Be careful if you're thinking of upgrading to Windows 8.1

Hi Iryan,
I did some looking around on Microsoft Sites and there is nothing directly related to the issue your are having however I did notice people playing both Age of Empires III and Dungeon Siege on various versions of Win 8 finding that the upgrade deleted or damaged Binkw32.dll and/or Mss32.dll both of which DS2 needs. Since you already had to reinstall DirectX maybe reinstalling Bink32 and Mss32 might be where to look next. Both files are on Disk 1 of the DS2 disks and also can be found on line. Hope this helps. I guess I will keep this computer running Win XP a little longer.

Just found a post from a Microsoft Tech but not on Microsoft Site. He in an off handed sort of way suggested that Microsoft was attempting to force the old games out of existence so people would be forced to play the new games. He said that to play the older games he has a duel boot system WinXP so he can play the older games like DS2 etc. and the latest version of Windows for work related things.

It seems that more and more people are reporting issues with Games and Windows 8.1. Most having to do with the mouse lagging on action games but still. Here are a few links
http://blog.gsmarena.com/windows-8-1-may-render-games-unplayable-because-of-mouse-lag/

http://www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/1oor43/windows_81_warning_for_gamers_issues_with/
This post has a note at bottom that fixes some of the issues. However not sure if this is what your problem is Iryan.

I didn't mention it earlier but this only effects the laptop which I have which came with Windows 8 preinstalled and made sense as it's a touchscreen model and can take advantage of Windows 8. My main PC has Windows 7 and I have absolutely no plans of upgrading, especially after this headache.

EDIT# Unfortunately none of the common fixes solves the issue. Indeed the game doesn't crash but requires to be shut down through the task manager as the mouse cursor disappears completely.

Trying different combinations of the compatibility settings revealed that if an earlier version of Windows is selected then the mouse cursor disappears making it impossible to shut down the game.

So that would seem to suggest that it is an incompatibility with how Windows 8.1 handles the mouse in games like DS2 that don't use Raw or Direct Input. Sadly while other games are at least playable, DS2 is not.

Lets hope Microsoft releases a fix to their bungle that will work for all games. At least everything else works unlike the bungle with RT 8.1 which renders some Surface tablets unable to boot.

lol i think this only further reinforces the belief these days that u shud never upgrade to anything new these days. the newer upgraders are the unpaid guinea pigs that software companies use for free. :mrgreen:

my guess is ur mouse blinking/disappearing/lagginess problem might be related to a directx feature i recall in some games as the "hardware mouse cursor".

looking thru the readme file, i see an option called asynccursor.

The only thing that stops it freezing and crashing is checking the run this program in compatibility mode for; and putting in windows 8 or windows 7, etc. The only problem then is that the cursor disappears completely so is completely unplayable, not even the touchscreen will work. I believe this reaffirms that Microsoft has removed legacy mouse support that was in the earlier versions of Windows.

Was wondering if you where to remove the LQD files from DS2 on the windows 8.1 laptop if the game would load? I am starting to feel like a lot of the strange problems we have encountered over the years with newer computers and operating systems and both DS1 and DS2 might be related to the lqd files. As some of the minor glitches I had always had with the Utraean Peninsula have vanished with no lqd files in the map.

Even if the solution works I feel it would have little application for most players as I doubt many would go to that extreme just to play an old game.

In reality Iryan it is super easy to remove the LQD files from DS2. See my PM to you. That is if Windows 8.1 has a search function like Windows XP. I put the instructions in the PM but it only took me five minutes to do it on one of my antique computers. It is true however that most players would not go through the trouble to play an old game on a new computer with a new OS. A shame really since I have never found a better family of RPGs than Dungeon Siege(please leave out DS3 from the list).

It just that players dislike anything more complicated than plonking a file into the resources folder. Having to untank, delete the lqd files and then retank will be too complicated for the majority of players, even if it seems simple to us.

