M'44 VM's Scenario problems with Vista?

HirooOnoda · 02-03-2010, 05:21 AM,

hey guys!

I'm in a team game with 5 other guys and we're playing one of VM's scenarios for the Campaign game of M'44. There is also one other file that I have downloaded that is supposed to complement VM's updated M'44 campaign game and I did down-load it.

I tried everything to get it to work on my vista machine here in L.A. I can play the game on my XP machine in Santa Fe so I can't help but think it is a Vista problem.

I upgraded the game to 1.02, the latest patch.
I downloaded and unzipped VM's latest work on M'44.
I also downloaded and unzipped the file that everyone else has that complements VM's M'44 file.

I tried over and over, unzipping, downloading, etc.

Nothing worked. I would open the game file and the screen would just be black with one green square visible. If I hit watch replay I'd get an error message (I think it said I was missing a file or something like that).

So I've uninstalled and deleted all the files associated with M'44. I will re-install the game and all the extra files and patches.

The question I have is there some "magic" order by which I need to do this? I install the game exactly how they recomend HPS games should be done with a VISTA machine.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Hiroo

(PS I posted this over in the tech forum but I didn't get a response).

Volcano Man · 02-03-2010, 05:38 AM,

I suspect that you didn't get a response there (in the tech forum) because they have no idea what the VM M44 scenario is. The best results would occur if you posted this at vmods.com.

But anyway, I seriously doubt this is a Vista problem. It sounds to me like something is not installed correctly. 99% of the time, if an _Alt scenario does not load correctly it is because the game itself needs to be updated, since the scenarios uses the lastest features in the PDF files. However, you said you updated M44 with the latest version. To make it all easier, can you tell me the exact filename of the scenario you are trying to open? Even better, have you tried opening other _Alt scenarios? If so, do they open?

**Ricky B** · (This post was last modified: 02-03-2010, 06:38 AM by Ricky B.)

One other thing, that could be related to how Vista works. I found that although my games ran without reinstalling them when I got a new PC with Vista, those that weren't installed on the Vista machine had a game path into the program files folder but the games themselves ended up in a program folders x386 which has much more limited restrictions on them there - I have heard a lot about Vista not allowing games in the program folders to be updated.

So anyway, running the updates on many of the PzC games resulted in the patch not being applied as it tried to do it in the wrong folder so make sure that the game when running is showing the version you think you installed, and if not make sure the install points to where the game really is, or it won't ever update it.

Rick

HirooOnoda · 02-03-2010, 09:37 AM,

(02-03-2010, 06:37 AM)Ricky B Wrote: One other thing, that could be related to how Vista works. I found that although my games ran without reinstalling them when I got a new PC with Vista, those that weren't installed on the Vista machine had a game path into the program files folder but the games themselves ended up in a program folders x386 which has much more limited restrictions on them there - I have heard a lot about Vista not allowing games in the program folders to be updated.

So anyway, running the updates on many of the PzC games resulted in the patch not being applied as it tried to do it in the wrong folder so make sure that the game when running is showing the version you think you installed, and if not make sure the install points to where the game really is, or it won't ever update it.

Rick

Thanks for your input Rick. The problem is that the game has been updating though. When I'm in the game it says I'm playing with the most current updated version of the game.

For a while I was able to play another one of VM's games PBEM with another person, then that too started giving me the same problem.

This is very puzzling as I've tried everything I can think of.

I can open the game and play the same scenario by myself, it just doesn't like PBEM games!

Go figure.

Volcano Man · (This post was last modified: 02-03-2010, 10:49 AM by Volcano Man.)

So... all of the _Alt scenarios in K44 do this? Or just one? Have you tried right clicking on the K44.exe file and selecting to run it in XP compatibility mode? I assumed it was a problem with a missing file because of a problem with installation, but I could be wrong as I don't have Vista anymore (Windows 7 now).

**Ricky B** · 02-03-2010, 10:56 AM,

If the game works fine for just you, but when using files from other players it won't, that indicates that there is a version problem with something. You and your opponents are running a file that is different somewhere - possibly the OOB - or else the pdt versions are different. Maybe try reinstalling everything except this add-on that isn't VMs that everyone has, as I have no idea who that even comes from and haven't heard anythng specific about it???

If the game runs for you it really can't be a missing file or you would have the problem in all games, not just PBEM.

HirooOnoda · 02-03-2010, 11:33 AM,

(02-03-2010, 10:48 AM)Volcano Man Wrote: So... all of the _Alt scenarios in K44 do this? Or just one? Have you tried right clicking on the K44.exe file and selecting to run it in XP compatibility mode? I assumed it was a problem with a missing file because of a problem with installation, but I could be wrong as I don't have Vista anymore (Windows 7 now).

I don't know about all the Scenarios of the _Alt M'44, they seem okay when I run them, it's only when I open a PBEM file.

Thus, this has happened twice to me. One in a big game of M'44 Alt VM, with some other file (I will get the name of this other file...something that adds to your scenario that was left out) and a smaller game I started, was able to play a bit, then the problem started out with that 2nd new game also (go figure).

I can only assume something got corrupted in my part. No one else has this problem in our game, but me (of course). Thus perhaps re-installing will fix the problem.

Do you think playing in XP emulation mode might help? The game works fine on my XP machine in New MExico.

Hadge · 02-03-2010, 11:32 PM,

Hi

I had a similar problem with my Vista laptop which I only use when playing on holiday (home is XP)

If you havn't already done so, make sure you have both "Alternative Scrolling" and "Auto Scroll" ON under the "Settings" drop down menu in the game:- that fixed it for me

Hope that helps

Chris

Volcano Man · (This post was last modified: 02-04-2010, 08:14 AM by Volcano Man.)

(02-03-2010, 11:33 AM)HirooOnoda Wrote: I don't know about all the Scenarios of the _Alt M'44, they seem okay when I run them, it's only when I open a PBEM file.

Thus, this has happened twice to me. One in a big game of M'44 Alt VM, with some other file (I will get the name of this other file...something that adds to your scenario that was left out) and a smaller game I started, was able to play a bit, then the problem started out with that 2nd new game also (go figure).

Hmm, very interesting. Ok, so you can load the scenarios fine, and even "start" the scenario fine in PBEM mode, but at some point in the turn exchanges what you describe happens? XP emulation mode might help, but unless it has to do with that data protection stuff in Vista (what's it called, "DEP"?), which is a major headache and might be something that Rick is referring to, then I don't think it is necessarily a Vista issue.

Strange things can happen like this if one or the other user saves to different .bte files, changes the name, and of course if they try to edit the OOB or .bte file itself -- although I am certainly not accusing anyone of doing that here, I am just saying that the file can get messed up during the process of playing it, especially if there is some tinkering going on (innocent or not), and it usually has nothing to do with the OS type. I have seen something strange happen to a turn where we had to go back and restart from a few turns earlier, but I can't remember what happened to cause the turn to mess up; maybe it was an update to a file or something like that. Have you both tried resuming from a previous turn?