Consistently Working Under Vista

[CallakDW]

Well, I did the one thing I missed here: adding my user name to the permissions of the folder and got it to work again, but then I decided to do some experimenting that I think shows that there's no real consistancy to it at all yet.
I did 5 reboots, and the pattern was somthing like this.
1) Did drop down - run as admin. Didn't work, but gave me a krnl error.
2) Did drop down - run as admin. Game started.
3) Ran from short cut - Didn't work - krnl error.
4) Did drop down - run as admin. Game started.
5) Did drop down - run as adming. Didn't work - msvcrt.dll error.

I'm going to give up testing now, and hope that if I reboot enough more times that it will actually run, so I can play. Wish me luck.

[CallakDW]

Well it took me all day, but I finally have my Win2000 dual boot set up. HZ is running like a dream under it.

[velveeta]

congrads, calla!! great job!

[Landowyn]

Well it took me all day, but I finally have my Win2000 dual boot set up. HZ is running like a dream under it.

Better a dream than a nightmare, I suppose.

[versus257]

I'm on Vista Home Premium and I can't get Horizons to launch. Using the different methods listed in this thread and the few others dealing with Vista, I was able to get the patcher to work. I've never been able to get Horizons.exe to work though, and I think that's the last hurdle before I can actually play.

Different methods give me different errors. I downloaded and installed vcredist_x86 (Visual C++ 2005 library for Vista x32). When I use the .dll files given in that .zip file in the tutorial I get the error

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

Without the tutorial and just the C++ 2005 library I get an error that I'm missing the msvcrt.dll. Never had issues with DEP, although I've tried setting it as listed in this thread and as default. I gave full access to everything in the HZ folder and set everything to run as administrator. I'm even logged onto the administrator account to be redundant.

On occasion I'll get an error when launching the Horizons.exe saying something is wrong with the AcLayers.dll file. I've set the Horizons.exe file to in compatibility mode with Windows XP SP2 and with Windows 98/ME. I disabled visual themes, desktop composition, and display scaling on high DPI settings.

I downloaded my C++ library from Fridlekh's link in another thread.

[Durand]

My guess at this point is that on boot/reboot, Vista does not let go of something it loads from the previous boot

OR the order of what is booted/speed of booting is inconsistent and something at boot time is loaded that causes an issue. Launching horizons.exe as administrator before this 'thing' loads prevents the issue. It could be that the runtime libraries are not removed on reboot completely, or that the vista default runtime libraries load before you can launch horizons.exe and load the correct version/dependents.

I have found that I can get into Horizons if I immediately run horizons.exe as administrator on boot (before anything else as suggested). But a reboot later, I will do the same thing, just as fast and have it fail with a horizons.exe error. It is inconsistent without any system changes, except what Vista does on boot/reboot.

[Kulamata]

Not my area of expertise by a long shot, but is there any difference between a warm reboot and a cold reboot?

[versus257]

Well out of 20+ reboots I managed to get Horizons to launch under Vista Home Premium once. Everytime I wasn't able to get it to launch the Horizons.exe file gave me a msvcrt.dll error. I tried the tutorial solution where you replace the .dll files but that method never worked. The only method that worked was undoing everything listed in all threads and simply installing the visual C++ 2005 library. Don't know why, but that worked. Once. So I'm convinced that this .dll is definitely the issue between Horizons and Vista.

[CallakDW]

For me it worked for a while and then stopped at some point. I finally gave up and did what I said above.

[Goriax]

Unfortunately I can't try this myself because I don't have Vista at home (even work is primarily an XP shop so there's gaps in my knowledge here) but here's a few factoids that might help someone deduce what's going on and hence how to fix it. I am familiar with Visual Studio 2005, SxS, and other related stuff.

According to MSDN, ftol2_sse is new with Visual Studio 2005. It looks to me like something which was compiled under Visual Studio 2005 tried to load the VC runtime (msvcrt.dll), loaded an older version unintentionally, then crapped out because it couldn't find ftol2_sse (SxS is supposed to stop that from happening but HZ was most likely built with VC6 which is pre-SxS).

On some of the other crashes (where it runs for awhile, then crashes) it's also possible it's loading two versions of msvcrt.dll (perhaps a VC6 version and a VS2005 version). It shouldn't do that but if things are screwed up enough it can happen. When that happens you'll end up with two heaps and can (frequently) end up with crashes as it gets confused what goes with what heap eventually corrupting one or the other or both. Loading order for DLLs can vary from one run to the next so it could be that if you're lucky you get an order which works, if not, not.

