VISTA JVM Problem

[kcabral1]

I have been trying to debug why the game will not work on Vista, and Yes I saw the post that the OS was not supported. The point behind Java is ubiquitous platform support since it is a virtual machine. But obvously, Lou Gerstner didn't get it quite right because I can't get it to quite run at all.


The JVM could not be started. The main method may have thrown an exception. Jee what expection??????? Jee, WTF am I supposed to do with an error like this? A better error is "Application Failed. Have a nice day". See much more descriptive.

1) I am running as administrator
2) I have renamed the jre subdirectory in the matrix folder.
3) I have removed and reinstalled 4 jres.

Now that the obligatory "state the obvious" is out of the way, how about a solution to this problem?

[firepowerjohan]

Game uses Java 1.5 JRE, did you install that version?

[kcabral1]

Hi FirepowerJohn;

I have two versions installed according to Java control panel.

1.5.0_12
1.6.0_01

[geozero]

This is why Java based games are a pain.

You need to remove 1.6. Until the current game is set to run with the newer version, you have to use the older. Java doesn't always run stable when you have two versions installed.

I'm Beta testing another entirely dirfferent game running in Java and that's what we ran into there.

[kcabral1]

I have removed all versions except 1.5 and have renamed the subdirectory that contains the version shipped with the game forcing it to use the only one copy that I could find. Still no game.

I truly do not understand why we (matrix & I) are having this conversation. This is not rocket science and should not be treated as such. I fault Matrix for not performaing adequate testing on their release. I have come to find out that another company that has distributed this game is not have these problems and they indicated it was a Matrix problem related to the installation. I don't give a rats about O/S, versions of software, browser setting, the position of the moon, project management issues, resource allocation issues, nor butt cheese. I only care that I just spent $53 and 6 hours trying to diagnose a simple issue. Get your act together or I will help your company release the importance of free market economy and competition. I already have EA on my shit list and you don't want to join them.

I do thank the support of the community for their assistance. Howerver, insofar as I'm concerned, Matrix is off on the wrong foot with me and I'm the new guy on the block.

[dinsdale]

ORIGINAL: geozero

This is why Java based games are a pain.

You need to remove 1.6. Until the current game is set to run with the newer version, you have to use the older. Java doesn't always run stable when you have two versions installed.

I'm Beta testing another entirely dirfferent game running in Java and that's what we ran into there.

That's not true, you must have another problem. I have about 10 different JREs plus SDKs on one system, switching between each isn't a problem. You may have an issue where the default JRE pointed to by a system variable is incorrect, but otherwise, two different JREs can be up and running at the same time. Further, most JREs are backwards compatible unless mucking around with native calls.

---------

kcabral1
What exactly is the error you receive? How did you remove the other JVMs? Did you delete the directories or go to the Vista control panel app and remove them?

You can you test that you have a functioning JRE installed by using this link

http://www.java.com/en/download/help/testvm.xml

[firepowerjohan]

Dinsdale, thats a nice link for testing Java! Many thanks [:)]

[IainMcNeil]

The problem is Vista - not Matrix. Vista has been causing major issues for games everywhere
 
We have had to patch all our older games to work with Vista. We still cannot work out the problem with this JVM failure but as soon as we do we'll fix it.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: kcabral1
I truly do not understand why we (matrix & I) are having this conversation. This is not rocket science and should not be treated as such. I fault Matrix for not performaing adequate testing on their release. I have come to find out that another company that has distributed this game is not have these problems and they indicated it was a Matrix problem related to the installation. I don't give a rats about O/S, versions of software, browser setting, the position of the moon, project management issues, resource allocation issues, nor butt cheese. I only care that I just spent $53 and 6 hours trying to diagnose a simple issue. Get your act together or I will help your company release the importance of free market economy and competition. I already have EA on my shit list and you don't want to join them.

I do thank the support of the community for their assistance. Howerver, insofar as I'm concerned, Matrix is off on the wrong foot with me and I'm the new guy on the block.

