Game was working fine . . . . . . .

from PolMach Forums
So I installed the game and downloaded the patch. I was playing this game for about a week, loving every minute. Now suddenly, the game crashes right after the intro. I know this is a common problem with the copy-protection, but damn I was playing fine before! I unistalled, then re-installed (lost all my saved games, arrrrrggh), and it kept on crashing. I'm seriously frustrated since i was able to play, but now i can't!!!!


Any help would be welcomed.
7,531 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from PolMach Forums Top
Sorry about the inconvenience...we're looking into possible causes at the moment.

Could you post your system specs, and in the meantime, set the "ForceTextureUpdate" tag in the "Prefs.ini" file to "True". This will recalculate the textures (which may be the source of the problem).
Reply #2 from PolMach Forums Top
Here's the official list of changes to make in the 'prefs' file for the textures to automaticall re-generate upon game-start.

ForceTextureUpdate=1
DeviceType=1
BehaviorFlags=68

note: You'll want to save a version with the old values as well if this dosent fixt the problem. Otherwise the textures will regenerate each time the game starts (which results in a longer load time )
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Reply #3 from PolMach Forums Top
ForceTextureUpdate=1
DeviceType=1
BehaviorFlags=68

I can't find these in the Prefs.ini file but they are in the PolMachine.ini file. I tried changing the settings like instructed, but it did not work.


My specs are :

AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3200+
2.21 GHz
1.00GB of ram
Radeon 9800 PRO
Reply #5 from PolMach Forums Top

I'm thinking that it's that bloody copy protection thing.

 

This requires the 1.01 update from

http://storage.stardock.com/files/pm101_update.exe

be installed first. Then replace PolMachine.exe with the one in http://134.215.215.67/private/PolMachine.1.01.119.CD_CHECK.zip .

The retail CD must still be in the drive.

Reply #6 from PolMach Forums Top
I tried what you said Frogboy, but now all im getting is a black screen after intro with the new .exe file. I can hear the music but everything is all black.

Thanks for your help none the less.
Reply #8 from PolMach Forums Top
I'm not even sure its the CD protection problem


Debug Message: ******* Starting Game Shell *******
Debug Message: Could not open reg key.
Debug Message: Could not find a Drengin.net Serial No.
Debug Message: Could not open reg key.
Debug Message: Could not find political machine serial in registry subdirectory PM1.
Debug Message: Could not open reg key.
Debug Message: Can't find political machine serial in registry subdirectory PM.
Debug Message: Can't find any serial numbers.
Debug Message: Going Fullscreen
Debug Message: Preparing to change display settings.
Debug Message: *********Checking D3DDevice Caps***********************
Debug Message: Device type: D3DDEVTYPE_HAL. Hardware rasterization. Shading is done with software, hardware, or mixed transform and lighting.
Debug Message: A full-color cursor is supported in hardware at high resolution modes.
Debug Message: Now Fullscreen
Debug Message: Shell initialization complete
Debug Message: ***** Initializing Game *****
Debug Message: Timer Frequency is 0 369e99
Debug Message: Added fonts: font2 font1 Arial13B Arial16B2 Arial10
Debug Message: Added fonts: Arial12 Arial12B Arial14 Arial14B Arial16
Debug Message: Added fonts: Arial16B Arial18 Arial18B
Debug Message: Initializing sound card.
Debug Message: Issues Loaded
Debug Message: Issues Tweaked
Debug Message: Loading 15 questions from Data\60SecQuestions.questions.
Debug Message: Loading 14 questions from Data\HardHitterQuestions.questions.
Debug Message: Loading 15 questions from Data\JoeUserQuestions.questions.
Debug Message: Loading 9 questions from Data\KingQuestions.questions.
Debug Message: Loading 22 questions from Data\NightTimeQuestions.questions.
Debug Message: Loading 19 questions from Data\OMaleyQuestions.questions.
Debug Message: Loading 15 questions from Data\SawyerQuestions.questions.
Debug Message: Question Files Loaded
Debug Message: Special Interest Loaded
Debug Message: Create setup screens.
Debug Message: Set mouse.
Debug Message: Unhide opening menu.
Debug Message: Set update timer.
Debug Message: Second chance back buffer failure attempt!
Debug Message: Error flipping back buffer to primary buffer.
Debug Message: Second chance back buffer failure attempt!
Debug Message: Error flipping back buffer to primary buffer.
Reply #9 from PolMach Forums Top
You can also try [email protected].
Reply #10 from PolMach Forums Top
Well it doesn't seem to be a data error, since it's loading all the issues, etc without reporting any errors.

Try running in windowed mode.

Open Prefs.ini and set
WindowedMode = 1
SkipIntro = 1
Reply #12 from PolMach Forums Top
Great. If you prefer fullscreen, you may be able to run in fullscreen mode if you leave the SkipIntro set to 1. I'm not sure why you would suddenly start having problems with our directshow implementation. Did you recently upgrade any media players like Windows Media Player or a dvd player program?