X-TENSON & X - Beyond the Frontier FAQ

For our German visitors there is also a troubleshoot wizard answering your questions.
Some other questions are answered in our older FAQ.
This FAQ mainly concentrates on technical issues mainly related to PC hardware or drivers. Most of the issues discussed apply to both games X-BTF AND X-TENSION!

The most frequently asked question is:

Q: How do I save a game in X?


Questions about patches:

Q: Why can't I install the patch?
Q: What does the patch fix?


Technical problems:

Q:Since installing Direct X 8 the speach output is broken
Q: After a while of playing I hear: "Attention, executable file has been manipulated. Self-destruction initiated."
Q: Some general infos about crashes
Q: Suddenly the game crashes in certain situations while it did not before (especially after installing a patch)
Q: Does the game run under Windows 2000?
Q: Does the game run under Windows ME?
Q: Crashes with onboard soundcard
Q: Crashes with K6-2 Socket 7 boards and AGP graphic cards (often with Voodoo3 or Voodoo Banshee)
Q: The game does not start. It freezes during loading or quits back to the desktop.
Q: Voices are missing, what can I do?
Q: Voice output seems never to stop, what can I do?
Q: There is no music. What is wrong?
Q: The game loads for a while then stops?
Q: The game crashes after a short time of playing
Q: The ship is constantly rotating when I enter the game. What can I do?
Q: Sometimes I can't control the speed of the ship (a / y or z)
Q: The game does not start up. It stops with a message saying "wrong graphic settings" or similar. What is wrong?
Q: Graphic display is sometimes messed up, Clipping problems (Riva TNT)
Q: Graphic appears completely incorrect. (Lines are often used instead of filled polygons)
Q: Your flight physics are incorrect, etc.
Q: I want to get 32 bit colordepth on cards like RIVA TNT. What do I have to change?
Q: The volume settings are ignored
Q: The sound quality is low on SB16 or AWE32 cards / There are clicking noises with these cards
Q: The game does not react at all. I double click the icon but nothing happens
Q: The voices and / or music during the game or intro are stuttering or slow down the whole game
Q: The game crashes / stops during loading or after the intro on startup
Q: Textures in the Cockpit or the speed indicator are missing. What now?



Known problems and issues with certain graphic cards:

- Diamond Monster Fusion
- Nvidia chipsets (TNT, TNT2, etc)
- ATI Rage chipsets



Questions about the game

Q: Why can´t I land on some space stations?
Q: Can I order freighters for solar power plants?
Q: Is a higher or lower number better when I use the mineral scanner?



Controls:

Q: Various problems controlling the game inside stations and factories
Q: Normal ingame controls

Further information about the game in general can be found in the FAQ

FAQ No 1:

Q: How do I save a game in X?
A: You have to buy a salvage insurance, available in every factory (except your own)!!

Questions about the patch:

Q: Why can't I install the patch?
A: There are many reasons possible: You already have the latest version. A virus changed your files. You altered the original files mit cracks, cheats, etc. You don't have enough discspace on your harddrive. You specified the wrong directory.

Q: What does the patch (1.x) fix )?

1.96:
- Some bugs were fixed which we found during our ongoing work on X-TENSION. It does not add any new features.

1.9B:
- We changed the our memory handlingsystem, since some customers had problems with a constantly increasing swap file.
- Destroyers didn't attack Xenon anymore after a long period of time.
- TL transporters didn't fly back to their home position after a mission was aborted.

Technical problems with X:

Q: Since installing Direct X 8 the speach output is broken

There is a known issue of X-TENSION and X-BTF with the audio streaming of Direct X 8. Microsoft has told us that they are investigating the problem and that we can expect a solution of this with Direct X 8.1. This means that unfortunaltey you currently only have the choice of either waiting for DX 8.1 or try to remove DX 8 and go back to Direct X 7 or 6.

Q: After a while of playing I hear: "Attention, executable file has been manipulated. Self-destruction initiated.", and I am sent back to the start menu. What is wrong?

This could be cause by either of these three things:

1. You are using a cracked EXE and not the original game, but of course you would know this and not ask us in this case ;-)
2. Your system could be infected by a virus which modified the EXE and causes this. To make sure this is not the case you can run a viruschecker with the latest virus infos.
3. You ran a patch from one version of the game to another version and the patch could for some reason not modify all files but just some. In this case your 01.dat and 01.cat files may be new already but the EXE is still the old version OR (more likely) the other way around.In this case you could try to reinstall the game from CD then reinstall the patch and check if it executes completely this time. Your savegames will not be lost in this case btw.

