Offline KI

[Jamey]

According to windows update manager, everything is currently up-to-date

And in response to Preachr, I believe when installing new updates, windows does that automatically, which is why a reboot is usually required after doing so.

[D'Lanor]

Windows update? You do not want to install drivers for graphics or audio using Windows update. Windows has no clue at all about the latest versions. Get them from the chip manufacturer. For video drivers that should be nVidea or ATI/AMD (at least I hope you aren't using Intel graphics).

[Jamey]

Windows update? You do not want to install drivers for graphics or audio using Windows update. Windows has no clue at all about the latest versions. Get them from the chip manufacturer. For video drivers that should be nVidea or ATI/AMD (at least I hope you aren't using Intel graphics).

Thanks for the tip D'lanor, I had no idea tha I had to go to those sites to update my drivers properly.

So after I download the latest drivers (Nvidia) I should just try running Uru again to see if that fixes it, or what should I do after I install the latest display drivers?

[D'Lanor]

Install it and see if that fixes it. And don't forget to go through Uru CC's graphics setup again because it always resets after installing a new driver.

[Jamey]

Ok, here is what happened, things have changed a bit:

I opened up Uru the first time and it did not minimize, but when I tried again the second and third time, it did minimize, but this time, I got a little notice at the bottom right corner of my screen next to the Nvidia icon stating: "Your display is designed to run optimally at a resolution of 1280x800. To use this resolution to improve your image quality, click here"

So I did, and tried to open up the minimized Uru, but when I do, it minimized again, but without the message that time.

Should I try going into the NVidia control panel and toy around with some things? Where to from here?

Should I upgrade more than just my display/graphics driver?

[Jamey]

Ok I did some toying around with the dev_mode file and I have good news and bad news

The good news is that I got Uru to run in widescreen format on my computer (1280x800) which looks very nice

The bad news is that the thing is still minimizing intermittently upon start-up. Of course this was the case before I changed the dev_mode file so that is not the issue, but one thing I DID notice while toying with it, is that whenever I deleted the file, and went through Uru setup to change the graphic settings to start Uru, it would NOT minimize, but if I go back in a second time without deleting the dev_mode file after that first time, it minimizes.

Would it be a good or a bad idea to try a driver rollback?

Also, seeing as my old SAV files, the MOUL/Myst V ages, Offline KI, and the ULM has nothing to do with the problem, is it ok to put those back in now, or should I wait it out some more until this problem is fixed?

[Jamey]

Ok, I was thinking about what to do next and I have a plan:

I have a backup of my Uru folder right before I installed Offline KI 6.2.4. That Uru folder I'm pretty sure has no minimization problems whatsoever since the backup was made before the problem started occurring. So here is what I am planning to do:

1. I will completely delete the installed uru folder with the minimization problems off my main hardrive
2. Copy the backup folder from my external hardrive and put it in place of the folder which had the problems, then try to run it.
3. If it runs successfully without minimizing, good; then I will try to install the latest version of the offline KI to it. If the problem returns when I put the copy of my working backup onto my main drive, then we'll have to look into the problem more.

After I install the offline KI (latest version) I will test the copied Backup again.
- If it does minimize and the problem comes back, then the problem is within the download of the offline KI itself.
- If it does not minimize and does not have the problem, then yay! Problem fixed!

I really think this may be the way to go since I'm just tired of Uru minimizing most of the time, but I want to know if what I'm about to do is safe.

What do you guys think? Safe? Should I try this?

EDIT: Shoot!! I just did some more testing, and apparently, the backup I had before the offline KI was installed has the minimization problem too!!!!

What now?

[Justintime9]

I'm having a problem very similar to Jamey's.

About a week ago, I started up URU (it had the latest offline KI installed, which I had installed a few days ago) It went fine for awhile, but then it got to the point where the cursor usually dissappears for a bit, then reappears with the loading bar, but this time, when the cursor dissappeared, it crashed. No error report box, nothing. In the blink of an eye, uru had completely quit without warning.

Now, I have a few different backups, One is completely hack free, except for ULM. I copied that folder, added all the MOUL/Myst V ages, then the offline KI, tried it, and it worked... for a little while. A few days later, it started doing the same thing. I hadn't added, or taken any files out of the folder since I created it. Upon reading of Jamey's problem however, it dawned on me that both times, the problems started a little while after I installed the latest version of the offline KI.

Here's my theory: When I installed the offline KI, there was a little bug that crawled around the folder for awhile, until it crawled into some important file, and started causing problems. Whenever I re-install the latest version of the offline KI, this bug comes out once again. My only hope it that perhaps it will be fixed in the next offline KI version.

Finally, I think that Jamey's problem may be caused by the same bug, and vista handles it differently than XP (instead of completely crashing, it simply minimizes.)
I hope this problem is figured out soon.

[diafero]

Jamey, it looks like your problem is somehow related to widescreen resolutions and Uru not supporting them. I take it you use some kind of hack to make them working in Uru? Perhaps the minimization problem is caused by this hack? You could try setting a really low resolution in Uru (perhaps you already did that with the old driver, please try it with the new one again), like 800x600 (after removing the widescreen hack, of course). You could also try changing the NVidia and/or screen settings to take the resolution Uru wants without complaining and to, instead of scaling and stretching it, add a black border. But I can only guess, I don't have a widescreen monitor (for the reasons you are just experiencing...) and I am quite sure that it's just a coincidence that the problem started for you when you tried the latest Offline KI (which is 2.6.3 - there is no version 6.2.4, I have no clue where you got *that* from ). That is confirmed by the fact that your old installations also have the problem.

Justintime, what happens if you start the game without any hacks, does it work then? Do you have a widescreen monitor? Do you have the latest drivers installed? Did you try making a completely new and clean Uru installation (removing any files which might have been left), then trying, then installing Drizzle & Offline KI, then trying again, and only then putting your sav folder back and/or running Simplicity? I can't think of anything the Offline KI does which "crawls through the files" and somehow destroys them... it doesn't even change any file once it's installed (except for your sav directory of course). Another reason could be that you used /importpics to import a lot of files, that can corrupt your vault.

[Jamey]

Jamey, it looks like your problem is somehow related to widescreen resolutions and Uru not supporting them. I take it you use some kind of hack to make them working in Uru? Perhaps the minimization problem is caused by this hack? You could try setting a really low resolution in Uru (perhaps you already did that with the old driver, please try it with the new one again), like 800x600 (after removing the widescreen hack, of course). You could also try changing the NVidia and/or screen settings to take the resolution Uru wants without complaining and to, instead of scaling and stretching it, add a black border. But I can only guess, I don't have a widescreen monitor (for the reasons you are just experiencing...) and I am quite sure that it's just a coincidence that the problem started for you when you tried the latest Offline KI (which is 2.6.3 - there is no version 6.2.4, I have no clue where you got *that* from ). That is confirmed by the fact that your old installations also have the problem.

What I did to make it widescreen was sort of like a hack, I toyed around with the dev_mode file to set my resolution and other settings and made the Uru shortcut bypass the UruSetup. I really don't think doing this caused the minimization problem to start happening since this is the first time I had ever done this and the minimization problem was occuring before I even tried this work around in the first place But what really confuses me is that, if my monitor does not support Uru's resolution, why would the minimization problem occur right now instead of it occurring when I installed Uru on my laptop for the first time way back in March of '08. It just doesn't make sense how a problem like this could just come out of nowhere.

So basically do you want me to try running it through Uru setup using a 800x600 resolution to see if the problem still occurs, or should I toy around with Nvidia's resolution? or both? (Sorry, I'm just confused on the instructions )