Skyblade's Troubleshooting Multiplayer for Baldur's Gate
Skyblade has written a report that describes how to get the various versions of Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast running in multiplayer. It has the most up-to-date information on the subject (posted 8/9/00). Not mentioned is a new program from GameSpy, called GameSpy Arcade, that is meant to simplify starting games of Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. For more about the features of GameSpy Arcade, read over my article for RPGPlanet.
Introduction
Baldur's Gate is a great RPG & it offers you the opportunity to
play with other liked-minded players in a co-operative game,
whether you guys are on a local network or all over the world!
Worldwide connection is best supported via the TCP/IP protocol,
but there have been many problems in this area over the past few
months...
I am a new player in the world of online gaming, but I'm also a PC
enthusiast & a former student of computer science, so I should be
able to solve most problems to do with getting my games to work.
Now that I'm on vacation, I've decided to take Baldur's Gate (BG)
online with the official Tales of the Sword Coast (TotSC)
expansion pack - Roger Wilco is a great incentive - and if it all
works out, maybe I'd switch over to the dark side of the Sword
Coast, unofficially.
Connection Issues
I have experienced a lot of problems trying to setup up a
successful game over the Internet, whether it was joining a game
or hosting a game! When you can't join a game, it could be
problems such as the players' machines being too far away from
each other, but some of you might know what I'm talking about
here with respect to HOSTING a game:
"PlayerX Joined Game" (Excellent!)
(A few seconds later, before I got intimate with PlayerX...)
"PlayerX Dropped from Game"
This is incredibly frustrating, especially when the same brave
soul tries to connect to me more than once without success. This
problem occured with different players, too, and so it ain't just
the One Unfortunate Person who had experienced connection
difficulties - lots of people were faced with similar problems,
too. Now, regarding the JOINING of a session, sometimes, this
will occur:
You connect to an online game at the Character Arbitration menu,
waiting with baited breath for "information from the server" and
suddenly - you are disconnected! No BG online for you.
Deduction
If I've never played BG successfully online, then my machine must
be the broken link, but this was STRANGE, considering the fact that
I've had a few successes with joining a game or being the host.
Officially, Interplay has reported the multiplayer DirectX 7.0 bug,
but details are scant, and the connection problems persisted
everytime I tried to play online. So, one day, without breakfast or
lunch... or dinner... or any regard for personal hygiene, I
struggled out of bed after I've decided to figure out what the $#%@
is wrong. I shall do my best to understand the possible causes of
BG's online connection problems, because it would give me a better
chance of playing the game online. The following is what I've come
up with after hours of experiment, and just when you think this
report is getting nowhere, too.
N.B. Please bear in mind that there are MANY reasons why you can't
join or host a multiplayer game across the Net. A good
Internet Service Provider (ISP) is essential & if you don't
have access to one of them, then you probably won't be able
to connect online or maintain a playable game. Barring a
problematic ISP, the solutions listed below should give you
the greatest chance of playing BG across the world!
The Two Variables
If you wish to connect successfully for an online game over the
Internet, TCP/IP is your safest bet* - select it as your protocol
within BG's Connection menu. Before you attempt to join with
another computer automatically using software such as GameSpy
Lite, or manually using IP numbers listed by Roger Wilco, there
are two things that you need to know:
a) Which version of BG is currently installed on your PC, and
b) the version number of Microsoft's DirectX on your machine.
To find out which version of BG is installed on your computer,
start the program normally. When you are within the game world
itself (your characters could move about the screen) click the
floppy disk icon to the left for the Options menu. The version
number of this terrific RPG should be listed near the bottom of
the screen, towards the left.
To find out which version of DirectX you got on your PC, click the
Windows' Start button on the Taskbar, select Run, then type
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DXDIAG.EXE
within the box & press Enter. The DirectX Diagnostic Tool will
appear on your screen, and you could find out the version number
of Microsoft's multimedia API on your machine if you didn't know
it already.