Q: Some general infos about crashes

The top most likely reasons for X-BTF or X-TENSION crashing on your machine are (in order of likelyhood):
    - overclocked graphic card
    - overclocked PCI bus (should be 33MHz!)
    - bad RAM
    - bad drivers
    - overclocked CPU
    - IRQ conflicts
   All the following answers will go into detail about certain systems and give more infos about what is the most likely cause on your specific system:

Q: Suddenly the game crashes in certain situations while it did not before (especially after installing a patch)

This is most likely not related to the game itself directly. Sometimes it happens that one EXE suddenly shows up a problem which actually is caused by the hardware but most of the time does not occur. A good example for this are CPU temperature related problems, which can be triggered easily by different code (causing hot spots on the CPU to "overheat"). The real reason however is a CPU which is not cooled good enough or is running at a too high frequency. Oftentimes with X-TENSION and X-BTF this is also happening with machines running at a unusually high PCI bus speed (>33MHz). Check your BIOS settings and see if you can work around this problem by changing your machines settings. The other typical troublemaker of course are drivers (especially graphic card drivers)

Q: Does the game run under Windows 2000?

Some people reported problems with keyboard input under Win2000. We know about this but unfortunately this seems to be a OS problem. We hope this will be fixed with the next version of Direct Input (in Direct X 8!). Appart from this problem X-TENSION should run fine with Windows 2000 IF you have a good graphic card driver with Direct 3D hardware acceleration!

Q: Does the game run under Windows ME?

Yes, there are no known issues with any of the W95 family of operating systems (Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows ME)

Q: Crashes with onboard soundcard

Some people reported problems with certain onboard soundcards. CMedia one company manufacturing one such device responded with the following email:

>If you need the driver update, please visit the following URL for the
>driver update: http://www.cmedia.com.tw/e_dload1.htm.   If you have
>difficulty getting into our Website, please try again later.
>
>You can also try to set the playback device to SB16 mode, then everything
>will be working properly.
>
>The reason is that CMI8330 uses two devices(SB16 & WSS) to perform
>full-duplex functions, so you need to set the record device to WSS mode.
>
>You can complete the above settings in Control Panel/Multimedia.

The general tip here is: Always look for the latest driver for all your devices!

Q: Crashes with K6-2 Socket 7 boards and AGP graphic cards (often with Voodoo3 or Voodoo Banshee)

Several customers complained about frequent crashes on systems that all had one thing in common: A socket 7 mainboard and a AGP graphic card. We contacted 3dfx about this problem and also some other graphic card manufacturers and were told that there are many socket 7 mainboards which are not fully compliant to the AGP bus standards. One solution that worked for some of these customers is to look for a BIOS upgrade for your mainboard. Especially ALi and VIA mainboards have updated BIOSes that fix some of these problems. Please visit the website of your mainboard manufacturer and see if they offer a BIOS upgrade.

If you have a motherboard with an ALi chipset you can also download the latest driver (Version 1.65 or version 1.60a) for this chipset from their website: www.ali.com.tw.

Another customer with a Gigabyte board gives us this information:

CURING THE FREEZING PROBLEM ON Ali Motherboard with AMDK6/2 processors.This fix apparently fixes a known problem between SuperSocket 7 motherboards and the AMD.

1. Upgrade your Bios to latest Revision.  (I visited the gigabyte website at http://www.giga-byte.com for mine)
(This is known as flashing your bios, mine was originally a 1.3 bios, now its 1.5)
2. You may find that when you boot into windows 98, that it detects new hardware items, so have your win98 cd handy just in case.  (I found that it had improved PCI support on my board)
3.  Once you are in Windows 98, do the following...
i) Bring up the system properties window.  You can do this by right-clicking on the My computer and then on Properties.  (If you have a windows key on your keyboard, use <windows key>+<break> {Break Windows hehe} )
ii) Click on the device manager tab in the system properties window, this will show all the devices on your system.
iii) Look down the device list for where it says System devices.  if the tree is not expanded (which if all your devices are ok, or not disabled for whatever reason) then click on the + next to the system devices item.
iv) Among the system devices you will find the entry 'PCI bus' now either;
a) Right click on it and select properties or
b) Left click on it, and then click on the properties button.
v) Click on the settings tab for the PCI bus properties window and select the 'Use Hardware' setting for device enumeration.
vi) Click on the the IRQ Steering Tab
vii) Un-check the box that says Get IRQ table using ACPI BIOS. (Apparently the AMD K62 has a known problem with this)
viii) Click on OK.
ix) You will now be prompted to restart your pc, click 'Yes'
x) Let the PC do a full reboot, and then test X-Beyond the Frontier.  (You may find Aliens vs Predator is more stable too)

Another customer sent the following procedure for K6 machines:

After some research I did find the following solution: The program SETK6 from C't magazine (www.heise.de) allows you to configure the CPU (write alocation and write combining). No matter if you turn all options on or off, everything works fine. The only combination that caused crashes on my machine was: writealocation = OFF, writecombining = E6000000 (and the second LFB isn't used at all).
This problem only occurs on AMD CPUs and only if the motherboard is setting the CPU incorrect. Its unknown if it is a problem of the BIOS or the chipset, but this solution fixes the problem.

