Jump to content

Lego Rock Raiders - Freezing On Startup


Chinwonder2
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hey everyone, bit of an odd one here. I just got a new PC and tried to install LRR on a Windows 10 PC. However, it just freezes as soon as I run the LegoRR.exe but the audio can be heard. I've got everything under the compatability section correct as I followed this guide: https://kb.rockraidersunited.com/index.php?title=Running_LEGO_Rock_Raiders_on_modern_Windows

It ran fine on my old Windows 8.1 PC, not sure why this would be any different. I have an Intel UHD Graphics 630 video card.

 

Any one able to help on this one? Thanks.

 

ehp4467hv91l1ki6g.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That guide is not good.

 

You should download Masterpiece Edition executable from Step 3 here. It has no DRM and has better compatibility with modern Windows.

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Lego_Rock_Raiders

 

If that doesn't help also use dgVoodoo 2 from Step 5 and follow DirectX 2-8 installation instructions from link below. Some people say dgvoodoo version 2.53 works best on Windows 10, but I can't confirm it. Since this has dll files your Internet browser or antivirus might complain, but it is safe, it is used even in old games sold on Steam.

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/DgVoodoo_2#Installation

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok I will try those, thank you so much!

 

-Chin

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to work at all. All I get now is the same frozen window with DgVoodoo in the corner.

 

wsy6w18enn2n4k26g.jpg

 

9ex2tle5jy337i56g.jpg

 

fnmo3x2d02khb3m6g.jpg

 

-Chin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey, I totally forgot I wrote that page! xD It was written around the time when we'd just discovered that it was possible to run LRR on Win10, which for a long time had been thought impossible to get it to anything playable. There is a more updated version over here, which I would normally plug, https://www.rockraidersunited.com/guides/your-master-guide-to-get-lrr-to-run-r12/  but I don't expect anything in there to actually help: and you've done most of the stuff anyway. Freezing on startup is an odd one indeed, but yet you say the audio's still playing... very bizarre.

 

... It's been known that LRR just dislikes AMD graphics cards overall, and people have had mixed success with getting them to work (some info here, but not much that you didn't know already). I know you don't have an AMD graphics card, but it goes to show the problem is machine-specific and yours might be one of the machines on which it goes splod for no reason - which explains why it ran fine on your (presumably different) Win7 machine and refuses to run now.

 

I guess you could try some or all of the command line parameters, but I don't particularly expect them to help either.

 

 

Wait a minute. Is the "audio that's playing" the main menu music or the cutscene music? If it's the latter, getting the cutscenes to play on LRR is a different beast.

 

Try this out: https://oresome.rockraidersunited.com/download/448 It's a codec for the LRR cutscenes, which means they might not play properly without it.

Additionally, it might be worth trying to avoid getting the videos to play. This can be done in two ways: either by making sure that the game can't find the .avi files (gauging from your installation it looks like you copied the stuff off the disk - which is fine! - but it means the AVIs may be buried in the data folder  - you'll also need to take the CD out of your drive), or just modding it out. I've uploaded a LegoRR1.wad that should probably do that here.

 

 

On 9/27/2020 at 9:59 AM, antrad said:

You should download Masterpiece Edition executable from Step 3 here. It has no DRM and has better compatibility with modern Windows.

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Lego_Rock_Raiders

FYI the second statement is largely incorrect: the no DRM is the better compatibility, to my knowledge there's nothing else about it. The first statement is also largely incorrect too, as if it wasn't the Masterpiece Edition executable to start with the error message would likely be totally different on startup, and we wouldn't have even gotten this far to begin with. Oh well, it doesn't hurt to at least know that's what we're working with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Heya, the audio that's playing is the startup scene with the bricks falling.  Here's a screen recording of my issue, better than trying to explain it lol:

 

 

 

I will try those cutscene suggestions though, thanks everyone for your help so far.

