help with LOD files?

The role-playing games (I-X) that started it all and the various spin-offs (including Dark Messiah).
Riverdee
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help with LOD files?

Unread postby Riverdee » 30 Mar 2013, 19:17

I hope someone can help me with getting GrayFace's patch installed. It is sitting on my desktop now, looking pretty. I'm a senior citizen and not computer literate, but I have successfully installed some mods to my morrowind game in the past, so I know a little about how the inside of the game folder should look.

When I installed the game on Windows 7, I got some kind of error message and thought I would have to make it compatible with xp. It was late at night and I couldn't figure out how to do it just then, so I just hit the icon on desktop and it ran perfectly.
When I got the patch I was going to save my games elsewhere just in case, but found I can't do anything, cause my computer can't open a LOD , AUDIO or VID file!?

I uninstalled it, apparently only partially, but deleted the 3DO folder from the Programs (x86) folder, then re-installed it using the compatibility for xp service pack 2 i think. However it still came back with the LOD files. Also my saves are back. I got cCleaner for registry and uninstalled it from there, but same results when I reinstalled. Apparently SOMETHING is not getting uninstalled.

1. I didn't run the updater this time, was going to use patch, but will it work with LOD files?

2. From where (ie it's on the desktop) do you extract, and to where? I have no ini or anything else I am used to seeing in the Programs (x86) folder. Am I up the creek without a paddle?

3. Since I can't move my games, will overwriting them hundreds of times corrupt them? (I save a lot)

Any help at all will be deeply appreciated...

Currnently in the 3DO folder:
ANIMS Folder has: ANIMS1.VID
ANIMS2.VID
DATA Folder has: BITMAPS.LOD I cannot open any of these
GAMES.LOD
ICONS.LOD
SPRITES.LOD
SOUNDS Folder has: AUDIO
Might and Magic (trademark sign) VI.isu (can't open this either)
MM6 Manual and MM6 Quick Reference Guide
Application Icon to start game
MSS32.DLL

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GreatEmerald
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Unread postby GreatEmerald » 30 Mar 2013, 20:33

I think you're hitting several different problems at once here. First of all, Windows starting from Vista has an extremely nasty "feature" that eats your save games, because it doesn't trust that the game is allowed to save them on your drive. To prevent that, you need to do two things:

1) Disable directory virtualisation. It doesn't decrease security, as instead of eating files that the system thinks are unsafe, it will simply report to the original program that it's not allowed to write them in the first place, and the program will tell you that it failed to write, instead of pretending that the write was successful.
There are two ways to do that - Group Policy or registry changes. Both ways are described here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... Virtualize
2) Run the program with Administrator rights. This is what it requires in order for the writes to actually succeed.

The LOD and VID files are internal game resources. They aren't save files, so you shouldn't do anything with them yourself. The patch handles any necessary changes to it itself.

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GrayFace
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Unread postby GrayFace » 31 Mar 2013, 05:57

You should install it outside Program Files, e.g. create Games folder.
My patches: MM6 MM7 MM8. MMExtension. Tools. Also, I love Knytt Stories and Knytt Underground. I'm also known as sergroj.

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Unread postby GreatEmerald » 31 Mar 2013, 08:26

GrayFace wrote:You should install it outside Program Files, e.g. create Games folder.
That's a workaround, but not an actual solution. Installing it into user's storage still creates issues when there are multiple accounts.

The idea behind protected storage areas is to adopt the UNIX security model. There, only root can install programs globally, which ensures that a user can't install some malware without giving the root password. They can install it locally without one, but then other users won't be able to access its files, and the program itself won't be able to change the system's files.

It works fine on UNIXes, because programs know about that and will inform people that they don't have root privileges if they are needed. It doesn't work on Windows, especially with older programs like MM7, because the programmers back in the day had no clue about such things, and assumed everyone would be running as administrators and have full access to the disk. Now that MS changed that, we have problems like this.

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GrayFace
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Unread postby GrayFace » 31 Mar 2013, 11:51

Do you mean that folders outside these protected folders also don't behave like normal folders? What can go wrong with multiple users?
My patches: MM6 MM7 MM8. MMExtension. Tools. Also, I love Knytt Stories and Knytt Underground. I'm also known as sergroj.

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GreatEmerald
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Unread postby GreatEmerald » 31 Mar 2013, 13:12

Well, there are no folders outside them, as the root of the drive is protected itself. I'm not certain about UAC specifics, but the idea is that only \Users\<name> is supposed to be writeable without administrative privileges. And other users cannot access the files from another user. So whatever one installs into their home folder, another cannot access.

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Unread postby Riverdee » 01 Apr 2013, 05:43

GreatEmerald, thank you so much for the help. I took all my courage in both hands and oh so carefully disabled virtualization. The computer didn't explode! *pats self on back*
I started new game as administrator (old game saves gone), and so far so good.
I now have a "Saves" folder between DATA and SOUNDS.
The inside of the folders still have the LOD files, but not .LOD, just shows LOD under the Type column. Also, has added another LOD folder named "new" between ICONS and SPRITES.

Sorry to be dense, but I am still unsure of what to do with the GrayFace rar file.
Do I put it in the main MM6 folder where the ANIMS, DATA, Saves and SOUNDS folders live, then use the "Extract here" option?
Or extract from somewhere else, and if so where? And TO where?
And what changes will it make to the folders? Will they look the same, or will stuff be added to the main folder OR the individual DATA, etc. folders? (just so I know what to expect)

Baby steps, please. I really don't understand much about the computer.

Thanks again for your help

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Unread postby GreatEmerald » 01 Apr 2013, 07:14

I'm pretty sure it's an installer? Open the file with your archive program and see what files it contains. If only an EXE, then it's just a compressed installer, you can extract it anywhere, then run it.

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Unread postby Riverdee » 17 Apr 2013, 04:35

Hello again
The patch is installed and game running just fine.
I am moving my saves to another folder on my desktop so I don't constantly overwrite.
I number them sequentially and name them like "94 b4 train" and it shows up on load screen with in-game date.
But just to note a strange thing:
The MM6 saves folder just shows numbers 1-40 over and over. see below

Name Date Modified Type Size
save025.mm6 4/9/2013 8:42 PM MM6 file 284kb (When I move it to the other folder it is saved as: save025 (3).mm6 )

So I just had the folder I moved them to sort them by date modified. Problem solved, I think.
Hope I never have to try to use one of them.


Thanks again for all the advice, this is a great forum!

ps. when I looked at the preview there should have been spaces between name, date modified, etc, but I can't seem to change it, sorry

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Flodarien
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Unread postby Flodarien » 17 Apr 2013, 12:59

If you remove the save files, the game can't remember that it had a Save25.mm6, so it makes another one when it gets to the 25th save. I don't think there's anything that can be done here.

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GrayFace
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Unread postby GrayFace » 18 Apr 2013, 00:41

It's not like that. The game has a number of slots for saves. The number of save is the number of slot you use, not some kind of progression. BTW, don't use the last 5 slots, it turns out there may be an overflow with my patch due to quick saves.
My patches: MM6 MM7 MM8. MMExtension. Tools. Also, I love Knytt Stories and Knytt Underground. I'm also known as sergroj.


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