AGS went mad!

[InCreator]

Well, I ran AGS 2.61 RC1 on Windows XP.
First times, everything was okay. Then, something very weird happened. Rooms didn't show up! Just as I started newly compiled game, music started playing but room remained just black. Like there's no fadein. I tried different games, several transition modes and just waiting (loading time bug maybe?) but no, nothing. Alt-X worked as it should. Then I pressed random key on keyboard. This is what happened after few reboots and retrying.

---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x77F52CD2 ; program pointer is +379, ACI version 2.61.741, gtags (0,0)

AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers above, remember what you were doing at the time and notify CJ on the Tech forum.

What's wrong? I have freshly defragmented HD with 7GB of free space, Dxdiag shows every test okay, acceleration working normally both on sound/display I never had problems with AGS before.

edit: NONE of AGS games is showing anything! Tried with some other AGS games, such as Framed!, Ace Quest and No-Action Jackson. They're (obiviously) compiled with different versions of AGS so It can't be just because 2.61 RC1. Can anyone help?

edit 2: Okay, It seems like some other windows-based games won't start too. I'm downloading new Nvidia drivers (for my 16MB Riva TNT2) and maybe install DirectX again. But still It'll be useful to know what AGS said. Or get some idea what did cause this.
edit 3: After reinstalling DX9.0, got rid of problem.

[TerranRich]

Hmm.

[Pumaman]

Looks like DirectDraw messed up for some reason - glad you got it all fixed, though.

[InCreator]

I also find the source of problem - Alt-X'ing game out before it manages to completely load and show first screen (room).

[Pumaman]

Hmm, I can't see how that could mess up DirectX to the extent that you have to reinstall it, but I'll add a check just in case.

[X-Hunter Blackzero]

I got the same type of bug.. in a way.   the room didnt show up but the music played as you said.  But my error message said that the AGS engine "didnt shut down properly." what does this mean and what do i do to fix it?

By the way the error message popped up AFTER testing the game once,  black screen, the testing it again, but the error message coming up.

[strazer]

What AGS version are you using?

[X-Hunter Blackzero]

Well, Im not exactly sure, i just got the new version 2 days ago , so unless there's been a new version since then, I'm using the most recent one.

[strazer]

Please check (Help -> About -> (Build x.xx.xxx) )
A couple of bugs regarding the Test game feature have supposedly been fixed in AGS v2.70.

[X-Hunter Blackzero]

Yeah Im using v2.70 ... but the bugs still exist?

[Snarky]

On a laptop I'm using, I'm having a similar problem playing AGS games. (I've tested three so far.) I launch the game, and the screen goes black. Music and sounds appear normal, but there are no graphics.

• The problem occurs when playing in 320x200, 320x240, 640x400 and 640x480 modes.
• This applies to games made in AGS 2.7 (Apprentice I Deluxe) as well as with earlier versions (A Friend Indeed).
• Changing the graphics hardware acceleration setting in Windows has no effect.
• Setting compatibility modes (including "run in 640x480") has no effect.
• If I run the game in a window, everything works OK if I'm in 16 bit color mode. If I'm in 32 bit color, the screen (inside the window) only updates when I move the window around.
• If I try to run the game while I'm docked and using a CRT monitor, the same thing happens, except the screen doesn't go black. The screen switches to the resolution I requested, but I just get a window filled with black covering the entire screen.
• If I'm using two monitors simultaneously (the laptop monitor and a connected one), running the game works fine! It runs fullscreen on the primary monitor (whether that is the laptop monitor or the connected one). The secondary monitor switches to the same resolution, but still shows an empty desktop.

This is a Dell M60 laptop running Windows XP. The graphics card is an NVIDIA Quadro FX Go700. It has DirectX 9.0b. Running the DirectX Diagnostic Tool, DirectDraw is disabled and fails on test, while Direct3D is enabled but still fails on test. I'm also informed that my version of qasf.dll is old and I should reinstall DirectX.

This is pretty mystifying. I could understand if it plain didn't work, but only working if I connect a second monitor?

[Gilbert]

(@X-Hunter Blackzero, seems from his description it's more likely a test game problem) Anyway, though the testgame function is supposedly fixed, if it still doesn't work, try running the game by clicking the executable in the compiled folder instead, or try to run the game in windows mode (if it wasn't).

Also, is it possible that you're using a beta version of V2.7?
That test game fix was not incorporated until some later betas, it's also possible that some files weren't replaced correctly during upgrade.
Anyway, your best bet is to download the stable release of V2.7 (Refresh 2) and unzip it to a fresh new folder and try from there.

[X-Hunter Blackzero]

I tried to run it from the compiled folder, and that didnt work.  should i have downloaded from the  "Download AGS" link:
                                      The BigBlueCup server?

                                      The BlueYonder server?

                                      The agagames  server?

[Gilbert]

Yes, you shall be able to get the latest version with either link.

[Pumaman]

Have you also tried updating to the latest version of DirectX and of your graphics card drivers?

[X-Hunter Blackzero]

after a few edits, I got the Test Game menu item to work.  Here's what i did:

- I went to the menu item,  File - Setup Game...
- I made sure the boxes "640 x 400" and  "Run in window" were checked like GilbotV7000a said.

I did not change any other default settings.

This made my TEST GAME option to work.... my problem did not seem to be similar to other test game problems, apparently.  I guess that bug is very unique and cannot b easily fixed.