Re: Windows 7 support for VP3
Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 3:32 am
Thanks for the prompt reply. I've already tried 95% of the things both of you suggested. I've tried all compatability modes ranging from Windows 98 till Vista SP2 - made no difference.
I've tried reinstalling the game at least 4 times into different folders, and fully wiping the registry and hidden/system folders of all VP3, Celeris, etc' traces before doing the reinstall.
@Bagpuss: I dont need to go to registry to disable sound effects - as I mentioned, problem happens close to 50% of the time, but not always - sometimes I can go 2 days playing the game without any problem. So I can disable the sound from within the game just fine. I've had "Music and Room" sound effects set to 0 since forever, and now I've set "Pool sound effects" to 0 as well. However, that does not have any effect on clicking the choices on the Main Menu and other sub-menus - VP3 still produces sound every time selection is made, despite all sounds being disabled - try it.
I doubt I'll be reinstalling All of my audio drivers like you suggest - it's a lot more complicated then you think. First of all, I have high degree of confidence my sound hardware and drivers are not the issue, based on the many months of troubleshooting this, as well as years of personal experience as software engineer and technical support analyst. Secondly, I have a complicated hardware setup of Logitech Z-5500 DTS True Sound system being connected to my sound blaster and it took me many many hours to set up things right, such as configuring all the multimedia players and video encoders and codecs I use to encode video to properly channel the audio through 5.1 speaker system in DTS sound. Configuring SPDIF output settings, and othe optical outputs, and going through dozens of the internal audio settings in sonic foundry sound forge, virtual dub, nandub, their codecs and all video players isnt easy and most of those settings will be wiped if I completely uninstall all audio hardware. I dont use any third party audio managers.
I think the problem has to do with VP3 not sharing the resources properly when taking and passing back control to Windows 7. Every time VP3 starts it disables desktop composition and takes control away from DWM - Desktop Window Manager.
When VP3 runs Event Viewer produces Application log events such as this: "The Desktop Window Manager was unable to start because composition was disabled by a running application" and preceeding log entry: "A request to disable the Desktop Window Manager was made by process (Virtual Pool 3)"
I've also noticed after Flash 10.1 crashes in one of my browsers (shockwave plugin) which happens intermittantly, VP3 hangs every single time. Same symptoms - program launches and then clicking anything on Main Menu causes the freeze.
@vpeer If debug version is a wild goose chase then I'm out of ideas on how to proceed here, and I'll say this again - I dont think the problem is specific to my computer and I'm surprised to see a couple of people reported VP3 runs fine on their Win 7 system. Although I do think the report from the person who runs win 7 32bit is irrelevant - there is a huge difference between than and my win7 x64.
I've tried shutting everything but VP3 down when the problem occurs - had no effect. The only thing that helps is reboot. Even log off/log on doesnt work.
There was no AudioClientRpc service running on several other occasions when the game froze - i double checked the list of running services every time. I think that particulat VP3 hang occuring at the same time as problem with that audio service is coincidence. In fact I think I know what happaned - I have multiple monitor system and I think I may have been playing a music video or a song in one of my players on the other monitor. When that happens VP3 either cant play sound or doesnt allow sound in the other application.
I've tried reinstalling the game at least 4 times into different folders, and fully wiping the registry and hidden/system folders of all VP3, Celeris, etc' traces before doing the reinstall.
@Bagpuss: I dont need to go to registry to disable sound effects - as I mentioned, problem happens close to 50% of the time, but not always - sometimes I can go 2 days playing the game without any problem. So I can disable the sound from within the game just fine. I've had "Music and Room" sound effects set to 0 since forever, and now I've set "Pool sound effects" to 0 as well. However, that does not have any effect on clicking the choices on the Main Menu and other sub-menus - VP3 still produces sound every time selection is made, despite all sounds being disabled - try it.
I doubt I'll be reinstalling All of my audio drivers like you suggest - it's a lot more complicated then you think. First of all, I have high degree of confidence my sound hardware and drivers are not the issue, based on the many months of troubleshooting this, as well as years of personal experience as software engineer and technical support analyst. Secondly, I have a complicated hardware setup of Logitech Z-5500 DTS True Sound system being connected to my sound blaster and it took me many many hours to set up things right, such as configuring all the multimedia players and video encoders and codecs I use to encode video to properly channel the audio through 5.1 speaker system in DTS sound. Configuring SPDIF output settings, and othe optical outputs, and going through dozens of the internal audio settings in sonic foundry sound forge, virtual dub, nandub, their codecs and all video players isnt easy and most of those settings will be wiped if I completely uninstall all audio hardware. I dont use any third party audio managers.
I think the problem has to do with VP3 not sharing the resources properly when taking and passing back control to Windows 7. Every time VP3 starts it disables desktop composition and takes control away from DWM - Desktop Window Manager.
When VP3 runs Event Viewer produces Application log events such as this: "The Desktop Window Manager was unable to start because composition was disabled by a running application" and preceeding log entry: "A request to disable the Desktop Window Manager was made by process (Virtual Pool 3)"
I've also noticed after Flash 10.1 crashes in one of my browsers (shockwave plugin) which happens intermittantly, VP3 hangs every single time. Same symptoms - program launches and then clicking anything on Main Menu causes the freeze.
@vpeer If debug version is a wild goose chase then I'm out of ideas on how to proceed here, and I'll say this again - I dont think the problem is specific to my computer and I'm surprised to see a couple of people reported VP3 runs fine on their Win 7 system. Although I do think the report from the person who runs win 7 32bit is irrelevant - there is a huge difference between than and my win7 x64.
I've tried shutting everything but VP3 down when the problem occurs - had no effect. The only thing that helps is reboot. Even log off/log on doesnt work.
There was no AudioClientRpc service running on several other occasions when the game froze - i double checked the list of running services every time. I think that particulat VP3 hang occuring at the same time as problem with that audio service is coincidence. In fact I think I know what happaned - I have multiple monitor system and I think I may have been playing a music video or a song in one of my players on the other monitor. When that happens VP3 either cant play sound or doesnt allow sound in the other application.