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General discussion (archive)Similar Technical Problem in Several Games(14 posts)(14 posts)
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Posted July 21, 2011
Hi guys,

I have problems running several games. However, the problem seems to be essentially the same in every one of the games, which is why I asked here rather than in their specific forums.

The games in question are:
Thief (from Gamersgate)
Ground Control, Dark Reign, and Dark Reign 2 from GoG

For some reason, it seems that I am unable to play the cinematics/movies in any of these games. What essentially happens is that, when the cinematics start, the game simply freezes until I alt-tab out and back into the game, which usually advances the movie a few frames before it freezes again.

Also, I have few other problems with the other games, if anyone knows about how to fix them:

Dark Reign 2: Mostly works, but if I move my mouse too fast, the mouse freezes. I suspect this might be simply due to the fact that my mouse is relatively fast (3500 DPI).

Ground Control: The game seems to only work in 640 x 480 resolution and can only work occasionally. Most of the time it simply crashes.

Thief: This game doesn't seem to work at all.

What I have tried so far:
Compatibility Tweaks (Pretty much all combinations)
DEP on/off
Resolution changes
Codec Packs

I have tried all of these games on two separate computers, both of which run Windows 7 64bit and modern hardware (i7, etc). I don't think it's a ATI/Nvidia issue either, as one of my computers has a ATI card and the other has a Nvidia card.

Any help is greatly appreciated!
Post edited July 21, 2011 by n99127
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Posted July 21, 2011
Hey, I don't know about Ground Control or Dark Reign.

However, I know that Thief doesn't like running on multiple core processors. When I used to run it on my P4 (which has hyperthreading, which seems to give you the same problem) with XP, I could go into the system monitor, right click the Thief process and make it run on only one processor. I don't know about more modern OSs and hardware.

Hope that helps
Post edited July 21, 2011 by Dominic998
Posted July 21, 2011
If you have not already, right-click each games shortcut, click Properties on the resulting dialog, click the compatibility tab and check-mark "Run this program as an administrator"
Posted July 21, 2011
Yeah I've already tried all of those things unfortunately :(

It's not too big of a deal for Dark Reign, and I can live without the cinematics in that game (who needs a story to blow stuff up anyways?).

Still, Thief is probably the biggest problem, as I can't get into the game itself.
Posted July 21, 2011
My only other suggestions would be to install the game in a directory outside of Program Files. I use C:\Games but any name will do. Security is tight in the Program Files Directory, especially on Win 7, so tight that it can interfere with read / writes from a game. Installing outside of this directory has fixed a couple of problems for me. I just install everything in the Games directory now. I also turn UAC off when installing and turn it back on afterwards.

I would also disconnect from the internet, disable my AV and firewall, and try playing. Sometime one or both can interfere with a game. If the game plays as you would expect then making the game.exe a trusted program in one or both programs can sometimes help. Just remember to enable both programs before reconnecting to the internet . . . =)

Edit: be sure to backup your saves and uninstall the game before reinstalling outside of Program Files as having two installs can cause problems.
Post edited July 21, 2011 by Stuff
Posted July 21, 2011
avatar
Stuff: My only other suggestions would be to install the game in a directory outside of Program Files. I use C:\Games but any name will do. Security is tight in the Program Files Directory, especially on Win 7, so tight that it can interfere with read / writes from a game. Installing outside of this directory has fixed a couple of problems for me. I just install everything in the Games directory now. I also turn UAC off when installing and turn it back on afterwards.

