Medieval II: Total War Forum

I've successfully installed the v.1.00 version of MTW2 on my Macbook Pro this week.

Initially, the game wouldn't launch at all. I looked for a NO-CD crack (I want to stress that I have the purchased media, CD1 was in my MBP during these failed attempts) and replaced the .exe file with it. I also installed DirectX into the MTW2 bottle I had created.

At this point the game launched (issue: detecting CD in the drive therefore stopping the the game launch?). I then decided to apply the v1.1 patch. This repeatedly crashed about half way through, from memory the crashes happened when trying to patch the contents of data1.pack every single time. I'll happily provide the error code upon request, unfortunately I don't have it noted down.

So after starting all over again and abandoning the patching process, I loaded the game. After tweaking graphics settings and putting the application into windowed mode (append 'windowed-true to the .cfg file in the base directory) I loaded up the single player grand campaign. Initially, the main map textures weren't there. I then restarted MTW2 completely and loaded back into the campaign, and that was find. However the cursor continued to be erroneous, and it's like that in the main menus before you even start/load a game. Also, several loading screens appeared to be missing amongst a few other assets.

So I took a look at the log file, and noticed that a lot of files were missing, including cursor files which explains the distorted cursor. Here is an example of recent entries in the system.log.txt file:

14:41:37.897 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.rum is missing
14:41:37.898 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/character_pontus.rum is missing
14:41:37.901 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/general_pontus.rum is missing
14:41:45.945 [system.io] [warning] open: data/models_strat/residences/textures/NE_ship_dock.TGA.dds is missing
14:41:46.132 [system.io] [warning] open: data/terrain/aerial_map/water.tga.dds is missing
14:41:46.214 [system.io] [warning] open: data/terrain/aerial_map/tile_models/alpha_pages/mountain_mask.tga.dds is missing
14:41:46.279 [system.io] [warning] open: data/terrain/aerial_map/tree_models/textures/conifer_01.TGA.dds is missing
14:41:46.280 [system.io] [warning] open: data/terrain/aerial_map/tree_models/textures/conifer_winter.TGA.dds is missing
14:41:46.374 [system.io] [warning] open: data/world/maps/base/water_surface.tga.dds is missing
14:44:35.942 [system.io] [warning] open: data/loading_screen/loading_bar.tga.dds is missing
14:44:35.944 [system.io] [warning] open: data/loading_screen/loading_logo.tga.dds is missing
14:44:40.982 [system.io] [warning] open: data/loading_screen/loading_bar.tga.dds is missing
14:44:41.121 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_symbols_80/normans.tga is missing
14:44:41.121 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_faction_units/normans.tga is missing
14:44:41.123 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_symbols_80/saxons.tga is missing
14:44:41.123 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_faction_units/saxons.tga is missing
14:44:41.124 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_symbols_80/slave.tga is missing
14:44:41.125 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_faction_units/slave.tga is missing
14:44:41.130 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/_M2_MP_HISTORICAL_BATTLE_CHOOSE_TEAMS.TGA is missing
14:44:41.134 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/TEXTURES/_M2_MAIN_MENU.TGA is missing
14:44:42.127 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/buttons_composite2.tga.dds is missing
14:44:42.129 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/slider_composite.tga.dds is missing
14:44:42.130 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/slider_composite2.tga.dds is missing
14:44:42.130 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/border_4pix_black_gold2.tga.dds is missing
14:44:42.131 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/text_border.tga.dds is missing
14:44:42.132 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/yellow_highlight.tga.dds is missing
14:44:42.132 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/border_4pix_black_gold_selected.tga.dds is missing
14:44:42.133 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/border_4pix_black_gold_black.tga.dds is missing
14:44:42.134 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/_M2_Selection_Glow.tga.dds is missing
14:44:42.134 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/unit_card.tga.dds is missing
14:44:42.135 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/icons.tga.dds is missing

From the looks of things, it is an issue with the game being able to read the data.pack files or rather, it isn't reading everything. If I can find an application that will let me browse the contents of the pack files I will in order to check whether these files the log refers to are indeed present. If they aren't, it must be that the game is struggling to access the data.pack files and therefore the actual game experience is being affected.

One other issue I did notice, and this is the case in both full screen and windowed mode, is that the scroll speed when navigating around the campaign map using the keyboard AND mouse (mouse in terms of screen scrolling, not clicking on the map radar) was terrible; a snails pace.

Thought I'd share my findings. I'll post any updates as and when I get them.

Cheers,
Dave

The NO-CD .exe file can be downloaded as part of a rar archive from www.gamecopyworld.com. I'm not going to link straight to the file or upload it to my own web space, as I own a copy of MTW2 (and Kingdoms) and you need to agree to the legal/T&C on the site before downloading the file; if you're on a pirated copy then you'll do doubt have the .exe file already, or will be looking for it anyway!!!

Just wanted to add a few notes:

1) I don't recommend adding the 'windowed=true or windowed=1' config option to the .cfg file straight away after install. First load the game up, adjust the graphics settings accordingly (I use 1440x900 for fullscreen, but 1280 x 800 seems to be stable for windowed mode) and THEN append that option to the .cfg file. I get crashes when trying to change the resolution in windowed mode first. Anything higher than 1280 x 800 in windowed mode causes a crash!!!

2) When you first load up the campaign map in fullscreen mode, you'll probably notice that you cannot see any 'land' textures, instead the campaign map looks to be covered in the sea texture. This seems to happen every install, and so far I've only been able to correct this by moving to windowed mode.

3) You shouldn't have to touch the audio config at all, it'll play fine with touching MTW2 or Wine audio settings.

4) In the Battle Map, you will probably have a delay of 5-10 seconds between commencing the battle and the battle actually commencing; not really a show-stopper.

5) The game seems to reset itself back to fullscreen mode after the first couple of times you load the game in windowed. Trying to establish a reason behind this.

I have uploaded the full log file containing all the errors that appear after launching the game, and loading a campaign.

You can find the file here on Google Documents:
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dgth3prn_16cphdqtdq

As you can see, full of 'data missing' errors!

Graphics niggles aside, it would seem two issues need to be fixed.

1) Make the game launch properly without using a 'fixed' .exe file
2) Resolve the 'data missing' errors.

You may want to consider signing up as an advocate for this game so that you can rate the functionality of the game.

I have gone through and approved your screen shots (you mentioned in another forum that we had yet to do that), they look fabulous!

You may also want to consider posting the exact steps you took to get the game running (what type of bottle did you install into, did you have to install any other programs to get the game running, etc).

Congratulations, we are always happy to see the functionality of a game improving!

Hey Caron.

I submitted myself as an advocate yesterday, just awaiting contact now.

MOVED INSTALLATION GUIDE & BUG/ISSUE NOTES TO ITS OWN THREAD

Cheers,
Dave