I THINK Horizons was built with Visual C 6 (2.5 versions previous to that. VS 2005 can, for purposes of this discussion also be called VC8). In any event, I could find no indication of VS 2005 stuff when I examined it on my XP system.

vcredist_x86.exe installs side by side runtime libraries for VS2005 on a computer including an SxS version of msvcrt.dll. As they're installed in a special SxS direcotory, they aren't even used by pure VC6 code (at work they're in the process of running that thing on all the desktops so as to accomodate my new code which I just ported to VS2005). They aren't even used by VS2005 code if it isn't built with a manifest (Microsoft does not support VS2005 code when used without a manifest although it is possible to do that).

It would be interesting if someone who's having problems could run the VS 2005 version of depends.exe (also known as dependency walker) on horizons.exe and that ocx to see if it loads any DLLs which in turn want to load any SxS assemblies (i.e. DLLs here) and what wants them. Once it's known what's trying to load the VS2005 stuff it may be possible to go after it. This will work if the DLL is statically loaded but will miss any DLLs which are dynamically loaded. We can only hope the culpret was statically loaded.

Bottom line, if someone has the VS2005 version of dependency walker (because it knows about SxS), it might be interesting to run it on the HZ executables and see what's trying to load the VS2005 runtimes. Unfortunately, I don't know where you can get dependency walker short of buying VS2005 but maybe someone out there can get their hands on it.

However, if you can identify the culprit DLL it may be possible to get an older version of that same DLL and persuade Vista to load it instead for HZ.

Just a thought for what it's worth.

Again, there's large gaps in my knowledge but that's what I'd try if it were me.

Then again, there could be something about the Vista security or something which makes everything I said above irrelevant. But I'd still try the above if I had a Vista system on which it was crapping out.

[Guaran]

Could be multiple copies/versions of msvcrt.dll. The file often resides in application directories when a particular version is required.

More testing would need to be done. The version that Hz needs would need to be in the game's folder. Or possibly put "C:\yada yada|Horizons" in the system path as the first entry. That could lead to other apps goofing up in vista tho.

[Durand]

Ummm...so I ran dependencywalker against the horizons.exe. There are a ton of .dlls, but there is an interesting note at the bottom:

Warning: At least one module has an unresolved import due to a missing export function in a delay-load dependent module.

[Goriax]

Most likly that's not going to be a problem although it wouldn't hurt to make sure. I get that a lot for programs which run fine. It has to do with a long chain of DLLs which don't really apply. Usually anyway. Since I can't see what you see I can't be sure. Might keep it in mind in case tracking down msvcrt.dll doesn't pan out.

In the bottom pane look to see if there's anything of the form msvcrt.dll followed by a long string of gobledy gook. Not msvcrt.dll by itself (virtually guarenteed you'll find it by itself) but another entry of it followed by a lot of extra crap. That would indicate an SxS version of msvcrt.dll.

If you find that particular version of msvcrt.dll go to the top pane with the explorer like window and see what requires it as a dependency. That's likely the culprit.

As I mentioned, this isn't guaranteed to work (the culpret could be dynamically loaded in which case it won't show up in dependency walker) but it's worth a try. All my tools are at work (don't have the right one installed on my home comp) but I can check and most likely give a good stab at the exact string you're looking for tomorrow, but it'll be msvcrt.dll with extra crap. A lot of extra crap.

[Durand]

Afraid there isn't anything in the bottom pane but the above warning message.

[Goriax]

That's what I get for describing things from memory. The bottom pane is just messages. You want next from the bottom. That should be a list of all the dlls. Depending on the options you have set for dependency walker, it may just show the dll names or it may show their entire path in the leftmost column.

I had also forgotten that they renamed the runtime libraries for VC8. Anyway, if it's trying to run the VC8 runtimes you'll see one or both of the following in the list of dlls:

c:\windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a 1e18e3b_8.0.50727.762_x-ww_6b128700\MSVCP80.DLL
c:\windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a 1e18e3b_8.0.50727.762_x-ww_6b128700\MSVCR80.DLL

That's if it was built with VC8 SP1 and if you're showing full paths. If it wasn't built with VC8 SP1 you'll see pretty much the same thing except some of the numbers will be different.