Now that you've got the two important pieces of information, you
must use them in order to understand the necessary conditions
required for hosting or joining BG online!
Conditions for Playing Baldur's Gate Online
The following observations are based on my experience with TotSC.
You will be dealing with different numbers if you're playing
without the expansion pack, but the respective situations should
remain the same. For the numbers listed below, please substitute
4315 in place of 5512 if you're playing BG without TotSC.
First of all, here's an official fix for dial-up connections...
There have been some problems with dial-up internet connections
and multiplayer games. If you are finding you cannot connect to
other multiplayer games, add the following line into the
baldur.ini file located where you installed the game:
under:
[Multiplayer]
add:
AsyncEnumeration=1
Got it? Use a text editor to add the line. The information above
came from a patch file for TotSC, but I think the same applies to
the standard BG also. If in doubt, check out your own readme
files! You could extract them from the latest patch that you have
downloaded, or you could find them within BG's directory (the
default is C:\Program Files\Black Isle\Baldur's Gate). Look for
Readme_patch or something with a similar name.
OK, read on - the rest of this report is all mine!
If you have DirectX 7 & BG version 1.3.5512,
you could HOST a game - people with DirectX 6 & BG v1.3.5512
can join you.
You can't JOIN any type of BG games over the Internet using
TCP/IP, unless you have the US version of the expansion pack, in
which case a patch is available to you via Interplay's website!
Please read the section below if you want to know what's good for
you & everybody else.
If you don't have a US version of BG but you wish to connect with
other players, you could try to use the Direct X Uninstaller to
downgrade Microsoft's API. This isn't an offical program from
Microsoft, I haven't tried it (I'm sticking to DirectX 6.1a for a
while), but it is well worth a look if you have upgraded to DX 7 &
some of your older multiplayer games ain't connecting no more...
http://www.ebrink.com/dxun/Direct.htm
Incidentally, are you aware of online games that used to connect
BEFORE DirectX 7 - games that simply won't connect anymore after
you've upgraded Microsoft's API to version 7? If you know anything
about this, please send a note on these strange occurences to
[email protected]
Pyrites will appreciate your help! Many thanks in advance.
If you have DirectX 7 & BG version 1.3.5520 (only available to US
versions of BG & TotSC with the DirectX 7 update patch),
you could HOST a game - people with DirectX 7 & BG v1.3.5520 can
join you. There is a special case where players with DirectX 6.1a
can join with you, but that's only possible if they own a US
version of BG, and the solution isn't officially supported. That
solution is available further down the page.
You could JOIN other TotSC games, but only if they are v1.3.5520.
Most of the time, you can see the version of the hosting game with
GameSpy Lite or GameSpy 3D... I say most of the time because there
are instances when the version number is just not listed.
Updating TotSC to version 1.3.5520 is only possible if the player
owns a US version of the game. Version 1.3.5512 will be updated to
1.3.5520 after you've extracted BGmain.exe [4.81MB (5,046,319
bytes)] into your Baldur's Gate directory. This is done with the
US only DX7 Update (bgtalesdx7.exe) that you could download via
http://www.interplay.com/Bgate/files.html
Needless to say, but necessary to type, don't click on Baldur's
Gate if you have TotSC, and vice versa.
If you have DirectX 6.1 & BG version 1.3.5512,
you could HOST a game - people with DX 6.1 & BG 5512 can join you.
You could JOIN other BG games only if they are v1.3.5512,
regardless of whether the host has DirectX 6 or 7, since the
multiplayer DX 7 bug does not affect the hosting of BG - it only
affects the joining of an online game.
If you have a US version of the RPG, you have a special option for
joining another set of games...
Do you have a US version of Baldur's Gate AND Microsoft's DirectX
6.1a installed on your PC? If so, you're a luck individual! It is
possible for you to connect to either versions of the game,
whether it's BG v1.3.5512 or BG v.1.3.5520! Setting up both games
on your computer is a feasible option, IF you understand what the
US only DX 7 Update actually does.
