jcarle

I'm playing Need For Speed: Underground 2 on my computer and it's having a hard time running it smoothly... Now before anyone even suggests it, I don't want to build another computer (not right now), I'm trying to find ways to improve the game as best as possible on THIS computer. My computer is the following: Asus CUSL2 Motherboard Intel Pentium III 800EB Processor 512 MB 133Mhz Ram Asus/nVidia GeForce FX5200 128MB AGP Video Card Creative SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 80GB Seagate HardDrive with 8MB Cache LG 52X CD-Rom My computer is configured as follows: Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 DirectX 9.0c Latest drivers and firmware for all pieces of hardware No running processes in the background Harddrive is defragged I suspect my CPU is the bottleneck but I have no idea how to check this while I'm playing the game. Interesting thing though is that when I moved from my old GeForce 2 Ti to my GeForce FX5200, all my stats within 3DMark went up EXCEPT one: Fill Rate (Multi-Texturing): GeForce 2 Ti - 589.8 MTexels/s GeForce FX 5200 - 284.9 MTexels/s That one really struck me as very weird. But I've never been able to find out why... Hope someone has ideas.

If you're using the latest version of XPreview and it still doesn't work, e-mail me and send me a copy of your winntbbu.dll...

The compression bin does not support CAB files at the moment. For repacking of drivers.cab and other CABs, you can use CABARC.EXE using syntax similar to: cabarc -r -p -m LZX:21 N mmssetup.cab *.*

I've updated XPreview to load winntbb.dll files that are missing the billboard text completely. Just re-download, only the module version changed.

When you change a string to "", it removes it. However, what I'm curious to find out is what happens during setup when you run this winntbb.dll? The last time I tested a setup screen by removing the strings completely, it's errored on me during the loading of the setup screen. If you effectively remove a string and setup still loads, let me know? Or if someone can tell me if they have an original winntbb.dll (from microsoft) unmodified that DOESN'T include strings 27/28, let me know... I'll make some adjustments to XPreview's winntbb plug-in.

Thanks. Looks wild.

Source: microsoft.com Source: felgall.com IMHO, it's always best to format fresh then to convert. It's the same mentality as that of upgrading an OS vs fresh install. Fresh is always better. EDIT: Looks like I posted the same thing tak did. oops. EDIT: Why don't you use Norton Ghost?

When you remove the MS text, you're actually supposed to change the string table to " ", not completely remove. I believe it errors if some of the text is removed completely and the strings are missing outright, no?

Now I re-wrote my winntbb module to dynamically draw all the string layouts on the setup screen using the fonts and sizes defined inside the resource strings of the winntbb.dll that is opened. It's a pixel or two off but I couldn't figure out just how exactly they do the word wrapping and line spacing calculations, so I got it as close as possible. One thing I did figure out though is that the | characters are vital for setup to insure proper word wrapping. I fixed some bug issues and this version should be pretty stable. Feedback?

Where is everyone getting those funky desktops with no start menus, icon bar in the middle of nowhere and an alarm clock/calendar smack dab nowhere?

I'm working on a method to correct the issue you're experimenting. I'm trying to replicate Microsoft screen placement algorythms, but it's far from obvious. It's especially tricky because I can't seem to figure out where they decide to do word wrapping. I figured out that the | character in the strings has absolutely no bearing on word wrapping, so maybe they use any non alphanumeric character as a wrapping point? Who knows... that's what I'm trying to figure out...

I was wondering if someone could save me a bit of time. I'm re-writing XPreview's winntbb module, I'm taking a different approach to support varying sizes of bitmaps and font changes made by custom winntbbs that you guys are making and hopefully get XPreview to display them as close to the final output that will ultimately be displayed during the GUI setup as possible. It's tough to get a precise match because I'm not sure what screen positioning and size constraints microsoft uses within setup for the screen layout. Regardless, I've figured out the following strings in winntbb.dll: Steps/ProgressFont - String #4 (Default "Tahoma") Size - String #3 (Default "8") [*]Billboard Title Font - String #5 (Default "Arial") [*]Billboard Text Font - String #19 (Default "Tahoma") Size - String #16 (Default "9") I'm missing the string for the Billboard Title Size... could someone please research it for me and test it to make sure it works? (I want to keep coding! ) Thanks...

