[Roland] Getting appcrash at launch

[Nico]

Hi guys, first things first: Thank you so much for your work here and bringing life to an altruistic project called Exult.
I've just bought Ultima VII at GOG and even some minutes before that read the thread about Exult at gog subforum.

The thing is that I'm interested in the Roland Emulation so I did what it's explained in the dosumentation. I put "CM32L_CONTROL.ROM" and "CM32L_PCM.ROM" inside Exult\data but when I launch the game, it crashses. If I try that inside the game (having previously other sound option) crash again. So I have to erased the 2 files and Exult runs because doesn't try to open the roms.

I've tried with MT32 instead CM and got the same results. Maybe my rom files are bad or something related my OS? I'm using Windows 7.

Please allow me to ask another quest. Since Music uses OGG recorded from original Roland MT-32, is good enough to be comparable with the Roland Emulation that I'm trying to do? Are there any effects that could be lost or perhaps the OGG compressed too much? I have to say that I've never played Ultima VII, with Digital Music enabled sounds awesome but if there's a struggle-worth improve with Roland emulation I would like to try.

Once again, thank you so much!

[Dominus]

Can you please look into the log files? These are named stdout.txt and stderr.txt and can be found where exult.cfg is http://exult.info/faq.php#where_cfg
maybe there is a hint to it.

[Nico]

These are the logs just after a crash with both ".com" files in the data folder:

stdeer.txt

Warning, trailing slash in path: "\"
Warning, trailing slash in path: "C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Ultima 7\static\"
Warning, trailing slash in path: "\"
SDL Reports 640x400 16 bpp and 32 bpp windowed surfaces are not OK. Windowed scalers may not work properly.

stdout.txt

Exult version 1.5.0git
Built at: Dec 15 2019 09:37:12
Compile-time options: USE_FMOPL_MIDI, USE_MT32EMU_MIDI, USE_EXULTSTUDIO, HAVE_ZIP_SUPPORT
Compiler: gcc, version: 4.6.2

Platform: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Version 6.1 Build 7601
Exult path settings:
Data : data
Digital music : data\music

Looking for 'blackgate' at 'C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Ultima 7'... found game with identity 'FORGE'
Looking for 'forgeofvirtue' at './forgeofvirtue'... but it wasn't there.
Looking for 'serpentisle' at 'C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Ultima 7'... found game with identity 'FORGE'
Looking for 'silverseed' at './silverseed'... but it wasn't there.
Looking for 'serpentbeta' at './serpentbeta'... but it wasn't there.
Black Gate : not found (\.)
Forge of Virtue : found
exult_bg.flx : found
Serpent Isle : not found (C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Ultima 7\static\.)
Silver Seed : not found (\.)
Checking rendering support
Windowed
640x480 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
720x480 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
720x576 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
800x600 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1024x768 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1152x720 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1152x864 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1280x720 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1280x768 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1280x800 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1280x960 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1280x1024 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1360x768 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1366x768 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1600x900 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
Creating AudioMixer...
Audio opened using format: 22050 Hz 2 Channels
Timbers Precached: On play only
OGG Vorbis Digital Music: Enabled
Trying config specified Midi driver: `MT32Emu'
Success!
Midi Output: Enabled

[Dominus]

Thanks, but you have to disable digitial music - only then it will actually use the mt32emu and hopefully give out some information in the error logs.

[Nico]

oops!
Sadly it looks like the only diference that I found in the logs is in the line
OGG Vorbis Digital Music: Disabled

stdeer.txt

Warning, trailing slash in path: "\"
Warning, trailing slash in path: "C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Ultima 7\static\"
Warning, trailing slash in path: "\"
SDL Reports 640x400 16 bpp and 32 bpp windowed surfaces are not OK. Windowed scalers may not work properly.

stdout.txt

Exult version 1.5.0git
Built at: Dec 15 2019 09:37:12
Compile-time options: USE_FMOPL_MIDI, USE_MT32EMU_MIDI, USE_EXULTSTUDIO, HAVE_ZIP_SUPPORT
Compiler: gcc, version: 4.6.2

Platform: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Version 6.1 Build 7601
Exult path settings:
Data : data
Digital music : data\music

Looking for 'blackgate' at 'C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Ultima 7'... found game with identity 'FORGE'
Looking for 'forgeofvirtue' at './forgeofvirtue'... but it wasn't there.
Looking for 'serpentisle' at 'C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Ultima 7'... found game with identity 'FORGE'
Looking for 'silverseed' at './silverseed'... but it wasn't there.
Looking for 'serpentbeta' at './serpentbeta'... but it wasn't there.
Black Gate : not found (\.)
Forge of Virtue : found
exult_bg.flx : found
Serpent Isle : not found (C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Ultima 7\static\.)
Silver Seed : not found (\.)
Checking rendering support
Windowed
640x480 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
720x480 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
720x576 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
800x600 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1024x768 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1152x720 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1152x864 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1280x720 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1280x768 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1280x800 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1280x960 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1280x1024 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1360x768 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1366x768 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
1600x900 8 bpp ok 16 bpp ok 32 bpp ok
Creating AudioMixer...
Audio opened using format: 22050 Hz 2 Channels
Timbers Precached: On play only
OGG Vorbis Digital Music: Disabled
Trying config specified Midi driver: `MT32Emu'
Success!
Midi Output: Enabled

[Dominus]

and then it crashed?

[Nico]

Yes. It seems that the log puts "Success" but the game crashs.
Maybe I could try it with dosbox to rule out that is something related to the rom?