[Durand]

Even with full paths, I am not showing VC8 for those files or any others. I have started playing with the WinDbg tool. Got this when I ran the horizons.exe in debug mode. One of the articles I found suggested that a bad pointer is being passed to InterlockedIncrement.

WARNING: Whitespace at end of path element
CommandLine: "C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\horizons.exe"
Symbol search path is: SRV*c:\websymbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

Executable search path is:
ModLoad: 00400000 008f0000 horizons.exe
ModLoad: 77870000 7798e000 ntdll.dll
ModLoad: 762b0000 76388000 C:\Windows\system32\kernel32.dll
ModLoad: 24000000 24085000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\hp60176p.dll
ModLoad: 77420000 774be000 C:\Windows\system32\USER32.dll
ModLoad: 77790000 777db000 C:\Windows\system32\GDI32.dll
ModLoad: 76390000 7644f000 C:\Windows\system32\ADVAPI32.dll
ModLoad: 779e0000 77aa3000 C:\Windows\system32\RPCRT4.dll
ModLoad: 768f0000 773be000 C:\Windows\system32\SHELL32.dll
ModLoad: 776e0000 7778a000 C:\Windows\system32\msvcrt.dll
ModLoad: 773c0000 77415000 C:\Windows\system32\SHLWAPI.dll
ModLoad: 10000000 10107000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\ACE.dll
ModLoad: 00150000 001df000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\stlport_vc71g46.dll
ModLoad: 7c340000 7c396000 C:\Windows\system32\MSVCR71.dll
ModLoad: 779b0000 779dd000 C:\Windows\system32\WS2_32.dll
ModLoad: 779a0000 779a6000 C:\Windows\system32\NSI.dll
ModLoad: 757c0000 757fb000 C:\Windows\system32\MSWSOCK.dll
ModLoad: 75e30000 75e9a000 C:\Windows\system32\NETAPI32.dll
ModLoad: 76090000 76097000 C:\Windows\system32\PSAPI.DLL
ModLoad: 00c70000 00d98000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\libIGCore.dll
ModLoad: 001e0000 00226000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\libIGUtils.dll
ModLoad: 00da0000 00e2f000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\libIGMath.dll
ModLoad: 00e30000 00f77000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\libIGGfx.dll
ModLoad: 64ea0000 64fa6000 C:\Windows\system32\d3d8.dll
ModLoad: 75830000 75838000 C:\Windows\system32\VERSION.dll
ModLoad: 71690000 71696000 C:\Windows\system32\d3d8thk.dll
ModLoad: 72d00000 72d0c000 C:\Windows\system32\dwmapi.dll
ModLoad: 00230000 002b0000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\libIGAttrs.dll
ModLoad: 00f80000 010f1000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\libIGSg.dll
ModLoad: 01100000 01208000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\libIGOpt.dll
ModLoad: 77590000 776d4000 C:\Windows\system32\ole32.dll
ModLoad: 76860000 768ec000 C:\Windows\system32\OLEAUT32.dll
ModLoad: 003b0000 003d7000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\libIGDisplay.dll
ModLoad: 6fa60000 6fa84000 C:\Windows\system32\DINPUT.dll
ModLoad: 74530000 74563000 C:\Windows\system32\WINMM.dll
ModLoad: 74410000 74448000 C:\Windows\system32\OLEACC.dll
ModLoad: 01210000 01260000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\dpvs.dll
ModLoad: 01260000 012c4000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\granny2.dll
ModLoad: 21100000 2118b000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\mss32.dll
ModLoad: 6e660000 6e693000 C:\Windows\system32\DINPUT8.dll
ModLoad: 02800000 028c1000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\dbghelp.dll
ModLoad: 00020000 0002a000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\encryption_client_lib.dll
ModLoad: 012d0000 01315000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\trans_common_lib.dll
ModLoad: 01320000 01353000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\maura.dll
ModLoad: 003e0000 003fb000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\pt_lib.dll
ModLoad: 01360000 013c9000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\ptps_lib.dll
ModLoad: 013d0000 015d4000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\XercesLib.dll
(85c.f10): Break instruction exception - code 80000003 (first chance)
eax=00000000 ebx=00000000 ecx=0012fb00 edx=778d0f34 esi=fffffffe edi=77935d14
eip=778b2ea8 esp=0012fb18 ebp=0012fb48 iopl=0 nv up ei pl zr na pe nc
cs=001b ss=0023 ds=0023 es=0023 fs=003b gs=0000 efl=00000246
ntdll!DbgBreakPoint:
778b2ea8 cc int 3
WARNING: Whitespace at end of path element
0:000> g
ModLoad: 72d10000 72d2e000 C:\Windows\system32\ShimEng.dll
ModLoad: 75f60000 75f8c000 C:\Windows\system32\apphelp.dll
ModLoad: 728f0000 72b00000 C:\Windows\AppPatch\AcGenral.DLL
ModLoad: 751d0000 7520f000 C:\Windows\system32\UxTheme.dll
ModLoad: 743f0000 74405000 C:\Windows\system32\MSACM32.dll
ModLoad: 73000000 73005000 C:\Windows\system32\sfc.dll
ModLoad: 72ff0000 72ffd000 C:\Windows\system32\sfc_os.dll
ModLoad: 76600000 76788000 C:\Windows\system32\SETUPAPI.dll
ModLoad: 75fe0000 75ffe000 C:\Windows\system32\USERENV.dll
ModLoad: 75fc0000 75fd4000 C:\Windows\system32\Secur32.dll
ModLoad: 76450000 76574000 C:\Windows\system32\urlmon.dll
ModLoad: 761e0000 76225000 C:\Windows\system32\iertutil.dll
ModLoad: 75b90000 75ba4000 C:\Windows\system32\MPR.dll
ModLoad: 74860000 748e7000 C:\Windows\AppPatch\AcLayers.DLL
ModLoad: 730d0000 73111000 C:\Windows\system32\WINSPOOL.DRV
ModLoad: 70290000 70295000 C:\Windows\system32\SHUNIMPL.dll
ModLoad: 76130000 7614e000 C:\Windows\system32\IMM32.DLL
ModLoad: 774c0000 77587000 C:\Windows\system32\MSCTF.dll
ModLoad: 77990000 77999000 C:\Windows\system32\LPK.DLL
ModLoad: 76580000 765fd000 C:\Windows\system32\USP10.dll
ModLoad: 74ed0000 75064000 C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.6000.16386_none_5d07 289e07e1d100\comctl32.dll

