Introduction, some problems, & some questions

[xpace]

Hi there!

I'm new to this community and new to RPG Maker. (So please be nice ) I have been wanting to build my own games for years. I had even gone to college with the intention of becoming a game designer/programmer one day. Though, I have since chosen a different path.

Anyway,

I've always had excuses for not spending the time and resources to develop a game of my own. To make a game I'm proud of, I knew it would take a good deal of time and effort. And I've always had problems with both procrastination and perfectionism...

I was excited about the RPG Maker series from the first time I read about them, several years ago. Now I have come to a point where I have the time and motivation to try my hand at it. However, I have a particular type of game in mind as a goal and I'm not certain if RPG Maker XP is capable of what I want. And I do have several questions, of course:

 

[xpace]

First of all, I'm having some difficulty in getting RPG Maker XP to run on my machines. Right now I'm still using Windows 98SE on both of them. (However, I am planning on installing a partition with Windows XP pretty soon.)

Right away I found an error message. It failed to start and said it could not find "rgss102e.dll"... which is strange because that file was already in my Windows/System directory. I have since downloaded and installed a more recent version of rgss102e.dll, which seems to have solved this problem.

Then I noticed this error:

"Set the screen's DPI to a standard size."

I tried adjusting the screen resolution, but it says it has to run in 1024x768. I tried switching from 32-bit to 16-bit, but neither seems to work. I suspect it is looking for a 24-bit color depth. Unfortunately, my aging GeForce MX440 AGP does not support this. And my other, older rig has a similar AGP card with the same chipset. It gives the same error.

Through trial and error I found that I could get it to run at any resolution higher than 1024x768, at either 16-bit or 32-bit. However, I'm only comfortable working on 1024x768. I did discover, though, that I can start the program at, say, 1280x960 and then immediately switch back to 1024x768. It seems stable, but I haven't tested thoroughly. It may be related to this other thing...

I have run into another problem. I tried out the sample game "KNight-Blade" (which seems excellent, btw) and it does run OK. However, after I quit this game and I am back to the desktop, if I try to switch my screen resolution the machine will lock up instantly and entirely! It will display this error:

Rundll

This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, contact the program vendor.

And then I have to reboot.

I'm not sure if this was due to replacing "rgss102e.dll", due to general OS-decay (like a messy registry or mixed-up dll's), or if it's just the video card. It does not seem to happen at any other time. I am upgrading to a new machine soon, but that doesn't help right now.

 

[xpace]

* MEGA BUMP! *  :tongue2:

Way to help a newbie...

Oh, btw, I discovered that the KNight-Blade demo really wreaks havoc on my PC after I run it. That is, I can exit the game successfully. But ANY program, application, or process I initiate after this will bring a similar error message window and lock up the system - requiring a reboot! :shock: That really bites! :down:

I think either RMXP games are incompatible with my video card, or they do not like some other setting or program I have intalled.

 

[jbart321]

Does your pc meet all of the requirements to run properly?  I am guessing no since you are having some strange problems.  I would have to say it is a combination of the older OS and the older video card.  I don't think it is a compatibility issue with another app (but hard to tell not knowing what you have installed on the pc.

EB's requirements:

Minimum System Requirements

    * Microsoft® Windows® 98/98SE/Me/XP/2000
    * PC with 800MHz Intel® Pentium® III equivalent or higher processor
    * At least 128 MB of system RAM
    * 1024x768 or better video resolution in High Color mode
    * DirectSound-compatible sound card
    * At least 100 MB of available hard disk space


Recommended System Requirements

    * Microsoft® Windows® XP
    * PC with 1.5GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 equivalent or higher processor
    * At least 256 MB of system RAM
    * 1024x768 or better video resolution in True Color mode
    * DirectSound-compatible sound card
    * At least 500 MB of available hard disk space

 

[Despain]

You'd probably get some more help in the support forum rather than discussion. I moved the topic for you.

Welcome to the forums, man.

 

[xpace]

Does your pc meet all of the requirements to run properly?  I am guessing no since you are having some strange problems.

Yes, my system meets all those system requirements, and then some.

Actually, someone on the blade2k forums helped me figure out what was wrong:

http://www.blade2k.net/forums/topic.php ... post_70989

It turns out that by "Set the screen's DPI to a standard size" the error message was referring to the font size that I set in the display properties:

Display Properties > Settings (tab) > Advanced (button) >

And at the top of this window is

"Display: Font Size:"

By default, Windows sets the font size to "Small Fonts (96 dpi)". However, I find the tiny print a bit hard for me to read, so I usually set it to "Large Fonts (120 dpi)". After I set it back to "Small Fonts (96 dpi)" then RMXP worked like a charm.

Seems strange, as I haven't noticed this conflict with a program before. Then again, I did notice that some of the text in some programs, such as the Snes9x emulator, were shifted too far to the left or right and I can surmise that this is related. For example, in Snes9x when I had my fonts set to "Large Fonts (120 dpi)" then the Joypad Configuration window under Options showed a Joypad where the labels for all the buttons were way, way off. But after I switched to the Small Fonts setting all the buttons were labelled perfectly.