Posted August 22, 2013
high rated
Background:
For those of you with an AMD/ATI card on Windows 7 getting a black screen - and then a CTD when trying to play the original Rainbow Six - this may fix your problem. If you check the sherman.log file and you see failed to initialize renderer at 640x480x16 and so on, it is - some of you already know - most likely due to a AMD/DirectX bug. If you view the program in API monitor, you can see repeated instances of IDirectDraw returning DDERR_NOEXCLUSIVEMODE. After doing some research on this, I figured the next step was to try and get the game to run in Windowed mode. Unfortunately, I could not find any start up parameters for RS6 that would lead to window mode without actually launching the game first. I decided to check the registry, but found RS6 does not write to the registry like it does in XP or earlier.
I stumbled upon a registry folder for DirectDraw with a "compatibility" folder containing reg keys for old games. I did some research on and found what led me to the program DXWnd: a link that I apparently cannot post.
Solution:
Using build v2.02.30 of DXWnd, I was able to get the game functioning. When you launch the program, you need to use Edit -> Add, and then you will be prompted to enter in the name of the application, and it's location. In the first tab, under 'Generic', check the boxes: 'Hook enabled', 'Run in Window', 'Hook all DLLs', 'Remap Client Rect' (ALL ARE DEFAULT). You can then enter the size of the window at the bottom in pixels. Under the 'Mouse' tab, check 'Correct mouse positioning' (DEFAULT). Under the 'DirectX' tab, select 'DirectX1~6'.
This will get the game running if you are running into the same problem. I was able to load all of the planning and run through the first mission without any problem. If there are any other bugs, I will find out in the future.
Notes:
Using a .bat file or the DirectDraw compatibility fix would not work in my case. The video card is an an HD5850, Catalyst 13.4 drivers - driver roll back not an option. Obviously, you can use VirtualBox/VMWare instead, but this is a good alternative. The tool could be useful for some other games and may allow hardware acceleration in RS6 with some tweaking. With my current DXWnd config, the game will not run with a resolution higher than 1024x768. This happens to be the same max resolution of the engine. I believe there is a way around this though, as the previous version of DXWnd would allow me to use my native screen res for the window.
For those of you with an AMD/ATI card on Windows 7 getting a black screen - and then a CTD when trying to play the original Rainbow Six - this may fix your problem. If you check the sherman.log file and you see failed to initialize renderer at 640x480x16 and so on, it is - some of you already know - most likely due to a AMD/DirectX bug. If you view the program in API monitor, you can see repeated instances of IDirectDraw returning DDERR_NOEXCLUSIVEMODE. After doing some research on this, I figured the next step was to try and get the game to run in Windowed mode. Unfortunately, I could not find any start up parameters for RS6 that would lead to window mode without actually launching the game first. I decided to check the registry, but found RS6 does not write to the registry like it does in XP or earlier.
I stumbled upon a registry folder for DirectDraw with a "compatibility" folder containing reg keys for old games. I did some research on and found what led me to the program DXWnd: a link that I apparently cannot post.
Solution:
Using build v2.02.30 of DXWnd, I was able to get the game functioning. When you launch the program, you need to use Edit -> Add, and then you will be prompted to enter in the name of the application, and it's location. In the first tab, under 'Generic', check the boxes: 'Hook enabled', 'Run in Window', 'Hook all DLLs', 'Remap Client Rect' (ALL ARE DEFAULT). You can then enter the size of the window at the bottom in pixels. Under the 'Mouse' tab, check 'Correct mouse positioning' (DEFAULT). Under the 'DirectX' tab, select 'DirectX1~6'.
This will get the game running if you are running into the same problem. I was able to load all of the planning and run through the first mission without any problem. If there are any other bugs, I will find out in the future.
Notes:
Using a .bat file or the DirectDraw compatibility fix would not work in my case. The video card is an an HD5850, Catalyst 13.4 drivers - driver roll back not an option. Obviously, you can use VirtualBox/VMWare instead, but this is a good alternative. The tool could be useful for some other games and may allow hardware acceleration in RS6 with some tweaking. With my current DXWnd config, the game will not run with a resolution higher than 1024x768. This happens to be the same max resolution of the engine. I believe there is a way around this though, as the previous version of DXWnd would allow me to use my native screen res for the window.
Post edited August 22, 2013 by OfftheHeZie