 

-Chin

 

EDIT

 

 

OMG, I just got it working (not sure if it's gonna be stable without crashes but it's SOMETHING), I just deleted the AVI folder as the video codec you sent just refused to install. So weird that the video files would cause this issue. I'll try reinstalling the game as normal and just delete the AVI folder to see if that was the problem: 

 

 

-Chin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah! So it was the cutscenes after all. Those have known to be a bit of an issue. But it works now :D Well, for a given value of 'work.' LRR will always be an unstable mess...

 

BTW, you can disable that pesky dgVoodoo watermark down the bottom right: check out step 4 of this guide.

 

.... Deleting the entire AVI folder is one way around that XD That will probably also disable the main menu animations as well (which are .flic or something), but those don't usually crash the game: so you only need to delete the .avi files. Or use the modded LegoRR1.wad I provided that disables the playing of videos: replace it with your existing LegoRR1.wad (after you make a backup!) and you needn't worry about that.


Also, I wonder if you just wait out the length of the cutscenes if the game will still load :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm well it does load the levels but it’s quite unstable. I’ve had it crash numerous times, once on the title screen, once when starring the first level ‘Driller Night’ and once whilst completing the level.

 

Since I’ve deleted the AVI folder and used that modded WAD file, the are no cut scenes at all, not even the company logos during start up. And interestingly enough, Baz’s mod appears to load up and start the first level ok, but I haven’t tried to complete it yet. It’s so strange, my Windows 10 laptop if I remember correctly, works 100%... Damn these old games haha. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Chinwonder2 said:

Hmm well it does load the levels but it’s quite unstable. I’ve had it crash numerous times, once on the title screen, once when starring the first level ‘Driller Night’ and once whilst completing the level.

Yep, that's LRR :P Well, it's usually more stable than that, but unlike the loading freeze, there's no easy fix for that though.

 

I wonder.... If you take off the -best and -window command line parameters from your LegoRR.exe shortcut - so it's got none - when you run it a little pre-running box with some options will pop up. There are (usually) two graphical display drivers: something along the lines of Direct 3D Hal and RGB Emulation. Direct 3D Hal is usually known to work when RGB Emulation has literally never worked for anyone in the history of RRU :P so perhaps LRR is autoselecting the latter one, which could explain the insanely terrible crash rate: in which case you'll need to select Direct 3D Hal.

Or nothing might change ?‍♂️

 

There are a couple of mod fixes - jacking up TextureUsage in Lego.cfg helps prevent silliness, and Community Edition has some crash fixes, but I've never known a reliable setup to get a crash-free experience.

 

13 hours ago, Chinwonder2 said:

Damn these old games haha. 

I do think it's mostly LRR :PLR1 from about the same time runs almost flawlessly on Win10 after turning off the cutscenes and you have a 50% chance of needing to specify -alphatrans , but from there, it's absolutely perfect. Alpha Team and Lego Island 1 require finagling to get to work but from there work pretty flawlessly. LRR and Lego Creator have... unique issues, though :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm, I'm not seeing a file by the name of "Lego.cfg" in my installation folder. I'll give that community edition a try and also forcing Direct 3D Hal.

 

tjrp3544stpd3si6g.jpg

 

-Chin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Chinwonder2 said:

Hmm, I'm not seeing a file by the name of "Lego.cfg" in my installation folder.

 

Ah, of course you wouldn't, yeah - it's hiding in LegoRR1.wad. Use Wad Recycler to open them (drag-n-drop). LegoRR1.wad should contain Lego.cfg (open with Notepad or better, I prefer Notepad++) which should up the very top have a value called TextureUsage. Throw on a couple of zeroes to that number - if it doesn't have them already, original value is 3145728 . Increasing that will help a little but I'm not too sure on the specifics. Save Lego.cfg and then drag the folder LegoRR1 onto Wad Recycler to recompile the .wad file.

 

It's all hit-or-miss from here :/ some people report CE fixing all their crash issues, some report CE increasing crashes to the level of unplayability, so who knows: you've got to be willing to experiment. At least it's running now! :)


P.S. Thanks a lot for the screenshots and videos, they're really helpful in ascertaining what's going on!

