Hello

I own Unreal 2 within the Unreal Anthology version and as reported on other forums, the original version and the Anthology version got an issue on Windows Vista and 7 due to deprecated direct music dlls.

For example, when this game is run on Windows Vista or 7, the music within the intro won't play properly and will lead to a white light with some sound waves displaying on the screen.

If you replace the direct music dlls with the ones used in WIndows XP the game will work perfectly. Does the GOG version have this issue as well?

Has anybody found a way to make the game work without the need of replacing those system files just to avoid conflicts? For example I tried to put the .dll files on the Unreal2\system folder but no luck.

Thank you.

Well, I have Vista Ultimate x64 and I got Unreal 2 from here on GOG (along with the other Unreal games too). Anyway, I don't recall any issue with the intro video/music. I think it was the same as this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aTVN1SjdFc

Hello

Thanks for your reply
Yeah, if you expand the description in the video you can see the white light problem and a solution for it which involves replacing some direct music files with older XP versions since the ones in Vista and 7 are deprecated.

However I don't know if it would be a good idea to replace those system files, althought I think they haven't been updated since 2004.

I have tried to put the direct music files on the same folder as unreal2.exe but still same problem.

Thanks

Ah, I see. Well, being as the intro video to Unreal 2 contains no information at all (it's just a series of abstract graphics and the game title really) I most likely just skipped it and hadn't watched it through to where it goes solid white. But this isn't really a problem in regards to gameplay or understanding or anything like that.

As for the fix, well, if what is said in the link on that YouTube video is correct then it shouldn't be an issue to replace the files with the older ones, but I've no confirmation for that. You can try and keep backups of the ones you already find there as is recommended by those instructions.

Hello

Thanks. Well, from what I've read it makes the game crash on certain ocassions because the game is very dependent of the music, using the Unreal 2 original release or Unreal Anthology makes the very first of the music loop constantly and it won't go farther.

Even if on the intro screen you just get the white screen, other times you get crashes and I was looking for a solution to my game without the need of overwriting those system files which might be of use on the future and do something like GoG does.

I've tried to use "App Paths" on Windows 7 aiming to the right directmusic files from XP but no go.

Thank you.

Crashes? Never had the intro crash on me with the GOG version. It always started up okay but as I said, I may not have watched it through to when it goes white which may also have prevented any crashing. I did have a rare crash within the game (on the planet that was actually a giant living organism if I remember correctly) but other than that it played really quite well.

For your solution then, if you still really want to make the change and make it automated, couldn't you just set up a batch file that renames the Win7 dlls, copies the replacement dlls to their location, and then runs the game, then when you exit the game it deletes the replacements and renames the Win7 dlls back to their original names, thus undoing the operation?

I installed my retail copy of Unreal II and it does indeed have the white screen in the intro but I don't get any crash. I don't think you can just replace the dlls it a bat file and unreplace them afterwards pretty sure you need to restart inbetween doing that. I'll probably just try the direct music fix and hope it works.

Hello

Well, those files are protected by Windows FIle Protection and if I wanted to make a small patch for the game wouldn't work, plus I wouldn't like to mes with those system files.

Actually I probably won't play it for long, it's just that I like to adapt my games to work on new systems as a hobby sometimes. That's why I was looking for help on what to do with this game.

Reverse engineer the .exe is a bit tough for this, it's not like removing a simple cd check

Thanks

Hello everyone!

I'm the author of both the video and the guide to fix the problem. I'm glad you found them useful :)

Yes, the game is very dependent on DirectMusic. In fact, some of the events in the game are driven by DirectMusic scripts, which are somewhat broken since the time Microsoft decided to deprecate DirectMusic. If I recall correctly, the crash on Acheron is indeed related to DirectMusic. Another possibly crash-prone place is Sulferon.

As far as I can tell, there is no harm in replacing those files. The amount of games using DirectMusic is low to begin with, and the old version of the DLLs are more feature-complete than the compatibility-only versions included in Vista/7 anyway.

I'm not very familiar with changing binary code, but the clean way to do that would be to get the source code of the game. Unfortunately, even though the company that made the game is no longer existent, the chances of Epic Games releasing the code, even to GOG.com, are rather slim. Although it's not completely impossible, since they have provided the source of Unreal 1 for a patching project. The main problem with Unreal II source is that it's Unreal Engine 2, which is rather similar to the current-gen UE3 code, so Epic Games consider it unsafe to publish anything of that kind, at least right now.

I hope that they will one day release it, though. Unreal II, from a technical stand-point, is a marvellous development platform. It has so many clever modifications that even to this day they could be regarded as impressive. You can change the whole UI with UIScrips; you can have extremely precise control over AI actions with AIScripts; the Golem Editor allows independent, yet synchronised movement of different model parts; the game was probably the first to use completely dynamic shadows and EAX; and most of all, the particle engine is hands-down the best particle engine I have seen to this date.

The problem with most of those tools is that unlike the engine, the game itself was rather rushed. So it hardly exploited any of its own features, and many features were cut to begin with. And many of the tools were not finished, either. UnrealEd included with the game is particularly unstable, and there is only rudimentary networking support. However, fixing these issues (along with the DirectMusic one) for fans with source code would be relatively easy, especially given that now there is plenty of time to fix them.

Same goes to Unreal II XMP, the multiplayer game based on Unreal II. It didn't have half the ground-breaking additions of Unreal II due to using a different engine branch that supported networking well, but it's still a very unique and fun game to play. But there are plenty of glitches and opportunities to cheat in the game, which often make matches a lot less enjoyable...

Hello GreatEmerald

Thank you for your reply.

Your solution allows us to play the game the way it was intended on Vista and 7 plattforms. I heard Windows 8 will come with some kind of compatibility mode that will allow it to behave just like previous Windows versions, so who knows... it might return the game back to life :)

You are pretty right about the game's engine, I think the Unreal engine is one of the most advanced engines up to date.

I don't play games often but Unreal 2 is a game that impresses me mainly because of that "interactivity", those dialogs with the player and, as you said, many of the events are driven by the music. I love that intro

I still don't know if the GOG version fixes those problems, I think nobody tried.