Die by the Sword - Xtended v1.6.0

[Blinn]

Nice to see an update for XLauncher. Keep up the good work. I love the sparkly effects on the sword clashes.

[Almos]

I recently decided to try this game again. Loved it! Unfortunately I can't get the game to render properly in Windows 7 regardless of compability options, and Xtended isn't working for me at all. I won't even start. The program terminates immediately and returns Application Error 0xc0000142, and nothing further. Is there anything I can do to fix this? I would be grateful for any assistance. Meanwhile I'm going to start watching a Let's Play I found.

[Hazard]

I recently decided to try this game again. Loved it! Unfortunately I can't get the game to render properly in Windows 7 regardless of compability options, and Xtended isn't working for me at all. I won't even start. The program terminates immediately and returns Application Error 0xc0000142, and nothing further. Is there anything I can do to fix this? I would be grateful for any assistance. Meanwhile I'm going to start watching a Let's Play I found.

Errors like this (and especially 0xc0000142) are always difficult to track down. A game as old as this one and modifications via memory injection always bear additional risks of it clashing with some system configurations or drivers. The error may also be caused by damaged files, either in the DBTS installation or the Windows Registry or in some rarely used windows system file.

Did you install the game from a download or via CD?

Some things i'd suggest:
- Run the game with Xtended enabled as Administrator (right-click xLauncher.exe and select "Run as Administrator". Make sure to disable all compatibility options first.)
- Reinstalling the game might help
- Updating Chipset and Graphics drivers could be worth a try.
- Also make sure DirectX is up to date and .Net 4 is installed.

Beyond that people usually suggest to repair/reinstall Windows when 0xc0000142 occurs, but thats too much work in my opinion for something that might possibly not even fix the error.

[Almos]

Thank you for the quick reply. Sadly, nothing seems to work. I have no CD for the game since I bought a digital copy from GOG, but I did try with a NRG I found in a torrent (after converting it to ISO-format). I tried installing with XLauncher, but no luck there either. The error persists. I refuse to reinstall Windows until I really need to, and although this is a great game, I simply cannot be bothered to go that far. I'll have to enjoy it though a Let's Play for now. Perhaps I'll try again once I do reinstall Windows for some reason. Thank you again.

PS: Lazy Ass Gamer suggests that killing explorer.exe might work for games as ancient as this one. Lazy Ass Gamer also had to use Virtual Machine to run Windows XP to even get the installer to work. (http://youtu.be/8C83EJQjGQU) While I had no problems with the installation, do you think that Virtual Machine might help with my problem?

[Hazard]

PS: Lazy Ass Gamer suggests that killing explorer.exe might work for games as ancient as this one. Lazy Ass Gamer also had to use Virtual Machine to run Windows XP to even get the installer to work. (http://youtu.be/8C83EJQjGQU) While I had no problems with the installation, do you think that Virtual Machine might help with my problem?

I don't know, but usually anything graphics-related runs extremely slow in Virtual Machines. Will probably not be playable like that. He used the VM only to install the game to disk and that'll probably not change anything in your case. :/

[ArtemCh]

IMHO best version 1.02. because the latest versions of all the dark and difficult to see the position of weapons in space. As well as change the color. It is difficult to grasp the eye. Made a strong bias towards beauty and aesthetics. But the gameplay thus loses. I play not the first year and professionally, so I know what I'm talking

[Hazard]

Yay, a new version! It's quite a large update this time. And i've also updated the Modpack! Some fixes and a new gamemode that offers chaotic splatter action.

DOWNLOAD for DbtS Xtended v1.6.0
DOWNLOAD for the Hazardous Modpack v1.6.0

Changes in Xtended v1.6.0:
- Added Bumpmapping (It may run very slow on weaker graphics cards! Can be turned off in the xLauncher options.)
Bumpmapping textures get generated when a level is loaded for the first time. Loading a level thus will take a lot longer once.
- Bypassing the 20-FPS limit to some extend by forcing frame rendering after a certain amount of unrendered game ticks.
- The lighting engine can now render 2 concurrent dynamic lights, allowing more fluent light transitions.
- Added "Spectator Mode" to the arena gamemodes, in which all 4 players are controlled by the AI. Just lay back and watch the carnage!
- Arena fights with only AI-controlled players don't end prematurely anymore, but run until the actual win condition is met.
- Pressing any key in ai-only arena matches doesn't instantly exit the battle anymore. Press ESC to exit.
- Compass toggle key is now F2 instead of F5 (to prevent overlap with the quicksave)
- The Encounter Coop map can now be played alone. The player will receive a buff when he starts solo.
- Entering the original game cheats while holding down F1 doesn't work anymore. Use the "cheat" console command instead.
- Added an in-game console that allows certain commands to be entered while playing. Press F1 to open. Supported commands:

