Spidweb

All the other cool kids are doing it, so I have started a blog. I have a lot of things to say about writing Indie games and a lot of mean, funny things to say about games I'm playing. Now I'll find out if anyone cares. The link is ... http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/ For fans of my games, I plan to write some things that might be interesting in the next week. That includes full sales figures on one of my titles, so that other prospective developers can see what realistically they might shoot for. Hope you like it. - Jeff Vogel

br553, if the DirectX problem isn't an incomplete version of DirectX but a plain old crash, I don't know what to say at this point. Your video card/system might lack the power to run either version. Are you installing directly into the Program Files folder or placing the app somewhere else? - Jeff Vogel

Originally Posted By: br553 I tried this, but still have problems. Now if I click on the regular Geneforge icon, the program loads up and the text displays now, but the game is still extremely slow, so much so that it is completely unplayable.I also still get a white background screen. I tried the DirectX option, but get an error that says "Geneforge 5 DX.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close." I did just update my DirectX to DirectX9.0c Try the directx version again and tell me the exact text error it gives you. If you are missing certain DirectX 9 components, it might not run. I will have a support message about this when the game is released. Sadly, Microsoft set up the transition to DirectX 10 in a way that causes DC9 apps to frequently break. - Jeff Vogel

Originally Posted By: beren terino I downloaded the patch, and it had...interesting results. If I turn 'Draw Extras' off, everything works fine. If I turn it on, then it still runs perfectly...until I try to open the inventory, a container, or a shop. Then it begins to lag terribly until I close the inventory window, when it works fine. This means you're getting low on video memory. If you run the game in 16 bit color but leave Draw Extras on, you should still get decent performance. Also, you might want to try upgrading to v1.0.2 when it's out in the next few days. I made some other changes that might help. - Jeff Vogel

Originally Posted By: rclear666 it appears you have done it! the edited version of beta 2 installed and loaded perfectly. the earlier version [before the 1pm edit] didnt work but the update did. Thanks for letting me know! The later version of the beta only made on change, to how the fonts were loaded. The way I did it before made me suspicious that it was causing problems, but I was never actually able to demonstrate that it was the culprit. Now I know, and I'll handle that bit of code in the new, better way in the future. Hope you enjoy the game, and thanks much for your patience ... - Jeff Vogel

If someone gets this problem, they could help me a lot by saving the game just before the cutscene. Save it to the upper left corner save slot. Then go into My Documents > Spiderweb Software > Geneforge 5 and send the folder Save0 to me. I can look at it and figure out what's causing the problem. - Jeff Vogel

We are in the process of releasing Geneforge 5 for Windows v1.0.2. By the end of Monday the 9th, the download will be available on the main Geneforge 5 page. This upgrade should help with two problems. 1. Missing Text and Messed Up Graphics Some people, after launching the game, find that the title screen is white and the game text is missing. If this happens, to you, go into the Start Menu, enter the folder Programs > Spiderweb Software > Geneforge 5, and run the DirectX version of the game. It might work better. (It has been tested and found to solve the problem at least on some configurations.) If the main game application works for you, just continue to use that. The main application (which uses OpenGL) seems to be faster on most machines. 2. Problems Saving the Game Geneforge 5 normally writes saved games in the My Documents folder. It had code to write the saved games elsewhere if that folder was missing, but there was a bug in it. That bug is now fixed. As always, if you try this update out, please let me know if it helps or doesn't help. - Jeff Vogel (Edited 3/7/09, 1 PM - I replaced the v102 with a newer version. I tweaked some things that might improve performance. The download link is the same.)

