Problems with the steam version

[Hollow0n3]

Hello Folks,

I bought Ressonance on steam during the thanksgiving sale and installed it yesterday.
Today I found some time and wanted to play it.
It started fine, I was seeing the usual logos at the start, the menu came up and I looked at the credits.
Then it got weird.
Clickin on the "New Game" button turned the game screen white and the game refused to respond in any way.
I thought it strange and was foced to kill the process to get the game to close.
Following the usual procedure I validated the game files, one file came up as corrupt and it was a strangely small file that was redownloaded.
I tried to play again, same result.
Validated again, same file of miniscule size was redownloaded again.
Then I configured the game to run in window mode.
Same result.
Direct Draw?
Same result.
I never had this problem with one of your games before, so I tried the one other common fix that usally helps when something like this happens.
I shut off steam community support and tried again.
Same result.
Now I am installing the game again and hope this will fix the problem, but I am halfway sure you folks would prefer to know about a problem like this, so I decided to post here while the download is going on in the background.
I have a windows XP machine with service pack 3 and like I mentioned before, this does not happen when I play the blackwell games or gemini rue so I am not sure where the problem could be, unless there is a problem with the version on the steam servers.
I guess I should try to install emerald city confidential and check if the same problem occurs there after the re-download and re-install via steam is done.

I'll keep you up to date, but I would be very gratefull for some help.

Edit: The newly reinstalled version keeps crashing like before.
I can not figure out what's wrong but.. the ressonance.exe is shown as 810mb which I consider rather odd.

I really need some help here since I really wanted to play this.
Oh, and in case you find my sentences structured oddly .. well, I am german so that will probably be the cause.

Edit:

I left the crashed window open and switched back to it after a few minutes, I was shown what I assume should be the intro, a tv-news animation.. without sound but a very low and very annoying sound effect that accelerates when I switch focus to another window.
After what I assume is the end of the animation it went back to beeing a white screen again.. plus the looped and borken sounding sound effect.

[DaveGilbert]

This is a stab in the dark, but email me and I'll give you a code to the direct download version. I'm curious if it's a Steam related problem or a game related problem.

[Hollow0n3]

My inner bugtester is telling me that it seems to be a game related problem, since I did download the demoversion just now and installed it.
It has the same problem and it seems I am unable to replicate the showing of the bugged news sequence.
I will gladly email you to try to figure this out.. since this is a very weird thing.
Oh and yes, I did try to install emerald city confidental too and that works.. so.. it really must be somethign very specific.

[DaveGilbert]

So it's definitely game related! Emerald City was made using a different engine and SDK entirely, so that wouldn't tell us anything. If you download one of the demos for any of our other games, and they work, that will definitely tell us if it was an engine related problem or a computer setup related problem.

[Hollow0n3]

Like I mentioned before, this is the only game that you made that I can not play.
Well, at least from the ones that are avaible on steam so far.
I can play and love the blackwell games, thats why it was so odd for me to encounter a problem like this with ressonance.

Edit: I found a way to replicate the bugged news sequence actually showing up.
Strangely it's most likely to happen when I start both my steam bought version and the demo, let it crash, don't force the processes to end and switch back and forth between the two windows.
If I switch after the faulty newssequence starts it does not pick up where it should but crashes fully again, including the looping and partial sound effect I mentioned before.

I seriously have no clue whats happening since I tried pretty much every setting the config offers me.

[Hollow0n3]

A new day and a new discovery from me.
I found a setting that lets the game start, but the newssequence is not displayed properly and the audio stutters and overtakes the news that should be seen.
Hitting ESC actually ends with me having controll over the frist character.

Window, 960x720
DirectDraw 5
Hq3x filter
Default WaveOut (2nd option for me, 1st is Default DirectSound)
Win32 MidiMapper

Going to fiddle with this some more, but I am suspecting that this is a sound issue within the game that does not interact well with my sounddrivers now.
It is strange that speech works after the now slightly less bugged newssequence tho.

Edit: Direct Sound(Hardware mixer) setting results in the newssequence running, but without sound and the rest of the audio is regulary disturbed by a static-like sound click sound, similar to a pencil hitting a plastic cup.

I would say that it is save to say that this is a sound related issue. Going to test some more by just fiddleing with the sound settings very carefully.

Edit: Default WaveOut Device & Default MCI Music Device result in the news sequence not playing properly, it basicallay hangs with a half white image of the dubai opening part and the audio stuttering heavily. It advances properly to the game itself where the audio plays without a problem.

Edit: I now changed back to Direct3d9 to test if it runs better, and with zero graphic filters and the same audiosettings as above it plays perfectly. Verrry strange.
Did set the filter to 3x nearest neighbour filter to see if it still would bug out, it worked. The only remaining problem that I could spot in the first minutes of the game is that the music stutters when I save a game.
This was a very strange expirience. Hopefully this thread will help other people if anyone else encounters the same problem.
If something weird pops up again I will bump this thread.