DF-21 Forums

[nik0tine]

Hi. I am really looking forward to trying the new version of DarkXL but when I launch the program it just crashes. Dark Forces is installed to the default directory C:\Dark and DarkXL is in a subfolder called 'DarkXL'

I am really quite tech illiterate and don't have a clue how to get this to run. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Edit:I should mention that I did install openAL

[Barry Brien]

You should probably mention that specs of your computer too.

[nik0tine]

Intel Core Duo CPU
T7700 @ 2.40 Ghz
3 GB Ram
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT


Running windows XP home edition service pack 2.

Any more information you need?

[sheepandshepherd]

You may not have the DF folder set. Look in the DarkXL folder for a file called DXL_Settings.txt -- it should open in simple notepad. Pretty self explanatory . . . it should look like this in your case:

[nik0tine]

I have the DF folder set to what you said. I deleted darkxl and reinstalled it to another directory. C:\DarkXL and the problem persists. Any other ideas?

Thank you guys for your help, even if it isn't working.

[joel96]

Ha! I beat the "fail load on the new hard drive with Win 7" level! So here's my first problem and the solution to it.

First of all, know that I have Windows 7 Professional x64, DarkXL 9.02, and Steam Forces (shorthand for the bona fide version of Dark Forces), a Radeon X800 card, and the latest Dx11 drivers.

I installed DarkXL to ProgramFiles(x86). When I started it up, it would crash with a message that said d3dx9_32.dll could not be found. I got the file from dll-files.com (be careful, that site is riddled with trap buttons that will download "helpful" registry cleaners, if you know what I mean), and put it in SYSWOW64 in WINDOWS (remember, I have the x64 OS). That fixes that crash.

Then I got a log that said it failed to load SOUNDS.GOB. Well, there really was no information about this problem anywhere on the entire stinking Internet...until I came along. I deleted DarkXL from ProgramFiles(x86), and instead extracted it into a folder in ProgramFiles (this is the non-64-bit variety). Then, I launched it. (beat) And it works.

_________________
Yes, I am that joeybuddy96.

[nik0tine]

Thank you Joel. However, this is not the crash error I am getting. I am receiving a generic "DarkXL.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close."

However, I am still going to try your method. I have already deleted it and installed it again in program files, but that did not work. Unfortunately I am using windows XP and I am not sure which folder to put d3dx9_32.dll. I don't seem to have anything called SYSWOW in my windows folder. Any idea where I should place this .dll file?

Edit: I just looked in the log and saw that, in red letters, I was getting these three errors:

<GOB_Reader::OpenGOB 100> Failed to load C:/DARK/DARK.GOB
<GOB_Reader::OpenGOB 100> Failed to load C:/DARK/TEXTURES.GOB
<GOB_Reader::OpenGOB 100> Failed to load C:/DARK/SPRITES.GOB

Furthermore, when I looked in my Dark folder the only .GOB files in there was sounds.gob

Have I installed DarkForces incorrectly or something?

Double Edit: I seem to have figured this out. I ran the custom install rather than the express install and selected every option. Now it loads just fine. Thanks for your help guys! Hopefully I will not have any more problems from now on.

[The MAZZTer]

Yeah you need to do a full install, this has been mentioned several times though to be fair it's not in any standard place AFAIK.

lucius needs to put in better error checking on file loading for next build.

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[nik0tine]

I am having one more completely unrelated problem. I seem to be unable to complete level 3. When I get to the end of the level it does not say mission complete. I have searched the forums and found that I can unlock all the levels by 'running dark xl with -x command line' but I have no clue how to do this. Can anyone help me with this issue?

[BPzeBanshee]

Make a shortcut from the DarkXL EXE and put " -x" at the end without the quotation marks.
As for the unable to complete level 3, I got it just fine. Stupid question, but did you actually complete all the objectives of Level 3?

[nik0tine]

For whatever reason this does not appear to work. I right clicked on DarkXL.exe and selected create shortcut. Then I right clicked on 'Shortcut to DarXL.exe' and selected rename. I then added -x to the end of the name and DarkXL loaded but I did not have access to all the levels. I tried '-x' with a space and without a space so that it read 'Shortcut to DarkXL.exe-x' and 'Shortcut to DarkXL.exe -x'respectively and neither of them unlocked any other levels.

Also, I did complete all of the objectives in level 3 but it still didn't work. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that I had to use the 'G' cheat to get through the doors near the end? The button that normally opens those doors was not present.

I cheated to get to the end a few times using fly and I noticed when I did it was prone to crashing when I encountered the Ree-Yees.

[The MAZZTer]

Changing the name of the shortcut won't affect how it runs, lol.

Since you clearly don't understand what command line parameters are or how to use them, I will show you in an easy-to-follow screenshot tutorial.

First I'll make a quick shortcut:



The name does not matter.

Then I right click it and go to Properties.



Now, command line parameters were introduced in old text-mode, non-GUI OSs. It is a way to pass information to a program when starting it up. Normally you'd use a "command line" such as Comnand Prompt or Bash to do this.

Shortcuts in Windows have the ability to specify command line parameters as well. Simply add a space and then the parameters you want to use after the filename in the Target box:



Then click OK and your shortcut will now pass "-x" to DarkXL.

Every program will interpret stuff you pass to it differently; though there are a few commonalities, for example many programs will accept a filename to open when they startup, this is how most file associations work. When you double click a file Windows runs the associated program, passing the name of the file you clicked as a command line parameter.

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[nik0tine]

Thank you very much, MAZZ.

[BPzeBanshee]

I apologise for being vague on the subject, what MAZZter showed was what I had meant by shortcut.
As for your Level 3 issue, I'm clueless on this area of things, though I did cheat (psychological thing, I hate those waterslug-things) to get there I got Mission Complete and everything else.

[sheepandshepherd]

[BPzeBanshee]

[nik0tine]

[sheepandshepherd]

Well, there's still the old CodePlex site, but idk if he (or anyone) still checks it regularly. You could also start a new topic, since this one's about crashes. Either way, I'm sure lucius will get to it eventually . . . he hasn't posted here in a while now though (more than half a month, if I'm not mistaken), so he may be quite busy with DaggerXL or with this.