Intrinsic Alchemy V 2.5-1021 (Dynamic/Release)
Built by on Mon Oct 21 18:21:08 2002

ModLoad: 01ac0000 01ac8000 C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\zorak.dll
ModLoad: 01af0000 01afe000 rundll32.exe
(85c.1050): Access violation - code c0000005 (first chance)
First chance exceptions are reported before any exception handling.
This exception may be expected and handled.
eax=00000001 ebx=77780c58 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=762f7361 edi=77780c08
eip=762f7369 esp=03d0fb6b ebp=03d0fb80 iopl=0 nv up ei pl zr na pe nc
cs=001b ss=0023 ds=0023 es=0023 fs=003b gs=0000 efl=00010246
kernel32!InterlockedIncrement+0x9:
762f7369 f00fc101 lock xadd dword ptr [ecx],eax ds:0023:00000000=????????

[Spirit]

For sure I will be dual booting with Xp until the End of Time. Hell I still run 98 through VirtualPC.

Only way to be sure of No problems with games, other than lack of pc grunt anyway.

Rakku

[Durand]

More info, for those who are more savy with frontend issues....


Analysis Summary
Type Description Recommendation
Error In horizons__PID__2540__Date__10_24_2007__Time_04_01_ 18PM__263__Second_Chance_Exception_C0000005.dmp the assembly instruction at kernel32!InterlockedIncrement+9 in C:\Windows\System32\kernel32.dll from Microsoft Corporation has caused an access violation exception (0xC0000005) when trying to write to memory location 0x00000000 on thread 1
Please follow up with the vendor Microsoft Corporation for C:\Windows\System32\kernel32.dll

Information DebugDiag determined that this dump file (horizons__PID__2540__Date__10_24_2007__Time_04_01 _18PM__263__Second_Chance_Exception_C0000005.dmp) is a crash dump and did not perform any hang analysis. If you wish to enable combined crash and hang analysis for crash dumps, edit the CrashHangAnalysis.asp script (located in the DebugDiag\Scripts folder) and set the g_DoCombinedAnalysis constant to True.





