel will be needed. The client has to go to Start, Run... and type the following: "\\<server's computer name>". Example: \\BILLYBOB.

The server's shared folders will now be shown to the client who can then proceed to create files such as "WHOAH THIS IS COOL.TXT" to communicate.

Playing Homeworld:

Both must now run Homeworld. Select LAN TCP/IP. Enjoy.
-Shin

CPU: AMD-K6 300(MMX)
Memory: 96MB SDRAM
Motherboard: ?
Primary Video Card: Cirrus 5446 PCI
2'ndary Video Card: STB Blackmagic-Vd2 (12MB)
Sound Card: ESS 1869 PCI
CDROM Drive: Liteon 24x
OS: Win98 (4.10.1998)
DirectX: 04.07.00.0716 (ver 7a)
HW Video mode: 3DFX OpenGL 640x480
Desktop Video mode: 800x600 (24bit)
Homeworld Ver: 1.05
Drivers: (3DFX ref. driver) 3.02.02
Hi, I got the GOTY edition of HW and everything was going peachy until the video setup. I set it to "3DFX OpenGL" @ 640x480, and accepted it. Then it spurted out this error:

HOMEWORLD executed an invalid instruction in
module GLIDE3X.DLL at 015f:04782ae1.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=015f EIP=04782ae1 EFLGS=00010202
EBX=00000004 SS=0167 ESP=00bafb28 EBP=ca96c4d4
ECX=00000002 DS=0167 ESI=047bc160 FS=0d77
EDX=00000006 ES=0167 EDI=066a68c0 GS=0d66
Bytes at CS:EIP:
0f 0e 8b d1 0f 6e 5c 24 18 c1 e1 02 0f 6e 46 08
Stack dump:
00000040 0005a604 00000002 00000002 0478019f 047bc160 cb22c000 00000002 00000000 00000003 066a68c0 00000003 066a6960 00000002 00000000 047bc160

Now, I told this to Sierra tech support. They didn't help me one bit. They just sputtered crap about me closing all programs, DL'ing latest drivers, and the "system disk" thing. Obviously, they didn't listen to me when I said I had the latest drivers.

Anyways, pleez help me because Software mode on HW is very irritating when I'm amassing a fleet @ about less than 5 fps.

Deadalus

You shouldn't have to mess with the registry to get homeworld running.
The problem is most likely related to the 3dfxvgl.dll file in your \windows\system directory. Do a find files for it. If you see it, rename it to 3dfxvgl.bak and then try to run homeworld.

Alternately, you can copy the opengl32.dll from the \homeworld\3dfx directory to the \homeworld directory and see if you can get the game running in openGL mode.

If you can't get into homeworld, add the /sw switch to see if you can get it up and running.

Try this thread for more help (this is oldschool demo stuff).

UberJumper

Uberjumper. I think I fixed it. I got a little impatient after installing the new Nvidia detonator drivers and just played the game. I went back and completely uninstalled HW and reloaded it and the 1.05 patch. I was just able to play a full game vs the CPU in Fields of Plaz. The 5.22 driver puts a neat little Nvidia shadow at the bottom right of the screen in D3D...
-5.22 detonator driver from Reactor Critical
-Latest A3D drivers from Aureal
-HWvideo tweaker (don't know if this helped or not)
-I used the following switches:
/enableSSE /disableavi /dsound
-video set at 1024x768 16 bit.

I am going to play a few more, and try different settings. OpenGL, 32 bit etc. I will add a reply to this post if it starts to crash again.

Patience is a virtue...!

Tag.

OK. I have played for a couple days now. No problems w/ 1024x768 16 bit in either OpenGL or D3D. However, 1024 x768 in 32 bit crashed after 20 mins in middle of game vs CPU. This time when it crashed I got horizontal lines across the screen like someone took a paint brush and spread out the desktop, nothing was readable. I am going to stick w/ 16 bit so I can play. Online last night for over 4 hours w/ no hiccups, wahoo.
Tag

My problem is this. Whenever I exit homeworld and return to windows, the grafix are corrupt. The START icon dissappears and quite often then menu bar text is missing.
My video card is a TNT 2. Is this possibly a problem with my card? Anyone got any information?
This is a major irritation because it basically means I have to restart windows every time after I have finished homeworld.
CPU: AMDK62 350
Memory: 64MB
Motherboard: ASUS p5a
Primary Video Card: TNT 2 (PCI)
Secondary Video Card: Voodoo 1 (Orchid righteous)
Sound Card: Sound blaster 16
CDRom Drives (DVD, CDR etc): 2 CD drives
Additional Hardware: modem, SCSI card
Operating System and Version: Windows 98
Direct X version. 7a
Homeworld video mode and resolution:640x480x16 (on TNT 2 )
Desktop video mode and resoultion. 1024x768x32
Homeworld Version: Patched to 1.05
Command Line Switches: default as installed

