Gemini Rue freezes at loading... screen

[MisterS42]

Hi I have been over at the Gemini Rue boards on their website and they told me to come here for help.  The game Gemini Rue which runs AGS is freezing whenever I open it.  I have tried all proposed methods listed on their website: "performance battery for laptop", "setting windows to 16-bit color", messing around with the winsetup.  Nothing is working.  It doesn't even work in windowed mode.

Basic info is I'm using windows 7 64-bit and have no problems running more graphic intensive games.  I can copy and paste my dxdiag info if needed.  Thank you for your time and I'm sorry if I posted this in the wrong place, I can't seem to figure out the appropriate place for this question as no other areas had questions similar to this.  Thank you.

[Snarky]

Hi MisterS42. Here is probably fine, but usually people post tech issues under the game thread on the Completed Games board. Your issue sounds weird. For the record I have the same general setup, and Gemini Rue runs fine.

So when you launch the game, it just hangs? No error message or anything? Does it happen immediately? Do you see anything (even a window) on the screen? And are you on a laptop or desktop machine?

Did you install the game using the official installer? (And did you by any chance get the game through Steam?) You're sure your copy of the game is fine and it's not just a matter of downloading/installing it again?

Maybe it's a permissions problem; you could try right-clicking, "Run as Administrator" to start the game.

Have you been able to run any other AGS games (for example the Blackwell games from Wadjet Eye)? You could try downloading some other (free!) AGS titles to see if it's a problem with AGS in general or just Gemini Rue in particular.

You've probably already done this, but make sure the graphics setting is set to DirectDraw 5 (the game won't work with Direct3D), and try it in a window without any graphics filter. That really ought to work.

I guess it could also be a problem with the audio. Did you try the different sound and music settings?

And did you try running it in compatibility mode? That might help.

It's hard to tell. Your problem is unusual for a newer game like GR, so I'm pretty much just throwing possibilities out there.

[Khris]

You have probably already tried this but if you haven't, update your graphics drivers.

If all else fails, install VirtualBox and create an XP machine.

[Snarky]

I really hope we can figure out what the problem is, because it's really unacceptable for AGS to fail completely and without explanation on a modern Windows machine. There are quite a lot of reports of problems on the Wadjet Eye Gemini Rue forum. If we can track it down, maybe we can solve it in upcoming versions of the engine.

There's also a catch in updating your drivers in that DirectX 10 and 11 aren't an update of DirectX 9, but a separate driver. So just updating your DirectX 10/11 version doesn't help with games that use the DirectX 9 driver. (Well, that's my probably somewhat simplified understanding of it, anyway.)

[monkey0506]

I've personally run Gemini Rue (with and without Steam) on three separate Windows 7 PCs (2 laptops and 1 desktop) without issue, so it definitely sounds like a system- or setting-specific issue. I don't have much else to add than what's been said already, but there have been some good suggestions.

Oh, and Khris, if you're gonna do that why not just install the perfectly free and legal Windows XP Mode?

[MisterS42]

It does just hang with no error messages (I can hear the rain in the background)

It happens when the rain sound kicks in (though if I Alt-Tab and come back it shows a frozen main screen with rain)

No window on the screen.

I am using a laptop.

I installed the game off Steam.

I have run it in both Admin mode and Compatibility mode with no luck.

I will try running other games that use AGS and report back tonight (I haven't played any others and there are some interesting ones here).

I have tried it in a window with no filters and still have freezing issues. (I am not running it under Direct3D though I have tried that too)

I have also tried all suggestions here too: http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=28a30b52fbe351cc58603fc0d2bf5de9opic=874.0

My plan tonight will be trying different sound settings and other games that are AGS.

Thank you for the help.

[Khris]

If you can still hear the rain and if you see the menu after alt-tabbing out and back in, this is clearly a graphics issue as in, the game isn't frozen but the screen isn't updated while the game is in focus.
Did you update your graphics drivers and try installing the latest DirectX9 for Win7?

[MisterS42]

I have updated DirectX, but I'll check on my graphics drivers tonight.  Thanks.

[Snarky]

My theory would be that it's something to do with the snow/rain plugin that the game uses for weather effects. If you try some other AGS games and they work, that's probably the explanation.

That makes it a bit trickier, since it's a really old component, not open source, and the developer hasn't been around for a couple of years; and I suppose if you were to delete that DLL, the game wouldn't run.

If you can't get it to run, contact Dave Gilbert at Wadjet Eye. He's very good about giving out refunds, and he might even offer you a free copy of one of the other Wadjet Eye games for your troubles. (Or maybe not; I'm not exactly sure what his policy is on those things. He's a good guy, is my point.)

Sorry about your difficulties! If you can get it to run, I think it's well worth it. It's a great game.

[MisterS42]

I've followed all recommendations with no success.  It must be the plug in.  I'm quite bummed.

[Dave Gilbert]

The issues with this game are twofold.  One is that the game's graphics are 16 bit, and that the snow/rain plugin only works in DirectDraw mode (if you switch to Direct3D, then the game gives you an error and won't even run).  DirectDraw seems to react badly to a lot of modern Win 7 laptops.  I know I had the same trouble on my laptop when I first got it, and it was only by being on the phone for two hours with the most patient tech support guy in the world that we discovered that changing your battery settings to "High Performance mode" fixes it.  Unfortunately, this does not seem to work for everybody. 

[MisterS42]

Can this be remedied by a patch or something?  Or am I SOL?

[Khris]

Did you try VirtualPC & WindowsXP mode?

[monkey0506]

I believe that it should be possible to run Gemini Rue using the latest build of the engine, but I don't believe there's been any improvements that would solve whatever issue it is that is apparently making these systems have so much trouble with the game. So basically someone would have to diagnose what exactly the issue is and what's causing it, and then Dave could rebuild the game using a custom fixed version of the engine, upload the fixed EXE to Steam, and then you'd have to download the "patch".

Feasible, but I've never experienced the issue so I have no idea what's causing any of it.

[qptain Nemo]

Try switching the screen mode to 16 bit.

[MisterS42]

Virtualbox did it!  What a hassle to get it to run though, but to all those in the same boat please try Virtualbox and run xp.  Thanks everyone for the help!