I like this old driving game very much but it crashes on my system. The 3dfx-update from the UBISOFT site starts and exit's back to windows without crashing. The newer!!! version i found on my unprotect 8.0 is called 3dfxgsff  (including force feedback) starts normally but stops after some minutes of play without bluescreen or errormessage. I can press strg-alt-entf and close the pod task.  I can run other glide games without problem so does someon know of a newer update?

Thanks,
Andreas

And does anyone know how to install POD without it overwriting my DirectX 8.1 install with its earlier version?

Any advice appreciated. ???

Thank you very much patience for your reply.  I  played POD for years on my old S3VIRGE. I have the full "POD Back from Hell" with 3 bonus tracks and 8 bonus vehicles not for download on the website. There is a d3ddx5 update on the cd but it quits like the 3dfx version until i update it with the d3ddx5ff. Of course it is slower and don't has the sun-light effects as the 3dfx-version. I am highly interested in the update so could you plese tell me the link to get the file. Otherwise i could send you my e-mail as a private message.

Thanks,
Andreas

P.S.
I have to quit now because i am picked up for a party  in the next few minutes so i can reply  tomorrow morning at the earliest.

To procerus, the direct x 3 setup doesn't overwrite the newer direct x version. It only add's the files not included (needed) in direct x 5 and up. These files are as far as i know not needed by any games. I tried it with "ghosting" back my windows and starting some direct  x 3 games by exe. Maybe these dll's are only needed by some other direct x 3 dll's wich won't be installed because the direct x 3 setup decects the newer version of the files already installed.

To patience, i don't have ME so i can't check this problem. I always thought ME is only an overweight 98SE.

It is strange that ubisoft only has those old updates on the website. I'll send you my e-mail as private message.

Thanks,
Andreas

P.S.
According to lisezmoi.txt it was called "POD EXTENDED TIME" ;-)

Thank you very much patience for the file. I'll logout now and boot windows to test if it works.

Thanks again,
Andreas

Hi patience, i installed your patch over my but it has the same crashes as before. I completely reinstalled POD and then installed your patch but than POD crashes right after the Intro Video. I'll check some older 3dfx or Monster drivers. If that not helps i still have the last resort, the "direct 3d" version. It doesn't look as good as the 3dfx but it works....

Regards,
Andreas

Regarding P.O.D. on a Voodoo2 I found this-

POD: "Make a copy of glide2x.dll then rename the copy to glide.dll grab a copy of SST1INIT.DLL from any of Voodoo1 drivers somewhere off the net. You don't need the drivers just SST1INIT.DLL from the driver file package. Copy the GLIDE.DLLl that you just made and SST1INIT.DLL to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory then intsall POD if you are still having problems download the latest PATCH. There are a few versions of the POD 3Dfx Patch and they are about the same size even though UBISOFT doesn't tell you this. If you downloaded the POD 3Dfx patch before the you got a Voodoo2 then you must re-download it."

Sorry PROCERUS,
i havn't checked the POD-thread after PACIENCE's patches crashed too (your answer was 14 days later). I will give your tip a try. I have glide.dll and sst1init from the latest monster drivers in my system directory as well as some dll's in the windows directory but these are only needed for the technology-demos on the monster-cd. I havn't downloaded the pod-3dfx-patch PATIENCE mentioned because of it's size (23mb). It's hard to 'torture' my ol' 28.8 with  files of that size. Maybe i beg a friend with ISDN for downloading  :-[ ...

Thanks to both of you,
Andreas

...thank you very much for that option but a friend of mine has isdn and i think that he will do that download for me somtimes in the next weeks. On the other hand i want to check procerus tip now first. If this works there is no need for us to waste time and money for that big file.

By the way, what makes the file so big? There must be more than just an updated exe  ???

Regards,
Andreas

I have also read that, if the game doesn't correctly recognise your system's configuration, you can copy the correct executable across from the game's CD.  Perhaps the patch is that size since there are so many different versions of the game's executable?

I'm intrigued and, not having played the game for some time, will probably install it tomorrow and see how it runs on my new Quantum3D card :)  I'll post to say how I get on.

procerus said:

Quote:

will probably install it tomorrow

Is it "tomorrow" yet? ;)

Umm.  I've installed POD here and have it running at 800x600 on Voodoo2 SLI (200SBi).  It's totally stable and lots of fun.

To do this I did a full install of the game.  Despite my tip above the game still wouldn't install the 3dfx version even though it recognised the Voodoo1 files I'd put in my Windows\System directory.  But patching remedies this.

I have applied two patches from here-
http://www.kineticdreams.net/underground/files/files.html

The first one I applied is the "Force Feedback Patch" (updatePOD21_3dfx.exe).  The second one is the 3dfx patch (contents of pod3dfx.zip).  I then created a shortcut to podx3dfx.exe to run the MMX 3dfx version (I have an elderly Pentium).