Analysis Details



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Table Of Contents
horizons__PID__2540__Date__10_24_2007__Time_04_01_ 18PM__263__Second_Chance_Exception_C0000005.dmp

Faulting Thread

Faulting Module Information



Report for horizons__PID__2540__Date__10_24_2007__Time_04_01_ 18PM__263__Second_Chance_Exception_C0000005.dmp




Report for horizons__PID__2540__Date__10_24_2007__Time_04_01_ 18PM__263__Second_Chance_Exception_C0000005.dmp
Type of Analysis Performed Crash Analysis
Machine Name MININT-E1CAR8Q
Operating System Windows Vista
Number Of Processors 2
Process ID 2540
Process Image C:\Program Files\Tulga Games\Horizons\horizons.exe
System Up-Time 15:59:27
Process Up-Time 00:00:02


Thread 1 - System ID 1076
Entry point AcLayers!NS_EmulateDirectDrawSync::ThreadSyncMutex
Create time 10/24/2007 4:01:18 PM
Time spent in user mode 0 Days 0:0:0.0
Time spent in kernel mode 0 Days 0:0:0.0






Function Arg 1 Arg 2 Arg 3 Source
kernel32!InterlockedIncrement+9 780c8b77 00000077 7d0db800
0x6eaaa077 00000006 35447f5d 00000000
msvcrt!_initptd+7a 017d0db8 00000000 03e2fc68
msvcrt!_core_crt_dll_init+24b 00000000 03e2fbf8 778da604
msvcrt!_CRTDLL_INIT+1b 776e0000 00000002 00000000
ntdll!LdrpCallInitRoutine+14 776ea66d 776e0000 00000002
ntdll!LdrpInitializeThread+149 03e2fd24 03e26ddb 00000000
ntdll!_LdrpInitialize+21d 03e2fd24 77870000 00000000
ntdll!LdrInitializeThunk+10 03e2fd24 77870000 00000000




KERNEL32!INTERLOCKEDINCREMENT+9In horizons__PID__2540__Date__10_24_2007__Time_04_01_ 18PM__263__Second_Chance_Exception_C0000005.dmp the assembly instruction at kernel32!InterlockedIncrement+9 in C:\Windows\System32\kernel32.dll from Microsoft Corporation has caused an access violation exception (0xC0000005) when trying to write to memory location 0x00000000 on thread 1

Module Information
Image Name: C:\Windows\System32\kernel32.dll Symbol Type: PDB
Base address: 0x762b0000 Time Stamp: Thu Nov 02 03:42:24 2006
Checksum: 0x000d9614 Comments:
COM DLL: False Company Name: Microsoft Corporation
ISAPIExtension: False File Description: Windows NT BASE API Client DLL
ISAPIFilter: False File Version: 6.0.6000.16386 (vista_rtm.061101-2205)
Managed DLL: False Internal Name: kernel32
VB DLL: False Legal Copyright: © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Loaded Image Name: kernel32.dll Legal Trademarks:
Mapped Image Name: Original filename: kernel32
Module name: kernel32 Private Build:
Single Threaded: False Product Name: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Module Size: 864.00 KBytes Product Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Symbol File Name: c:\symcache\kernel32.pdb\04B9D5F57B154AA2BDBAB7946 947DC4F2\kernel32.pdb Special Build: &









Script Summary
Script Name Status Error Code Error Source Error Description Source Line
CrashHangAnalysis.asp Completed

[Goriax]

Crap. It's never easy is it. I'm sitting here scratching my head and not coming up with much. I'm going to look at what you've got here for awhile and see if I can deduce anything. That NULL pointer that was passed to InterlockedIncrement indicates the problem was probably already fatal by then. I don't know what was up with that other error pointing to a function only in the VC8 runtimes but one thing at a time I guess.

I did see what looked like runtimes for both VC6 and VC7.1. That may or may not mean anything (some system runtime will load msvcrt.dll but if nothing tries to deallocate with one runtime something which was allocated with another it's ok).

I'd love to run a debug build of HZ on Vista but I guess that's not going to happen. What's really necessary is for SOMEONE to do that. Someone with the HZ source (hint hint Vi).

[Tryagain]

Only Vitrium can address this issue. No setting in Vista can be set or adjusted to fix what is a software incompatibility issue.

Just keep prodding vitrium. till then learn how to do a dual boot .