Social life? What the hell is that? Where can I get one? I heard a rumour once about this thing called a social life. Everyone seems to have it but I just can't figure out where to get one. There's this thing called work that just screws the whole thing up for me. I think if I understand the legends that once you enter the realm of work you can never return to the realm of socializing, so it's been said by the elder.

I'm amazed that windows setup doesn't crash if you completely strip out a required bitmap. It's honestly a scenario that I hadn't even concidered, though I'll put some proper error handling to address the issue if in fact it's possible for windows setup to run with missing bitmaps.

Does this happen with any winntbbu.dll file or just one in particular?

I'm not so sure that when you run Setup that your native resolution is 1024x768... I think during CD boot GUI Setup that your resolution is only 640x480. I also think the reason that the bitmap is 1024x768 within the winntbb.dll is for use when you start Setup inside of Windows. Though I'm sure of none of the above, so it's noted and I'll look into that for you.

I re-wrote XPreview to work on a module based system. Theoretically if all goes well, when I decide to release the final version of XPreview (just the program), the program will no longer need to be updated, just the modules. Old modules will only need updating for bug fixes and new modules will be added to support additional DLLs. There some bug fixes in this release and some tidying up of code. So if you had problems with the previous version, try this one and let me know if you still have a problem. I haven't forgotten about proper text support for the billboards in winntbb, it's still coming. As for XPreview being responsible for modifying your dll, it should not be possible. I thoroughly examined the code and there is absolutely nothing that could be responsible for that. It must have been either sheer coincidence or there's something else going on in the framework that I don't know about. Maybe that's why they released Service Pack 1? Let me know what you guys think and especially let me know if you have problems, bugs, qwerky behaviour or alien life to report.

That's very odd behavior because XPreview does not modify the winntbbu.dll file, it only opens it and reads from the file. I'll take a deeper look into the code tonight to make sure there's nothing bizarre going on but there shouldn't...

I'm going to assume that like all Service Packs, that service pack does not include the full framework but just the updates. Is there a released download somewhere of the full framework with service pack 1 intergrated or are we going to have to slipstream our own service pack 1 frameworks?

If you install Servicepack1 for Office 2003 from CD, the label has to be Office2003patch, at least in the swedish verison of it... Unless you change the servicepacks msi files with, for example, Microsoft Orca. Do you mean slipstream the service pack 1 into the CD or just install the service pack?

I haven't been posting many updates right now because I'm working on trying to make a Context Menu Handler for XPreview so that you get a Right-Click "View in XPreview" option on supported DLLs only. I'm ripping my freaking hair out because writing context menu handlers is like trying to understand Microsoft's methods of thinking. Well, maybe not but seriously, it's a lot of work because it involves a lot of APIs, Interop and Pointers... all stuff that .Net is not very documented on when it comes to Context Menu Handlers. The refresh issue is a new issue and is now noted in my Bugs log. The main billboard text is missing from the functionality of the current version posted, that will be included in the next version. As for the fonts, perhaps you can help me understand which string IDs control which portions of the fonts? I'm unsure as to what string IDs 1-22,65 & 1000 do. If someone can describe what each string controls, I'd be more then happy to integrate their functionalities... Thanks everyone for the feedback and I'm glad you all enjoy this tool.

TweakUI is your friend. It allows you to change all the Windows Special Folders... (For an all-ready up and running system, for an unattended install, you have to modify your registry hive.)

I've never heard of such a thing.

People who hate Microsoft are people who don't properly grasp the true concepts behind their software. Microsoft has their flaws but they have many great strengths that no one else could match.

It has absolutely no bearing what so ever on the functionality of the disc.