Edited by aidenpons
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm, I can't seem to pass the Mission Success screen, the game just crashes to the Desktop. The ONLY thing I can possibly think of is that I'm now using HDMI for my output and previously I was using VGA. Is that a possibility and if so, how could one emulate that, as I don't have my old VGA or a spare monitor?

 

Also, I tried that WAD Recycler and when I drag the .WAD file, it just keeps asking me to drag and drop the file. Also again, I can't find a download for the Community Edition.

 

-Chin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Chinwonder2 said:

Hmm, I can't seem to pass the Mission Success screen, the game just crashes to the Desktop. The ONLY thing I can possibly think of is that I'm now using HDMI for my output and previously I was using VGA. Is that a possibility and if so, how could one emulate that, as I don't have my old VGA or a spare monitor?

This is definitely not a problem as I've ran LRR with all sorts of cables and it still works :P

 

I think the issue is the contents of your Data\AVI folder, which I know you cleaned out. Can you send a screenshot of that? If you nuked the whole folder then the file Capt.flh will be missing, which is needed for the final Score animation. I could definitely see LRR crashing if it can't find the file.


I know in order to get LRR to start you needed to remove some stuff, but you'll only need to delete the .avi files: all of the .flh files are main menu animations, which never have an issue.

 

As more of a sidenote, using the command line parameter -reduceflics should force the game to not play them, which may or may not help - I'm not sure how it interacts with the files not being there. This shouldn't be needed.

 

5 hours ago, Chinwonder2 said:

Also, I tried that WAD Recycler and when I drag the .WAD file, it just keeps asking me to drag and drop the file. Also again, I can't find a download for the Community Edition.

 

As for the Wad Recycler, double-click WADRecycler.exe to open it first, then drag-and-drop a .wad file from Windows Explorer into the window that popped up and belongs to WADRecycler. (I'd send a gif but not sure how to record properly). It can take a while (LegoRR0.wad can take about twenty seconds on my machine sometimes) and it might freeze as it does so, but it should definitely work.

If you can't get that to work at all then Wad Tool is also an option, albeit a much more complicated one to use.

 

 

As for the CE topic, it's vanished into the ether. It'll probably vanish out of the ether and into this world, but for the moment it's not around. In any case, Community Edition and the WAD modding won't get around the hard, reproducible crashes like the loading stuff you've described: they can only help out with the gameplay further down the line.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, I think I've got it!

 

All I've done is added the following parameters to the desktop shortcut (to imitate the 'Standard' shortcut the game defaults to),  -reduceanimation -reduceflics -reduceimages -fpslock . So basically, no videos/cutscene animations run at all, so that fixed the success screen crash. And I've tested it on a few of the starting levels and I've not experienced any crashes, I've even tried to load up Baz's Mod which starts up ok (haven't completed the first level yet to see if it's crash-free. 

 

ALso, I've managed to get the in-game music to play using the fix uploaded here: https://www.rockraidersunited.com/guides/lrr-music-without-cd-fix-r11/

 

 

So all swings and roundabouts from here hopefully haha, thank you all so much for your help, I really appreciate it. 

 

One last question, is there anything that could be done to make the playing window a little bigger, I know that fullscreen doesn't work well at all, but it's difficult for me to concentrate on such a small window for up to hours on end, especially with Baz's mod. Any tips?

 

p1vrgm0iom362006g.jpg

 

Thanks.

 

-Chin

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/28/2020 at 1:19 AM, aidenpons said:

FYI the second statement is largely incorrect: the no DRM is the better compatibility, to my knowledge there's nothing else about it. The first statement is also largely incorrect too, as if it wasn't the Masterpiece Edition executable to start with the error message would likely be totally different on startup, and we wouldn't have even gotten this far to begin with. Oh well, it doesn't hurt to at least know that's what we're working with.

 

The wording here is confusing, so I am not sure what you were trying to say. For me it was impossible to play Rock Raiders on both Windows XP on my old computer and on Windows 7 on my current computer without the Masterpiece Edition executable no matter what I tried. As far as I'm concerned, if the game doesn't start, it is first thing to try before doing anything else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.