Improved Blood on XP

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Krypto
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Posts: 78
Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2006 05:12 pm

Improved Blood on XP

Post by Krypto »

I felt it very important to write a guide to running an improved Blood on XP, it still uses VDMsound but this made Blood much better, I highly recommend you try it. A big thanks goes out to RedFanatic! he wrote this method, i am only passing on his information.

Let's look at the benefits:

1) I can run Blood over 800x600 without any change in speed

2) I can use 44khz which sounds crispy 8)

3) Runs Blood very smoothly for me, of course theres still delays with the cutscenes and slower midi and it would be better to own an old PC ;)

Alright let's get started with how to achieve near to Perfect Blood:

Step 1: Install & Configure VDMSound

Install VDMsound (2.10) check every box during installation.
Once VDMSound is installed launch Notepad and open VDMS.ini (C:\Program Files\VDMSound\VDMS.INI) and alter the DIGITAL SOUND LATENCY to this:

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Step 2: Install Blood
Install Blood to C:\Blood (or any thing else you prefer) and patch it to the latest version unless your using OUWB. then download and copy into the Blood directory nolfb and cli2nop then patch your blood.exe using cli2nop in a dos window like this:

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Step 3: Blood 1 VGAFIX

Cru`Note: This may not work correctly for thoes with widescreen LCDs or the Intel GMA 950 chipset, I haven't isolated which yet, 640x480 works just fine however.

To get resolutions higher than 640x480 download this fix. (it works for WinXP, WinXP SP1, WinXP SP2 and Win2000 SP3)

http://www.nomissoft.com/files/winxpfix.zip

Doubleclick the winxpfix.exe, then this box should be appear.

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type exactly YES and press enter, then it will ask you to reboot windows, type only Y and press enter key again.

Step 4: Run Blood's Setup.exe and configure settings:

At command prompt navigate to your Blood directory, and run DOSDRV followed by Setup

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Once Setup has loaded

1. Go to Sound Setup and choose Select Sound FX Card. Select Sound Blaster.

2. The Correct Address is 0x220. This should be the default address so you should not have to change it.

3. Move to Change Sound Card Type using the down arrow key and press enter. Select Sound Blaster 16 or AWE32.

4. Select Change Interrupt. Select IRQ 7.

5. You should not have to modify the 8-bit or 16-bit DMA unless you've changed them since their default values of 1 and 5, respectively, are correct.

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6. Select Use These Settings and Continue. There will now be several consecutive dialogs that you must go through. Select 32 Voices, 16 Bit mixing, Stereo Sound and 22 Khz Mixing Rate. You will automatically be taken back to Sound Setup after selecting the mixing rate. Now, select Choose Music Card. Select General Midi then select MIDI port 0x330.

7. Select Screen Setup.
Select VESA modes (SVGA/VESA 2.0). Select 800x600.

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8. After all this press Esc and save settings on exit but do not run the game.


Step 5: Run Blood!
While at command CD to your Blood directory and type:

dosdrv
nolfb
blood


If anything is wrong double check everything to make sure you haven't made any silly mistakes :wink:

Step 6: Improving your resolution:
If you want to use the higher resolutions without going to the menu to change it every time you startup. Alter the Blood.cfg file and change:

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IMPORTANT: DO NOT DOWNLOAD MATT BOVETT'S VDM SHORTCUTS!

I have concluded that the reason Blood runs better, is because I'm not using the VLP shortcuts which makes the game run slower for some odd reason and this restricts you to installing to C:\Games\Blood

You can make a Bat file to launch Blood easier just go into notepad and type:

@echo off
CLS
C:
CD \
CD Blood
NOLFB
DOSDRV
Blood


Then change the file type from txt to bat.

Cru`edit: I'm going to go head and lock this topic so the real useful stuff doesn't get to burried. The post button below should take you to the (discussion) split of the thread if you have any comments.

Also I added a few pics to help clarify some things and changed the Mixing rate to 22 Khz, I was experiencing a popping sound in game. Hey, a little QC never hurt :wink:


Improved Blood on XP (discussion)
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Last edited by Krypto on Sat Nov 18, 2006 10:14 am, edited 4 times in total.
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