My main advice in this situation is always to set the game to a low resolution to make the letters much bigger on your monitor. If you have already done that, and even that isn't large enough, I'm kind of in a tough spot here. I do have to say that, at that size, on a decent monitor, they should look pretty clear. I would check your monitor. I personally increase the brightness and decrease the contrast. The problem might not entirely be in the game. If anyone is having this problem and enjoys Photoshop, the fonts are in files G250, G251, G252, G253, G254 in Geneforge 5 Files/Graphics Core. Perhaps something can be done to them to make them more visible to people with vision problems. - Jeff Vogel

I came up with a DirectX version of Geneforge 5 that might help with the problem. See this thread ... http://www.ironycentral.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=157647#Post157647 As before, if this doesn't help, tell me details about your system. - Jeff Vogel

I came up with a DirectX version of Geneforge 5 that might help with the problem. See this thread ... http://www.ironycentral.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=157647#Post157647 As before, if this doesn't help, tell me details about your system. - Jeff Vogel

We are in the process of releasing Geneforge 5 for Windows v1.0.2. By the end of Monday the 9th, the download will be available on the main Geneforge 5 page. This upgrade should help with two problems. 1. Missing Text and Messed Up Graphics Some people, after launching the game, find that the title screen is white and the game text is missing. If this happens, to you, go into the Start Menu, enter the folder Programs > Spiderweb Software > Geneforge 5, and run the DirectX version of the game. It might work better. (It has been tested and found to solve the problem at least on some configurations.) If the main game application works for you, just continue to use that. The main application (which uses OpenGL) seems to be faster on most machines. 2. Problems Saving the Game Geneforge 5 normally writes saved games in the My Documents folder. It had code to write the saved games elsewhere if that folder was missing, but there was a bug in it. That bug is now fixed. As always, if you try this update out, please let me know if it helps or doesn't help. - Jeff Vogel (Edited 3/7/09, 1 PM - I replaced the v102 with a newer version. I tweaked some things that might improve performance. The download link is the same.)

BlueRivets, you've posted about your problem several times but I can't find any mention of the specs of your system. Could you tell me? It might help. System, operating system, video card, etc. - Jeff Vogel

This doesn't appear to help. Thanks people who tried. - Jeff Vogel

Here is a quote from the original post: "This means that a player on Torment can turn it down to casual and knock of 66% of a creature's HP without firing a shot." So, if I am understanding the situation correctly, the problem is that turning the difficulty down to Casual is making the game easier. But I think I intended that turning the difficulty down to Casual would make the game easier. Because of the way hit points work, odd things can happen when you change difficulty in the middle of a fight. Only taking difficulty changes into account when changing zones satisfies some arbitrary concept of purity, I suppose, but I would far, far rather have things be a tiny bit wonky and have changing the difficulty actually change the difficulty. Change it now, not later. But don't kid yourself. If you turned the difficulty down to Casual during a fight, even for one round, you won the fight on Casual. Not Torment. - Jeff Vogel

Originally Posted By: Deeda I tried the new file, but it doesn't change the white blocks for me. Thanks so much for trying to fix this. Did you look in the Instructions screen? Or just the title screen. - Jeff Vogel

Originally Posted By: rclear666 one question jeff, when i copy the new file into graphics core should i be replacing the existing 250 file? and should i be in 16 or 24 bit graphics mode? will be back yhis afternoon, and again thanx for all efforts rclear666 out It should replace the existing file. And you might as well try both color modes. Just be sure to select Instructions on the title screen ... Only the small text will be (maybe) changed. - Jeff Vogel

I have something I want to test as a workaround for the Geneforge 5 problem where all of the text appears as white rectangles. 1. Download this file: ftp://ftp.spiderwebsoftware.com/temp/G250.tga 2. Find the Geneforge 5 folder. It should be in Program Files/Spiderweb Software/Geneforge 5. 3. Copy the graphic you downloaded into Geneforge 5 Files/Graphics Core. You'll be copying it over the old file. 4. Run the game. Select Instructions. 5. The instructions text might be there, if a little blocky. If you had this problem and try this out, please let me know if it helps. - Jeff Vogel

