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Problems with fresh install on Windows 8.1


Dinosorceror

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Hi there, all! I've been enjoying The Dark Mod for years now, and finally got myself a brand spanking new computer system, pretty high end stuff. I had been using Windows 8 on the last rig and I had gotten TDM to run, but now I'm having problems.

 

I've done the usual things, of running it as administrator and making sure it has write access to the directory, but whenever I try to play a mission, like St. Lucia, it goes through the intro, lets me pick equipment, starts to load and shows progress, then just drops me back to the main menu -- with no sound. I've got a geForce 780 Ti video card now, and I can get other games to do 3D just fine -- not sure if I've gotten any other OpenGL game to work yet, though.

 

Also, sometimes it drops me back to the main menu, with no sound, and kills my mouse's ability to move. I need to sleep/wake up or reboot to get it back. Keyboard stays fine.

 

I've pulled up the console, and here's the last few lines of the console that I see when it drops me back to the main menu:

 

removed 2 degenerate triangles

removed 16 degenerate triangles

removed 10 degenerate triangles

--------- Game Map Shutdown ----------

WARNING:Door atdm_mover_door_2 is not within a valid AAS area

ModelGenerator memory: No LOD entries.

--------- Game Map Shutdown done -----

ERROR:idSoundCache Load: error 40963 loading data into OpenAL hardware buffer

--------------------------------------

WARNING:idSession: triggering mainmenu watchdog

 

 

I'm going to guess that I've gotta install some more runtimes to get it working. Anyone have any clues? Oh, and the install directory is C:\Games\darkmod, so no issues with spaces, and I'm running 2.01 so it supposedly fixed the bug where I needed to run it as c:\darkmod...

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From experience, warnings aren't usually critical, but that error most likely is. You might need to install OpenAL, should be available freely online.

Intel Sandy Bridge i7 2600K @ 3.4ghz stock clocks
8gb Kingston 1600mhz CL8 XMP RAM stock frequency
Sapphire Radeon HD7870 2GB FLeX GHz Edition @ stock @ 1920x1080

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Another shot in the dark is to make sure EAX is off. It tends to cause odd results.

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Thank you all for your help! I got it working! :)

 

First, to Xarg: maybe I should have been clearer in my first post, but I did have sound OK to start with. It's just that the sound died when it went back to the main menu.

 

Oh, and another thing I noticed: from previous experience, I did notice that the mission loaded *insanely* fast, and...I just thought it was the new rig. Like, in just a few seconds.

 

Once I tried Springheel's advice, and simply turned EAX off, the mission was loading more in the range of 30 seconds or so, and I was like, "I have a good feeling about this...!" And sure enough, was dropped into the mission just fine!

 

I think here was the new issue with the new system: in my previous rig, I had a real Sound Blaster card installed, with the usual Creative drivers and OpenAL and Creative ALchemy to provide EAX support for older games. On the new rig, I decided for the first time to just try using the built-in sound, as it came "enhanced" with the Creative X-Fi 3 MB, which I'm assuming just enhances the motherboard's sound via software to do all the stuff the normal Creative Labs cards do. And yes, it does have OpenAL and ALchemy, and it was working fairly well for the older Thief games (which is the only reason I care about EAX :) ), but...I'm guessing it has an issue with Dark Mod. Disabling the EAX, as Springheel suggested, seemed to fix it right up.

 

I figured I'd take the time to make a more verbose resolution post, in case anyone else is having issues with Dark Mod crashing and a Google might hit this post. If you're new to Dark Mod and you think that a 5 second level load time is normal -- well, it's not. :) Try turning off that EAX! :)

 

I may actually put in the old sound card, but...I think for now I'll try to get what's there working. Maybe if they update the drivers or software, I'll be able to turn EAX on again.

 

Once again, I find The Dark Mod community to be...like, pretty much the best and most responsive and helpful gaming...no, just community community out there. I want SO BAD to take some time and make some content for it! I know I keep promising, but one of these days (especially with that contest) I'ma-gonna-do-it! :)

 

Thanks again, guys!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I suffer from the same problem. When loading a mission I'm thrown back into the main menu. Console states:

 

--------- Game Map Shutdown done -----

ERROR:idSoundCache Load: error 40963 loading data into OpenAL hardware buffer

 

EAX is disabled (I can't even enable it but I double checked in darkmod.cfg just to make sure). I tried both Creative's OpenAL installer and OpenAL Soft. I'm also using Windows 8.1 x64 and a M-Audio sound card. I can play if I disable OpenAL in darkmod.cfg but I really would like to use OpenAL Soft for its HRTF feature.

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