Incidentally My Computer and Explorer are virtually identical in Win 8 to Win 7 and earlier. You just have to use the desktop to access them and indeed get any useful work done at all. That's why there's utilities available designed to start Windows 8 up in desktop mode instead of the Metro interface. Once they support Win 8.1 I'll also be using them to do away with Metro.

Update: Deleting the lqd files from the main resources is a very bad thing. The game won't even load instead generating a fatal error: dictionary files missing or some such thing. So much for that little experiment - have to reinstall the game whenever and if Microsoft ever decides to fix the mouse bug.

I thought it might work, but I guess I was wrong. Sorry for the pain in the head iryan. But then the game did not work with windows 8.1 anyway. It is just having to reinstall everything again.
sorry

lol umm did u accidentally del any file(s) by the way that wasnt possibly a .lqd file? i think the .lqd files in some of the top level logic folders cant be del-ed or the game will beotch about it. only del lqd files in the lower hierachy folders. e.g. lower than world/content and world/global for example but not in these folders themselves.

Microsoft released an update for windows 8.1 which fixes a mouse issue with certain games, but you can make it work for other games(including DS in the registry).

I did not test the update myself, as I don't have DS installed on my windows 8 laptop.

The update can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2908279

Using an earlier system, even windows 8, in the compatibility tab seems to stop the freezing but caused the mouse cursor to disappear completely.

Before updating to Windows 8.1, Dungeon Siege 2 worked without any problem whatsoever.

Incidentally Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna works without any issue in Windows 8.1

Thanks to the forums at Steam I finally fixed my issue with Windows 8.1 and Dungeon Siege 2.

The culprit is the NVidia Windows 8.1 drivers. They're broken as far as Dungeon Siege 2 is concerned. I didn't think to look at the video card drivers as Dungeon Siege 2 worked flawlessly on Windows 8. Obviously the upgrade process included updating the video card drivers.

Luckily my laptop has integrated video (Intel 4000 HD) as well as the NVidia card. Using the NVidia control panel to force Dungeon Siege 2 to use the integrated video, as suggested in the Steam forums, fixed the problem. There's no apparent lack of performance or graphical detail and I remember a recent thread here at Siege the Day alluding to the fact that DS2 is more limited by the cpu processor than the graphics card. Luckily my laptop has a i7.

So a simple solution to try for anyone who may experience a similar problem. Unfortunately only viable if you have integrated Intel graphics, which is more and more common nowadays. The alternative is rolling back the NVidia video drivers if that's even possible with Win 8.1.

So all's good. Thanks everybody for their suggestions and comments. Now off to test my new installer for the DS1 Map Pack on Win 8.1.

yes that is certainly a good suggestion as u dont need a discrete gpu to play ds2. using the igpu will certainly help to save battery power and prolong the running time while on batteries.

the laptop will certainly last longer too! as it emits less heat and runs cooler with the discrete gpu off...

Ok, if someone is having issues with Dungeon siege 2 mouse lag on Windows 8.1, then this is how to fix it:

1. Click Start, type regedit.exe in the Start Search box, run it as administrator.
2.Browse to the following folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
If the Layers key does not exist, right-click AppCompatFlags, click New, click Key, and then type Layers to create the key.
3. Create a new registry entry for the game. To do this, right-click Layers, click New, click String Value, type the full path of the game’s executable file in the box, and then press Enter. (For example: D:\Games\Dungeon Siege 2\DungeonSiege2.exe)
4. Right-click the value, and then click Modify. In the Value data field, type NoDTToDITMouseBatch, and click OK to confirm the change.
5. Open an elevated Command Prompt window. To do this, click Start, type cmd.exe in the Start Search box, right-click cmd.exe in the search results list, and then click Run as administrator.
6. Run the following command at an elevated command prompt:

Rundll32 apphelp.dll,ShimFlushCache

7. Restart

The lag will be gone, I've tested this on my copy of Windows 8.1 and Dungeon siege 2.

Also, do NOT run the game in any compatibility mode, this messes with the mouse cursor.

Thank you very much for the cure to this nasty issue. Welcome to the site and enjoy your stay with us.