[lacks info] 3.7.1, Win7-32, "Loading ambient music" crash

[santacide]

Hello Everyone!!!

Alright, I tried running MG on my Acer Aspire One netbook, and the program starts just fine and even seems to load the game. However, once the progress bar completes and gets up to "Loading faction music" it plays the background music for about half a second and then crashes. First of all, the system specs (Don't laugh XD)

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      Dual-core Intel Atom N570
      1 GB RAM
      Intel GMA 3150 w/ 249MB available video memory

     Windows 7 starter 32-bit
     MG 3.7.1

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After this started I tried modifying the glestuser.ini file to very low settings in case that could help... here's the copypasta:

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     ; === propertyMap File ===

     AutoLocaleLanguageDetect=false

     AutoTest=true
     ColorBits=16
     DebugMode=true
     RefreshFrequency=60

     ScreenHeight=480
     ScreenWidth=640
     Textures3D=false
     UserData_Root=$APPDATA\megaglest\

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Still nothing. So I went to chat.megaglest.org and spoke with titi (my username was bob__) and s/he recommended updating the graphics drivers (driver is 8.14.10.2230 from late 2010). I downloaded the latest driver from intel but my computer would only accept an installer from my OEM (it gave me the error "this driver is not validated for this computer please obtain a driver from your computer's manufacturer blahblah").
I checked with the Acer website and the only updates they had were for the chipset and some other random garbage. I did update the chipset drivers but still no luck. I also tried running MG in compatability mode and admin mode.

I downloaded the latest version of vanilla Glest and it works perfectly. So I really have no idea what's going on here.

Here's the error.log copypasta:

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[2013-04-29 22:13:48] Runtime Error information:
======================================================
Unknown error!
Stack Trace:
00000000 00000000 00000000 131470b1 KiFastSystemCallRet!ntdll (null)(0) +0
00000000 00000000 00000000 131470b1 KiFastSystemCallRet!ntdll (null)(0) +0

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And the Windows Error dialog copypasta:

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Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:   APPCRASH
  Application Name:   megaglest.exe
  Application Version:   0.0.0.0
  Application Timestamp:   50af3646
  Fault Module Name:   megaglest.exe
  Fault Module Version:   0.0.0.0
  Fault Module Timestamp:   50af3646
  Exception Code:   c0000005
  Exception Offset:   001b290b
  OS Version:   6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.11
  Locale ID:   1033
  Additional Information 1:   de59
  Additional Information 2:   de59bc82588769794bf8053e01f0612f
  Additional Information 3:   2b31
  Additional Information 4:   2b31a21ba1328315d7f3fa8e39c0ff6d

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TL;DR it crashes on "Starting faction music" after loading the game.

THANKS!!!!

[tomreyn]

Please try a snapshot / development build and report back whether it still happens there.

The message this driver is not validated for this computer seems to be triggered only when you are trying to install a driver which is made for a different hardware / GPU than the one you have. So it would seem that you tried to install the wrong driver. I don't think this is just about OEM - Intel provides generic drivers which should install fine (but not necessarily work well) on all systems including OEM.

It doesn't help that you're using a GPU which Intel has dropped support for. The latest driver version for Intel GMA 3150 on Windows 7 32-bit is 15.12.75.50.7.2230, released on 10/24/2010.

Generally, your hardware specs are very, very low.

[santacide]

Thanks Tom. Believe me, if I could have a different computer I would.

I tried again with dev-release 3942. Still nothing.

[tomreyn]

Please also try the graphics driver I pointed you to.

[softcoder]

Santacide, where did you get the latest binary? 3942 is NOT the latest svn revision it is 4260

[santacide]

Please also try the graphics driver I pointed you to.

Sorry, I thought I already said I tried the Intel drivers (that was actually the exact one I tried before I came here) and it wouldn't install because windows wants an OEM driver.

The download link I used was http://w32.nightly.megaglest.org/nightly/

EDIT: At this point Im just going to try installing ubuntu on a new partition, but let me know if you need any more info on this bug. AFAIK many MG users probably also have to deal with windows 7 but might not be able/willing to install linux.

[tomreyn]

You may be able to get it to work on Linux, since there is better driver support for this chipset there. But, to stress it once more, your real problem is the very hardware you got there.

You're not the first one trying to get this very GPU to work with MegaGlest, and others have not had much success either. After all, it's definitely not meant for gaming.

[santacide]

Yeah... I guess so...

[tomreyn]

Somehow I completely missed Softcoders' post. Indeed you did not test the latest version, please make sure you test it on either Windows or Linux (or both):

Windows binary: http://snapshots.megaglest.org/windows/megaglest-binary-win32-i386-3.8-dev.7z
Linux 64 bit binary: http://snapshots.megaglest.org/linux/megaglest-binary-linux-x86_64-3.8.0-dev.tar.xz
Linux 32 bit binary: http://snapshots.megaglest.org/linux/megaglest-binary-linux-i686-3.8.0-dev.tar.xz

Data: http://snapshots.megaglest.org/data/megaglest-standalone-data-3.8.0-dev.tar.xz

You need the binary which matches your system as well as the data package (which works on all systems).


Edit (tomreyn, 2013-05-18): Updated Windows snapshot download location.