2 problems: ships disapear and sound.dll crashes orbiter

[Priscilla_Anne]

I recently did a fresh install of windows XP on a newly formatted drive. I put a new fresh orbiter (version 092906) on a 2nd hard drive ("D:\"). I put it there because if XP has to be installed all over again then at least orbiter will still be there on the D drive ready to go.


1. SOUND PROBLEM:
The basic Orbiter - no ADD-ONs - runs well enough with frame rates around 60 or so, and I installed DGIV too and that works, but when I install sound 3.5 and try to run orbiter, the program aborts and gives that "send a report?" message/question. The report contents say sound.dll is a problem.

The sound log stops after a line saying "trying to initialize ..." - I think it mentioned the mp3 list. The problem might be in my mp3 directory. I renamed the original playlist file to give it a .txt extension - so as to de-activate it. Should I have put something in its place?

I had done all this a few weeks ago (and had XP crashing problems and reformatted and started over again), and back then the sound had run fine so I thought I remembered how to do things.

I uninstalled sound (following the readme.txt instructions) and orbiter ran fine again without sound. Before this recent fresh install, I used to run orbiter with sound and never had a problem....

2. SHIPS DISAPPEAR:
In External view mode, very often - most of the time now since this new installation - the ship is not visible. One out of 20 times, if I press the "X" key to "back away" all the way out the ship sometimes becomes visible again but usually only at the farthest and 2nd from farthest out view distances. The page-up/page-down keys to change local distance perspective does not seem to make any difference with this one way or the other.

This problem has happened both with DGIV and with the STS-101 in different scenarios. The STS-101 was the ISS docked to STS-101 scenario that comes with the base orbiter package.


One time I ejected a payload from DGIV and while the payload was near the ship I could see the ship in external mode at a variety of "distances" (using X and Z keys to change viewing distance). After a little while I maneuvered the ship to get the payload back into the cargo ban and once I grappled it in the cargo bay the ship became invisible again the next time I switched from cockpit to external view.

Below are parts of the Orbiter log.
This might be from a "DBIV docked to ISS" scenario since I think that was the last one I ran. There was a little text line at the bottom of the screen saying sound needed to be installed- and I had already un-installed the sound 3.5 add-on by that time. But it ran fine without sound.

-------------
**** Orbiter.log
Build Sep 29 2006 [v.060929]
Devices enumerated: 6
Devices accepted: 5
==> RGB Emulation
==> Direct3D HAL
==> Direct3D T&L HAL
==> Direct3D HAL (Radeon X1650 Series )
==> Direct3D T&L HAL (Radeon X1650 Series )
...
...
DirectDraw interface OK
Direct3D interface OK
Zbuffer: 16 bit
Render device: Fullscreen 1600 x 1200
Device has hardware T&L capability
...
...
Finished initialising world
Module DeltaGliderIV.dll [API v.060425]
Finished initialising status
Finished initialising camera
Finished initialising panels
Finished setting up render state
ERROR: DDraw object is still referenced: 4517
>>> ERROR: Destroy framework objects failed
>>> [C:\Source\Orbiter\D3d7app.cpp / 613]

-------------
This last line "C:\Source\... " etcetera is strange to me since Orbiter is not located on my C:\ drive.

If I remember correctly this problem with external viewing of ships occurs whether I choose 16 or 32 bit in the orbiter "launchpad." I tried it both ways to see if that would fix the problem. I also tried unchecking "enumerate devices" once too and that didn't help either. The problem with vanishing ships also happened when I accidentally ran at 800x600

 

[garyw]

The error message is a generic error message - The .cpp refers to a source code file which you also won't have and the location is probably where Martins keeps the orbiter source code!
This don't actually matter but are useful for working out what part of the application is having issue.

The error shows that problems are being experienced that are related to DirectX 7.

Do you have the latest DirectX installed?

 

[Priscilla_Anne]

The error message is a generic error message - The .cpp refers to a source code file which you also won't have and the location is probably where Martins keeps the orbiter source code!
This don't actually matter but are useful for working out what part of the application is having issue.

The error shows that problems are being experienced that are related to DirectX 7.

Do you have the latest DirectX installed?

Ah! I am sure that nothing I have installed since re-formatting and installing XP has included direct X.
I will go on the web and see if I can find it.

THANK YOU!

 

[n122vu]

You had asked if renaming the playlist and putting nothing in its place might cause the CTD you experienced.

Just FYI, I renamed my playlist file to a .txt file to eliminate that as a cause, and I was able to run several different scenarios without issues.

Both the sound errors and the disappearing vessels might be caused by DirectX version, as garyw has suggested. Interested to know how things turn out after you update version...

One question I have...

When you say you had XP crashing problems, were you getting blue screen errors? If so, another possible cause is you may have a piece of hardware going bad (memory, maybe even video card or sound card...). Might also explain why DirectX is throwing errors, if it can't initialize the GPU or sound card properly. Just a thought though. DirectX update would determine if this should be investigated further...


-----Posted Added-----


DirectX 9.0c (the version you need unless you have a brand new card that supports DX10) can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en

(to see which version you have installed, go to Start>Run and type dxdiag and hit Enter or click Ok)

 

[Priscilla_Anne]

You had asked if renaming the playlist and putting nothing in its place might cause the CTD you experienced.

Just FYI, I renamed my playlist file to a .txt file to eliminate that as a cause, and I was able to run several different scenarios without issues.

Thank you for checking that for me!

Both the sound errors and the disappearing vessels might be caused by DirectX version, as garyw has suggested. Interested to know how things turn out after you update version...

One question I have...

When you say you had XP crashing problems, were you getting blue screen errors? If so, another possible cause is you may have a piece of hardware going bad (memory, maybe even video card or sound card...).

Not blue screens. Mostly XP would not re-boot normally. Usually but not always I could get into safe mode, but sometimes it would just cycle on and on turning itself off and then restarting again. A few different boot menus would come up and almost none of the choices ever seemed to work. At those times I re-formatted the drive and re-installed XP Home. Did that four times in three weeks.

I really thought it was the mother board and I still think it probably was. I am still waiting for XP to fail to reboot any day or time now.

This last install, I have not put any Symantec virus protection on it and am keeping it offline. (I use a different computer to post like this). One techie at tech-support-forum.com said he thought the Norton Antivirus was the problem, but every time the computer failed the way it did, it was after doing something entirely different - never the same thing twice. One time it seemed to be IE7. One time it seemed to be SP3. One time it seemed to be a PCI 4-port USB card. (That card conflicted with a USB mouse - so I don't even try that card again). One time the computer just shut down and started rebooting while I was using the computer - and I had NOT initiated a shutdown.

It is a very long story and yet to be concluded. I have not rebooted it much since turning it on a few days ago on Tuesday. If it crashes that way aagain I am taking it back to where I bought it - it is a refurbished machine and it had problems even when I got it.

But in these past few days, it has not done a single thing that has been odd or inconvenient. I have installed mathcad and run that, and run various things on it and no problems except with Orbiter sound and external ship views. I really did not think the orbiter problems were related to the boot-failure problems I was having a few weeks ago. It has not shut down while running orbiter. Orbiter has only failed to run when I had the sound add-on installed.

Might also explain why DirectX is throwing errors, if it can't initialize the GPU or sound card properly. Just a thought though. DirectX update would determine if this should be investigated further...


-----Posted Added-----


DirectX 9.0c (the version you need unless you have a brand new card that supports DX10) can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en

(to see which version you have installed, go to Start>Run and type dxdiag and hit Enter or click Ok)

Thanks!
I ran that DXDIAG and much to my surprise,
Direct X 9.0c IS installed on that computer!
I guess it came with XP or with my video card.

I ran the various tests and ALL the tests ran successfully. So how about that!

I should mention that I had sound working with Orbiter during a previous install a few weeks ago and I have played other (non-orbiter) sound files even this morning so music does play on the computer okay. And the DirectX tests played many sound files okay.

I guess I should go ahead and really "challenge" that computer by installing the USB keyboard again and install Norton antivirus and see if the boot failures begin happening again. I haven't wanted to do anything but USE the computer for a while - with orbiter - and have some fun with it instead of having to work on it all the time as I was doing for a few weeks.

I flew orbiter for MANY HOURs the last two days - (even letting it run overnight) without sound and without being able to get external views. Those seem to be the only two issues with it.


.... Let's please see if any other ideas come to mind about what might be causing my orbiter problems before we decide to give up on it and assume it is a hardware issue.

Thanks!

 

[Priscilla_Anne]

Some progress - but what is with Vinka scenarios?

I have discovered a few things.

In another thread someone had a problem with ships disappearing and they were told to put copies of three "dll" files into the root orbiter directory. "MSVCR71.DLL"
and "MSVCP71.DLL" - I don't recall the third one.

Today I saw two of those dll files show up in the error report when orbiter crashed so I put copies of those two dll files into the root directory of orbiter.

That has solved the problem of ships disappearing in external view mode! HOORAY!

==============

No progress with sound however. I tried putting the whole orbiter folder system onto the C drive and installed sound but that did not make any difference.

=======

I also tried installing Vinka's spacecraft3 and it's patch. This got interesting too. This is in fact when I think those dll files first showed up in the error reports.

I found that MOST scenarios in the vinka spacecraft folder crashed orbiter while it was trying to start up. Other's did NOT crash orbiter. Two scenarios from the Vinka folder that did NOT crash orbiter in were the "DG in Orbit" scenario and the "multiple docking" DG scenario. (that might be DGIV - I am not sure).

Scenarios (in the Vinka folder) STS with hubble and STS with cargo bay arm both crashed orbiter. At this point I decided to try running in "WINDOW" mode instead of "FULL SCREEN" mode.
It was while in FULL SCREEN mode that the error report listed those MSVC_71.DLL files so that was the one good thing that came out of experimenting with running in a WINDOW instead of full screen. After putting in those dll files, at first I thought the external view only worked in window mode, but I was wrong, the external view works in full screen mode too now. Other than that, the windows versus full screen mode made no difference in which scenarios run and which do not.

And it appears to be ONLY the Vinka scenarios that crash orbiter. (well... I bet that the sound 3.5 will still crash orbiter if I try that again).

So that is where things stand tonight.

 

[Capt. Speirs]

Try running Orbiter Diagnostic V0.2, it may give hints the log does not. It has often helped me with problems.

http://www.orbithangar.com/advsearc...uthor=default&category=default&subcat=default

The third dll is msvcrtd.dll

 

[Priscilla_Anne]

Try running Orbiter Diagnostic V0.2, it may give hints the log does not. It has often helped me with problems.

http://www.orbithangar.com/advsearc...uthor=default&category=default&subcat=default

The third dll is msvcrtd.dll

Thank you very much Captain!
I hope you can help me interpret the results!


I did a search and cannot find a "msvcrtd.dll" anywhere on my computer.

I ran the diagnostic you gave the URL for.
Here is what it says:
-----
Scenarios directory found: OK.
Meshes directory found: OK.
Config directory found: OK.
Base.cfg found: OK.
Vessels directory found: OK.

VINKA's SPACECRAFT ADDON
----------------------------------------------------
Multistage directory found: NO.
Spacecraft directory found: OK.
Spacecraft.cfg found: NO.
Spacecraft.dll found: NO.

Spacecraft2.cfg found: OK.
Spacecraft2.dll found: OK.

Spacecraft3.cfg found: OK.
Spacecraft3.dll found: OK.

INSTALLATION ISSUES
--------------------------------------
D:\1_PRISCILLAS_REALM\1_ORBITER\Config\Base.cfg
MISSING TEXTURE Cape21.dds.

-----

I think it is funny that the cape21.dds is missing.
That is EXACTLY the same thing the manual for the diagnostic tool gave as an example!

But neither here nor there, do they tell me where I can go to fix this problem or which scenario not to run to avoid the problem. Sort of like having an auto mechanic tell you that there is some awful sound coming out of your engine and then sending you on your way.

I am not surprised the multi-stage is missing. I have not installed it as I do not use any multi-stage rockets in orbiter.

I don't know why spacecraft.dll and spacecraft.cfg is missing. I used Janesoft mod installer and when I added the patch for spacecraft 3 it TOLD ME that it was going to have to overwrite a spacecraft dll file. So there must be one in there somewhere. Maybe the janesoft mod installer doesn't work all that well after all. I wish it would because I can't figure out from one add-on to the next where everything is supposed to go - or how to uninstall them manually. Very few tell you (as the sound module does) exactly what subdirectories and file names to remove to uninstall them. That's why I have been trying to use the Jane-soft mod installer.

I could extract the vinka things into an empty folder and I assume that will help me find the missing cfg and dll file, but I need to know what folders to put them into once I get them. That might solve the problems I am having with most of the vinka scenarios.

I did not have "sound" installed when I ran the diagnostic so I don't know if it would have tried to find problems with that or not.

