Cant Intsall DirectQ

[rev]

I download latest (and older releases) and once i run the executable it says, word for word, The program can't start because d3dx9_38.dll is missing from your computer. Try Reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

Thanks in advance.

[turtlevan]

install direct x redistributable from microsoft.com

[Seven]

Yes, that should do it, cause the file is part of it.
(it will end up in your windows\system32 folder)


My issue with launching DirectQ is another one:
DirectQ says, that my Quake installation cannot be found.

Most probably DirectQ does a CRC or MD5 check on the .pak files.
My pak files include different sound files, so that might be the reason.
Anyhow it should be no problem for DirectQ to load them just like the original ones...

Wonder if there is a command to disable the check at startup, something like:
DirectQ.exe -ignorestartupcheck

It�s a pity I cannot use DirectQ because if this.

Kind regards,
Seven

[MH]

DirectQ's startup check goes like this:

• Check the directory that DirectQ.exe is in.
• Check some "well known" directories.
• Ask the player if they want it to check everything else.
• If the player says "Yes" then check everything else.

There is no checksum involved here, and the purpose of this check is to catch cases where people manage to not put DirectQ.exe in the same folder as their Quake installation.

"Well known" directories are places where someone is likely to install Quake to. These include C:\Quake, C:\<your desktop>\Quake, C:\Program Files\Quake.

It checks for the presence of files such as id1\pak0.pak, cfg files, bsp files, and a few others. The check is NOT case-sensitive.

The "check everything else" is a full disk scan for these files. Note that I said it asks the player before doing this; if would be bad form otherwise.

Like I said, the purpose of all this is to catch cases where somebody has Quake installed to (say) C:\Quake but downloads and unzips DirectQ to their desktop or to a separate downloads folder. This is reasonably common - check out all of the times people ask for help with the "cannot load gfx.wad" error.

If you put DirectQ.exe into your Quake folder it should Just Work. It will pass the first check and nothing else will be done. No attempt is made to validate the contents of PAK files, so all you need is a pak0.pak (NOT case-sensitive). If you've unpacked your PAK files it will also Just Work as all it needs to do is find one BSP file. No validation at this stage either.

Note that I use a modified pak0.pak myself so I'm quite certain that's not a problem. I've also got multiple Quake installations scattered around my HD, some with modified paks, some without, so I'm quite certain that it plays nice in that kind of setup.

If you're not getting a "Quake not found. Perform full disk scan?" message then something in the first 2 checks is giving a false positive. The final "I give up!" message reads "Could not locate Quake on your PC. Perhaps you need to move DirectQ.exe into C:\Quake?" - if you're not getting this then it's definitely a false positive.

The simplest solution is to just put DirectQ.exe into the same folder you have Quake installed in.

There's no message anywhere in DirectQ that uses the precise wording "Quake installation", so it would be helpful to know the exact message as it would greatly assist troubleshooting.

[Seven]

Hello MH,

Thank you for your reply and help.

I cannot remember the precise wording regarding the "Quake installation".
It was a few month back, when I last time tested DirectQ.

I just downloaded the latest build from your homepage (13.04.2011),
put it into my Quake folder and started it.
This time the failure message looks like this:


My Quake path is everything but "well known", because I am german and therefore use german folders.

I must admit, my Quake is setup for DarkPlaces (as you can see on the screen),
so I absolutely dont complain about DirectQ will not start.

I am very sure, if I make a clean installation, everything will work just fine.

Thank you very much for your help anyway.

Best regards,
Seven

[gdiddy62]

I have the same problem as Seven MH. I reinstalled directx and then get the same issue he describes above. As he says, I'm not complaining due to the structure of my Quake folder, but am wondering if it's possible to remedy this in the future to prevent the necessity of another clean install folder?
Regards

[MH]

Because you've got DirectQ.exe in your Quake folder none of the "well known" stuff comes into play; it won't need to get to that step; it'll just say "ah-ha! Quake is here already, I don't need to check anything else, I'll use this one".

The error is a fairly generic one that happens when none of the other error handling can give something more descriptive. What I'm interested in is - how far does it get before the error happens? Do you see the console background with a "Loading" banner or does it happen as soon as you double-click the exe?

My suspicion is that you say your Quake setup is for DarkPlaces. I do know that there are some texture packs which include MD3 files but with a .MDL extension on them. If you're using one of these then it will probably crash DirectQ - or any other engine that supports PK3s.

I'll add a check for this to the next release and we'll find out.

[Seven]

Hello MH,

Regarding your question:
DirectQ crashes after 2 seconds. conback or loading bar was not present.

I investigated the issue now:

I followed your suggestion and removed all .pk3�s out of my ID1:
DirectQ loaded up (conback was visible and loading bar filling up).
Before bar completely filled up, a Host_Error appeared in the console:
"Mod_loadbrushmodel progs/gib1.mdl has wrong version number"
This model is a .md3 model with .mdl extension.

After 15 seconds a window with another error message appeared:
"No shader was sucessfully loaded"
And DirectQ closed itself.


So I removed all .mdl�s out of my ID1/progs folder as well:
DirectQ loaded succesfully and demo started.
Everything ran fine.


Now, that you know the root cause of it, maybe this helps you to build a workaround.
I know this is tough though, because you would have to check each .mdl if it is a hidden .md3.

If so, ignore it to not crash the engine. Or you even can find a way to use it as a .md3 (what it actually is).

Thank you MH.

Kind regards,
Seven

[MH]

Ah, my hunch was correct.

The official line on DirectQ is that MD3 support is very unlikely. It's not really a "replacement content" engine (I even semi-regret supporting textures) so this would be well outside of it's goals.

Yes, it's a pain to have to check all MDLs to see if they're really MD3s in disguise, but I guess if such content is out in the wild then it needs to be done.

Thanks for taking the time to test this; much appreciated!

[Seven]

Hello MH,

I learned so many things from your words in various threads.
You really dont have to thank me.
I am happy to bring a small light in that issue.

May I suggest something ?
You know that LordHavoc has this in his code already.
His code can somehow read the model, which is really behind the .mdl file.
It can even be .md2 (beside .mdl and .md3 (dpmodel does exist as well, but somewhere most be the deadline, right ?)).
Maybe you can read the model handling in his source to get a easy implementation ?
Maybe it helps you to find a good idea for DirectQ.

Another thing:
You surely know that if you implement .md3 support, the texture path for it is inside the .md3 file.
So expanding your external texture management is maybe necessary too ?

Best wishes,
Seven

[MH]

Oh, I could add the code quite easily; I don't need to take from DP for that (DP's code would be useless for me anyway as I do things very differently). It's not a case of difficulty; it's a case of DirectQ being deliberately more of a traditional engine.