For NVIDIA users (particularly TNT2 M64)

[twit21]

Ok, I've read most of the posts in this section of the forum for the last month or so, and I've seen a lot of 'OpenGL Subsystem' error reports. I think I may have located the cause of this problem (at least for some of you) and a solution.

 

Here's my experience: One of my friends recently bought a copy of JO so that he could get in on the sabering fun with the rest of us - problem was, he kept getting the 'cannot load OpenGL subsystem' error that we're only too familiar with. Here are his system specs:

 

OS: Windows XP Professional

RAM: 192MB

CPU: AMD Duron 750MHz

VID: NVIDIA TNT2 M64 32MB

AUDIO: ALI Codec On-board sound system

 

Well, I couldn't have his copy not working - I needed fresh meat! So, I started troubleshooting it. Basic troubleshooting knowhow for sound/video problems says to download and update your drivers. So, that's what I did. First I check his current driver version by going into the Display Properties, Settings tab, clicking Advanced, Adapter tab, then the Properties button. The info I got was something like this:

 

Driver Provider: Microsoft

Driver Date: 5/6/2001

Driver Version: 1.0

Digital Signer: Microsoft

 

That info isn't exact, it's from my dim memory from 2 o'clock this morning, but you see what I mean - he hadn't updated the driver at all since he last installed Windows. I'm not certain, but I think that the Microsoft driver for some NVIDIA cards does not provide OpenGL support. So, off to http://www.nvidia.com/drivers to get the latest Detonator XP set.

 

After that, I tried installing it, then rebooting. Check the driver version again: still the Microsoft driver! The NVIDIA driver didn't take. What next? *shrug* Try it again, but in Safe Mode this time: restart, hit F8, select Safe Mode, then uninstall the MS driver. Restart into Safe Mode again, and run the Detonator XP setup again. Restart once more, and check the driver version: still bloody Microsoft!!

 

This, I think, is the source of most of your problems, guys. WinXP just didn't want to take the driver from the Detonator XP setup program. I don't understand why, and this didn't happen on my own computer, but there you have it.

 

Here's how I fixed it:

1) If you haven't run the Detonator XP 28.32 setup, do so now. Then restart your computer.

 

2) Right-click the the desktop, select Properties from the menu, then click the Settings tab.

 

3) Click the Advanced button, Adapter tab, and then the Properties button (why-o-why must Windows bury this stuff so dang DEEP?).

 

4) Click the Update Driver button. When the wizard comes up, click the "Install from a list or specific location" radio button. Click Next.

 

5) Click "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install." Then, click Next.

 

6) Click Have Disk, then click browse. The folder you're looking for is in a path something like this: "C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Temp\pftB9~tmp" The [username] is the folder that corresponds with the user name you were logged-on as when you ran the Detonator XP setup. The name of the temporary folder will change from system to system. Just open up the folders under temp in your Browse dialog one at a time until you find "nv4_disp.inf". You can't find the Local Settings folder? That's because it's a system folder, and WinXP hides it from you by default - fix it by opening a Windows Explorer window (windows key+e), click the Tools menu, then Folder Options, then the View tab. Click the "Show hidden files and folders" radio button, and while you're at it, uncheck the "Hide extensions for known file types" box. Once you've found the "nv4_disp.inf" file, click Open, then OK.

 

7) Find your video card in the list, highlight it, then click next. If Windows complains at you that the driver "has not passed Windows Logo testing to verify...blahblahblah", click Continue Anyway.

 

8) Once the wizard finishes, click Finish. The click OK on all of your open display properties windows to close them. At some point when you close them, you will be asked to restart, do so.

 

9) When Windows comes back up, go back to Display Properties, Settings, Advanced. If the driver install was successful, you will see at least 2 NVIDIA-specific tabs have been added to this dialog. If so, close it all of those windows with the OK button, 'cuz the driver install worked!

 

10) Now for the final test: Start Jedi Outcast. If you get the same error, just restart. I don't know why, but I had to that first time, and it corrected the problem. JO, and all of your other OpenGL games should work fine now.

 

Sorry for the long post, guys, but I really hope that this will help. If you require any other help, I'll be glad to remote-assist any of you - just contact me on Windows Messenger (twit84@hotmail.com) if you'd like my help. All e-mails in response to this post will be answered to the best of my ability (twit21@gci.net).

[WhiteChedda]

Bump. this actually affects several people across several platforms, my bet is you may have figured out the solution for W2k and XP users, but 9x users must have something different wrong.

[twit21]

I suspect that the problem may be a similar one, if not the same. I really couldn't say. I didn't run into this problem on my system, but on my friend's. And we both are running XP with NVIDIA cards.

 

So, for 9x/Me users, the solution will be different only in execution, not in substance. It's worth trying, at any rate.

 

If I may be so crude as to say so, I feel that Raven did a really shoddy job of supporting different hardware setups with this game. The list of unsupported chipsets in their troubleshooting readme (on the JO cd) is far, far longer than the list of supported chipsets. After beating the SP game today, I am lead to believe from the 'special thanks' in the credits that NVIDIA in some way financed or partially financed the whole thing, thereby getting a bigger piece of this pie and boosting their graphics cards sales.

 

This, if true, is a pretty mean thing to do to us users in my opinion. And all for the sake of a few extra bucks, at that. OK, I know that it's pretty near impossible to test and support *every* possible hardware setup in existence, but the least Raven could have done is give us the option to use Direct3D - which Microsoft, for all their shortcomings, had gone through a lot of trouble to make support as many different kinds of 3D hardware as they could. Quake 3 already supports Direct3D, so it was probably more difficult to remove that option from the game engine than it would have been to set JO up to take advantage of it.

 

*gets off soap box* (I'm going to miss my Voodoo 3)

[Harrowed]

NVidia were incorperating a lil hack to make windows update their drivers when installing but Microshat didn't like that they were doing it and made them rewrite the installer. (Hence the re-released latest Detonator Pack without Explanation) And subsequently it borks unless you make it ignore warnings etc..

 

Stupid isn't it

[twit21]

Very stupid. I *still* think that they somehow influenced the graphic card support and the removal of Direct3D support....

 

I'm really irked about having to use JO as an excuse to upgrade from my Voodoo 3 - I really liked that card!