Need help with Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

[Dunedain]

Hi guys, I was wondering if someone here might know what's causing a problem I'm having with VTM. :)

I just got the game and when I try to launch it the screen goes black, the monitor makes a
clicking sound (like the monitor normally does when you're changing resolutions or
display modes), and then I get an error on the screen that says "out of frequency".

In the error dialog box it shows the maximum horizontal and vertical frequency rates that the
monitor supports and it also shows what I assume are the refresh rates that the game is
sending to the monitor and they are outside the maximum range the monitor supports. I can
hear the game loading normally, the intro, the title screens, the music at the main menu, etc.
I just can't see anything because the screen is black. Then a timer comes on the screen
within the error dialog box which counts down to zero, then the monitor will turn itself off.

I then have to hit ctrl-alt-del before the timer runs out (which causes the monitor to click
again as it goes back to my normal desktop res and refresh rates, which works fine) and
shut down the game "process" manually in order to turn the game off (this is only because I
can't see the main game menu to select "exit" from inside the game because the screen is black).

I've tried the latest official 66.93 drivers and also the latest 71.84 beta drivers from
nzone (I use Driver Cleaner 3 between each driver version change), but that didn't solve
the problem. I also checked the refresh rate in my nVidia control panel, and it's set to
85Hz refresh rate at 1024x768, which is the desktop res and rate I always use, and it's
also the res I use in all my other games, and the monitor supports this 85Hz rate at 1024x768.

My other games work fine, it's just VTM that doesn't. From what I can hear through my speakers,
the game itself seems to be working fine in the background, it's just that I can't see anything
on the screen due to the too high horizontal and vertical rates the game keeps trying to
send to my monitor, which causes the monitor to give me the error messge.

Does anyone know what I can do to correct this problem? I've tried everything I can
think of, including launching the game in the special "safe mode" that the game's program
folder menu offers, but that gives the same error as launching the game normally. I'd really
like to play the game and any help or ideas would be much appreciated! Thanks! :)

Oh, and I should mention that I'm using the 1.2 patch for VTM, which as far as I know is
the latest patch out for the game. And I have a GeForce 6800 Ultra video card.

[msxyz]

I sold VTM: Bloodlines out of desperation. Rarely I've seen such a high concentration of bugs in a single game. A shame since the story is not bad. Excellent content but bad coding... something too much common nowadays.

Besides my moral support I'm afraid I can offer little help :( VTM: Bloodlines is said to have used an early version of the Source engine which is indeed quite immature and troublesome. I can only guess the licensing agreement didn't include subsequent updates.

[Dunedain]

Well, I was able to solve the problem. I went into "properties" of the safe mode game launch option
and changed the resolution switch from 800 to 1024, then launched the game that way. This
caused the game to be forced to launch using 1024x768 res, which worked perfectly after that. :)

You would think they would have gotten the latest version of the engine to work with as
Valve updated it and got closer to releasing Half Life II. I don't see why that wouldn't be the case.

[TierMann]

You can also change the resolution in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Troika\Vampire\Settings (ScreenHeight, ScreenWidth) which you can edit in decimal mode. I think I read that on the activision site when I ran into the same problem.

Worked for me. I'm running at 1280x1024 now.


Found it: https://activision.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/activision.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=13884&p_created=1100729060&p_sid=urj_VEzh&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PWRmbHQmcF9ncmlkc29yd D0mcF9yb3dfY250PTQwJnBfcHJvZHM9MCZwX2NhdHM9JnBfcHY 9JnBfY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfb mwmcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1ibG9vZGxpbmVz&p_li=&p_topview=1

[ynnek]

another easy way, is force refresh rates of 800x600 mode to something safe, like 60 hz.

Man, i read some bad things, and I had a bad feeling when I loaded the game up the first time around and it didn't work lol

Stutters, relative slow performance, random crashes to desktop... yea, I can't believe they released a game with this many bugs.

[Gentle]

If you look at Display Properties > Settings does it show your monitor brand and model or does it list "Plug and Play"?

If it just shows Plug and Play, you should load your monitor drivers...

Gentle

[killahsin]

there is also a refresh rate issue. If you put your monitor on 60hz at all your regular res's and load the game itll(the game) boot at 800x600x60hz. then you can load the game change the in game resolutions and presto. It's another famous first fps mistake, the games trying to run your monitor at like 250hz lol

[maxwebb]

The problem is with DirectX. Drop to DOS, run dxdiag, go to 'more help' and override the refresh rate to set it to 60hz. I guess the old DirectX had this set as default when the game was manufactured but newer versions require you to force this setting.

[jkmetal]

Thanks for the info bro. Better late than never huh?