No Window for MULE

[AryuLimitless]

This weird activity is totally unusual for any Java program, as I play "Minecraft 1.0.0", in offline mode, and craft my own Java demo programs.  I downloaded the Windows version just today.  I really wanted to play this remake as I have been a HUGE fan of MULE on the C64 and the Atari 800!

I open the game file, Mule.exe, and it begins after about two minutes.  The music plays, the Java icon comes up on my taskbar, but there's no window to play it in.  Every time I activate MULE, I get the music but no window.

I checked to see what the "priority" had been set to in the Task Manager, it states Normal.

I have an HP Pavilion dv6575us.
CPU is an Intel Centrino Duo T7300 @ 2.0GHz.
Installed RAM:  2.0 Gb
OS:  Windows 7, SP1, 32-bit
Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 8400M GS (driver date 15OCT2011; version 8.17.12.8562)
Java Installation:  Java 7 Standard Edition, Update 1 (build 1.7.0_01-b08)

Any assistance would be most helpful.

Please Note:  I dropped my Java Installation back to Java 6 Update 30 to see if this was the case.  (As in playing POGO games on EA's POGO site, which recommends that you roll back the Java to version 6.  Some issues in 7, according to their site, cause many games to not load properly and to not display graphic element in their proper layers.)

The Java rollback did NOTHING for the issues I'm having with the game.  I also tried MULE 1.0.0 and I get the SAME results!  Any ideas?

[Muleking]

Try
start> search> mule

2 mule .exe files may come up. Double click the mule icon, not the java icon.

Opening java mule doesn't fire up mule on our pc either.

MK

[AryuLimitless]

I've tried both ways!    The Java-icon version of Mule.exe and the Mule-icon version of Mule.exe.
I get the SAME results:  The game screen comes up then disappears!  UNPLAYABLE!  Music plays...

The only way it works with the screen up, is if I have 3 running at the same time, which kills my computer's processing and makes Planet MULE unplayable...  (And annoying to listen to the music reverberate... LOL) >_<

Are there any tweaks that I need to do to make this game work?  

Please assist.

~Aryu

I've rolled everything Java on my computer back to Java 5.  Still NOTHING!  I can't get it to run in a browser window.  I can't get it to run properly ANYWHERE!  WHAT DO I DO NOW?

I've deleted it and re-downloaded it multiple times, and I still have NOTHING!

Where do I go from here!?  PLEASE HELP!!!

[Chuckie Chuck]

Can confirm it's a video driver problem.  Believe your computer uses an Nvidia Geforce Go 5, 6 or 7 chipset depending on the sub-model.

The fix...

Go to Nvidia's website and download the appropriate video drivers.  I have a Compaq F700 (stripped down version of the HP DV6000 Series, same motherboard and chipset, just lacking a lot of the features.  Mine is the 730, which is almost as stripped down as they get, the Geforce Go 5, with only the 3 usb ports, no other expansion, not even the SD Card slot.)

Updated drivers, game runs better than it runs on my Sony Vaio workhorse.

[AryuLimitless]

I have the nVidia GeForce 840M GS and upgraded the drivers.  It's still not showing the game screen.
Any other ideas?

~Aryu

Edit:  I just checked @ the nVidia site and had it "check" my drivers.
It claims it's up-to-date.  Version 285.62...

[Chuckie Chuck]

Mine lied to me, it only looks at the driver version number, but if the driver installed was supplied by OEM or microsoft, it may be missing certain required elements for acceleration features that effect mule.  I found this to be the case with mine, the built in drivers from microsoft fooled nvidia's auto detection.  Manually downloading and installing the correct driver was the only way I could get it in correctly.

I could be wrong, but I highly doubt it.

I've had this issue with both my Compaq HP running Windows Vista, and my Sony Vaio that uses and Intel Chipset rather than NVidia and runs Windows 7.

For the Compaq, it was OEM supplied driver issues (and Nvidia's autodetection could not even detect I had an NVidia chipset because of the goofy OEM driver from HP.  I had to manual determine which was the correct driver from NVidia and download and install it manually.)

For the Sony, it was a Microsoft issues, as Microsoft had a builtin chipset/video driver for the intel chipset, but it was incomplete, although it was a "newer" driver by version number compared to the driver supplied by intel, it was microsofts stripped version of the driver, and therefore, made autodetection invalid.

[Chuckie Chuck]

Even now, it takes a good 10 seconds for the game to display after I enter a game on the HP, although it plays more smoothly than my Vaio once it comes up.  Mule's video requirements are very taxing, and my Vaio has a very inferior FSB speed.  Mule can tax my Vaio to the limit.

(My machine specs)

HP/Compaq F730                            Sony Vaio - FE-865E
1.9ghz AMD Sempron                      1.6 ghz Intel Duo
200 Mhz FSB                                 133 Mhz FSB
Nvideo GeForce Go 5                       Intel 945GM
250Gig HDD                                   160 Gig HDD
3 USB 2.0                                     3 USB 2.0
Broadcom Mini-PCI-e WIFI               Intel PRO/Wireless
2 Gigs RAM                                   2 Gigs RAM
                                                  1 Firewire/IEEE 1394 Port
                                                  1 PCI Express Slot (34 pin)
                                                  1 PCMCIA Slot
Running Windows Vista with             Running Windows 7 with all drivers
all drivers updated manually from      manually updated from Intel, not Sony.
NVidia's website, not HPs.               (Note the Vaio also ran Vista with the same issues occuring)


I still believe improper drivers is the most likely cause.

[Chuckie Chuck]

Based on your Log_Init file, it's freezing when it tries to initialize the meta frame for the game (That is a video driver problem) Never makes it to that step, it's the next step in the process.  The step following that is collecting driver info, never makes it there cause it can't create the meta frame.

[Chuckie Chuck]

This probably won't help, but give it a shot...

Put the attached file in your \mule\data folder.

This file is slightly modified to turn on screen redraws, just on the off chance that's an issue.  Works on my computer both ways, but seems to be less hassle with the ignore redraw setting to false (I don't have to switch to the lobby and back to game to get the screen to redraw manually, but when it's set to true on my Compaq, it doesn't draw the screen on initial game startup.)

Did research your driver some more, and I can't find an obvious problem, and driver seems up to date, but I've heard of issues with drivers not installing properly without fully removing previous drivers with ATI, maybe it is the same with nVidia.  It has effected many a would be mule player.