To run the game at 800x600 follow the instructions here-
http://www.kineticdreams.net/underground/faq/3dfxhr.shtml

I did have Force Feedback working on my USB FF wheel for a while but I don't know how I did that ???.  I changed something and it stopped working and even a complete reinstall hasn't fixed it.  I'll post again if I crack that one!  Probably some clash with IForce2.dll or dinput5.dll which the game uses and DirectX 8.1.

Hope this is of some help to someone anyway.  I'm off to see if I can figure out how to force the game to run at 1024x768.  It is a very pretty game for its age! ;D

A friend of mine downloaded that big updatePOD21_3dfx.exe for me. This must exactly be that big file patience mentioned above in this thread. I'll get the CD containing the file next weekend and try the same order (the big one first and the the second).

Thanks for the Help,
Andreas

I had forgotten how good POD is!  I mean when I first saw WipeOut on the PlayStation I knew exactly where they had copied WipeOut from. ;)

I've got the FF wheel working now (it's USB and POD was always confusing it with the controllers I have on the gameport).  And a PowerStrip application shortcut changes my desktop from 32 to 16 bit before the game runs and then back again afterwards (the game won't run otherwise even though I'm running it on Voodoo2 SLI).

POD's colourful tracks and amazing soundtrack make for such a hypnotic experience.  I'd forgotten how, as you learn a track, the rhythms of the music blend into the rhythms of the straights and bends.

The cars look a bit rubbish these days but that can be greatly helped by hitting F2 until you're sat inside your vehicle.  And the collision detection's a bit frustrating at times.  When you hit another car your vehicle is greatly slowed.  When they hit you it doesn't seem to affect them as badly!

I'm glad to be playing it again.  Now if only I can get good enough to get off "Easy" difficulty! ;D

The tracks really look fantastic. I got POD on a magazine CD and they stripped the music  >:(

But one advantage is that this is POD Gold (aka Back to Hell) with all the bonus tracks and cars as well as 2 special tracks (hellway + 'forgot the name') who are not available at kineticdreams. There are also 'what they call motorcycles' as additional cars as well as 'guys sitting in a bathtub with wheels' but they are'nt good as the real cars.

I hope i can run it at 800x600 now on my V2

Regards,
Andreas

I must admit that I'm having troubles here.

The game wouldn't even start until I'd changed the desktop to 16 bit colour.  It wouldn't even start until I'd installed at least two patches (three if you count the dummy Voodoo1 files to fool the installer or five if I try to use the Quantum3D Obsidian2 drivers since the game then runs too fast without the GameService Client).  The game won't run properly if I have anything connected to the gameport since I'm trying to use a USB wheel.  And somehow the Microsoft ForceFeedback causes the Voodoo2s to corrupt and lock-up if mipmap dithering and triple-colour buffering are enabled!

Amidst all this I'm still not entirely sure that I've got the game running entirely stable yet!  But I'm getting there...  ::)

Update:  It appears that every time I play the game with the FF USB Wheel I then have to reapply the game's FF patch and then the 3dfx patch before I can play it again otherwise it locks up!  It works fine with an ordinary gameport joystick however.  This is a shame since the game is surprisingly good with the FF Wheel in terms of feedback and responsiveness.

It was an early fully 3D Windows 95 game that was groundbreaking in many ways.  It surely doesn't like modern hardware much.  It reminds me of many DOS games in the extent to which it seems to ignore or fumble Windows' APIs.

Sure is fun when it does work, though!

Thanks patience.  I discovered that the problem was due to my using the wrong force feedback patch.  There are two different ones.  Now I'm using the correct one it all works perfectly.  I found the other patch at:
ftp.ubisoft.com

It is confusing since there are many patches or combinations of patches you can use.  A lot of people seem to recommend installing Ubisoft's "Game Service Client" and the POD patch for that too.  But I get better results here without those.

Yes it is but it also fixes other problems with the game sometimes (like the game running too fast on recent systems).

Hi Again,
let's make this thread bigger ;-). I played POD on my Voodoo² without problems. But since i have a Voodoo³ the game runs faster (1min in realtime is 45 seconds in game) and it crashes after quit. I see an empty (black background) maximized window with two unreadable text lines as mouse pointer. After killing the POD-Task with taskmanager the upper right icons (min-max-close) and the text in the Start-Menu is disorted. POD is updated with the latest updatepod21_3dfx and pod3dfx. I tried different GLIDE2X.DLL's with no effect.

Regards,
Andreas

Now there's a coincidence, Andreas!  I've just been PODding again here too.  My new interest in 3D shutter glasses has given the game a new lease of life (plus, with the Wicked3D stereo wrapper it means I can run the game at 1024x1024!).