Q: Voices are missing, what can I do?
Q: Voice output seems never to stop, what can I do?
Q: There is no music. What is wrong?
Q: The game runs very slow when leaving a station, or during the intro. I do not hear any music.

Q: The game does not start. It freezes during loading or quits back to the desktop.

Please all the following possibilities. Each might be the reason for your problem!

Possibility 1: Mediaplayer not correctly installed
A: The answer to all these questions is the same. Either you do not have the latest version of direct X media installed and / or no MP3 codec. To resolve this install the full version of Microsoft mediaplayer (see download page).

Possibility 2: Another program installed a incompatible CODEC
If you did install mediaplayer correctly, there is also the possibility that a 3rd party program like XING tech's Audiocatalyst installed a non-compatible MP3 codec. You will have to uninstall this codec. Other programs causing similar problems are some software DVD players.
Here is a quote from XING on how to work around the incompatibility with their MP3 player:
The command that you would need to run is:
    On Windows95/98:
        C:\windows\system\REGSVR32.EXE /u "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Xing Shared\MPEG Decode\Xmp3Dec.dll" 
    On WindowsNT:
        C:\WINNT\system32\REGSVR32.EXE /u "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Xing Shared\MPEG Decode\Xmp3Dec.dll"
Xing tech claims that they are working on a fix for this problem with the next release of their MP3 player.
If you have any other software that interferes with MP3 or MPEG streaming like a DVD software player, please try if a temporary deinstallation helps.
Some graphic cards like the Guillemont Xentor 32 come bundled with a software DVD player which causes exactly this problem too. Either check for a update of this player software or temporarily uninstall this software. 
X is not the only game running into this problem, but it is one of very few games, because the technique we are using to play music and video streams (called Direct Show from Microsoft) is still very new.

Possibility 3: You are playing from the CD
Yet another (much more unlikely) possibility might be that you are running X directly from the CD and not installed from your harddisk!
This will cause stuttering music and voices.

Possibility 4: You do not have enough virtual memory
Q: The game first loads for a while, then hangs before the first 3D scene
The answer to this problem CAN be that you do not have enough virtual swap memory.
Also read the answers before with tips about music playback.
The MP3 codec and MPEG streaming can be the reason for X not starting up.

Possibility 5: Conflict with a virtual CD rom
Another possible cause for X not starting up at all can be that you are running a virtual CD rom program which conflicts with X. Please disable this program!

Q: Game crashes after a while

A: If the intro and credits sequences of X are running fine (with sound, music and voice) then one of the following things may be causing a crash during the actual game.

1) First please install the latest patch of X. Patch 1.9b is currently the latest version, and can be downloaded following the links from our mainpage.
2) Some graphic cards need updated drivers. Especially Voodoo Banshee based  cards like the Diamond Monster Fusion should be updated to the latest reference driver from 3DFX. Some customers report similar problems with Voodoo3 cards, depending on their driver version.
3) A tool program like a screensaver running in the background starts using up CPU time (Rain / Waterfall are said to cause problems)
4) Make sure your graphic card is NOT sharing a IRQ with another PCI card. If you have a AGP card, the PCI card in the PCI slot next to the AGP slot usually gets the same IRQ like the AGP card. This can cause system slodowns and in the worst case a crash when the system is stressed. Many graphic card manufacturers explain solutions to this problem on their support pages!
5) Your 3D card or your CPU is overclocked, Ram is broken, system is unstable etc. Sometimes hardware instabilities only become obvious when the system is stressed!
6) You are running old / possibly broken drivers for your soundcard (especially A3D based soundcards may need updated drivers too).
7) Again make sure your are not running low on virtual memory. There should be at least 200 MB swap space left on the harddisc you set to be the virtual memory device.

Q: The ship is constantly rotating when I enter the game. I have no control over the ship. What can I do?
A: Press ALT in the game to open the menu and select Settings -> Input. Select your joystick in the input device in the top right corner of this dialogue (Even if you do not have the joystick connected, it is still enumerated by windows!). Select OK. This should solve this problem.
Another possible reason is that your joystick is not calibrated around its third axis (that can be a slider or the twisting of the joystick).

Q: The game does not start up. It stops with a message saying "wrong graphic settings" or similar. What is wrong?
A: Maybe you have some incorrect settings stored in your registry. Un-select the "use settings" button on startup. If this does not help also try to start the game in window mode.