Also, if it doesn't bother you, here there are 3 screenshots that I've took



The first one isn't an issue at all but caught my attention, the intro cutscene fills the whole screen, but I think that it's normal.

https://i.imgur.com/vqEjiKj.png


Here is how I set the audio settings. I've tried with diferents sample rates

https://i.imgur.com/Ipysp7I.png


And here are the graphics settings. 1600x900 is my monitor native and I've picked the most basic upscaler to x3 (x4 was to much for my 20 inch monitor)

https://i.imgur.com/IL3G1cy.png

[Nico]

And here is the appcrash, there are 2 screenshots in one just to scrolldown the error code in details

https://i.imgur.com/P8hEH6R.png

[Dominus]

I can reproduce it in my Windows 7 VM, gonna investigate. No idea when this went wrong.
So no solution, yet, but thanks for reporting

[Nico]

No problem, thank you for your patience! I'm enjoying the game with digital music which is great. If I find a solution or test in other computer, windows instance, etc and works I'll tell you.

[Dominus]

I kind of solved it. The easy fix is to grab the SDL2.dll from the official site libsdl.org. On the download page grab the mingw Windows download and in there the SDL2.dll.
Replace the one in the Exult program folder with this one.
Something went wrong a long time ago with Kirben's snapshots it seems and the SDL2.dll he bundles is broken.

[Nico]

I've tried with the 64bit first but the game throws an error and I guess that is due the Exult is a 32bit application so then I tried with the 32bit dll and the game runs but without sound. Doesn't matter if the roms are in data or not, the game doesn't crash anymore in that case but doesn't give me any sound with any settings (digial music, mt32emu or any other)

This is a log example


Creating AudioMixer...
Audio opened using format: 48000 Hz 2 Channels
Timbers Precached: On play only
OGG Vorbis Digital Music: Disabled
Trying config specified Midi driver: `MT32Emu'
Success!
Midi Output: Enabled
WRITE-LCD: --==| Exult! |==--
Sysex write to unrecognised address 100017, len 10
WRITE-LCD: Precaching Timbres
Starting a BLACK GATE game
Game path settings:
Static : C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Ultima 7\static
Gamedat : C:\Users\nico\AppData\Local\Exult\blackgate\gamedat
Savegame: C:\Users\nico\AppData\Local\Exult\blackgate
Patch : C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Ultima 7\patch

Opening digital SFX's file: "/sqsfxbg.flx"
Starting a BLACK GATE game
Game path settings:
Static : C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Ultima 7\static
Gamedat : C:\Users\nico\AppData\Local\Exult\blackgate\gamedat
Savegame: C:\Users\nico\AppData\Local\Exult\blackgate
Patch : C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Ultima 7\patch

Opening digital SFX's file: "/sqsfxbg.flx"
Starting a BLACK GATE game
Game path settings:
Static : C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Ultima 7\static
Gamedat : C:\Users\nico\AppData\Local\Exult\blackgate\gamedat
Savegame: C:\Users\nico\AppData\Local\Exult\blackgate
Patch : C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Ultima 7\patch

Opening digital SFX's file: "/sqsfxbg.flx"
33 custom timbres...
WRITE-LCD: U7: The Black Gate
Resetting AudioMixer...
played intro
31 custom timbres...
WRITE-LCD: U7: The Black Gate
WRITE-LCD: Precaching Timbres
WRITE-LCD: --==| Exult! |==--
Sysex write to unrecognised address 100017, len 10
WRITE-LCD: Precaching Timbres
Destroying AudioMixer...
Destroying MidiDriver...

[Nico]

Now I did what I think was a clean install. I've uninstalled the games, gog galaxy , exul and even soundpacks. Installed Ultima 7 without galaxy and after that exult, audiopacks and rom and can't get any sound at all.
But doesn't appear the speaker icon in red, that happens only before the audiopacks. After that just no sound but no errors neither. Now I'm with the DLL that came with the exult instalation, or that I thought, seems that it's working the same as with the last dll. Well don't worry, I'll notify any improve.

[Dominus]

Yes, sorry...
We have a fix for that in the code, that needs a new snapshot. (I think that's not yet up).
The latest snapshot was already done with the correct SDL2.dll but for some reason we need to pass the environment variable SDL_AUDIODRIVER=DirectSound for it to use the correct audiodriver.

Until the corrected snapshot is available you can do two things:

- start a command line of Windows (cmd.exe), enter "SET SDL_AUDIODRIVER=DirectSound", then drag and drop the Exult.exe to the command line and hit enter

- or enter this as a permanent environment variable via https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm

[Travis B]

I came here with the same sound problem as Nico after upgrading to the 4/2 snapshot. Dominus' fix works like a champ! Thanks!!

[Travis B]

Hell yeah, I just installed the 1.6 version today and it fixed the sound for me! Awesome!

Is this changelog correct for 1.6?

Shortcut bar with important shortcuts right on top of the screen (thanks Litchie)
switch to SDL2 - important for up to date OS
NxBR and HQ3x/HQ4x scalers
option to drop stacks of items without confirmation
some more combat options to make charmed combat more difficult.
schedules got a workover and are more closer to the original but not yet perfect
NPCs using beds are sleeping better now
portable option for Windows
seperate settings for fullscreen and windowed mode possible
HighDPI mode available on macOS
better pathfinding when the party boards a barge
fixed most inexplicable crashes
Serpent Isle Beta version works
fixed tons of bugs
cleaned up the code in many places and fixed many compiler warnings
Papederdoll support of wearing diapers

[Nico]

Hi! I'm glad that this thread helps more people with similar issues.

I've tried 1.6 and works awesome. Digital Music and MT32 emu with CM32L roms works!

Once again, thank you. Long live to Exult, Avatar!

[Dominus]

Yeah... ummm... we are readying a new version and this bug came in between... thankfully