Unofficially, players with DirectX 6.1a together with a US version
of TotSC can JOIN a 5520 game if they use the DX 7 Update, which
basically replaces the old BGMain.exe with a new version of the
file, upgrading BG v1.3.5512 to version 5520. However, without
installing DirectX 7.0a, gameplay might be unstable. I've tried
this solution myself with someone who runs a copy of BG v1.3.5520
& it seems to work... until the game crashed half an hour later
when I executed an in-game command. The disconnection could have
been due to any number of reasons, but I suspect the DirectX 6 & 7
compatibility issue might well be it.
Otherwise, you're good to go!
If you want to keep the DirectX 6.1a API for stable online
connection among older games, you could use the US only DX 7
Update to play with other BG v1.3.5520 games, but I'd advise you
to make a backup of the original BGmain.exe. Remember, 5520 games
can only connect to others of the same, which means that you won't
be able to play with anyone who doesn't own a US version of
Baldur's Gate, because non-US versions of BG cannot upgrade to
5520! Unless you replace the new BGMain.exe (5,046,319 bytes) with
a copy of the old BGMain.exe (1,331,262 bytes), you won't be able
to play with the rest of the world!
"Is this the race thing?"
HOSTING of BG v1.3.5520 with DirectX 6.1a is unproven, so I have
no idea whether it actually works - feel free to give it a try. If
nobody connects to your game, then perhaps it wasn't meant to be!
Either that, or nobody wants to play with me... I mean, you.
Would you like to HOST an online game? Do you need the option of
minimizing BG into a window on your Desktop? If you answer yes to
both questions, then read on to ensure hosting success!
First of all, not all graphic cards allow you to minimize BG into
a window with Alt + Enter. If you have a display card that
supports the function (e.g. 3dfx Voodoo3) then good for you! You
can read your cheat codes & area maps while you play... Er, you
could read stuff like the Psychology of Marine Mammals if the
information will help your ongoing session of Baldur's Gate.
When you're hosting a game, waiting for other people to join you,
and you decide to minimize BG so you can keep an eye on other open
windows, remember that BG has to stay on top of all other
applications on your Desktop! This is necessary because if the BG
window is sent to the background, it will enter into "sleep" mode
and it will stop showing up on monitoring software such as
GameSpy. If others can't see your session, then how could they
possibly join you? This also explains why your game won't show up
on GameSpy when you press the refresh button to update all
available sessions of the game - it is due to the fact that your
BG window is no longer on top! And you thought it always works
when the other's on top...
Some of you might be wondering:
Why the hell would I want to run BG in a window if I can't use
anything else on my Desktop apart from checking notes?
Well, while BG goes into pause mode if it isn't on top of all
other opened applications, there are software which would keep
working even if they are sent to the background! Roger Wilco is
one of them, and IRC is another. These programs will allow you to
monitor when your gaming partners come online, and they could be
utilized to help minimize interruptions to your ongoing game.
One more thing: if you want your multiplayer session to show up on
GameSpy for potential gaming partners, you must open a connection
to the Net BEFORE you run Baldur's Gate. Otherwise, it simply
won't be visible online.
The Closing
That's it! A long-winded report perhaps, but I'm sure it will be
helpful to anyone who's been upset with BG's TCP/IP connection
problems. If only Kali* was free for more than 15 minutes. [ed. GameSpy Arcade seeks to simplify joining multiplayer games]
A Note to the Technical Minds Who Developed BG for the World
Dear BioWare,
Where are the DirectX 7 updates for the UK or non-English versions
of Baldur's Gate & Tales of the Sword Coast? Now that you are
bringing out Baldur's Gate II, are you forsaking fans who bought a
non-US version of the original game?? Do you know how frustrating
it is, failing to connect online... (sob)(D2)
And don't just blame it all on Microsoft!
Unless it solve problems.
A text version of this article is available.
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