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[kad3t]

Hey!

I've recently decided to relive the memories of my youth and take upon defeting the alien hordes in UFO Enemy Unknown (a.k.a. X-COM Terran Defense). First two months in game time were just fine, I've stumbled upon few terror missions, shot down and cleared couple of crash sites and it looked like I was going to have an awesome time... That is until begining of third month when I found an alien base somewhere in Russia. I understand that I may be getting to thorough with it but I promised details in the thread title and I'm sticking to it. Anyway...

Whenever I start that alien base mission and it loads up I'm left with graphical glitches that render the game totally unplayable. It happens whenever there's any scrolling of gameplay window and the artifcats just stay one the screen. Screenshots provided below. Just for the record all the previous crash site & terror missions caused no such trouble.

Funny (or rather sad) thing is that it happens with both versions of the game Windows & DOS based one. My best bet is it is due to video card drivers and I may need to change them (which I'd prefer to avoid as they're the latest ones). Some time during the week I'll try runing it through DOSBox on my other partition where I'm running Linux but for certain reasons I'd rather play it through DOSBox (like I was, until that bastardly alien base mission) under Windows.

My system specs are as follows:

Windows 7 Home Premium
Inter Core 2 Duo T7250 2.0GHz
2GB DDR2 (667MHZ) RAM
nVidia GeForce M8600 GT w/ 256MB GDDR3 RAM

I'm also using the latest 0.73 version of DOSBox with D-Fend Reloaded frontend (also latest version).

The CPU's Core is set up to Dynamic (however I also tried with Normal), CPU Type is Auto and Cycles are at 25000. Memory's default 16MBs w/ XMS/EMS/UMB. Graphics wise I played in the windows (also tried it in fullscreen but the problem does not go away) with Double Buffering & Aspect Ratio Correction (tried it without these too) & OpenGL as the Renderer (here too, I went through all the options) & svga_s3 card (tried it with generic vga too). As for scaling I'm using nearest neighbor with factor 2 (a.k.a. normal2x but tested with all the other ones as well). And last but not least even though there's no problems with it, the soundcard's set up to be SB 16 with 220/5/1 and 44100 Sample Rate.

Honestly, I feel like I've run out of options to try out and that I'm not going to be able to play it. Well, I could play it on my PSP or Amiga emulation but all that's just not the same. On Amiga there's loads of disk swapping and PSP's controls will never be as good as the mouse is. Like I said I will try it in Linux as soon as I'll be able to reboot my PC but until than I'm pis**d off with all three DOSBox, UFO & myself. First two for not running the way I wanted them to, and with myself for not being able to do anything with it even though I find myself to be very computer literate.

So, all in all if anyone's encountered similar problem and delt with it succesfully or has any ideas how to resolve that I will be more than happy to listen! ^__^

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally Posted by kad3t

I'm also using the latest 0.73 version of DOSBox with D-Fend Reloaded frontend (also latest version).

*thumbs nose at the mention of D-Fend*
There's your suspected cause number one.
Suspected cause number two is the possibility of some kind of issue with DOSBox 0.73 - try a lower version (0.72, 0.71, 0.70 should all run it fine)

[El Quia]

I remember having this issue with ye olde DOS at the time, but only with a cracked version I had. When I found an uncracked version (with the copy-protection code sheet) I didn't had that problem. But I don't think that's the problem here, that would be just too much of a coincidence But, just to be on the safe side, are you playing a cracked version?

[Smiling Spectre]

Originally Posted by kad3t

That is until begining of third month when I found an alien base somewhere in Russia. I understand that I may be getting to thorough with it but I promised details in the thread title and I'm sticking to it. Anyway...

As you used several different options, my first suspect will be broken saves. And second - broken game files itself. (Hmm, if there is two different games for DOS and Win, that it is not option. But still...)

So:

1. Try to restart game. Will your glitches go away?

2. Try to delete game dir completely (except saves, of course and reinstall it.

Also you can try to send me your saves. PM me.

[kad3t]

Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman

*thumbs nose at the mention of D-Fend*
There's your suspected cause number one.
Suspected cause number two is the possibility of some kind of issue with DOSBox 0.73 - try a lower version (0.72, 0.71, 0.70 should all run it fine)

I tried 0.72 & 0.70 & no change. However I don't think the problem is with either the DOSBox itself or DFend. Why? Well, because the same problem persists with the Windows version of UFO too. That's why I suspected graphic card drivers and/or issues to be the main reason.

