Knights and Merchants.net Forum

Looking at that, the following files don't exist in the normal install: ddraw.dll, game.ico, gfw_high.ico, goggame.dll and KaM.ico. Now both the ddraw.dll and goggame.dll have to be related to it somehow, as GOG doesn't use DRM it means the goggame.dll does something else. The real question now is, how does it load the stuff?

Actually, I just had an idea... Perhaps that ddraw.dll there is overwriting the standard DirectX ddraw.dll and it includes the fix? Could you upload that DLL somewhere? Actually upload goggame.dll as well incase ddraw.dll has calls for it for some reason.
Would be much appreciated, thanks!

You guys do know that GOG's setup looks (is) different than the normal KaM setup?

Here, I uploaded both files for anyone who likes it (RAR)

http://rapidshare.com/files/312101969/GOG.com_KaM_files.rar.html
MD5: 1D5C3B43BCBB3D30F638124D682D3633

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, IT WORKS!!! Thanks a lot for supplying these files. Turns out it is indeed ddraw.dll which does the fix. Never thought I'd see a fix for this problem.

If you're like me and hate waiting for a free slot to appear at RapidShare, you can get the file from here.

There is a problem possibly preventing me from including it in SR3 however. I think the new DLL is dependent on DirectX 9.0 which in turn means that support for Windows 95 and Windows 98 would have to be abandoned.

But hey, we now have a working game under Windows Vista and Windows 7, not half bad.

No problem..? :shock:

Glad I could help
Also works on x64

Litude, maybe you could make a new topic regarding this file.. (maybe something like KaM Windows Vista + 7 Fix..)
Might come in handy to upload the file to your own host..

Can I haz credits? :oops:

Yeah I'll have to put a news post as well probably, because this is quite a big problem and should allow a lot of KaM fans to get rid of their Virtual PCs.

I was just in the process of uploading and adding the URL as you replied, I did leave in a readme however.

EDIT: And it gets better, seems like it also fixes the color corruptions that occur when playing the game under Windows 7. Seriously, thanks!

Seriously, no problem!

Nice, so GOG actually has taken time to make a new version of ddraw (which is b.t.w. smaller than Vista's or even xp's version)... Xp's version of ddraw doesn't fix it btw, it tested that file as well as I was at it...

Yes. DirectX (and OpenGL) work so that if a file is in the program's folder, that one will always be used (search own folder, if not found, try win/sys32 folder or something like that). I did also do this when I had a pc running that only ran in live-cd mode... and with the first Vista I also used this trick (opengl version, copied files from xp...) to get krom's editor to work...

Truly, this should get our kam community back running...

So, 95/98 compatibility is dropped for this version? maybe we could add in something that checks windows version, if it is 5 (xp) or higher, this file can be installed...

It's not needed for XP though, so why use it? Does it fix the palette corruption that randomly happens?

It fixes it for Windows 7, but I don't have XP (not that I experienced any palette corruption under XP either) so I can't tell. You should probably try.
That was pretty much what I was figuring, would no doubt be the best solution.

But then again, I haven't actually tried yet if it works under Windows 95 or 98.
EDIT: Okay it's confirmed, using the .DLL on Windows 95 or 98 will make the game unable to run.

Just wanted to say that the modified ddraw.dll is not completely useless under Windows XP - it fixes TSK's too fast scrolling bug and some other screen artifacts, like cursor traces.

You just rejoiced too early.

I've recently upgraded from Windows XP SP3 x86 (Pro) to Windows 7 x86 (Pro). KM_TPR.EXE crashes when I use ddraw.dll. If I disable ddraw.dll by eg. renaming it, KM_TPR starts but only shows main menu if Windows resolution is set with a maximum of 1024?768 pixels and the game then cause the typical "grainy graphics" - that it shall cause without ddraw.dll.

Can any of you offer me another kind of graphics fix?

PS: Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor only reported that Aero Peek function wouldn't work with my NVidia Geforce4 MX 440 but regardless to this, I can use it correctly at the resolution of 1280?1024. Before reading your critics pointing to my ancient graphic card let me say that Windows upgrade was urgent to me as Windows XP update service started to steal too much time, memory heap and processor capacity percents from me at every logon.

If you don't have problems with the game lagging, try this patcher to fix the problem with corrupted colors. Curiously you're the first person that I can recall having problems with the ddraw.dll fix.

</span><table width="90%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="3" border="0" align="center"><tr> <td><b>Gyula
wrote:</b></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="quote">Can any of you offer me another kind of graphics fix?[/quote]

Try tabing your game (alt+tab) and loading task manager and turning off explorer.exe. This removes the desktop so you have to press alt+tab to get back into your game. This fixes color problems in most games, although it is not a perfect fix since you have to turn explorer off every time you play. (It also works for KaM TPR windows 7, but it doesn't fix the laggy gameplay.) To turn explorer on press contol+shift+escape and press New Task under the file bar and type in "explorer.exe" (without quotes) Hope this helps.

@Ben:
You're right: without running explorer the game graphics works fine. Thanks.
By the way, this must be another freaky stuff from Microsoft. Some years before a scandal was revealed that there were hidden videos enconded into MS Office pack files. Employees of MS get their salary after the number of coded bytes... All in all, a file browser application shan't be connected to graphic processing.

@Litude:
About the DDPatcher you linked: I've tried to patch KM_TPR.EXE with it but when ddraw.dll was in use the same "Generic Failure" happened as before, neither saw I changes when I used the DDPatcher ignoring ddraw.dll.

I'm glad I could be of some assistance, Gyula.