I accidentally found a way to fix the problem. After the game is finished, I start up any DOS program that uses full screen and then exit back to windows. This fixs all the windows graphics glitches.
I suppose what must be happening is that when Homeworld ends, it doesnt free up all the windows resources so the graphics system is crippled. When I return to windows from DOS it must force some sort of graphics system reset.
I suppose there must be a bug in either Homeworld or the drivers for my graphics card.
I tried running the game using an OpenGL driver today instead of a DirectX driver and that also fixed the problem. It also seemed faster

dude

"windows millenium beta (dunno the version as yet, have to ask)"

Windows millenium is as unstable as the original version of 95. For some people it works, for some it doesn't. Use the update wizard to make sure you have all the latest bug fixes, if that doesn't help there's not much that can be done.

As for it crashing under win98 you listed your CPU as a "celeron 450" so i'm assuming its an overclocked 300. This may be part of the problem, as Homeworld is very demanding of the CPU during play. Try setting your system to loop a Q3A demo for several hours and see if it stay alive the whole time. When overclocking a CPU, you must make sure that it is cooled adequately and has enough voltage to function properly. Other than that, make sure to end all other programs before running Homeworld. Also update Directx to 7.0a from Microsoft's website.

Bullet Magnet

Enable/disable Vsync in your graphics card options. Also try the /noFastFE switch.
Dont alt tab if possible!

-View Locks
-/dsound

Some people have had this problem.
The game hangs with my Voodoo 3 card on my AMD K6 system.
The problem is is that you have not set write allocation to enabled on your motherboard. This will cause
games that use Direct X to function like Armada (or any game for that matter) to not work properly and experience hangups. Look for
a setting similar to this in your BIOS settings. K6 Write Allocate is one example of what to look for but
it can be anything similar to this. If you can't find it or are not technically inclined then do the following:
1. Download this zip file: http://www.3dnow.net/files/setk6v2.zip
2. Now extract the file setk6d.exe to your root directory of your c: drive. (thats c:\)
3. Next add this line to your autoexec.bat file.
c:\setk6d /onxxM
where xx is the amount of RAM you have in your system... i.e. setk6d /on64M
If you don't have an autoexec.bat file in the c:\ directory, create a new text file using notepad, add in the
line above and save the file as c:\autoexec.bat.
4. Reboot your system.
5. Play Armada!!
This solution has worked for several people I have talked to on this board and it is also my solution to
the problems I was having with my card.
-Soulblighter

-deactivate sound if unable to get into menu

-mouse problems
If you have a scroll mouse and it does not work in HW or any other games for that matter...

Upgrade to latest mouseware driver if is logitech, under mouse setup change the middle button to autoscroll, change the scroll size from 3 lines to none.

Mouseware also loads a program called em_exec which can interfere, disable that from yoru startup list by going start run type in msconfig, under startup tab uncheck em_exec if you find it.

Okay I also have the Voodoo3 3000AGP and this is how I solved the problem with OPENGL. First I changed to D3D but did see some problems with the graphics. Went to the options menu while playing the game, went to custom details(I believe) and took off the background detail and everything worked great. No more crashes to Desktop and it runs fast or faster than opengl.
One note, if you have an AMDw/3dnow processor run Homeworld as Homeworld.exe /enable3dnow I don't know if this helps but it doesn't hurt to try. I currently have an Athlon 500 and I didn't see a noticable difference in speed.
GOOD Luck.

[Mac_Bug]

Some of these are from way back when and are outdated, not to mention the quick coloring I did earlier makes it butt ugly. I'll get around to fix them one of these days.... after the tests are over.

Anyhow I dug out something

http://www.guidestone.com/files/temp...sionEndNov.ZIP

http://www.guidestone.com/files/temp...missionFeb.ZIP

First one is collection from November of 2000 on old forum, second one is also by LtDan as well before another armageddon.

[Shin]

arg mac, you posted a troubleshooting session. just link to it or else post the *solution* only. :flame:

[Mac_Bug]

well I told ya I'll clean it up when I get my 5 day weekend after my finals :/

[Mac_Bug]

Well my first excercise in moderator power - to moderate myself.