Mega Man Legends Installation on Windows 10

[marioguy789 4]

KEEP READING THE REPLIES, WHILE THE INSTALLATION ISSUE HAS BEEN RESOLVED, OTHER ISSUES CONTINUE TO PERSIST.

 

Hello, all.

As the title says, I'm trying to install Mega Man Legends onto Windows 10, which I've seen can be done, but for some reason I can't seem to get past START.EXE.  First of all, I have actually tried to install from a real disc and from a copy, neither produced different results.  I can run the game from both the disc and the copy by directly selecting MEGAMAN.EXE, and even use DxWnd to modify the windowed mode, but I can't actually install the game onto my hard drive so I can make essential changes, like the Unfinished Business patch.

All that happens when I put the disc in and select START.EXE is the dialog box comes up, I click "Install," it hangs for a second, then it tries to launch the SETUP.EXE file, which just fails and does nothing.  Well, I would say that, except for the fact that I can see a process called "32-bit setup launcher" running in Task Manager, I just can't do anything with it.  I've tried to bypass START.EXE by selecting SETUP.EXE specifically, but that doesn't produce any different results, even with changes to the compatibility settings.  I did try and install the game to a virtual Windows XP machine, and it worked just fine, the downside being that I can't do much of anything from inside XP that I'd be able to do from 10, like use controllers correctly without jumping through hoops, or use DxWnd to get the best resolution.

This problem really has me stumped, even more than Spider-Man did, so that's why I've come around for input.

Thanks again, guys.

Edited February 14, 2021 by marioguy789
Solved initial problem, more problems persist.

[Nessy 3]

Hey there.

Specific modern applications can keep old installers and similar programs from running.
An example are 32-Bit Setups not starting. Usually they can be found running but not progressing in the Task Manager. (As is the case here).

It is extremely likely that another process is causing this hang-up because the Setup is "waiting for it".

Here is what you can do:
On Windows 10 the Task Manager has a feature called "Analyze Wait Chain" on the "Details" tab to find out what program the hanging process is waiting for. So open it up, move to the Details tab and rightclick your hanging Setup process. Then click on "Analyze Wait Chain". If another process is blocking it, the Task Manager will show you which one it is and offer you to terminate it directly.
Windows 7 does not have that functionality, but there are programs that can fill in that role. (WaitingOn.exe for example).

Prominent culprits:
- Logitech Gaming Software and its drivers can keep most 32-Bit applications / setups from running. (Especially "logitechg_discord.exe" is a problem).
- NVIDIA Experience and its overlay can be the second-in-command when it comes to the Setup-saboteurs. (nvcontainer.exe seems to be responsible. Kill that process chain or all of NVIDIA's running programs like Experience and Shadowplay).

 

I hope that helps. Personally I have had that issue for a long time because of the 2 evildoers mentioned above, but killing those processes has solved every case of hanging Setups for me so far.

[marioguy789 4]

Hello, @Nessy,

Thanks for letting me know about these issues, I actually didn't know Task Manager had that feature, but thanks to you, I was able to identify that it was part of an NVIDIA application causing the hang, so after I terminated it, the program was able to move on and install.

I have since applied the relevant patches for the text and music, but now I'm trying to figure out the resolution.  I know that Legends probably doesn't go above a certain resolution threshold, but when I use DxWnd to window the application, the program runs in such a way that it doesn't fill the whole window (see attached image).

I'm not sure if I should rather be using DgVoodoo to run this game in a window, or if there's something I'm missing about DxWnd in this instance.  My native resolution is 1920x1080, which is what this window is matched to, I'm just not sure if I can fill the rest of the space or not, as this just looks awkward.

I'll go further into detail on my settings if anyone needs them.

Thanks again, @Nessy

[marioguy789 4]

UPDATE:

A new issue has presented itself since I posted just over a week ago.  While the game was running very smoothly previously, the game is now running at about half the speed it should be.  I'm not sure why this is, as I have not changed any settings that could have caused this, it just is now.  I have noticed that on the official PC Gaming Wiki page that this issue is unresolved, which is odd because I wasn't having this problem when I posted the first time.  I also think this speed difference is affecting the scripted sounds, as during the opening of the game the same soundbite keeps looping over and over again.

If anyone has any information on this, please feel free to reply to this thread.

[mrpenguinb 4]

On 2/9/2021 at 2:06 PM, marioguy789 said:

UPDATE:

A new issue has presented itself since I posted just over a week ago.  While the game was running very smoothly previously, the game is now running at about half the speed it should be.  I'm not sure why this is, as I have not changed any settings that could have caused this, it just is now.  I have noticed that on the official PC Gaming Wiki page that this issue is unresolved, which is odd because I wasn't having this problem when I posted the first time.  I also think this speed difference is affecting the scripted sounds, as during the opening of the game the same soundbite keeps looping over and over again.

If anyone has any information on this, please feel free to reply to this thread.

Have you tried using dgVoodoo2? It may fix your performance issues with the game.

Also with dgVoodoo2, you can force any resolution you want to get a crispier image, however... the audio doesn't loop properly (at least for me).