Er... I'm sorry for the problems you are having, but I don't see how you can blame us for them. We did test the game, found that it had problems with some Vista configurations and therefore removed Vista from the supported OS list until such time as those issues could be investigated and resolved. If you bought the game to install it on an OS we did not list as supported, why is it our fault you are having issues? If we'd said the game worked on Vista, that would be another matter and what you're saying would make sense, but we did not.

Some folks have reported that setting it to "Run as Administrator" helps, but this has not helped others.

Regards,

- Erik

[kcabral1]

Erik,

I understand your argument and agree to it to some degree. However, what I do like, and this is critically important to me, is your (as in you) customer service. I have been impressed with it since reading the forums. But you must admit testing for windows ME & 98 is probably not efficient use of QA and development time considering that MS doesn't support them. But fair is fair.

I do have GOOD NEWS. After spending my entire 4th on this problem I have found a resolution. But first let me clarify one point about VISTA. You only need to run in "administrator mode" if you have user account control set to on. If you disable this (turn off) and ignore the nagging reminders, you can run without having to set any program to run as administrator. I first had to do this to get SQL server 2000 & Visual Studio 2003 on my machine.

My solution:

1) Install Java version 1.5 & 1.6. Test configuration. Remove subdirect with game. Remove all of Java.
2) Reinstall just JAVA 1.5. Repeat step 1
3) Swear at Vista.
4) Use Bill Gates name in vain
5) Remove Vista
6) Install XP
6) Get BSOD
7) Get another BSOD
8) Reformat C drive
9) lose information you'll inevitably forget that's on C.
10) Reinstall XP successfully
11) Reinstall 100 patches to XP
12) Reinstall Virus software
13) Skip installing JAVA from Sun.
14) Reinstall Game
15) Got to bed at 4 a.m. after play since midnight.
16) Dream about how you can improve your U-Boat life expetency.
17) Wakeup again, and play game.
17) Enjoy a Wicked Game!

That, my friends, is how I solved the JVM error.

[kcabral1]

Dinsdale;

I removed them using the Control panel remove program function. I reviewed the path statement and didn't find a reference to a JVM. This still doesn't explain why the version that ships with the game gets the same error. To be honest with you, I have no idea where the problem lies. The error message is too vague to be of any use and could be a red herring.

[kcabral1]

Iain,

I appreciate the diligence on this. It is no doubt a VISTA problem per se. However, like the rule of law, MS is the king of the court--we have to bend to its will. Might I suggest a more robust error report. At times it may be prudent to rely on the community, which some of us are developers in, to assist on such things as this. Your company has quite the community following and may be able to provide insight into this issue. Fore me the battle is over. I have enough with MS's "New Technology" and rolled back to old technology that works. I personally will not upgrade again until the 1st patch release in the later part of 2008-if then. I upgraded wtih the intent of using directx 10 but that's a flop considering there isn't 1 game out using it and VISTA been available to the development community for over a year 1/2. It doesn't appear that new games will use it for at least 6 months and even then, the reports in the media indicate that only a few games will be built using it. That means that develpers will take over 2 years to develop a game using the "new technology." That could mean a variety of things, but it stilll means that gamers can't enjoy the lavish transparent display Vista offers.

Good luck figuring out the JVM issue, it's a bugger.

[IainMcNeil]

Great - glad you got it working! If we could detect the problem we would, but one problem is that it doesn't even occur for us so we can't fix it diectly. Most Java machines work ok with it but some for unkown reasons don't and we don't have access to any that fail so can't even attempt to debug it
 
We're working in the dark to try and solve it and so far have no real clues, but we wont give up yet!

[dbev]

hello,

do you have serial number for comannder-EUROPE AT WAR?
PLEASE HELP ME!

THANKS

[Terl]

ORIGINAL: dbev

hello,

do you have serial number for comannder-EUROPE AT WAR?
PLEASE HELP ME!

THANKS

Try buying the game and you will get one [:)] If you did buy it, contact matrix support and they will help sort it out..