patch 1.2
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terry cook
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Wed May 08, 2002 6:35 am
patch 1.2
has anyone had problems installing 1.2 patch? i've installed 1.1 with no problem, but 1.2 does not want to work. i've downloaded patch 3 times thinking i had a bad file and reinstalled game twice. no joy. any thoughts?
I've had 1.2 probs also
I downloaded and THOUGHT I'd installed the 1.2 patch correctly but in the game it still says version 1.1. I've also run that little automatic update program and it tells me I have the most up to date version. Maybe the installer stuck the patch in the wrong directory? I think I just ASSUMED it would know where to put the thing but we all know what happens when we assume...
If I uninstall/reinstall the patch, taking care to put it in the correct directory will I lose my save game files?
If I uninstall/reinstall the patch, taking care to put it in the correct directory will I lose my save game files?
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Erik Rutins
- Posts: 39650
- Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2000 4:00 pm
- Location: Vermont, USA
- Contact:
Patch Installation
Everyone, please read the following to make sure your patch is properly installed.
If the game still shows the previous version when you load it, that means the patch was installed in the wrong directory. We've recently gone to a new TrueUpdate program to correct this problem, but unfortunately since STUN was one of our first games we'll just have to deal with it the manual installation here for the time being.
The original 1.0 installation placed the game (by default) in:
c:\MatrixGames\St... etc.
The default 1.2 patch installation puts the patch in:
c:\Matrix Games\St... etc.
See the difference of a space? It's very easy to miss and I wish as much as anyone that we hadn't caused this confusion. Nevertheless, double and triple check. Chances are you now have a c:\MatrixGames\ folder and a c:\Matrix Games\ folder. I would suggest uninstalling the 1.2 patch, then reinstalling it and making sure you set the path to your original installation (c:\MatrixGames\.... etc. with no spaces).
Uninstalling and reinstalling the patch will not delete any saved games.
Regards,
- Erik
If the game still shows the previous version when you load it, that means the patch was installed in the wrong directory. We've recently gone to a new TrueUpdate program to correct this problem, but unfortunately since STUN was one of our first games we'll just have to deal with it the manual installation here for the time being.
The original 1.0 installation placed the game (by default) in:
c:\MatrixGames\St... etc.
The default 1.2 patch installation puts the patch in:
c:\Matrix Games\St... etc.
See the difference of a space? It's very easy to miss and I wish as much as anyone that we hadn't caused this confusion. Nevertheless, double and triple check. Chances are you now have a c:\MatrixGames\ folder and a c:\Matrix Games\ folder. I would suggest uninstalling the 1.2 patch, then reinstalling it and making sure you set the path to your original installation (c:\MatrixGames\.... etc. with no spaces).
Uninstalling and reinstalling the patch will not delete any saved games.
Regards,
- Erik
Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC
For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/
Freedom is not Free.
CEO, Matrix Games LLC
For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/
Freedom is not Free.
It works!
Uninstalled (making sure to run the uninstall from the "Matrix Games" folder - the one with the space between "Matrix" and "Games") then downloaded the patch again and reinstalled (in the "MatrixGames" folder - no space) and boom, I'm back in my old save games and it says version 1.2! Awesome! Very nice to have this little mystery solved. Now, if I could only get the "software playback" music to do like it says and quit spinning my hard disk every time I turn the music volume above zero...
Better Control of Music
While the constantly-spinning CD didn't bother me for music playback, the fact that the volume jumped back up to 100% at the beginning of every track did bother me.
I copied the music folder from the CD into the STUN game directory and use Winamp to play the music from my HD instead. Works great!
-=-=-=-=--=---=-=-=
D-Ray
I copied the music folder from the CD into the STUN game directory and use Winamp to play the music from my HD instead. Works great!
-=-=-=-=--=---=-=-=
D-Ray
Music
I didn't experience the volume problem and I don't care so much about the CD spinning - it's my hard drive spinning that bugs me. I've had a couple of hard drive failures in the past and am a bit wary of anything that will spin the thing for long periods. Why can't the short song bits be loaded and played from memory? I have 256Meg - plenty of space. I thought that's what "software playback" meant...
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Andrew Ewanchyna
- Posts: 228
- Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2001 8:00 am
Hard drives are suppose to constantly spin. If you're having so many HD failers they you either have a dusty, dirty environment or you keep dropping your PC 
The next thing you'll be complaining about is that the game causes your CPU fan to spin 
Anyways, the "short song bits" are loaded into memory and played. It's called streaming and its the way you play long multi-megabyte files. Sheesh.
FYI "software playback" refers to using system memory rather than sound card memory for mixing.
The next thing you'll be complaining about is that the game causes your CPU fan to spin Anyways, the "short song bits" are loaded into memory and played. It's called streaming and its the way you play long multi-megabyte files. Sheesh.