I have something I want to test as a workaround for the Geneforge 5 problem where all of the text appears as white rectangles. 1. Download this file: ftp://ftp.spiderwebsoftware.com/temp/G250.tga 2. Find the Geneforge 5 folder. It should be in Program Files/Spiderweb Software/Geneforge 5. 3. Copy the graphic you downloaded into Geneforge 5 Files/Graphics Core. You'll be copying it over the old file. 4. Run the game. Select Instructions. 5. The instructions text might be there, if a little blocky. Note this file won't fix all of the text, just the small text. I just want to see if it helps. If you had this problem and try this out, please let me know if it helps. - Jeff Vogel

Geneforge 5: Overthrow Not Being Able To Save Geneforge 5: Overthrow stores all saved games in the My Documents folder. Should it be unable to access this folder, it should be trying to save games inside the Geneforge 5 program folder. Unfortunately, this second step was buggy in v1.0 and v1.0.1. To try to fix the problem, download the beta version of the v1.0.2 installer ... http://www.ironycentral.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=157647#Post157647 Assuming the game is able to read and write from the Geneforge 5 program folder (which, depending on Vista and security settings, might be a problem), you should be able to save the game even if you lack a My Documents folder. If the game is still having trouble saving, make sure your local machine has a My Documents folders and that you are able to access it. Then go into My Documents, enter the folder "Spiderweb Software", and drag the folder "Geneforge 5 Saved Games" to the Recycle Bin. (If you can't find that folder, this means that your system is not letting Geneforge 5 access the My Documents folder.) If these steps don't help, uninstall the game, redownload the demo, and reinstall. If this still doesn't help, go back to your My Documents folder. Something is preventing Geneforge 5 from writing your saved games there. - Jeff Vogel

I'm still here, but I'm kind of out of things to say. My game tells your video card to load and draw a graphics. It is messing up the alpha channel and not drawing it correctly. Based on that and the fact that only a tiny number of people have this problem, I can only conclude that there is a messed up bit of software or hardware along the way. I could switch the graphic to a different format, but then I will just have problems with the machines that can't draw that format. (Assuming that it's a format issue, which I doubt. I believe that the graphic is being loaded fine, but the data is being screwed up later on.) In other words, I feel bad, but there is really, really nothing I can do here. Should you ever get a new machine or more up-to-date hardware, I hope you'll consider trying Geneforge 5 again. - Jeff Vogel

This means that the game is trying to load graphics (in this case, graphics in tga format) and can't, or it is loading the graphics but the graphics card is displaying them incorrectly. I have no idea why. There are many many places where things can be broken. But it's not really something I can do anything about. If you ever have a system upgrade or reinstall the OS, try it again. You may find things to be much improved. - Jeff Vogel

Originally Posted By: Randomizer I don't know if Jeff fixed it, but certain factions when left prevented you from doing quests to finish as a member of another faction. Leaving Astoria for the Trakovites used to be a problem because that stuck up Shaper wouldn't talk with you to finish a Trakovite quest. Leaving Alwan for Taygen works fine, leaving Ghaldring for Astoria also works out. Probably leaving anyone for Ghaldring should work too. I tried to leave Ghaldring as the faction of last resort. No matter how badly you mung things up among the Shapers, you still have a chance at Ghaldring. Unless you really work hard to wreck your faction among the rebels too. In which case, you get to work for Rawal. In other words, I give the player a warning before joining a faction for a reason. - Jeff Vogel

GrimeHead, this is discussed in the Tech Support forum. You might find this thread http://www.ironycentral.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=156082#Post156082 useful. - Jeff Vogel

Originally Posted By: lifeguardernie omg im an idiot its not media player after all. i was playing around with things and i figured out the when i open the game from a shortcut it works but if i open it up from the widget informer dock that i have most shortcuts running on it dosen't work. thanx everyone for all your help though If you right click on a Shortcut and select Properties, you will see that there is a Start In field. That has to be set to the game's home directory. If that bit of information gets lots when you move the shortcut to the widget, the game won't run. I suspect that's what's happening. - Jeff Vogel

The change in question doesn't seem to break anything, so we'll take it live in v1.0.3, out this month. - Jeff Vogel