exit - Exits the current level and returns to the Quest selection or arena menu.
fps - Toggles the display of FPS (Frames Per Second) in game.
fullscreen - Toggle fullscreen mode (same as Alt+Enter)
shading - Toggles advanced shading (same as F11)
quicksave - Save the game as "Quicksave" (same as F5)
cheat [name] - Trigger one of the original game cheats. For example "cheat mukor" for invulnerability.
show [actors|lights|fixtures|entities|all|none] - displays the name and location of certain objects. "show none" turns it off again.
freeze - Freezes all enemies. The player can still move.
spawn [race][\variant][@colorID] - Spawns an enemy of the given type. [\variant] and [@colorID] are optional.
Examples: "spawn orc" creates a normal orc and "spawn ogre\uberogre@2" spawns an ogre with two clubs and green skin.[/quote]


Changes in Modpack v1.6.0:
- Added new "Bloody Mess" gametype mod. Need to ventilate some anger? Send limbs flying all over the place!
- Fixed bugs with the Battlefield arena and Screamers in Xtended v1.6.0
- Removed the Spectator Mode gametype mod. A better version is included in DBTS Xtended now.


Bumpmapping screenshot:


Bloody Mess screenshot:

[Hazard]

IMHO best version 1.02. because the latest versions of all the dark and difficult to see the position of weapons in space. As well as change the color. It is difficult to grasp the eye. Made a strong bias towards beauty and aesthetics. But the gameplay thus loses. I play not the first year and professionally, so I know what I'm talking

Yes, the implementation of dynamic lights changed the overall style a lot. That's why i implemented an easy way to turn the dynamic lighting on and off. Just press F11 and you have the original brigther and more colorful style back, without having to stick to older versions.

[nuthriz]

...I wonder if it would run on an eee pc... which is currently my only functional machine >.>

Splendid work anyway and Very Big Thanks for continuously adding more life to this great game.

[Raptor]

This looks awesome! Will definitely reinstall DbtS when I get off work!

[Hazard]

...I wonder if it would run on an eee pc... which is currently my only functional machine >.>

Splendid work anyway and Very Big Thanks for continuously adding more life to this great game.

Thanks for the kind words. It's always nice to see your work getting appreciated.

As for the eee PC: I can merely guess, but i'd say "probably not, but it may be worth a try". Being an old game, DBTS isn't too demanding. Xtended requires quite a lot extra processing power, but when you turn off advanced lighting the toll on the graphics hardware won't be too high. I have an 8 year old business laptop and it can run the game with ~115 FPS when i turn lighting off. With lighting and bumpmapping on it falls to around 10 FPS because the graphics card is just incredibly bad at handling pixel shaders.

[nuthriz]

Well yes, without all the graphics fireworks I'd expect it to run quite nicely - that netbook isn't all that bad, it's just that horrid and almost non-existent gpu.
Might be able to try it soon, will report the effects.

[ArtemCh]

IMHO best version 1.02. because the latest versions of all the dark and difficult to see the position of weapons in space. As well as change the color. It is difficult to grasp the eye. Made a strong bias towards beauty and aesthetics. But the gameplay thus loses. I play not the first year and professionally, so I know what I'm talking

Yes, the implementation of dynamic lights changed the overall style a lot. That's why i implemented an easy way to turn the dynamic lighting on and off. Just press F11 and you have the original brigther and more colorful style back, without having to stick to older versions.

I'm not that stupid. The difference is clear (see attachments). How to restore the previous color completely ?
And how to remove those ridiculous cloud of blood and likeness of sparks behind which nothing can be seen..?
Why is the image in windowed mode approximated, and below is cropped?

The only thing wherein I can see the benefit of the new version - "Bypassing the 20-FPS limit to some extend by forcing frame rendering after a certain amount of unrendered game ticks". Possible whether transfer this to version 1.02 ?

[VanBurenPhilips]

Just want to say thanks for your continued work on this - very, very much appreciated.

[Hippox77]

- Bypassing the 20-FPS limit to some extend by forcing frame rendering after a certain amount of unrendered game ticks.

Hi again!

First, congratulation on the new Extended patch! Awesome stuff.

Can you elaborate a bit on the FPS lock bypass? Like, what are the practical consequence of it in the way you have bypass it. Because you say to 'some extend'.

I just tried it, of course, and I do think it was smoother. However, the animations still seems a bit slow. But that might just be the game? Not the FPS? My FPS was at approximately 450 FPS, so above the 120 FPS 'perfect zone'.

Anyhow, super work. And I do believe It's playable for me now with this change, at least (I am super sensitive to low FPS (Below 35 FPS).

On another matter:

I noticed that the in-game gamma option, doesn't have an effect besides in the menus, not in-game. The game does seem quite dark with extended shading!

Also, what does Maximum NetPlay LAG and IPX LAG do? For best performance which should I choose? (On LAN)