Trouble With D3 1.3 Patch

[Ishtvan]

So, when the D3 1.3 patch first came out, I ran the patch .exe to extract the new files to dummy directory to check them out, because I knew the mod wouldn't work until we merged our mod code with the 1.3 codebase, but I wanted to see the new sound design file format. I didn't actually play with the patch or anything, just created a fake D3 directory with only the files that the patch checked before it extracted itself. I deleted this fake directory a long time ago.

 

Now, apparently applying the 1.3 patch changed my registry info to say that I have D3 1.3. Now that it's time to actually apply the patch, the installer helpfully refuses to install because my registry info says I already have the 1.3 patch installed (although my .exe is definitely 1.2). You would think it would at least check the damn .exe I'm trying to patch before assuming I have 1.3. I'm pretty sure it's the registry, because when I go into XP's "Add or Remove Programs," it lists D3 as version 1.3.

 

Now, I don't know much about the registry, but I'm wondering if there is a way I can either remove the registry entry for D3, or roll back the version to 1.2 so that I can install the freakin' patch, without me having to actually uninstall and reinstall D3?

[sparhawk]

I had the same problem. I tryied to uninstall Doom 3 also and it didn't work anymore, even though it actes as if it did. I can only tell you how I resolved this. I have installed my Doom 3 on F:\Programme\Doom3 so this was a good indicator. Just search for Doom3 in this case and remove everything that points to there. Most notably, when you find a hit, you should not remove that particular key/valu pair, but the key that it is associated to. For example, there are a lot of hits which are subkeys from GUIDs (if you know what that means, so you must remove the GUID as well. When you do this you can reinstall Doom from scratch and apply the patch.

I was pretty angray about this, because I really don't see a reason why any game needs to screw around with my registry. It should be well contained within the directory that I installed it to, without ANY changes to the registry, and I certainly don't see a reason why it should create such a lot of GUIDs.

[oDDity]

v1.3 added more checks. It does a local CD-Key check now as well as an online CD-Key check before you can even gain access to the main menu, so it no doubt has somehitng to do with anti-piracy.

[pakmannen]

Wait a minute.. Does that mean no-cd fixes patches work?

[oDDity]

Well, mine certainly does.

[OrbWeaver]

I thought 1.3 removed the CD check, since I can now run Doom 3 without the CD in the drive (which was not possible with the original).

[sparhawk]

It seems that you don't need a no-cd patch. I installed from scratch and applied the patch and it works without applying a no-cd patch. I haven't tested wether it requires an internet connmection, but I doubt it. If no connection is available it will probably silently work as long as the entered key appears to be valid. Before I got my copy of Q4 I had a downloaded version and it was the same there, so I guess it will be similar here now.

[oDDity]

You still need a no-cd if you are using a warez copy of the game like me. I never played doom 3 and I never will. I have it only for modding purposes and see no reason to buy it.

Our efforts will actually make a lot of Thief fans buy Doom 3 who otherwise never would have, so we are earning money for id already without giving them ours as well.

[OrbWeaver]

I'm quite happy for id to get my money, given their support for open formats and open source (like GPL'ing their old games and making Linux builds of their existing ones).

 

Valve on the other hand won't get another penny from me wthout a serious attitude adjustment on their part.

[Ishtvan]

Thanks a lot for the suggestion Sparhawk.

 

I really know nothing at all about editing the registry, other than I have to run regedit. So:

 

Dumb question #1: What's the best way to make a backup of the registry?

 

Dumb question #1A: When you say search for your Doom path, do you mean in the Edit->Find menu in RegEdit?

 

Dumb question #2: How do I tell if the key/value I found is a subkey of a GUID?

 

Dumb question #3: So I should just choose to delete the key/value and the GUID?

 

Question #4: You definitely have to do a D3 reinstall then to apply the patch after doing this? Wow this sucks.

[sparhawk]

Dumb question #1: What's the best way to make a backup of the registry?

 

There is none. Make a system backup. If you backup the whole registry alone you can get a licen violation attempt error or something like that once you try to put it back.

 

Dumb question #1A: When you say search for your Doom path, do you mean in the Edit->Find menu in RegEdit?

 

CTRL-F You only need to search for the Doom part of the path.

