Posted September 25, 2017
high rated
Documenting what I went through, in the hopes of helping others. Note that the issues I encountered are present in both the GOG and Steam releases of this game.
In either case. On purchasing the game I encountered the following issues:
1. No sound in FMVs
2. No music
3. Transparent / invisible textures (this one took me the longest to solve)
Here is what I did to fix them:
No Sound in FMVs
Note that this one was not an issue for me with the GOG version of the game. Only the Steam version. To fix:
1. Download and install ffdshow
2. Run the game and a pop up should appear. Give permission for ffdshow to be used with the game always.
3. All FMV's should now have sound. If you don't hear it right away, quit then re-run the game.
No Music
To fix:
1. Install VirtualMidiSynth
2. Download the required soundfont
3. Install SFArk which is needed to unzip the .sfArk file
4. Open SFArk and go to file > Open, then open up the FluidR3_GM.sfArk file you downloaded, then click Start. This will unzip the .sfArk file into a .sf2 file that we need.
5. Open 'Configure VirtualMidiSynth' and on the Soundfonts tab, press the green + icon. Select the FluidR3_GM.sf2 file.
6. Launch Tex Murphy: Overseer, go to settings, audio, and then change the MIDI device to "Microsoft MIDI Mapper", make sure that MUTE is not checked.
You should hear music straight away after completing the last step in-game. If you don't hear anything, quit out then re run the game.
Transparent / invisible textures
This out of the all the issues was the most important to fix, as without it the game is completely unplayable. When looking up the issue online, suggestions from here and elsewhere were to download "dgvoodoo2" from it's website, then to copy all dll's from it's "MS" folder into the "Overseer" folder.
I did this and immediately got a black frozen game screen. At first I thought I needed further dll's from the website but nope same issue. Initially I gave up and assumed I was just screwed and would have to wait until the "Poisoned Pawn" fan remake was released to be able to play the game properly.
But me being the stubborn person that I am, I thought I'd give the GOG version a try (I was using the Steam version up until this point). On purchasing the GOG version I immediately noticed that the FMVs worked fine in this version, but it still had the music and invisible texture issues. It then occurred to me to try using an earlier version of dgvoodoo2, and this fixed the issue. So, to fix:
1. Download any version of dgvoodoo2 before v2.54
2. Copy over the dll's from the "MS" folder to your "Overseer" folder. You should notice an immediate effect on the game after doing this. If the game freezes up when you try this, then try an earlier version. For me v2.53 worked fine. I should also note that v2.54 of dgvoodoo2 set off my virus scanner for some odd reason. In Chrome I couldn't even download it.
If you notice any visual issues when turning around in the game, that's a vsync issue. Run "dgVoodooSetup.exe" that comes with dgvoodoo2 and be sure to switch off VSYNC in all tabs, and make sure that your graphics card isn't forcing it on. That fixed it for me. You may need to experiment. Don't stop till you have movement completely fixed.
Do the above fixes and you should (hopefully) have a fully playable game now. Enjoy :).
In either case. On purchasing the game I encountered the following issues:
1. No sound in FMVs
2. No music
3. Transparent / invisible textures (this one took me the longest to solve)
Here is what I did to fix them:
No Sound in FMVs
Note that this one was not an issue for me with the GOG version of the game. Only the Steam version. To fix:
1. Download and install ffdshow
2. Run the game and a pop up should appear. Give permission for ffdshow to be used with the game always.
3. All FMV's should now have sound. If you don't hear it right away, quit then re-run the game.
No Music
To fix:
1. Install VirtualMidiSynth
2. Download the required soundfont
3. Install SFArk which is needed to unzip the .sfArk file
4. Open SFArk and go to file > Open, then open up the FluidR3_GM.sfArk file you downloaded, then click Start. This will unzip the .sfArk file into a .sf2 file that we need.
5. Open 'Configure VirtualMidiSynth' and on the Soundfonts tab, press the green + icon. Select the FluidR3_GM.sf2 file.
6. Launch Tex Murphy: Overseer, go to settings, audio, and then change the MIDI device to "Microsoft MIDI Mapper", make sure that MUTE is not checked.
You should hear music straight away after completing the last step in-game. If you don't hear anything, quit out then re run the game.
Transparent / invisible textures
This out of the all the issues was the most important to fix, as without it the game is completely unplayable. When looking up the issue online, suggestions from here and elsewhere were to download "dgvoodoo2" from it's website, then to copy all dll's from it's "MS" folder into the "Overseer" folder.
I did this and immediately got a black frozen game screen. At first I thought I needed further dll's from the website but nope same issue. Initially I gave up and assumed I was just screwed and would have to wait until the "Poisoned Pawn" fan remake was released to be able to play the game properly.
But me being the stubborn person that I am, I thought I'd give the GOG version a try (I was using the Steam version up until this point). On purchasing the GOG version I immediately noticed that the FMVs worked fine in this version, but it still had the music and invisible texture issues. It then occurred to me to try using an earlier version of dgvoodoo2, and this fixed the issue. So, to fix:
1. Download any version of dgvoodoo2 before v2.54
2. Copy over the dll's from the "MS" folder to your "Overseer" folder. You should notice an immediate effect on the game after doing this. If the game freezes up when you try this, then try an earlier version. For me v2.53 worked fine. I should also note that v2.54 of dgvoodoo2 set off my virus scanner for some odd reason. In Chrome I couldn't even download it.
If you notice any visual issues when turning around in the game, that's a vsync issue. Run "dgVoodooSetup.exe" that comes with dgvoodoo2 and be sure to switch off VSYNC in all tabs, and make sure that your graphics card isn't forcing it on. That fixed it for me. You may need to experiment. Don't stop till you have movement completely fixed.
Do the above fixes and you should (hopefully) have a fully playable game now. Enjoy :).
Post edited July 09, 2018 by icemann