I would also disconnect from the internet, disable my AV and firewall, and try playing. Sometime one or both can interfere with a game. If the game plays as you would expect then making the game.exe a trusted program in one or both programs can sometimes help. Just remember to enable both programs before reconnecting to the internet . . . =)

Edit: be sure to backup your saves and uninstall the game before reinstalling outside of Program Files as having two installs can cause problems.
Unfortunately, none of that works so far :(

At the moment, I can play Dark Reign and Dark Reign 2 more or less fine (minus the mouse lag problem in Dark Reign 2, but that's minor). Ground Control is a bit of luck based, but it seems to work most of the time. Thief...meh

I guess I'll have to live without the cinematics for now. Hopefully one of my random tweaks will do something.
Posted July 21, 2011
avatar
n99127: ...
Sounds like you have tried everything, only other suggestion I have would be to set the affinity to a single core for a game. If that fixes the problem then use RunFirst to do it automatically.

Hope you find a solution . . . =)

Edit: Link to using RunFirst info
Post edited July 21, 2011 by Stuff
Posted July 21, 2011
it could be a video card issue if you haven't got the latest drivers for them.
also with nvidia dont install/remove the 3d thing if you dont have a 3d computer monitor.
but i assume you have the latest drivers. also try fiddling with the configuration of your cards.

this is for thief 2 but it might work for thief 1 too:
http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=76531

another link
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75031
Post edited July 21, 2011 by lugum
Posted July 21, 2011
I think Thief is one of those games which doesn't like modern OS's / Hardware your best bet would be to check google for fan patches and the like.

As for the others you could try setting processor affinity to use only one core (these new processors can wreck havoc with the speed of old games) and disabling SLI/Crossfire/Integrated graphics and catalyst AI if your running an Ati card as these can all cause problems
Posted July 21, 2011
For Thief 1, you must set affinity of the executable to one processor. The game will not run otherwise. Sometimes, there are other issues, but this one is the most pressing.
Posted July 21, 2011
For Thief games, see >> this post <<.
Posted October 06, 2012
avatar
n99127: Hi guys,

I have problems running several games. However, the problem seems to be essentially the same in every one of the games, which is why I asked here rather than in their specific forums.

The games in question are:
Thief (from Gamersgate)
Ground Control, Dark Reign, and Dark Reign 2 from GoG

For some reason, it seems that I am unable to play the cinematics/movies in any of these games. What essentially happens is that, when the cinematics start, the game simply freezes until I alt-tab out and back into the game, which usually advances the movie a few frames before it freezes again.

Also, I have few other problems with the other games, if anyone knows about how to fix them:

Dark Reign 2: Mostly works, but if I move my mouse too fast, the mouse freezes. I suspect this might be simply due to the fact that my mouse is relatively fast (3500 DPI).

Ground Control: The game seems to only work in 640 x 480 resolution and can only work occasionally. Most of the time it simply crashes.

Thief: This game doesn't seem to work at all.

What I have tried so far:
Compatibility Tweaks (Pretty much all combinations)
DEP on/off
Resolution changes
Codec Packs

I have tried all of these games on two separate computers, both of which run Windows 7 64bit and modern hardware (i7, etc). I don't think it's a ATI/Nvidia issue either, as one of my computers has a ATI card and the other has a Nvidia card.

Any help is greatly appreciated!
Sorry to revive an old thread, but I had exactly the same issue in Dark Reign 2 and the solution was to drop the polling rate from 1000 Hz to 500 Hz. This fix works at least for W7 64bit G500 mouse.
Posted October 13, 2012
Well, I eventually did get every game working, but only when I got a new computer. I still have no idea what exactly went wrong, but I guess it isn't relevant any more at any rate.
Posted October 13, 2012
Actually, Thief will run even if its processor affinity is set to more than one core. It will just crash as soon as you stat a level.

Here is the current Thief 1/Gold fanpatch: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134733

and the big list of help topics on the thief forum:
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133946

Remember that you need the Indeo 5 codec to play the videos in Thief 1.
http://downloads.ttlg.com/download.aspx?id=2461


As for the fast mouse issue, yes, that is probably your mouse's DPI that is the issue. Try lowering the mouse speed in windows and see if that works.
Start menu->Control panel->Hardware and sound->mouse
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General discussion (archive)Similar Technical Problem in Several Games(14 posts)(14 posts)
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