Possible solution to Vista vs Horizons problems

[Chasing]

A member of my guild, Budinga has made this post about Vista and Horizons but is unable to post on the forum

http://rapidshare.com/files/37405655...a_Tutorial.Zip

The link above lets you download a zip file with instructions in a HTML format for configuring for Vista.

Feedback is welcome on this post or send a tell to Budinga on chaos

[Zexoin]

Oooh thank you Chasing ! Gonna try that as soon as possible

[Zexoin]

Thank you so much Chasing ! It works perfectly ! *hugs Chasing*

[Zexoin]

Okay it worked once and when I rebooted I could not get it to run anymore. Had to create a horizons.exe.local text file in the horizons folder (as well as the horizons.exe.local folder with the msvcrt.dll), and now it runs well. i have to check if it will work next time I reboot though

[Graeth]

Tried it, now I get "could not find file 'C:\Program File\Tulga Games\Horizons\Launcher\SilentPatcher.exe.args'."

[Chasing]

After the recent forum rollback there are posts missing from this thread, will have to see if I can get updated info from Budinga.

[Zexoin]

The most uimportant info missing is that there have been MS updates to fix issues with games crashing. Now if you remove the msvcrt.dll and horizons.exe.local then reboot it should run fine, if your Vista is up to date. Just got it to run that way on a friend's computer yesterday.

I uploaded the missing file here, please copy it where required and tell me if that works.

http://rapidshare.com/files/44901930....exe.args.html

[Arturis]

Having tried everything mentioned, I'm still unable to get the game to run

[Amorai]

You're not alone Arturis. I tried them exactly as stated. I tried them again slightly different with my own spin on them. Also, I would like to mention that I just did a fresh install of Vista and used the opportunity to test out the theory in one of the most recent posts.

The theory is that Microsoft has released a patch that fixes this issue. .... They didn't.

My guess is there may be an instruction or system configurating setting that the OP's friend assumed that everyone else had set on their machine.

I would like to mention that going by the instructions, DEP will always shut down the application 100% of the time. The tutorial has left out that you must enter your computer properties, click advanced settings, be sure you are on the advanced tab, click the Settings button in the performance frame, click the Data Execution Prevention tab, choose Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select and add Horizons.exe.

Please be aware that if you are using Symantec Antivirus, you will need to uninstall and reinstall antivirus AFTER the above instruction. This is because of how Symantec deals with it's licensing and during the installation it checks to see if you have DEP turned on, if you do, it adds an exception internally.

However, even after doing the above step, although DEP does not close the application - I still get the General Protection fault message and it quits.

More than likely it's something silly that if it was discovered, the OP's friend would slap his forhead and say "I thought everyone already had that turned on."

If someone does find a sure fire way and if at all possible, please try the instuctions on a FRESH installation of windows and see if they work. If they do not work on the first shot, please fix the instructions and try again.

Incidentally, I recently got back one of my older machines that I lended out to people and thought .. hey .. I can throw Horizon's on it as it's WinXP. Didn't work on that either. However, found out that the CPU is giving me errors after an hour of testing Prime number calculations. Blech... out of luck.

[Amorai]

Has anyone else gotten Vista to run Horizon's?

If so, could you post basic information about your setup and the instructions?
(Also, Zexoin, could you post yours as well. This may be an issue of what to do for different types of windows).

Such as:

Single or Dual Monitor
32-bit or 64-bit OS
Vista Install Type (Home, Premium, Ultamate etc.)
UAC on or UAC off (UAC = User Account Control)
DEP on (w/exception) or DEP off
Antivirus program used

[Amorai]

Single or Dual Monitor - I tried both, normally dual
32-bit or 64-bit OS - 64-bit
Vista Install Type (Home, Premium, Ultamate etc.) - Ultimate (legit retail copy)
UAC on or UAC off (UAC = User Account Control) - UAC is off
DEP on (w/exception) or DEP off - Tried both, normall DEP is off
Antivirus program used - Norton Antivirus 2007

Also, I would like to mention that the system is completely patched with latest patches.


The instructions do not work on this PC.

[Rhainor]

Well, I followed the tutorial, and it worked...once.

I was able to get into the game, create a character, and poke around in the tutorials for a bit, then I had to go out for a while. Now it's doing the same mess again, crashing as soon as the patcher tries to open the game itself.

Any ideas?

BTW, yeah, I'm new. Hi.

[Rhainor]

Bump.

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling, then re-applying the fix, then rebooting. Still no luck.

Please help! Must play! I've been waiting for ages for a decent game where I can play as a dragon...



(BTW, why is this in the "Hardware issues" section? It's not hardware-related at all)

[Rhainor]

(direct copy of the last message I sent to the official support line; I've been talking to them too)

Update.

The community fix involves placing two copies of MSVCRT.DLL within the game's installation folder; one in the game's root folder and one in a folder named HORIZONS.EXE.LOCAL

The point seems to be to get the game to look there for the file before trying to look in the default system DLL location.

