very long loading times

[bedrock]

hello!

i just wanted to play tron 2.0 agian. but when i start the game it takes ages to load. had to wait about 7 minutes to see the game-menue. when i force quit, i can see that lithtech.exe is not responding. i tried it with the game alone, with the unofficial patch and the ka-mod. in all cases it's not working. i'm running it under windows 7 and i'm running it as an admin. anyone an idea?

would like to play it again...

[TronFAQ]

There are a couple of things you can try. When you run the Tron 2.0 game launcher, click the Options button.

First try putting a X beside Disable Movies, click OK, and then play the game. If that doesn't help, put an X beside Disable Sound and then try playing the game again with sound temporarily disabled.

See if either of those has an effect.

Do you have an Nvidia card, by the way?

[bedrock]

hello tronFAQ!

i tried a few things in the options. seems to be something with the music. the game starts perfectly, when i disable the music. any idea?

and yes, i do have an nvidia card.

thanks for you quick reply!

[TronFAQ]

Hmm, what sound card or chip do you have?

It might have something to do with DirectMusic support on Windows 7. Supposedly it's better now than it was with Vista, but older games like Tron 2.0 that still use DirectMusic sometimes cause trouble in Win 7. With Creative cards like the X-Fi, they created a program called Alchemy to better deal with DirectMusic support. But you need a Creative (or compatible) card to use it.

It could also be a codec problem. If the codec the game uses to play back music has been replaced by a different one (because of codec packs, or similar) it too can cause trouble. If your version of Win 7 is 32-bit, you might be able to run the WMFADist program in the Tron 2.0 folder and see if it helps. I know for a fact that WMFADist doesn't work with 64-bit, though.


I asked about the Nvidia card because I thought that it also could be the cause of the slowdown, but apparently not. Tron 2.0 doesn't work so well on Nvidia cards these days for some people, if you're using the most recent Forceware drivers. It certainly didn't work all that well for me on my GT240 card. I had slow level loading and a number of glitches.

[bedrock]

The Soundchip is a Realtek High Definition Audio.

I reinstalled the driver for Win7, but it still doesn't work.
Maybe I should install the AC 97 driver, because i used that driver, while I was still using Win XP? And there everything was fine. So it can't be a hardware-thing.
And the game was running smoothly on my system, when I first installed it under Win7. I just didn't play in a while, because I was busy. But now I have time and wanted to start again. Maybe in the meantime something changed in my software?
Playing the game with sound only is annoying.

[TronFAQ]

Try visiting my FAQ, click on Troubleshooting > Sound Problems, and then in particular try the suggestion about turning down hardware acceleration in DXDiag. If that doesn't help, then turn the hardware acceleration back up. Also try turning off Hardware Sound in the game launcher by adding an X beside it.

If either of those work, then there's possibly something wrong with the driver for your sound chip. Do you have any other games installed, and do they work okay? You hear sound effects and music?

Again, you can also try running the WMFADist program in the Tron 2.0 folder. (Though if you have a 64-bit version of Windows 7, it won't work.)

If the problem is just with Tron 2.0 and not other games, I don't know how far you'd be willing to go to make it work. But I have heard from other players that the drivers from Realtek don't work very well with Tron 2.0, and that using the sound drivers for your Realtek chip that are built-into Windows work better.

If you'd be willing to try that: go into the Windows Control Panel, click on the Programs and Features icon, look for an entry for Realtek, and then uninstall it. After uninstalling, download and use the program Driver Sweeper to get rid of all traces of Realtek's drivers. Then reboot the computer and let Windows install the default Microsoft drivers for the Realtek chip.

Later, you could try reinstalling Realtek's own drivers again if you wish. Maybe a clean reinstall will help get them working properly again. Though as I said before, some people have told me Realtek's drivers don't work well with Tron 2.0.