Anyway, I've reinstalled Windows today (along with my brand new & fresh Mint Linux), so some time tomorrow will be doing my tests on it and will let everyone know how it went. Maybe it was some kind of a conflict...

[kad3t]

Originally Posted by El Quia

I remember having this issue with ye olde DOS at the time, but only with a cracked version I had. When I found an uncracked version (with the copy-protection code sheet) I didn't had that problem. But I don't think that's the problem here, that would be just too much of a coincidence But, just to be on the safe side, are you playing a cracked version?

Yep. It's cracked. That's the only one I can get online. Well, apart from the one on Steam and/or GOG.com. The problem is I know that the version there is the same Windows version that I already have anyway, so I wouldn't wanna pay money to stay in the same spot anyway...

[kad3t]

Originally Posted by Smiling Spectre

As you used several different options, my first suspect will be broken saves. And second - broken game files itself. (Hmm, if there is two different games for DOS and Win, that it is not option. But still...)

So:

1. Try to restart game. Will your glitches go away?

2. Try to delete game dir completely (except saves, of course and reinstall it.

Also you can try to send me your saves. PM me.

Why would the save games break down if I haven't used any cheats or tweaks on neither them or a game itself? I mean I understand it can happen, as a matter of fact when I had my Amiga it was pretty common, but I wasn't expecting it by no means...

Regarding (1), I've restarted the game hundreads of times (both DOS & Windows) & tried it loads of loads of times. Hmm... Unless you mean, restart as in start playing from the beginning again... Then no, I haven't.

In response to (2) I will do that tomorrow afternoon when I'll have some more time as it haven't occured to me it may actually work if I just reinstall the game. Problem is though if I don't own an original but a cracked version, it requires no installation just unpacking & setting up... I'll do that anyway.

And yes, I will send you a save in question, thank you!

Thanks again!

[kad3t]

Hey everyone!

I wanna wait and see what will Smiling Spectre say as I've send him my save files but I'm close to 100% sure that it's broken save games, now. I base this opinion on a pure fact that the same problem affects both DOSBox & Windows version of a game & a Linux based DOSBox one too. So having all three separate versions not working at the same time with same glitches clearly prooves it's nothing to do with the graphic card drivers. So, to summarise I'm pis**d cause I can't play not only one of my favorite games but also one of the best games ever made. I've got two more ideas for the time being and hopefully one of them will either let me continue from my save states or at least start a new game with no fear of saves breaking down. I'll try to run it through virtual machine (Sun's VirtualBox) & I'll do an Amiga emulator UFO HD Install & try to play it like that with no disk swapping. I'll post any results after I go through those options and in the mean time I'm open to any ideas or solutions you may have to this problem that'll let me play it like a human being through DOSBox. Or maybe playing straight from the beginning at Windows version would cause no harm to save states? Any ideas, experiences or feelings?

Thanks!

[kad3t]

I'm answering my own post again but I got it sorted out, at least it looks like I do for now. So, I decided I may wanna share the solution with those who may encounter same issues in the future. I do not however consider the problem completly resolved until I play for a day or two and become sure wether it worked once or altogether. Anyway... I've decided to give Windows version of UFO another go and obviously the glitches appeared on the screen. So, I restarted the game (application, not campaign) and loaded up a save before the save that was broken. Virtualy seconds before the suposedly faulty file. I flew on the same alien base mission and everything was fine. My conclusion here is simple. If the sollution will be permanent it will mean no less than that the DOSBox version of the game was breaking save files and if played under the Windows outing everything is fine, provided you're playing from a correct/not faulty save file.

There is another problem though. Not as big and serious that I won't be able to play UFO. The game won't play in a window. I can only play it in fullscreen (this is the Windows version we're talking here obviously). And as much as it would not be an issue for anyone else, I like to multitask. When I play I often check my mail, read something or browse net for couple of minutes here and there. This is when playing in a window comes in handy. Well, if anyone's got ideas regarding that, I'm also interested. ^__^

[_r.u.s.s.]

Originally Posted by kad3t

feelings?

i'm feeling flirty

also, i don't know how is ufo implemented but if it uses ddraw you can use this for the windowed mode