tain.totalcodex.net

Ok, I know this is an old patch, so if you say it just doesn't work any longer, it's an acceptable answer as well, but if it's intended to be still working, I need some help getting it to run.

I did a fresh TFL install on XP, and then installed the TFL 1.5 patch.

Launching the exe displays the intro movie ... and then immediately crashes back to the desktop.
By crashed I mean it dropped back to the desktop, no error message of any sort is being displayed.
The log file just says it's going to use my desktop resolution (1920:1200) and nothing else.
I tried checking several (or all) of the compatibility options XP offers, to no avail.

I've seen several threads, some years old, where people had appearently the same problem, but there were always non-answers like "could your disc be scratched" (no, it couldn't) or "do a reinstall and try again" (did that, twice) ... I actually have two TFL CDs and tried with both of them - no luck.

Am I maybe missing some crucial step when trying to get this to run?
Has anybody done so with any luck halfway recently and can offer some advice?

Thanks in advance.
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rezaf

I have XP as well and I can run TFL 1.5. The game tries to use the resolution your desktop uses. For some reason certain bigger resolutions cause issues. Try lowering your resolution. I can say that 1024x768 on my XP comp works for sure as well as 1440x900 on the Vista comp I tried. Let me know if using a different resolution helps.


Another option would be to play The Fallen Levels which is a Myth 2 plugin of the single player campaign of TFL. Myth 2 has a "vTFL" (virtual TFL) gameplay mode which emulates the TFL physics and gameplay. There is also the TFL Multiplayer Map Pack which has a bunch of TFL multiplayer maps ported over to Myth 2. To top it off you can download the TFL Interface and use it to replace the Myth 2 interface to look like TFL.

Thanks for your reply.

Like I wrote, I tried all the compatibility options, including the one that tries to run the game with 256 colors and the one that sets resolution to 640x480, to no avail.

I have tried to manually set the desktop to 1024x768 - no luck.
It's back to desktop immediately after the movie - the PC doesn't even look like it's TRYING to do something.

I did read about the Myth2 plugin a while ago, but wasn't it "as close to the original as possible" and lacking stuff like the movies?

What configuration do you have? Do you have a multi-core CPU (I have a dual core)?

It's too bad that not even an error message of ANY sort is displayed or written to file anywhere.
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rezaf

I am on a single core system and I did not mess with its compatibility mode or anything in its files. On the dual core vista system I also tried it with did not need any alteration either.

My XP comp on 1024x768:
2.5 GHz Intel Pentium 4
2 GB RAM
ATI Radeon X1650 Pro (512 MB DDR2)
Windows XP Pro SP3 (32bit)

The Vista comp I also tried on 1440x900:
2.67 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E7300
4 GB RAM
Intel G33/G31 Express Chipset Family
Windows Vista Home Premium SP2 (64bit)

As for the Myth 2 TFL plugin, you can copy the "cutscene.gor" file from your TFL CD and place it in the "cutscenes" folder inside the Myth II folder. If you don't have a "cutscenes" folder, make one. That way when you play it, it will play the cutscenes. As for the "close as possible", if you find anything that is not like it was on TFL, tell us. It is possible things were missed. A difference you might notice is that some of the units are using the Myth 2 collection (the images that you see as the unit) instead of the TFL collection. Remember to use vTFL to give it TFL like behavior or else it just uses Myth 2 behavior.

Have you tried updating your graphics drivers?

Odd, I also have a Vista system which is quite similar to yours, dual core 2.67 ghz, 4 gig ram, GeForce 8800 GTX gpu, and it shows exactly the same behavior - shows intro movies, straight back to the desktop without error message.

I don't have a Myth2 CD at the moment, but I'll look into using the plugin (I think I might have a CD at my parent's place).
I'll take your word for it that it's a sufficiently close approximation of TFL gameplay - it's highly unlikely that I'll spot any differences, since I've never played TFL before and obviously cannot get it to run now.