[bedrock]

I tried to turn down the hardware acceleration in dxdiag but the option is not avaiable. Maybe it has to do something with Win 7? And I have a 64-bit version, so i can't run the WMFADist program. I also turned off Hardware Sound in the game launcher. No change. I removed the old Realtek-Driver, the Game and cleaned the Registry with ccleaner. I installed the Windows-driver and the game. But still no music, just sound.
Guess I'll have to reinstall Win 7 in order to play Tron 2.0.

[TronFAQ]

Before reinstalling Win 7 there are some other things you could try. Since reinstalling Windows is a big hassle.

When you run the DXDiag program and click the Sound tabs, does it show no problems?

Have your tried reinstalling DirectX? Sometimes reinstalling DirectX can fix certain problems like this.

You could try downloading this program called Preferred Filter Tweaker. Run it and click on "Preferred decoders". Under 32-bit decoders, check if Microsoft is selected for MP3 decoding.

Also check the speaker configuration in Windows or the Realtek audio manager. Try setting it to stereo or headphones, if it isn't already set that way.


I have some other ideas as well, but let's try those first.

[bedrock]

Nice to know that there are still more options.
At the moment I'm visiting my parents.
But I will try them as soon as I get home and let you know, if they worked.

Thanks for you help!

[bedrock]

I'm back again. Just tried everything you suggested. But it still won't start with the Music on.

[TronFAQ]

Have you checked the sound options in the game? (From the main menu Options > Sound.) Checked all the volume settings and tried turning EAX On/Off?

Something else you can try, though I doubt it will work, is re-registering the DirectMusic DLL files in case something has become broken in Windows.

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Right click Command Prompt > Run as administrator

Type these commands:

Code: Select all

regsvr32 dmloader.dll
regsvr32 dmsynth.dll
regsvr32 dmusic.dll
regsvr32 dswave.dll

[TronFAQ]

I found a better DirectMusic fix, than the typing in commands in my last message post.

http://www.win2008r2workstation.com/win ... e-services

It works on Windows 7 as well. It will repair the DirectMusic services if they've somehow become broken in your Windows installation. Tron 2.0 uses DirectSound/DirectMusic. (Microsoft dropped support for these in Vista but brought them back in Win 7. Only older games use DS/DM, newer games use OpenAL.)


As a last resort, you could try using a version of Creative's Alchemy that will work on any sound card/chip.

http://www.gamefront.com/files/13946167 ... _00_8.exe/

It's a tool to get games that use DirectSound/DirectMusic to work properly in Vista/7 in case sound effects or music aren't playing. Try using it, instead of Realtek's 3D Soundback.


If none of that works, then at this point I'm short of other ideas to fix the problem you're having. If would have to be a driver or codec problem. And fixing codecs in Win 7 is a bit of a nightmare. Windows XP made it easier to manage audio codecs, and it was something that Microsoft removed in Win 7. MS actually made Win 7 worse than XP, in that department.

[TronFAQ]

Actually, I've got some more suggestions. Have you tried running the game in XP compatibility mode?

In Windows Explorer go to C: > Program Files (x86) > Buena Vista Interactive > Tron 2.0 > Right click Lithtech.exe > Properties > Compatibility > Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows XP (Service Pack 2).

It shouldn't make a difference, but it's worth a shot.


You could also try copying the DirectMusic files to your Tron 2.0 folder.

Copy and paste:

Code: Select all

dmloader.dll
dmsynth.dll
dmusic.dll
dswave.dll

From C:\Windows\SysWOW64 to your C:\Program Files (x86)\Buena Vista Interactive\Tron 2.0 folder.


And you could try changing some options in the Tron 2.0 game launcher. In the Tron 2.0 launcher, click Options. Put an X beside Disable Hardware Sound. Also maybe put an X beside Disable EAX?

[bedrock]

well, i tried everything you suggested. still no music. looks like i really have to wait until i reinstall win7.
but thank you very much for your help and support. and also thank you for keeping this great game alive!