Man, this is frustrating! Searched through this forum, read all the posts, and still no avail. Usually, I'd consider myself pretty good at this stuff, but...anyway, here are my specs:

WinXP Home SP2
DirectX 9.0C
3.0 Pentium IV
1 Gig of RAM
ATI X800XL

Okay, so far, this is what I've done:

• Fully installed and patched Longbow 2 2.09 and DDU
• Installed dgVoodoo wrapper and set settings exactly the same as A8VR's in the Longbow graphics tweaking sticky thread
• Added [Backdoors]HEAP_PERCENT=0
• Doesn't run, even with setting Win98 compatibility in Lonbow 2's shortcut properties, so installed Windows Compatibility Toolkit Method 3
• Longbow 2 runs, but the glide wrapper doesn't seem to be working - resolution is still at 640X480 and images are rendered like software mode
• Basically, anything to do with graphics is screwed up. I get random crashes when viewing Jane's encyclopedia (Read Jane's) and worse still, the missions don't run at all. Whenever a mission is loading, I see the loading screen, but then it immediately reverts back to the normal UI screen, music and all.

Also installed this on my laptop as a test. The same setup surprisingly yields a much more stable Longbow 2, with no crashes and actual missions, BUT the glide issues still exist - i.e. they look like they would in software mode plus hi-res does not work. Specs for laptop are:

1.7 Ghz Pentium M
WinXP Home SP2
512 mB RAM
ATI X300 mobility

Any ideas? I'm desperate at this point.

Well, here are my specs:

WinXP Pro SP2
Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2
1GB DDR2 RAM
NVidia 6800 Ultra
2.13 GHz Pentium M

Anyway, I am using Longbow Anthology which (from what I understand) is LB2 fully patched.

I didn't like dgVoodoo and instead use Zeck's Glidewrapper, version 0.84c. I also use CPU grabber and set it to about 75 for my machine. I finally also did the HEAP_PERCENT mod and now LB2 works perfectly.

I understand your frustration, it took me a long time before I hit upon this combination to get LB2 to work completely smoothly.

A note on Glidewrapper. I use it for Total Air War and Janes F-15 and it does great on all 3 programs. So that's my plug.

Hope this helps, good luck!

FastCargo

D-scythe, I would recommend that:

1) You do not install the DDU patch. It has given me nothing but problems.
2) Use the dgVoodoo wrapper, and (since you have already installed the DDU patch) go to Start->Programs->Jane's Combat SIms-?Longbow 2->Graphics Configuration and set the game to use Glide (and not DD as per default)

That should do the trick.

Another thing to try if above fails is to test with an older version of dgVoodoo. A friend had an ATI card (can't remember the specific model) and dgVoodoo 1.40+ crashed on start but 1.31 worked fine for him.

/KC

If game is still running in Software that means the wrapper is'nt being detected. Make sure your unzip the wrapper into \Janes\Longbow\ -directory and overwrite any files (if any) that are already there.
Also don't run the DDU-patch.
If the game works in Software-mode chances are 99% it will also work with a wrapper.
I dont know if my wrapper-settings (the ones you saw in AV8R's post) will work on your video-card. My card is a GF6800gt, not Radeon.

No joy. Tried using Zeck's glidewrapper and dgVoodoo 1.31 and 1.41, both don't work. Using lb2cfg (or whatever it's called), I set it to both D3D and Glide, neither option working. It's weird because sometimes I get "Read Jane's" working, but I can never get into the cockpit.

Followed the Longbow install guide to the letter, still doesn't work. My machine doesn't seem to be picking up the Glide wrapper and I can't fly any missions. Strange.

BTW, I never actually tried software mode. It just looks like software mode (or the software mode in Jane's F-15).

Try software mode to see that it actually works. If it does'nt, then theres no point trying to get the wrapper to work.

What's up with it? I haven't noticed anything bad with it. Can anyone document what it did to your systems? 'IF' it's bad, lets find the reason.


Here's what it adds.

Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is A851-238B

Directory of C:\Janes\Longbow2

12/27/2005 09:59 PM .
12/27/2005 09:59 PM ..
12/27/2005 09:59 PM 15 CA.INI
07/16/1998 05:44 PM 6,995 D3D.CFG
01/23/1998 03:54 PM 17,196 fbtst128.tga
01/23/1998 03:54 PM 66,348 fbtst256.tga
01/23/1998 03:54 PM 1,836 fbtst32.tga
01/23/1998 03:54 PM 4,908 fbtst64.tga
07/20/1998 07:40 PM 1,865,216 flightd3.dle
07/17/1998 11:44 PM 6,986 G200.cfg
07/16/1998 01:23 PM 4,169 Generic.cfg
07/17/1998 11:44 PM 5,572 I740.cfg
08/05/1998 04:25 PM 718,848 LB2.exe
08/03/1998 02:27 PM 8,041 lb2_ddu.txt
08/05/1998 04:25 PM 226,816 lb2cfg.exe
07/16/1998 08:48 AM 6,589 Perm2.cfg
07/16/1998 05:44 PM 6,995 Riva128.cfg
07/08/1998 04:24 PM 6,989 Rndv2x00.cfg
07/20/1998 07:49 PM 1,874,432 tutord3.dle

I'm not saying its bad. Just trying to make the troubleshooting simpler so he does'nt need to worry what LB2cfg is set to. One less issue to worry about. Thats all.

True.

I should compare the install files along the way, I wonder if the EXE is larger or what else changes. It's the latest and greatest from Janes, so I wonder what else they added to it. The CFG files are obvious, but what about the rest.

The rest are probably modified to work with the new CFG-files. As far as I know the DDU (DisplayDriverUpdate) only adds supports for more video-cards, nothing more.

Have you tried limiting your RAM to 512?

Hmm, glide all of a sudden started working again But there are still a few problems with it, and I've found software mode to be a lot more stable and reliable. For example, ALT-Q to exit a mission would produce a black screen if Longbow is in Glide, but in software mode everything just becomes black and white.

I haven't even tried out the "difficult" things yet like firing rockets or flying the Kiowa

Franze, no I have not tried limiting my RAM...I play other games too, and I don't want to go through all the hassle, unfortunately.

If you want to try it and see if it works, go to Start>Run and type in msconfig - then click the tab for boot.ini, go to advanced options, check /MAXMEM field, and type in 512. This works for me, otherwise the game won't start at all.

It is a bit of a hassle but my PC can reboot quickly.

Well, I'm using my laptop now anyway - it only has 512 mB of RAM. Longbow won't work at all on my PC with 1 gig, and since I already can get it working with my laptop, I'll just use that.

D-scythe, you dont have to limit your ram every time you want to play LB2, just use the Microsoft thingy on this site for limiting ram only when LB2 starts.
http://www.speichts.com/games/lb2/index.htm

I have it installed ona laptop with 2 gb of ram, and it works like a charm, I no longer have to manually limit my ram.