Q: Sometimes I can't control the speed of the ship (a / y or z)
A: Your joystick probably overwrites the speed with a throttle control. Either use the throttle control on your joystick, recalibrate your joystick, or if you want to use the keyboard, disconnect the joystick and delete it in the system settings.

Q: 3D graphics are sometimes drawn incorrectly, problems with clipping occur (Only on Riva TNT cards as far as we know).
A: There is a known problem with X and some new Direct X 6 drivers. This problem is based on a bug deep inside Direct X 6. Unfortunately Microsoft can not resolve this problem. If you see incorrect textures in your cockpit there are two things you can try. NVIDIA say they will fix this in their latest driver. So you may want to install the latest driver directly from NVIDIA. Alternatively older drivers have a switch called "compatibility mode" which should solve this problem too.

Q: Graphics are completely incorrect after a certain scene, and stay like that for a while. (Lines are often used instead of filled polygons)
A: This is definitely a driver bug. We have seen this in two different new Direct X 6 drivers that implement their own clipping. One of them (Riva TNT) fixed it in a newer version. Please check out if there is an updated driver for your card if this happens. If NOT, contact the vendor and tell them about X (or tell them to contact us).

Q: Your flight physics are incorrect... you ignore some effects in space... etc.
A: We want to be as realistic as possible, but NOT sacrifice playability for realism. For that reason we choose the (partially unrealistic) physics we did. You may also want to read the interviews and FAQ from the main page about this topic.

Q: I want to get 32 bit colordepth on cards like RIVA TNT. What do I have to change?
A: Start the game with default settings (maybe de-select use settings if necessary), press F11 inside the game, choose a textureformat like 8-8-8-0 or 8-8-8-8 for both texture types. Select a display resolution with 32 bit colordepth. Be aware that this requires much more graphic memory and might cause the game to not run on some machines. NOTE: Voodoo3 cards do NOT support 32 bit colordepth modes.

Q: The volume settings are ignored
A: There are volume settings specific for X in the sound menu inside the game (press alt and enter the settings menu).
These overwrite the windows sound settings.

Q: The sound quality is low on SB16 or AWE32 cards / There are clicking noises with these cards
A: Soundcards without hardware accelerated soundbuffers like the AWE32 and SB16 partially have a low soundquality with X at the moment. Especially when these sounds are too loud they cause distortions in your speakers. Some settings changes you may want to try: Disable the 3d suround sound effect of the AWE32 driver! Switch to 22kHz sounds in the X sound menu!

Q: The game does not react at all. I double click the icon but nothing happens
A: Something with the installation of the necessary dll's went wrong. X-Beyond the Frontier uses the ijl10.dll file. This file MUST be in the same directory like the rest of the game. If you can't find this dll reinstall X.

Q: The voices and / or music during the game or intro are stuttering or slow down the whole game
A: You may have running some other programs like anti virus scanner, screensavers,etc in the background. Please disable them.

Q: The game crashes / stops during loading or after the intro on startup
A: Make sure you have enough virtual memory. X temporarily uses a lot of memory. Make sure your virtual memory settings (system settings -> performance) do not limit the maximum possible virtual memory, and check how much space is left on the drive.

Q: Textures in the Cockpit or the speed indicator are missing. What now?
A: Use the the latest driver for your graphics card. Some manufactures don't use the latest reference driver code from the chipset manufacture. E.g. TNT cards. Please use in this case the reference driver. The latest reference driver for TNT cards was when this FAQ was written: Detonator 3.68. If you have problems with a Voodoo 3 card, please use the reference driver from 3dfx.



Known problems and issues with certain graphic cards:

- Diamond Monster Fusion
A: Please use the reference driver for banshee cards from www.3dfx.com, because the Diamond driver causes XBTF to crash.

- Nvidia chipsets (TNT, TNT2, etc)
A: Please use the latest driver for your graphic card. If you experience any problems, try to run the X.exe optimized for DirectX6.

- ATI Rage chipsets
A: Please use the latest driver for your graphic card (On the ATI website you find also a section with non-supported drivers. Some of these drivers are optimized for DirectX7 and work better with XBTF). If you experience any problems, try to run the X.exe optimized for DirectX6.



Questions about the game

Q: Why can´t I land on some space stations?
A: The aliens don´t trust you. Try to get a better reputation. Shoot down some Xenon or pirate ships in their sector.

Q: Can I order freighters for solar power plants?
A: No

Q: Is a higher or lower number better when I use the mineral scanner?
A: A higher number is better. The production time of the mine will be faster.

Information about the controls:

The standard controls are explained within the training and when you press "k" or "h" during the game. So this part concentrates on the special controls inside space stations and factories.

Normal ingame controls: