KMQuake 2 not running in Windows 10?

[marscaleb]

I'm setting up several computers for an upcoming LAN party.  I'm trying to get Quake 2 on each machine, but its proving tricky.

The GOG version of Quake 2 doesn't run on some of my machines for some reason.  I have no idea why, but I get an error message saying the program encountered an error and needs to close.  This happens on all of the computers where I was running windows XP.  I thought I would get around the problem by using KMQuake2, but it somehow inherited the same problem, but the init window displays the text 

Execing default.cfg

Couldn't exec kmq2config.cfg

before it crashes.

However I can still run an install straight from my original CD, although it is version 3.14 so I decided to run that version through KMQuake2.  Curiously, that version has no problems.  A bit strange but whatever, as long as it runs it.
So I started installing that version on all my computers, but for some reason, this doesn't work on ONE machine, which is a laptop running Windows 10.  It starts to run, the screen turns black, and then grey with black bars on the side, and just before it starts to play the intro movie the program exits with no error messages displayed.
It does that whether KMQuake2 is running the version I copied from the disc or from GOG.  However, both original versions (the CD and the GOG install) work on that computer.

I don't know what else to troubleshoot.  If I can get the GOG version to run on the windows XP computers, that would be fine and I could run that version.  If I could get KMQuake2 to run on the Windows 10 laptop, that would be fine.  If anyone has any ideas of what I could try to get either of those working, or at least something else I can test to troubleshoot the problem, I would appreciate the advice.

Update:  I've gotten to another computer which is running windows 7 and it is having the same problem with KMQuake2 as the one running Windows 10.  But of course, my computer I normally use for gaming runs Windows 7 as well.  I don't know what to look for to find what is different between all these different computers.  They are all different builds with different graphics cards and stats and I see no reason why KMQuake2 should not be running on any of them.

Update 2:  I was trying some things, they didn't work but long story short I think I found the problem with KMQuake2 not working on 
So, I had created a custom kmquake2.pk3 just to change the default loading screen and menu background.  I have found that replacing this with the original kmquake2.pk3 causes the Windows 7 computer to run just fine (and I'd presume the windows 10 as well, haven't tested it.)
But it is a little stranger than that.  I was running my custom kmquake2.pk3 just fine on my regular gaming computer.  That is, unless, I run it from a copy of the exact same folder I've been copying to all the other computers.  There is one major difference between the version that works and the one that does not:  In the version that works, it appears that when I installed it, I dropped in all the kmquake2 files, and then copied in the baseq2 folder.  But for the version that doesn't work, I had copied my quake 2 folder as it was isntalled, and then just dropped in the kmquake2 files.

Some further experimentation is required, but I'm going to have to do that tomorrow.

[marscaleb]

Okay, I've been testing a number of things, but I still can't get things to run the way I want.
I tried copying over the exact whole directory from one computer that will run KMQuake2 onto another, and that second one won't run it; it just crashes when it should be playing the id logo. But if I replace the kmquake2.pk3 file with the original version, it will run. Both of those computers are running Windows 7.
So one might think that something with the new kmquake2.pk3 file I made is causing a problem with that machine. However, if I take an exact copy of the same folder I have been copying onto all of the Windows XP computers and put it on the Windows 7 computer that DOES work with the new kmquake2.pk3 file, that computer can't run that copy either; it crashes in the same manner.

And the only things I changed in kmquake2.pk3 were the menu_background.jpg and unknownmap.jpg images.

So I'm looking at a copy that runs just fine on all the winXP machines, but crashes on all the Windows7/10 machines, and a copy that runs just fine on one windows 7 machine, but crashes on the other windows 7 machine. If I use my custom background images.

[knightmare]

Are you installing the GOG version to its default install dir, which is probably under C:\Program Files? Having a path with spaces will probably break KMQuake2. One telltale sign is that it's apparently not showing the output from the filesystem init (right before it execs the cfg files) before it crashes.

As far as your custom kmquake2.pk3, did you edit it with Pakscape? It's best to unzip the entire pk3 archive, change files, then zip it back up again. You can also use an alphabetically higher-named pk3 file like kmquake2_pak9.pk3 to override files in kmquake2.pk3. A corrupt pk3 file could cause a crash as well.

Also, what dimensions are the replacements for menu_background.jpg and unknownmap.jpg? What image editor were they saved with? I made/saved all the images for KMQuake2 with Paint Shop Pro 7. The released version of KMQuake2 uses a very old version of libjpeg, but I've managed to compile a newer version for an upcoming update.

[marscaleb]

Jun 29, 2018 18:52:34 GMT -5 knightmare said:

Are you installing the GOG version to its default install dir, which is probably under C:\Program Files? Having a path with spaces will probably break KMQuake2. One telltale sign is that it's apparently not showing the output from the filesystem init (right before it execs the cfg files) before it crashes.

GOG installs to C:\GOG Games\(game) by default, but I'm not dropping the KMQuake2 files into there, I'm copying them to a new directory.
That being said, every version I'm running has a space in the name of the folder, as I named the folder "KM Quake 2," and none of them have a problem with that.

Jun 29, 2018 18:52:34 GMT -5 knightmare said:

As far as your custom kmquake2.pk3, did you edit it with Pakscape? It's best to unzip the entire pk3 archive, change files, then zip it back up again. You can also use an alphabetically higher-named pk3 file like kmquake2_pak9.pk3 to override files in kmquake2.pk3. A corrupt pk3 file could cause a crash as well.

I just renamed it to be a .zip file and opened it with windows, dropped in the files, and changed the extension back to .pk3.

Jun 29, 2018 18:52:34 GMT -5 knightmare said:

Also, what dimensions are the replacements for menu_background.jpg and unknownmap.jpg? What image editor were they saved with? I made/saved all the images for KMQuake2 with Paint Shop Pro 7. The released version of KMQuake2 uses a very old version of libjpeg, but I've managed to compile a newer version for an upcoming update.

(Heh, I used to use Paint Shop Pro back in the day. Memories.)
I made them with GIMP. They have the same dimensions. They should have the same properties, but I suppose i can double check a few options.
But altogether it doesn't seem quite reasonable for that to be the problem. If the .pk3 file or the jpegs weren't getting read right, wouldn't that be universal with KMQuake2? Wouldn't every version of the game crash?
But the .pk3 file DOESN'T cause a crash on some computers, but does on others.

[knightmare]

There could be some marginal, undefined behavior with the edited .pk3 file going on that causes crashes on some systems but not others, possibly depending on differences in how Windows XP and 7 handle file I/O and memory access. I previously had a long startup time issue in KMQ2's Ogg Vorbis scanning code that only occurred on Windows 7 and later.

Your best bet is to ditch your edited pk3 file and put your replacement images in an alphabetically higher-named pk3 file that is zipped up from scratch with 7-Zip (it's free). I wouldn't trust the zip functionality built into Windows to be 100% standards-compliant.

[marscaleb]

Okay, I tried 7-zip but it didn't make a difference.
I had a thought though, and I found found that if I saved the jpegs WITHOUT selecting "progressive" in the save settings (which is on by default in GIMP, and hidden behind the advanced options) then it doesn't have a problem.
Strange that the more advanced Windows has the problem with the more advanced .jpg settings.

Well, the convention is over now. I wound up not running Quake 2 on any of the computers running windows 10 or 7 anyway. I guess I can be prepared for next year.

But while it was running, I kept running into a bug where two players would spawn at the same time in the same place, and they would be stuck that way until a third player killed them, or if I forced one of them to reconnect to the server. This was more common when a map first loaded, but I think it managed to happen in the middle of a match as well.

Also, one of the computers running KMQuake2 crashed several times because of some GL glitch; it crashed hard and windows was displaying colors like it was in safe mode until I rebooted. I have no idea how to track this one down because the computer that kept crashing was exactly identical to two others that had no problems; same hardware same driver versions.

And... One final note, if you wind up doing another update for KMQuake2, do you think you could make the menu background image fit itself to the screen without changing the aspect ratio? I've got monitors running at four different aspect ratios and I hate seeing that image get squished or stretched, and the only other option is to keep several different versions of the background image.

[knightmare]

OK, so it must have been the fault of the old version of libjpeg (6b), running on a newer version of Windows, trying to load a prgressively encoded JPEG image. Like I said before, it probably boils down to low-level differences in I/O and memory access betweeen Windows XP and Windows 7.

I have recently been preparing a bug fix update for KMQuake2, and it will have the latest release of libjpeg (9c). I'll have the menu background pillarboxed when not in-game, but I'll also be looking for some similar but larger replacement art (maybe 2048x1024).

It's likely the computer that KMQuake2 crashed on has some failing hardware, maybe the GPU or CPU/RAM, or even the PSU. The fallback to safe mode-like video sounds like the video driver crashed. If you can't reproduce this on the two other identical PCs, then it definitely is the hardware.

[marscaleb]

Jul 9, 2018 19:44:37 GMT -5 knightmare said:

It's likely the computer that KMQuake2 crashed on has some failing hardware, maybe the GPU or CPU/RAM, or even the PSU. The fallback to safe mode-like video sounds like the video driver crashed. If you can't reproduce this on the two other identical PCs, then it definitely is the hardware.

That sounds like a very reasonable deduction.  Still, it never had problems with other games.  But maybe that's because the other games were running Direct3D instead of Open GL.  For that matter, it could have been one of the kids that was playing on it hitting some weird button combination, for all I know.  (I had a lot more people this year who accidentally hit the windows key and had no idea how to get back into the game.)

As far as the menu background image, my thought personally was to have it cropped, not pillarboxed.  I was using a desaturated image of the Quake 2 logo myself, and an image like that would work best as a super-long image (maybe 2048x1024) that just has the edges cut off more or less depending on the aspect ratio.  (And if someone plays with some crazy-wide screen, if said logo is centered properly it can be cropped off the top and bottom and still look good.)  I can make a copy and email it to you if you want.

[knightmare]

As far as menu background, I'm currently looking at replacing the menu background with a similar but much wider image (2560x1024) made from the same source art that looks OK when cropped at the sides.