Meanwhile although my orbiter will not do everything I want it to do, last night I was up all night enjoying orbiter (although without sound). I put a DGIV in orbit around Io by copying the POS and VEL info from a deepstar scenario and then got a very highly eccentric orbit around Io to escape from it; and then did two orbits around Jupiter on my way to Europa. Finally I let my ship "fall" into orbit around Europa. I did all this without using using the "trans" MFDs. I only used the normal orbit MFD and I did use the "Synchronize Orbits feature to help me set up an intermediate orbit with which to intersect Europa at the right time. I don't know how to do that calculation without a lot of work in a computational program. Beyond that, I took some external views to look around from time to time. It was fun and I was really happy the way the final Europa orbit developed. I had to think about what I was doing for a while to make that go right. It was all fun, but it took me all night!

The hardest part was that after getting a very elliptic orbit around Io and getting to apoapsis, I almost fell back into Io trying to get turned around in the right direction to go for a Jupiter orbit that would allow me to go after Europa. The prograde direction for a good Jupiter orbit was nearly 180 degrees from the direction I was going when I was getting free of Io. I was in a pretty good position for my Io exit burn when I did it, as far as the Europa goal was concerned. But what I failed to consider was the direction relative to Jupiter that I would be moving when I got away from Io. Oops! Ha ha! I should have given more thought to the timing of my burn for the Io exit. That's what I did wrong. But I salvaged it, at the expense of time and fuel trying to avoid falling back into Io while establishing a good Jovian orbit without first going way far away from Io and way too close to Jupiter to do it. It was fun. I actually fell asleep at the keyboard twice near the end and one time my fingers were dragging across the keyboard when I suddenly woke up and saw that I almost caused my ship to crash into Europa. That's the first "all-nighter" I have pulled in many years! Good old orbiter!

Once I got up today - around 11am - I dismantled my entire computer workspace and re-configured it all to take up less room. Took me most of the afternoon. That's why I did not get back here to read your suggestions until this evening.

Thank you again for your help!


-----Posted Added-----


I found out where to put the vinka spacecraft files and installed all of them including mulit-stage base and the newer version - in order. The diagnostic program no longer reports any errors except that cape21 dds or whatever that is.

However, as before, most of the Vinka scenarios still will not run. They still crash orbiter. I have not had any new problems funning orbiter. So it is just the sound dll and most Vinka scenarios that fail - as described in my first post above.

 

[liber]

Check this topic for cape21.dds

link

Just check it,Orbiter download package "orbiter060929_base.zip" & "orbiter060929patch_base.zip "don't have in texture folder cape21.dds,probably forget to add it.
If you have older Orbiter version take a cape21.dds texture and add to new texture folder.

 

[Priscilla_Anne]

Sound problem SOLVED!

Check this topic for cape21.dds

link

Just check it,Orbiter download package "orbiter060929_base.zip" & "orbiter060929patch_base.zip "don't have in texture folder cape21.dds,probably forget to add it.
If you have older Orbiter version take a cape21.dds texture and add to new texture folder.

Ah!
I do have older zipped versions of orbiter. I will get the cape21 out of one of those.
Thank you!

I solved the sound problem today.
I think it was just raw determination that did it.
I mean I don't really know why it works now and wouldn't before. I had tried 6 or 8 times over the last week.

What I was doing though was going too fast and putting MP3 files into the MP3 directory immediately after running sound35.exe and before running orbiter with just the "Back on a G-string" playing ))

This time I just ran orbiter with only the Bach Air in the folder. It played.
(I don't know why).

I then renamed the m3u playlist to change extension so the sound dll would not find it and added my own six MP3 files. Ran orbiter and they played fine too.
VOILA!

It would be nice to know what I was doing wrong before, but the most important thing for me right now is that it is WORKING!

The only problem remaining is that only about 2 of the Vinka scenarios play without crashing orbiter.
That does not matter too much but if when I install other Add-ons that use vinka, then if they crash I will not be happy about it.

 

[Belisarius]

The only problem remaining is that only about 2 of the Vinka scenarios play without crashing orbiter.
That does not matter too much but if when I install other Add-ons that use vinka, then if they crash I will not be happy about it.

The problem with Vinka's dll is that it comes in different versions and that the older ones are not compatible with the newer ones. Check which version you have in the add-on you want to run, and if it's different from the one you have in your Orbiter/Modules directory, download the one you need. They won't overwrite, so you can have the complete set without any problems.

All Spacecraft dll versions are available here:

http://users.swing.be/vinka/

Hope that helps. Happy flights!