FYI "software playback" refers to using system memory rather than sound card memory for mixing.
Developer of Starships Unlimited
Admitedly a minor issue
Andew-
Thanks for responding. Admitedly, this is a minor issue. However, to clarify, I don't live in a dirty environment or frequently drop my PC. I have had two hard disk failures in 12 years of owning hard disks. They are infrequent but really un-fun when they do happen. Hard disks wear out just like anything else even if not abused. Secondly, I disagree that hard disks are supposed to spin continuously when the power is on. They spin only when some program is trying to access stored information. Perhaps we are using a different definition of "spin". Mine is when the hard disk light is on and you can audibly hear noise coming from the drive. Maybe that's just when it's reading/writing? Either way, my contention is that I perceive more wear and tear on my equipment when the light is on and noise is coming out of the drive and that only seems to happen with the music playing and I don't think it needs to happen just because the music is playing. Power supply fan is not your fault. I'll take that up with the power supply manufacturer (kidding)....
Thanks for responding. Admitedly, this is a minor issue. However, to clarify, I don't live in a dirty environment or frequently drop my PC. I have had two hard disk failures in 12 years of owning hard disks. They are infrequent but really un-fun when they do happen. Hard disks wear out just like anything else even if not abused. Secondly, I disagree that hard disks are supposed to spin continuously when the power is on. They spin only when some program is trying to access stored information. Perhaps we are using a different definition of "spin". Mine is when the hard disk light is on and you can audibly hear noise coming from the drive. Maybe that's just when it's reading/writing? Either way, my contention is that I perceive more wear and tear on my equipment when the light is on and noise is coming out of the drive and that only seems to happen with the music playing and I don't think it needs to happen just because the music is playing. Power supply fan is not your fault. I'll take that up with the power supply manufacturer (kidding)....
Re: Admitedly a minor issue
You're using an incorrect definition of spin, as a matter of factOriginally posted by BP
Secondly, I disagree that hard disks are supposed to spin continuously when the power is on. They spin only when some program is trying to access stored information. Perhaps we are using a different definition of "spin". Mine is when the hard disk light is on and you can audibly hear noise coming from the drive. Maybe that's just when it's reading/writing?
Hard drives are always spinning. The light indicates access (read/write usually), noise indicates the heads are seeking.If you're unhappy with the rate of hard drive failures, I'd suggest taking a second look at what you buy (check storagereview.com). Since IBM seems to be really screwing up with IDE drives these days I'd strongly recommend sticking with Western Digital; I still don't trust Maxtor or Fujitsu (although Maxtor looks to be improving).
Zorach is on the right track, though I might dissagree with his assesment of Maxtor. Any of their IDE drives made in the last three to five years are fine, just don't buy any of their SCSI drives.
And yes, disks DO spin continuously unless in the computer is in hibernation mode (you will note there is even a setting under Windows 98/2000/XP that even lets you set the timeout for this). You can just imagine the ware and tear that your car would take if you stopped for every stop light and traffic sign, the floored it after every stop to a crusing speed of 80 mph, just to slam on the breaks at the next stop! Why should you expect a disk drive to be any different; stop, then accellerate to 7200 rps (revolutions per second!) within the space of 2 seconds or less, then stop again... OUCH!
Rather, the unfortunate state you are refering to is the "bloatware phenomonon" which is simply put "as computing power and memory increases, so does the software memory allocation". Just the basic size of Windows 2000 OS alone in memory is between 62 and 70 megs with no other program running. That just blew through 1/3rd of your memory right there. Add say, a firewall, anti-virus software, intellimouse driver, and IE Explorer (which is all that I have up now as I write this) and I'm up to 165 megs, that's 3/5ths of my memory gone. When you figure that a game (in the worst case) is going to stream over 1.3 million pixels (32 bits each) at a frame rate of 60 to 70 times a second AND keep tract of how many shots, what items you still have, recalculate all the verticies in each frame so you don't walk through a wall, etc. you can see that your memory is going to be used up mighty quick. That is why windows gets around these limitations by using what is called a "swap file" (this is sometimes refered to as "virtural memory", and again this can also be set under the any of the Windows OS's) A swap file resides on your hard disk and is ment to augment your systems memory by storing data that is not as volitile as as that kept in system memory. A good example of this is to take a very large document in MS Word (say one with lots of graphics), or a large image in Photoshop. Only the parts that are being actively edited need to be in directly accessable memory, the rest can be stored on the hard drive until needed (like when you hit the save button).
