Dos32a and Buildxp

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Rogue Martyr
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Dos32a and Buildxp

Post by Rogue Martyr » Thu Jun 08, 2006 6:57 pm

Would anyone like to share their experiences?

Is it easy to setup?

can it be added to the extra options section of the .vlp advanced tabs like nolfb is??? etc etc yak yak...
'Let the festival of Blood continue!'

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Post by DeM0n » Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:24 pm

I didn't read it all just got me a quick overview, but according to the wiki site you simply replace the DOS4GW.EXE with the DOS32a.exe (And rename it) or implement it into the games *.exe file.

I didn't try it out yet since the game is running fine, but it would be cool to know IF DOS32a is actually worth a try and what it is supposed to do.

On the site it was going on about DOSbox. I don't use DOSbox for games like blood. Mainly due to the fact that DOSbox is running Blood really really slow. So if it only brings changes for the DOSbox I'm not gonna bother since I only use DOSbox for games like uhhh...actually only one game and that's Ultima 8.

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Ephemeral
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Post by Ephemeral » Sun Jun 25, 2006 3:58 pm

Well, I tried it, and it ran fine. But it ran fine before, and I couldn't see any speed difference. Maybe this is good for people where nothing else works?

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Post by DeM0n » Sat Jul 01, 2006 7:44 am

Idk if it's just me but yeah here I go:

I found a download for redneck rampage. Of course there is no source port for it (AFAIK) so I did the VDMsound.

It ran a bit slow. So I thought I'd come back to this and check on DOS32A and for some reason it SEEMS to run a bit faster.

And no, I didn't remove DOS4GW.EXE and replaced it with DOS32A.EXE (and renaming this to dos4gw.exe) that would only cause the game to freak out on exit.

So I use it like NOLF.COM and add it to the Autoexec.bat in the Dos Enviroment tab of the VDMsound shortcut.

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Post by Ephemeral » Sat Jul 01, 2006 12:21 pm

@demon:
Mmm, sure? Due to the nature of dos4gw/dos32a I think that maybe the speed difference is in your head ;)
A Dos Extender, as far as I understand it, is sort of a memory/interrupt manager for Protected Mode. I have to admit I don't unterstand it fully, but it seems to be pretty hairy business. So I can't image that there would be two dos extenders allowed. I guess what happens here is that when you start dos32a after dos4gw is already started, it just gives an (non lethal) error message, and goes on. And that you just can't see that message because of the way VDMSound starts up. But I will dig out my copy of RR and experiment a bit...

Edit: If you try to start DOS32A.EXE in a command window without anything else, it gives the following output:
DOS/32A -- DOS Extender version 9.1.2
Copyright (C) 1996-2006 by Narech K.
DOS/32A fatal (8001): syntax is DOS32A <execname.xxx>
This is exactly what happens when you put it in your autoexec.bat, just that you can not see this error message... It is just not the way it is supposed to work. RR.EXE has to start DOS4GW.EXE, it doesn't work the other way round, and one cannot start DOS4GW.EXE after RR.EXE has started already.
BTW, huh? I was able to rename DOS32A.EXE to DOS4GW.EXE without any problems. No problems, no difference. No freaking out. But I guess every computer is different, as it is ALIVE :twisted:

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Post by DeM0n » Sat Jul 01, 2006 3:46 pm

Hah sweet imagination :D

Well I did try that too, to rename the DOS32A to DOS4GW and replace it with the existing file.

It ran fine on RR's first start. On the close I got like uhhhh 4 lines with errors. And whenI tried to open it again the usual start up screen would appear

...
Loading xxx.con
Checking music inits
Checking sound FX inits

After that the window would close. So idk, I might try it again later.

Edit:
Tried it again, seems to work fine now. I'd like to test it some more but RR is a real bitch when it comes to testing as it takes forever to exit the game properly

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Post by Ephemeral » Sat Jul 01, 2006 4:20 pm

Tried it again, seems to work fine now. I'd like to test it some more but RR is a real bitch when it comes to testing as it takes forever to exit the game properly
See! When you posted your message today, I remembered RR, and wanted to play it again. So I dug out my cd, installed it, installed VDMSound (had to reinstall Windows some weeks ago), fiddled for a minute with its' settings, started RR and it worked. Flawlessly. Perfect. Just so.

But only since I have another mainboard! Before, with my humble (read: megacrappy) K7VZA, I tried for hours, days, weeks to get any build-game work at all, and never succeeded! Well, it would work somehow. In 320x200. With no sound.
So, now, I feel your pain, man!
I think I am just a lucky bastard. On the other hand, I remember you wrote in another post that you can run Blood 2 without crashing. You lucky bastard! :D

Edit: Why don't you post your error messages here? And what exacty happens when you exit RR?

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Post by DeM0n » Sat Jul 01, 2006 4:30 pm

Haha but in exchange I can't run blood now.

blahblahblah error loading save file header

after deleting the savefile
blahblahblah error loading demo file header

deleting demo files:
Finally get to the main menu and select new game and it crashes on me saying:
Error loading SFX File #35.

Funny enough I had that problem a while ago before I reinstalled windows (and blood was a fresh new install) and it would do the same stuff. But like after a week or so (Seriously) it suddenly would work fine.


As for blood 2, yeah no crashes BUT sometimes textures get fucked up (on weapons not THAT bad but you can see it) so I have to pause and switch details from High > low > high to force a reset :(

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Post by Ephemeral » Sat Jul 01, 2006 4:36 pm

blahblahblah error loading save file header
Well, usually this means config.nt in system32 folder has files=20.
Change it to files=40, and all should be well...hopefully!

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Post by DeM0n » Sat Jul 01, 2006 4:42 pm

I'm so bored, and might actually try that.

Hope I can edit the file without going into safe mode.

(I wanted to edit my hosts file a few days ago and had to boot in safe mode to be able to do so)

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Post by Ephemeral » Sat Jul 01, 2006 4:48 pm

Sure you can! Its just a text file, and its only needed for DOS emulation. I quote myself:
It is just that the vdms settings get overridden by config.nt in your system32 folder. In this file, find the last line, which says "files=20" and change it to "files=40". Thats it!

To be able to see this file you have to change the folder options in control panel. Check "Display the content of system folders", select "Show hidden files and folders", uncheck "Hide extensions for known filetypes", uncheck "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)".
Good luck!

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Post by DeM0n » Sat Jul 01, 2006 9:34 pm

Hah I remember, the last time I did that I didn't reboot my PC after changing the NT file (That's why I thought it randomly started working xD)

It's working now, still I'd like to see Windows ports for Blood and RR. Whenever I run those games with VDM I have to turn off my messengers otherwise the game will close if I get a message :(

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