[marioguy789 4]

@mrpenguinb

I actually have tried using dgVoodoo to enhance the game, which has worked relatively well, however, I can't seem to get the game to look nearly as crisp and anti-aliased as the videos that are found online.  I have no idea what I'm doing wrong if a graphics enhancer is making a game look worse than it's supposed to, but the game went from looking like it did in the first screenshot to even more aliased than that, and I can't explain it.  I fixed the audio loop issue by adjusting the frame rate cap in the Nvidia control panel, which seems to have worked correctly.

[mrpenguinb 4]

@marioguy789

Either run dgVoodoo2 as administrator (the Control Panel itself), or copy/move MegaMan Legends to a different directory.

dgVoodoo uses a .conf file to store settings, and it can't write to Program Files unless the dgVoodoo control panel is run as administrator, or the game is moved to a non-system directory (such as your Desktop or just root C:\).

What framerate did you set in the NVIDIA Control Panel? I can't get the audio to loop properly still..

[marioguy789 4]

Hey @mrpenguinb,

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, to answer your question, the audio will stop looping over itself, but it still drifts out of sync in cutscenes, I've tested several framerates and no matter what I've set it to, for some reason it keeps moving about the same pace, so no dice there.  I think what actually solved the problem was selecting the "all of them" option under the "Adapter(s) to use" section in the general settings, instead of just my Nvidia card, which is weird because that's the only card in my system, but whatever.  I may do another fresh install again just to see if I can fix anything that I may have messed up previously.  Is there a way to delete or otherwise remove dgVoodoo configurations from my system completely, so that they don't interfere with a subsequent installation?

[marioguy789 4]

Okay, just so everyone's clear, the graphics I'm trying achieve look like this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79IV3LtbYZA&t=56s

Thus far, I've been unable to get anywhere close to this.  I think the issue of desynced audio in cutscenes is just something we're going to have to deal with @mrpenguinb, because it seems to be a byproduct of Windows 10 itself.  I just tested the game running in my Windows XP virtual machine, and the audio stays in sync throughout the entirety of cutscenes, so there' some sort of disconnect there.  I also noticed that even in my Windows XP machine, there was still a lot of aliasing and a few graphical oddities, and that's on a fresh install with no modifications from dgVoodoo made to the settings.  These oddities carry over from this machine into Windows 10, even with all of the enhancements added onto the game, so I can't fathom what the problem is here.  I mean, I've fixed Spider-Man (2001), Rayman 2, Rayman 3, Rogue Squadron, Shadows of the Empire and NFSMW (2005) to all be playable to near perfect degrees WITH enhancements, just not this game.  Again, all in game audio is fine, cutscenes drift, and the graphics continue to mystify me.

This is all I've managed to gather from my extensive research from PCGW and other various sources.

 

[cloudhaacker 3]

Marioguy789 - I'm uploading a video showing where I've gotten on my attempts, I think I've gotten the quality you are looking for, gotten rid of the stuttering sound - but the only thing I can't manage is the audio not quite being synced up in cutscenes. I spent A LOT of time on it this morning trying everything I could think of - changing audio settings in Windows, Core Affinities, etc, etc. After the video is uploaded, I'll post a link here so you can see if it seems closer to what you were trying to get graphic wise.

[marioguy789 4]

@cloudhaacker

Thanks very much for your contribution to this discussion, I will look forward to the video when it is finished uploading.  As I said before, I think that the problem with desynced audio is something to do with Windows 10 itself, as the problem does not occur when I am running the game through my virtual machine.  I can't explain it, but hopefully we'll come up with a solution eventually.

[cloudhaacker 3]

@marioguy789No Problem! I'm the guy who was talking back and forth with you on youtube (John Haack) I loaded it up in a virtual machine too and yeah, audio is good there, but I'm unable to get dgVoodoo to work right in the vm. If I could, I'd be fine playing in there. I have confidence we'll get the audio figured out eventually lol. I know there's a guy working on Mega Man Legends 2 and he's amazing at fixing games - he's made Resident Evil 1 & 2 playable in Windows 10, he's working on Resident Evil 3 and the Dino Crisis Games, and if he's that great with Capcom games, maybe he can fix Legends 1 too!

Here's the video - 

 

[marioguy789 4]

@cloudhaacker

Yeah, I thought that might be you, based on the "haacker" in the name, but anyway, thanks a bunch for this video and your elaboration in the comments, I'll be sure to reinstall the game again and give the graphics another go, still a shame about the audio drifting, but at least this is something to start.  I'll let you know if I have any success later.

[marioguy789 4]

@cloudhaacker

Okay, so I'm pretty much back to where I was previously, resolution is correct, everything seems to be okay except the actual graphical fidelity and I can't figure out why, I followed everything to a T (see images).  The last part confuses me though, pressing F7 when I load the game doesn't seem to do anything.  I'm really drawing a blank here, there's got to be something I'm missing, I just don't see it.

[mrpenguinb 4]

@marioguy789

😯  D3DImm.dll is missing! You need to extract it from the MS folder in the dgVoodoo zip file. Without it, dgVoodoo2 won't work.