When you get right down to it, we ask our machines to crunch numbers at a fantastic rate. Given the enormous burden in overhead that Windows and DirectX add to this number crunching, combined with the fact (and no offence to those programmers out there, since most of you weren't even born yet when the 8080 or Z80 chips were king, and you had to program to conserve clock cycles in order to make a kick ash program) most programmers just are not taught much about what routines use more time and memory that other routines that accomplish the same thing, so building a compact program is not of primary concern nowadays.
Heck, with two hard drive failures in 12 years! You have a much better average than any IT organization on the face of the planet!
And yes, disks DO spin continuously unless in the computer is in hibernation mode (you will note there is even a setting under Windows 98/2000/XP that even lets you set the timeout for this). You can just imagine the ware and tear that your car would take if you stopped for every stop light and traffic sign, the floored it after every stop to a crusing speed of 80 mph, just to slam on the breaks at the next stop! Why should you expect a disk drive to be any different; stop, then accellerate to 7200 rps (revolutions per second!) within the space of 2 seconds or less, then stop again... OUCH!
Rather, the unfortunate state you are refering to is the "bloatware phenomonon" which is simply put "as computing power and memory increases, so does the software memory allocation". Just the basic size of Windows 2000 OS alone in memory is between 62 and 70 megs with no other program running. That just blew through 1/3rd of your memory right there. Add say, a firewall, anti-virus software, intellimouse driver, and IE Explorer (which is all that I have up now as I write this) and I'm up to 165 megs, that's 3/5ths of my memory gone. When you figure that a game (in the worst case) is going to stream over 1.3 million pixels (32 bits each) at a frame rate of 60 to 70 times a second AND keep tract of how many shots, what items you still have, recalculate all the verticies in each frame so you don't walk through a wall, etc. you can see that your memory is going to be used up mighty quick. That is why windows gets around these limitations by using what is called a "swap file" (this is sometimes refered to as "virtural memory", and again this can also be set under the any of the Windows OS's) A swap file resides on your hard disk and is ment to augment your systems memory by storing data that is not as volitile as as that kept in system memory. A good example of this is to take a very large document in MS Word (say one with lots of graphics), or a large image in Photoshop. Only the parts that are being actively edited need to be in directly accessable memory, the rest can be stored on the hard drive until needed (like when you hit the save button).
When you get right down to it, we ask our machines to crunch numbers at a fantastic rate. Given the enormous burden in overhead that Windows and DirectX add to this number crunching, combined with the fact (and no offence to those programmers out there, since most of you weren't even born yet when the 8080 or Z80 chips were king, and you had to program to conserve clock cycles in order to make a kick ash program) most programmers just are not taught much about what routines use more time and memory that other routines that accomplish the same thing, so building a compact program is not of primary concern nowadays.
Heck, with two hard drive failures in 12 years! You have a much better average than any IT organization on the face of the planet!
"The one you have to watch out for is the one you don't see comming!"
[font=Stencil]Kahn[/font]
[font=Stencil]Kahn[/font]
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Marc von Martial
- Posts: 5292
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- Location: Bonn, Germany
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Excellent post Kahn 
.
allthough I must say that I´m very very satisfied with IBM HD´s. In 10 years of owning a PC I only had one HD gone yet and that due to a blewn up PSU that send it´s very last EM impulse right in to the HD platine, destroying it (well, a few other pieces also went down the pipe in that last attempt of producing energy ).
Two disk in 12 years? Man, that´s really peanuts.
.allthough I must say that I´m very very satisfied with IBM HD´s. In 10 years of owning a PC I only had one HD gone yet and that due to a blewn up PSU that send it´s very last EM impulse right in to the HD platine, destroying it (well, a few other pieces also went down the pipe in that last attempt of producing energy
).Two disk in 12 years? Man, that´s really peanuts.
To continue on the 1.2 patch, I have just recently purchased the game. When I try to run it, I get stuck at the opening menu because of a sound problem - music gets stuck.
I tried to install the patch, but when I did it dumped into a Kodak - Imaging for windows program, and could not be run.
Help!!!!
I have heard many great things about this game, and seen excellent reviews. How do I fix the problems that I have?
Any help will be most appreciated.
I tried to install the patch, but when I did it dumped into a Kodak - Imaging for windows program, and could not be run.
Help!!!!
I have heard many great things about this game, and seen excellent reviews. How do I fix the problems that I have?
Any help will be most appreciated.
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Marc von Martial
- Posts: 5292
- Joined: Thu Jan 04, 2001 4:00 pm
- Location: Bonn, Germany
- Contact:
Originally posted by Marc Schwanebeck
What exactly do you mean by that?
This is a program that was pre-loaded in my computer. It is used for viewing picture files. I did not specify for the patch to download there; I had it running from the location when I downloaded. For some reason it is coming up as a file for this program.
That is the best information I can give you. Do you think it would be better for me to just try to download the 1.1 patch and then try to download 1.2 after that? Or should I just stick with 1.1?