Lol, updated my graphics drivers?
Having worked in support for a while, I always find this a highly amusing suggestion, especially in these circumstances - I'm trying to get something to run that hasn't been updated in the last five years or something, what good is it supposed to do when I update from last year's november drivers to this year's march drivers or something like that?
That said, I'm running on the latest certified drivers.
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rezaf

Pyro wrote:As for the Myth 2 TFL plugin, you can copy the "cutscene.gor" file from your TFL CD and place it in the "cutscenes" folder inside the Myth II folder. If you don't have a "cutscenes" folder, make one. That way when you play it, it will play the cutscenes.

also if your comp can't play smacker files (the video format of the original cutscenes) you can dl quicktime versions of the tfl cutscenes that will play if they are in your MythII/cutscenes folder.

rezaf wrote: Lol, updated my graphics drivers?
Having worked in support for a while, I always find this a highly amusing suggestion, especially in these circumstances - I'm trying to get something to run that hasn't been updated in the last five years or something, what good is it supposed to do when I update from last year's november drivers to this year's march drivers or something like that?

You wouldn't believe how many times crappy, buggy graphics drivers cause problems with Myth II on Windows.

Yeah, we've had people who couldn't even run the game in opengl until they updated. Another one still can't because he hasn't updated windows to the latest service pack. Usually these people are the same people that never bothered to update them once to begin with. At one point Myth was sluggish for me eventhough I had the latest drivers. A few months later I updated again and Myth ran like I was used to (faster than with the drivers slowing me down).

You can get TFL and M2 CDs cheap at eBay or Amazon.

Well, like I wrote, I'm running on the latest certified drivers.
Yes, I double checked.

Anyway, I actually had a Myth 2 cd at my parents place and it does run flawlessly.
The TFL plugin runs fine as well.

But I guess I'm already beyond my urge to finally experience this classics I missed in their day. I think the game hasn't aged well at all (I replayed Master of Magic recently and I think it's still a very good game).
Basically I played until the Flight from Covenant mission and hit a brick wall there.
This isn't the place to discuss this, though. If I can muster enough interest to retry the mission, maybe I'll start a thread in another forum.

To anybody reading, for me the workable solution was getting Myth 2 and running The Fallen Levels on it. I think the 1.5 TFL patch is either broken or not tested enough on diverse modern rigs - as opposed to the Myth2 patch, which still seems to be in more or less active development. The latest M2 patch was easy to install and runs without complaining.

Thanks for the helpful adice everybody.
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rezaf

Heh, kind of sad to see you're giving up after 5 missions though. Hasn't aged well? It's the same brilliant Real Time Tactical Strategy game that won Game of the Year in '97 dude. Nothing out there compares to it, except Myth 2 and (kind of) Myth 3. Have another go.

You have to find a cave exit at approximately the centerline of the map, but in the far north. It's recommended walking through the muddy swamp pools and flanking the giant army. Good luck.

how to win levels: http://myth.bungie.org/mythmaster/archive/
Download the replay's and put them in your 'replays' folder.

Also check out http://myth.bungie.org/legends/fieldguide/

I would like to ask a question concerning the vTFL-mode.
I am was actually playing Myth TFL (1.2) on an older computer. Now I decided to install The Fallen Levels, to play with Myth 2 1.7.1.
Now, as I have the possibility to compare it directly to Myth TFL, I think the Fallen Levels are too easy to play.
I enabled the plugin and set the option on "tfl gameplay", then started the game. The dwarf seems to throw his molotovs very precisely, the arrows show the same behaviour. I didn't recognize a change by deactivating or activating the "tfl gameplay"-option. Did I forget something in order to play vTFL?

That's pretty strange, vTFL works fine here. Are you sure you got vTFL on and the loading was red? If it was blue it was loading with m2 style.

By loading, killerking means the loading bar. If you are comparing them, did you play in the same difficulty? Since you played TFL in version 1.2, there could be changes that you aren't seeing. Why not update to 1.5 and then compare?

Hi killerking,
hi Pyro,

When I tried some missions, the loading bar was red, yes.
I never updated Myth TFL again, because of the ugly dithering issue under openGL on all my graphiccards since the GF6800. I play it with a glidewrapper instead.
However, I installed 1.5 now and I still think the throws show more accuracy under vTFL. The dwarf in TFL 1.5 makes some unfortunate and stupid throws, where he hits nothing or himself, while the one in vTFL scores hit after hit the enemys. I play it in normal.

edit: silly question: to enable vTFL, I just have to enable "TFL gameplay"?