Cannot Run Game Engine

#1 If you needed the DirectX SDK, then you would not have had a successful compile without it.

#2 Torque is OpenGL. Driver issue?

#3 Well starting another thread is not going to help you get it started for you

#4 @Ace: He did move it to the correct forum, which is a good thing! Possibly could have gone in Getting Started, but this is still good!

Now I just wish I could help out with his problem.

#5 Steven,

Are you SURE it's a blank CONSOLE app you're seeing?

I ask because when running a version of Torque I compiled on another machine, I got the Torque window, but it was all black. After pressing ALT+ENTER to enter fullscreen it was there, waiting at the menu screen as expected. ALT+ENTER again and it was Windowed and working properly.

I'm not ready to distribute so I'm not too worried about it but it does appear to be odd.

The strange thing is this is a friends machine and he's a hardware technition and a Windoze configuration master. He definately has his machine set up correctly. I actually get him to do my hardware and drivers setups actually!

Our machines are actually quite similar too however I don't get this problem.

Anyway, he's got a ATI Radeon 9600XT and a AthlonXP processor. I'm not sure of his motherboard, Northbridge etc manufacturers but if you indeed discover that this is what's going on (just try out ALT+ENTER in that window - can't do any harm) then let me know and we can compare hardware.

#6 Hi.

Do you have any additional info (like what is in your console.log)

Also check out the following:

1.Try to disable AntiVirus Software (sometimes antivirus software behave oddly)
2. Before installing graphic drivers it's reccomended to first install DirectX
3. Scan your PC for any Virus,trojan/Worms and spyware.
4. On win XP you sometimes need to have Administrator rights to run app (altought Win tends to informs you)
5. Does other games runs normally?

Hope that some of this helps...If not please post the console log.

#7 Alt + Enter did the trick. The fps starter kit came alive. I am going to have to find whatever other keys I need to use. Thanks Todd.

#8 Steven,

GREAT! I must say this problem is something that concerns me slightly.

FYI: ALT+ENTER is the Windows command for fullscreen toggling. It will work with most fullscreen apps (games etc) like QuakeIII, UT2003/4 etc. If you actually press ALT+ENTER again, you should return to Windowed mode, but it will now be displaying (that's what happened here anyway).

I would like to come to some sort of conclusion regarding what the problem is. Do you have a more detailed list of your computer components: Motherboard model/chipset manufacturer etc, Video card manufacturer, OS (and service pack)? As much information as possible is always good.

We can then compare your hardware to ours and find out what similarities there are (if any).

Hopefully we can work out what's causing this.

If you could give me this info, I'll look into it all ASAP.

Anyone ELSE have this issue (black window that once ALT+ENTERed to full screen, displays fine and continues to do so after exiting fullscreen)? If so, please list your info too.

EDIT: Added FYI regarding ALT+ENTER

#9 Here is some info:

win xp home version 2002
sevice pack 1
HP Pavillion 7867
Pent III
1.00 GHZ
128 MB RAM
GeForce 420MX graphics card

I only had to press Alt + Enter one time and
after that it just started without doing that.

Right now I had to delete torgue and download it again. I was having a problem
with the cursor redrawing itself over and over
thousands of times. I could actually draw with
my mouse after pressing F11.
I am going to give it one last try and if it don't
work GG will give me a refund.
It is either my computer or the sequence of which I set up everything. Everything is in place and updated so all I have to do is install torgue open and compile it. If it works and I do not have to press Alt + Enter I will let you know.

#10 Have you tried these?

www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_66.93

#11 My cursor problem was the demo app(the one with the purchase price in the lower right hand corner) I went to add remove programs and deleted it and the problem was gone.

I no longer have to press Alt + Enter
I noticed on my machine that the starter.fps would start without pressing Alt + Enter the tutorial.base would not and the starter.racing would not run all I got was a blank screen with a blinking caret and a filled square for a cursor.

I went to example\starter.fps\client and copied prefs.cs and prefs.cs.dso and pasted them into example\starter.racing\client and the racing starter kit now runs. Warning tutorial.base didn't work the same I first went to example\tutorial.base\client and did the same thing but it did not work. I then put the files in example\tutorial.base and that now runs when it is called without Alt + Enter

All three run without pressing Alt + Enter

#12 @Steven,

Very interesting. So it COULD be something in the prefs files that causes certain hardware/OS to mis-behave like this. The only question(s) I have is:

When you start fps is it fullscreen or window?
After making the changes, does starter.racing and tutorial.base start fullscreen or window?

The reason I ask this is if I remember correctly, we only get this problem when we are trying to start windowed. If we start fullscreen, or go to fullscreen from windowed, it fixes the problem. THEN we can return to windowed mode. Therefore if your starter.racing and tutorial.base were trying to start windowed and your starter.fps was starting fullscreen, then copying these files across would give the APPEARANCE of a fix.

Any info would be appreciated.

#13 All three from the beginning were starting full screen.

What looks like a command prompt window would show and then I would hit Alt+Enter and then the full screen tutorial.base would show.

When I tried to run starter.racing the same command prompt window would show then when I would hit Alt+Enter a full blank screen
would show with the same blinking caret that the command prompt window had and my mouse cursor was now a small square, and then I couldn't do nothing else.

As soon as I did what I did with the files the command prompt window shows and without doing anything else the full screen will go blank and on the starter.fps and the starter.racing show the garage games splash screen will show full screen , no window. And then the mainmenu gui's show on both full screen.
tutorial.base shows full screen it just doesn't have the splash screen.

When I first got torgue all I would see is the command prompt window. Then I used your idea to hit alt+enter and starter.fps worked and continued to work after hitting Alt+Enter just that one time. Tutorial.base needed Alt+Enter to be hit everytime to work and sometimes it wouldn't work. starter.racing needed Alt+Enter to be hit everytime and all I would get was that blank screen.



Keep me informed.

Thanks

#14 Come to think of it. What had drawn me to those files was I put the starter.fps and starter.racing console logs side by side and compared them line by line and starter.racing had this difference:

Missing file: starter.racing/client/prefs.cs!
Missing file: starter.racing/server/prefs.cs!

Now go all the way to the top of this page and click on the link in my first post and in that thread you will see a console log and it will show:

Missing file: starter.fps/client/prefs.cs!
Missing file: starter.fps/server/prefs.cs!

That is before I hit Alt+Enter for the first time.
It is Strange

#15 That cause the prefs.cs files are created once the game exits. So the first time you run torque those files don't exist.