Re: [pygame] examples not running

["ShredWheat" <shredwheat@mediaone.net>]

ok, good news. i've got some answers to several of the
questions/problems that have been cropping up for windows
users.



> Ooh wow, looks like i have a DX5 version of dinput... does that sound 
> right comming from an unmodified Win98 machine?

in SDL-1.1.6, SDL would attempt to use whatever version of the
directx sdk it was compiled with. thus, me having directx7 sdk
on my machine, my 'prebuilt' SDL was trying to run directx7.

SDL is supposed to be able to run with directx5. the interfaces
for directx8 are very different than the previous two releases so
SDL has added code to request specific directx interfaces. curiously,
after looking at the latest SDL code, SDL is specifically asking
for the directx7 interfaces. i believe SDL can still work with directx5,
so i've asked the authors if it could be changed to directx5 or if
directx7 is now the required version for SDL.

anyways, with the prebuilt windows binaries directx7 is required
for pygame. when SDL-1.1.7 is released it will be clearly defined
which version of directx is required.



> > C:> set SDL_VIDEODRIVER=windib
> > C:> python

when SDL sees SDL_VIDEODRIVER set to windib it will actually not
use directx for anything. sound, input, video, etc
(this makes "VIDEODRIVER" a kind of misnomer, but this is SDL's
doing and out of our hands really)




> Yes, settting that helped, but now I'm getting an error about the sound 
> when I run the aliens demo
> 
> pygame.error: mixer system not initialized

this is mainly a problem with aliens. it is trying to use the
mixer module even if it doesn't initialize properly. i've just 
changed this in CVS to check if mixer is working before trying to
use it.

still, that doesn't solved the problem that mixer is not initializing.
if you haven't updraded to directx7 i'm interested to see what the
actualy mixer error is. at this point aliens will run fine if there
is a problem you just won't get any sound.

C:> set SDL_VIDEODRIVER=windib
C:> python
>>> import pygame.mixer
>>> pygame.mixer.init()

this doesn't give me an error on my machine, but it seems like it
is failing on yours. i don't think it would be the directx version
(but who knows?) can you try running this set of lines on your 
machine and seeing what error comes up?



as for the 'eventual machine lockups'. i have not been able to
see this happen. i ran the system monitor and resource meter, but
could not notice any type of leakage after many runs. those of you
that have seen this, could you post your machine specs?
(amount of ram, os, directx version, videocard, phase of moon, etc)


i feel a little better now that i'm starting to find some info
on these problems. the 'leaking/chunking' problem has me a bit
concerned though. it seems NT machines dont have a problem, and
my Win98 setup is smooth too. hmm, something must be causing trouble.
must dig deeper...


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