For game speed problems go and look here-
http://www.kineticdreams.net/underground/faq/slowdpod.shtml

I get a lock up on exit with a black window with POD too now.  This has to be something to do with the stereo wrapper here.  I can get the system back by ctrl-alt-del though so I'll live with it!

Thanks, procerus. I should have checked this site first as it seems that it is the No.1 for anything POD related. By the way, the original site for POD is http://pod.ubi.com/ENGLISH/usa.html linked from ubi.com/pod where also other international links are stored, but most of them link to international UBI sites with less or no POD content. The german section does not has the F1 cars etc. Also in UBI.COM's support section POD isn't listed anymore.

Regards,
Andreas

What programming language is that?  I can't understand a word of it! :P  ;D

Just upgraded to a P4c and discovered that POD doesn't run on P4s.

Anyone know a fix for this?  ??? ??? ???

The game (whatever version I install) won't initialize.  The Windows hour glass cursor appears for a moment and then... nothing.  :-/

I have found others with the same problem in the few POD forums that are still active.  It's generally accepted that one thread of the game's code gets ahead of itself on a P4 and trips the whole thing up.

I will try slowing the system down with MoSlo and will report back if that's of any benefit.  But I fear that, unless the game's executable is worked on by some code god, POD may be headed for my (as yet unbuilt) legacy system.  :(

I am wondering whenever the problem is related to the accelerated mode of the game (3dfx) or the standard, normal software mode using MMX superset...

On software mode, I have seen the game running on an Athlon XP 3200+, on a Windows 98SE system, and it runned very well.

If you reach a point where you decide that trying to get POD to work on your particular system is an exercise in futility, you might consider giving a more recent game a try.  Hover Ace by GSC Game World seems to take quite a few pages from the book of POD, and I can tell you from personal experience that it will run on a Voodoo5 (although it does have hardware T&L support for newer cards).  The game has a "compatibility test" if you want to try it on your system before purchasing the game.  You can get more information at the following site:

http://www.3dgamers.com/games/hoverace/

Links to the publisher's and developer's sites are available on the page above.

Unfortunately, this game has not received a great deal of attention, and it is already in the bargain bin here in the U.S.

Procerus,

You didn't indicate whether you had success or failure with Mo'Slo, so I don't know if you are still looking for a solution.  You might also consider a Windows-based slowdown program such as the CPU Kill program which 3D Realms mirrors at the following URL under the Miscellaneous Downloads section:

http://www.3drealms.com/downloads.html

This program seems to work well with Windows 98 SE, but there is no telling what it will do under Windows 2000/XP.

Procerus and other POD fans,

I don't know if it is a false lead on P4 success or not, but I saw the following on VOGONS:

http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=2694

Dege has expanded the POD exe support to encompass additional versions:

http://dege.freeweb.hu/


Also, the VOGONS thread has been updated with some info on why the game doesn't work on P4:

http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=2694

Another day, another P.O.D. issue ;)

I remember the bridges in SPIN to be transparent on my Voodoo 1 and 2 but i can see only a black square with the SPIN.BL4 (the one from the ubisoft/pod-underground site) from 24.06.1997 on my Voodoo 3. With the one in the patches dir on my original disc from 04.07.1997 i can see a normal track texture. Can anyone verify this or am i wrong?

The second is that after playing pod (both 3dfx patches and both gameservice patches) and quitting the game crashes with an empty maximized window with trapped mousecursor as written above in this thread. But killing the task with the taskmanager leaves the system in an instable state. I encountered crashes in different programs after playing pod. So makeing a restart after quit is a good tip if you don't want to see another BSOD.

@jaensker,
with my version of pod gold you really have to install the new tracks from cd with cdpatcher after first time installation. According your cd info tracks like spin are already installed with the full program. But i miss night, beach and hellway that are on my cd. Hellway is available on the web (i have to use the web version because the one from my cd crashes back to menu before start) but the others not. There are so many different pod versions out there even the cracks and the P4 patch don't support all exe's.

Regards,
Andreas

@nudgegoonies

I have not really had the chance (nor the time) to install the game and test it myself.

Are you missing certain tracks on your CD?

If you would like me to supply them, please let me know which files from the CD you require, and I will host them.

It's a cranky old game alright!  I don't own a single DOS game that is as picky and difficult as POD.  They tried so hard to create a Windows 95 game with all the features that they made it too fussy and too specialized.

Anyway I have got it working perfectly with Dege's P4 exe.  It runs a treat.

I have got it working (under Windows 98lite) with Metabyte's stereo wrapper so that I can play it with stereo glasses.

But, alas, I cannot get ForceFeedback to work anymore.  It always locks up the system no matter what combination of patches and exes I try.

Oh well.  It works beautifully anyway.  And FF is not really necessary to enjoy the game.  ;D