 

Dumb question #2: How do I tell if the key/value I found is a subkey of a GUID?

 

Every time you have a hit just press SHIFT-TAB which will put you back to the key. Then delete this key where you are. This way you will get rid of all the key/value pairs.

 

Dumb question #3: So I should just choose to delete the key/value and the GUID?

 

If you do the above it will hapen automatically.

 

Question #4: You definitely have to do a D3 reinstall then to apply the patch after doing this? Wow this sucks.

 

At least I found no other way. I coul dhave run the registry scanner and try to see which keys are the important ones, but I was not really in the mood for analzying this. If it happens more frequently it might be worth though.

[Ishtvan]

Okay, thanks. I guess I'll try reinstalling it with add/remove programs options first, then get to the registry editing if that doesn't work.

[Ishtvan]

In case anyone else has this problem, I was able to avoid editing the registry by uninstalling D3 via XP's "add or remove programs" tool. Then I had to reinstall it. Still rather crap that you have to do this if you run the patch once and then decide to roll back.

 

Anyway, time to go thru MarsCity and listen to the sweet, sweet reverb.

[Forsaken]

Isn't "Add and Remove Programs" is normal deletion place? I remove evreything there and never had any problems.

[Ishtvan]

Yeah, but I shouldn't have had to delete and reinstall in the first place. I had a 1.2 exe, trying to patch, and it was believing some registry variable that said I had 1.3 over the actual .exe when I tried to patch it.

[Forsaken]

Well, that is why I hate patches.

[sparhawk]

Isn't "Add and Remove Programs" is normal deletion place? I remove evreything there and never had any problems.

 

Yes. normally it would. But you can get into situations where this no longer works. At least if you are a crazy programmer like us.

 

There are people who are still of the opinion that a computer should do what the user wants and not the other way around ...

[sparhawk]

Well, that is why I hate patches.

 

The fault is not that a patch exists, the fault is that stupid programmers implement the installation in such a way that this crap is required. There is NO technical reason why a game would need to do this, or why a game needs to store information in the registry at all.

[Dram]

There is NO technical reason why a game would need to do this, or why a game needs to store information in the registry at all.

 

C0rp0r4t10nz 0wnz y0ur c0mput0rz...

[obscurus]

The fault is not that a patch exists, the fault is that stupid programmers implement the installation in such a way that this crap is required. There is NO technical reason why a game would need to do this, or why a game needs to store information in the registry at all.

 

 

There is no reason, as far as I can tell, why ANY general program should need to alter the registry, apart from registering file types. And as far as I am concerned, the way Windows implements that is very opaque and annoying. I would like to have a simple text file that stores a list of filetypes and the program(s) associated with them, separate to the registry. I hate programs that leave junk all over your computer, even when you have supposedly un-installed them. I routinely clean out my registry, manually if I have to, to get rid of junk left behind by crappy software.

 

I think this is one of the reasons why console sales are booming, while PC game sales are stagnating - with consoles you just put the disc in and play, no mucking about with activation codes, or Steam, or registry problems, or hidden malware. PC games should be as easy to install as simply copying a directory containing the game off the CD/DVD, or a simple installer that copies all of the necessary files to the one directory, and not scatering all kinds of dubious crap all over your machine. If PC game manufacturers put less effort into copy protection schemes that only inconvenience genuine users, and more effort into making better games with fewer bugs and problems, people would buy more of them. Simple as that. There will allways be people who pirate software, but if you make the legitimate software worthwile, enough people will buy it for companies to make a profit off it.

[sparhawk]

There is no reason, as far as I can tell, why ANY general program should need to alter the registry, apart from registering file types. And as far as I am concerned, the way Windows implements that is very opaque and annoying. I would like to have a simple text file that stores a list of filetypes and the program(s) associated with them, separate to the registry.

 

With file types and their associations it is ok to have the registry. A textfile woul dbe the same, it wouldn't really matter. But storing configuration data there is plain stupid. INI files are perfectly suitable for this, and they wont get killed if the OS crashes, which usually means to reinstall also applications which only problem is that they don't have simple config data anymore.

 

I hate programs that leave junk all over your computer, even when you have supposedly un-installed them. I routinely clean out my registry, manually if I have to, to get rid of junk left behind by crappy software.

 

A lot of work.