[Tech] Gemini Rue and Windows 7 64Bit

[Akimine]

Hello !
Just wanted to say I had an horrible mouse lag too, which I solved by unchecking "enhance pointer precision" in mouse's properties (i'm on a desktop computer and windows 7 x64)

Cheers !

[Sueno]

I got this game as part of the Indie Royale bundle. I have the same problem as everyone else. I decided to make a simple game launcher that switches to 16bit color depth before launching the game. After game exits it will switch back to 32bit color. I tested it on 1 desktop and 3 laptops. All have Win7x64 installed.

You can download from here. http://www.mediafire.com/?6cnj0hu9djg38oy

For those concerned about virus, I have included the AutoIt source code. This code came from the AutoIt community. http://www.autoitscript.com/site/. Scan the exe with your preferred AntiVirus program. Just a heads up, AVG and Norton may give a false positive. Avast, Microsoft Securty Essentials and MalwareBytes give an all clean report. In any event go with your gut instinct.

Setup:
1) Run Gemini Rue Setup as Admin (C:\Program Files (x86)\Gemini Rue\winsetup.exe)
2) Check Run in Window instead of full-screen. Set the graphics filter that allows the best resolution for you. For me, I set to 4x nearest neighbor. This gives me a 1280x800 window. Click on Save button.
3) Copy Gemini Rue Launcher.exe to C:\Program Files (x86)\Gemini Rue\.
4) Replace your Geminie Rue shortcut with the Gemini Rue.lnk in the zip.
5) Enjoy!

I hope this helps out some people with newer computers. Good luck and have fun!

[DaveGilbert]

Thank you very much, Sueno!  This issue has plagued a small minority of users, and while the battery trick works sometimes it has been impossible to fix the problem for everybody (since all computers are different).  This is a nice short-term solution!

I don't feel comfortable bundling an application that could set off a virus warning with the game itself, so if anyone else encounters this problem, I will send them to this thread. 

[MisterS42]

I have tried everything on this thread and have not been able to get the game running.  I am running it on a laptop with integrated graphics (that is able to play most games).  I'm quite discouraged and want to know if this will be remedied by patch or something. 

[DaveGilbert]

To everyone still having problems:

So sorry about this.  This same exact problem happened to me when I got my new win 7 laptop, and after spending three hours on the phone to tech support, we happened upon the "high performance battery setting" solution which seems to have fixed it.  Most of the time, when other folks have this problem, the battery fix sorts it out.  On some others, though, it does not. 

There are two issues with this game that cause havoc on newer laptops.  One is that it is a 16 bit game.  This game started production back in the WinXP days, and that system was perfectly capable of handling 16 bit.  That is not the case, anymore.  Another issue is that it uses DirectDraw to make the rain effects - something else that Win 7 can only handle after a bit of fiddling.

We'd really love to get to the bottom of this, but as indies with limited resources it is difficult to test this game on a large number of machines to see what works.  So, here's what I suggest.  Go to the AGS tech forum.  AGS is the engine that we used to make the game, and the techies there are better qualified to help you than we are.  Tell them your problem, give them your specs, and see if any of their suggestions work.  If it does work, please post the solution here or email it to me.  That way we can help everyone!

Thanks, and my apologies again.

-Dave

[MisterS42]

AGS are suggesting some different things for those of you that are still having issues like me:
http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=44758.0

Though we haven't been successful yet, maybe their suggestions might help someone else here.

[MisterS42]

Hi Dave,

One of the folks at AGS suggested that it might have something to do with the snow/rain plug in:
http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=25665.0
Because I don't have issues with other AGS games.
I don't want to try deleting the .dll's as that may have adverse effects.
I guess the developer isn't around anymore, but if this helps others I'm glad I shared it.

It was also suggested that I reach out to you for further help with this issue.

Very bummed because I've heard great things about your game, so any help you can give me to get this running will be appreciated.

[DaveGilbert]

I'm not sure it's the snow/rain plugin's fault exactly, but the snow/rain plugin only works in DirectDraw mode which I know some Win 7 laptops don't like, for some reason. 

If by "developer" you mean the developer of AGS, then yeah.  He doesn't check the forums as often as he used to. 

Here's an idea.  Have you tried changing your computer's graphics settings to 16 bit, and then running the game in windowed mode?

[MisterS42]

Yes that was one of the first things I read in this forum.  Still freezes... though it got to the Wadjeteye screen before it froze.  Do you think this is something that will be fixed in a patch or am I just SOL?

[DaveGilbert]

I'm not sure this could be fixed in a patch, exactly, since it seems to be a core issue with the AGS engine and not with the game itself.  I can totally understand if you want a refund, after this.  Did you buy the game from Steam?  I'm not sure what their refund policy is, but if you can't get your money back from them you are welcome to a free game from the WEG store.

[MisterS42]

I got it through the Indie Bundle so no worries about a refund.  I just really wanted to try the game, which was the reason for the purchase of the bundle.  I'm going to keep trying.

[Sueno]

I noticed after installing an ATI video card on my desktop, I no longer need to switch to 16 color depth before starting the game. I then realized my 4 computers are all using intel video driver for 2nd generation i3 and i5. I believe the video driver may be the culprit. Unfortunately, intel has not released a new driver in awhile and the computer manufactures usually are driver update behind. Just a heads up for those with intel chipset.

[Sueno]

@MisterS42. I know this may not be the best work around but if you really want to play the game, you can download virtuabox and use with a copy of win xp. I did that on one of my laptops to play full screen and it works great. https://www.virtualbox.org/

[MisterS42]

That workaround did it!  I still can only run it in windowed mode & 16-bit. What a hassle to get it to run though.  Will other Wadjeteye games need this work-around?  The Blackwell games look interesting, but I'm apprehensive after the difficulties I'm having with this one.  Any thoughts?

[DaveGilbert]

The other games definitely DON'T have this same problem.  It's something very specific to Gemini Rue because of the snow/rain issue and the fact that it's 16 bit.  But if you want to be 100% certain,  there are free demos of every game we've done so you try them out beforehand to make sure they work (although if you do run into the same problem, you can safely switch the other games to Direct3D mode).