Game hangs under Windows 7

[Chronic Logic - Josiah]

I believe I have figured out why this crash is happening.  It appears it is a bug with nvidia drivers and Windows 7.  It is a problem for all games made with the Bltiz3d engine.  I am looking into a fix.  I also found one other possible problem with the same engine which should be fixed in the next update.

If anyone is interested in testing please let me know.

[HOD]

I'm certainly up for testing a patch.  

I was actually hoping to try and fit an old HD to my main PC this bank holiday weekend (where does the time go?). That way I could try installing XP and see if the game works with the same hardware (just not W7/drivers). By the sounds of it you've identified the issue though; probably no point me trying that now?

If you'd need extra confirmation that it's a W7/nVidia drivers issue I'll still give it a go!

[Update] It would seem to be something to do with the nVidia drivers. I installed the latest W7(64bit) version today (197.45) and found that I now get at least a few frames of animation after starting the battle (before the same issue occurs). Hopefully I'll be able to give the HD/XP a trial tomorrow.

[Chronic Logic - Josiah]

I had to make some changed to the game to work around the driver issue.  I am almost finished and should have the patch ready for testing by Monday.  I will post a link to it here and you can give it a try and let me know if it fixes the problem.

Thanks!

[HOD]

Well I've fallen at the first hurdle; I don't have enough IDE connections on my mobo! (should have realised sooner) 

Sorry.

Let me know when a patch is available for testing.

[HOD]

Out of curiosity I also tried the latest version of VirtualBox (now it supports 3D) running an XP(SP3) VM but Kingdom Elemental fails to even start with "Unable to set graphics mode". I did briefly get a different message but can't remember how I got it  

I do have VirtualBox's "Guest Additions" installed (to allow Direct3D as well as OpenGL support).

Not exactly conclusive, but I have managed to get other (Impulse-installed) games to run under this VM e.g. Flotilla, Eufloria, GSB and Osmos so I know 3D is working in VirtualBox.

[Chronic Logic - Josiah]

Here is a new version to test, hopefully it will have the win7/nvidia driver problem fixed.  Try downloading and unzipping it into your "Kingdom Elemental" folder:

http://www.chroniclogic.com/next/ke.zip

Make sure you backup your current Kingdom Elemental.exe before overwriting it with the new one.  

It will say a update is available, this is because this version is actually newer then the current, so just ignore that bu clicking cancel at the update screen.  

When you start the game it should show as version 1.6.

Let me know if the game works correctly.

[HOD]

It's not accepting my serial number (from Impulse)  

Probably because Impulse gives you a "Serial Number" (not keycode). It's too long.

Expected format = XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

Impulse "serial" format = KE-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXXXX

[Chronic Logic - Josiah]

I can't create an updated impulse version with out sending it to them, I will just PM you a key for this version.

[HOD]

Thanks, the key works...



...and...



... SO DOES THE GAME! 



I'll let you know how I get on with it.