I noticed recently that after the fix stopped working for me that the copies of the DLL file within the game's folder were missing, so I re-copied them to their destinations. After doing so, I tried to start the game again and got the error transcribed in the attached text file.

I'm going to try downloading a fresh copy of the DLL file off the Internet, to see if perhaps the one provided with the fix got corrupted or something.

Attachment text:
The procedure entry point _ftol2_sse could not be located in the dynamic link library msvcrt.dll.

[Arturis]

Here is my setup:

Single or Dual Monitor - single
32-bit or 64-bit OS - 32-bit
Vista Install Type (Home, Premium, Ultamate etc.) - Buisness (legit copy)
UAC on or UAC off (UAC = User Account Control) - UAC is off
DEP on (w/exception) or DEP off - DEP w/ exceptions
Antivirus program used - Avast

Side Note - After copying the mscrvt.dll from my windows system32 folder into both the game's root folder and a folder named horizons.exe.local, the event viewer shows that mscrvt.dll no longer causes the crashes. however, the new file at fault is ntdll.dll.

Hopefully we'll crack this nut, I would really like to play again.

[Istaria CS]

The patcher will delete files and folders not part of the Horizons build - If you are 100% sure that your version works on Vista, please provide us with a list of files and folders that need to be ignored by the patcher.

Thank you,
Horizons customer support

[Rhainor]

The patcher will delete files and folders not part of the Horizons build - If you are 100% sure that your version works on Vista, please provide us with a list of files and folders that need to be ignored by the patcher.

Thank you,
Horizons customer support

Ah, so that's what happened to it...

It needs to ignore the file msvcrt.dll if found within the game's root directory, and another copy of the same file located within the \horizons.exe.local\ subfolder.

May or may not wind up needing to add other files to this "ignore list".

[Arturis]

The patcher will delete files and folders not part of the Horizons build - If you are 100% sure that your version works on Vista, please provide us with a list of files and folders that need to be ignored by the patcher.

Thank you,
Horizons customer support

The Horizons.exe.local folder and copy of msvcrt.dll I copied are not being deleted by the patcher. On a whim I tried copying ntdll.dll into the same spots to see what would happen. Game still crashes and the event viewer points to ntdll.dll as the fault.

[Amorai]

okay, a couple quick notes after doing some experimentation.

First of all, do not apply any Vista fixes until you have installed and FULLY patched Horizon's. As stated above, the patcher will remove any files you copy into the Horizon's folder after a patch has been completed.

Secondly, any time you place the work around files into the Horizon's folder AFTER you have already run Horizon's during a computer session, you will need to reboot your computer. I believe this is because Windows doesn't bother looking for the local version of the dll after it has already found (the wrong one, in this case) in the Window's folder. After rebooting, Windows forgets and needs to find the file again. It will find it in the local folder before going to the Windows system folders.

Thirdly and MOST importantly, NEVER, EVER, EVER, check off the checkbox on the patcher that says something to the effect of "Always delete these files without asking." Every time you run Horizon's from that point on, it will auto-delete the files that you are putting into the directory. This is why the work around never worked for me and I suspect others as well.



I have now gotten around the problem I was previously having to come to a new problem. Actually, the same exact problem that Rhainor was having:

The procedure entry point _ftol2_sse could not be located in the dynamic link library msvcrt.dll.


Well, atleast it's a new problem. I'm at work now, but I will see if I can get it to work tonight.

Rhainor, you haven't gotten past that last problem, have you?

[Amorai]

UPDATE:

Apparently, the June 2007 DirectX SDK for Windows XP gave the same error to XP users. It was because Microsoft accidently bundled the Vista version of d3d9d.dll into the setup package by mistake.

This really doesn't apply to us, but it gives me a little insight. The d3d9d.dll was updated in the June 2007 DirectX SDK for Vista. That Dll (and others I am sure) is no longer able to access the MMX version of the _ftol function (named _ftol2_see) in the older copy of MSVCRT. The reason is because the entry point (or parameter list) of the function has changed. Meaning, that the MSVCRT was updated yet again by Microsoft in a recent DirectX updgrade. Most likely, as the original poster suggested, for game compatibility.

What does this mean for me though?

It means that the older copy of the vC6 runtime library (MSVCRT.dll) will not work AT ALL if you have any new games, patches, updates and/or drivers installed.

Placing the local Dll in the folder will no longer work, because although Horizon's can use the MSVCRT.dll - DirectX itself will not be able to. A catch 22.

A non-updated, unpatched - with no other games installed Vista system should work with the above fix though.


I am not sure how to exactly get over this issue. More than likely, someone will need to recompile the game with a codedef branch that informs the linker to use the correct version of the runtime. Problem is, since some of the parameters types have changes between the VC runtime versions, they will need to go through the error log after first compile attempt and explicity type cast and convert to the all the new parameter types.

However, the compiler output will identify each of the "trouble" areas for them. So, I am not sure what is holding them back from doing this unless they do not have a client-side programmer assigned to game just yet.