White screen of death :(

[LightningLockey]

Using 1.0.1.6

Does anyone ever get a white screen (white screen of death I've been calling it) while using ideas? In castlevania DoS, randomly I get a white screen on the bottom and can't see a thing. And have to totally close the emu and open it and pick up where I left off. I've tried to just reset it, but that doesn't fix it. Though 90% of the time I can create a save state and pick up exactly where I left off instead of the last save room.

Is this a bug with the emu or a problem with my hardware/drivers? It happens most frequently in the garden and chapel levels. Though in all areas of the game I've gotten it at least once, except when you first start the game in the city.

[LightningLockey]

I think I've got an idea what could be causing this problem for me, ram and lack of.

My system build was a pretty cheap one, but built to be upgraded when I get more cash, so right now I've only got 1gb DDR2 ram and onboard video that uses about 256mb of that. Got at least 40gb free on C: partition of my hard drive (C: and D: are 80gb each). And an amd 3800+ processor (2gb dual core).

During the fight with the boss Aguni (late in the game) I kept getting those 'white screens' even if I loaded the savestate right before the battle. I was checking task manager and saw that my page file was over 2 gig and only had 30mb or physical ram used. My hard drive is not a super fast one, so I'm wondering that when windows is increasing the page file, it is screwing up how the frame rates are drawn and then everything goes white with some gray shading around stuff like candles.

To get around this, I forced frame skip to 9 instead of auto and was able to get threw the battle. Didn't realize iDeaS needs 2gb of ram.

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

Well I have never played that game, but I never experienced anything like that. I have a weaker PC...aside from the fact that I have an actual graphics card. So I don't think that's the problem.

[LightningLockey]

Castlevania seems to have a lot of 2D and 3D graphics so probably requires a lot more resources than some of the other games. If you'd like to try and experience these white screens, it shouldn't take longer then half an hour of actual game play. My first 'white screen' was at the first boss.

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

Meh I suck at these games...can you email me your save? both savestate and ingame save if possible...or only ingame save.
email in profile.

[LightningLockey]

The beginning is easier then you think. Where my guy is currently at, you won't last long. The game tells you how to play as you go along, once you figure which buttons make your character jump and swing the sword, rest is cake. Don't worry about trying to beat the game, just worry about trying to get a 'white screen'. If you wish to save your progress use both save states and save rooms as the emu doesn't always 'save' the game when you use a save room. And sometimes the save rooms and states get corrupted. Seems like a 90% chance a save room or state will work. And a 1% chance that your saved room data gets corrupted and is wiped (save state will get you out of this jam, save again to restore the lost save room data).

Default Keys from the emu...

Q (unused at this point)
W (main attack)
A (jump)
S (use the 'blue souls')
Z (special attack, if not enough mana, does normal attack)
X (changes top screen between map and enemy info)
pressing down and "A" will make you slide on the ground.

Enter (goes into menu)
Z (use to equip items/souls)

To get out of menu, there is blue box with a stick figure running in it, click on it with mouse.

You don't have to worry about using the blue souls until after boss in snow level, which is when you get his soul and it helps you jump further.

I probably won't be on again tonight, but if you got any questions I'll try and get on before work tomorrow. If you get to the 2nd area, Wizard Lab, then your probably not going to get a white screen as your video card is probably handling the graphics. I'm pretty sure the screw up is happening when I run out of ram and windows tries to use the paging file as it only happens when a lot of hard drive activity starts and it sounds like I'm doing a huge file transfer.

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

Hmm for some strange reason whenever I try this game, I have no simple attack (nothing happens)...just special ones which means I run out of mana almost immediately.
I guess I should try again though.

Ouch err...nevermind...now I remember why I have not played further....it runs at 14 FPS...unplayable for me...I attack and jump in slow-mo...so by the time I defeat the golem I am at half-health, no mana left and and just cant take the slowness anymore afterall I have played for like 5 minutes. Sorry but I can't test this game any further...I just can't take slowness.

[LightningLockey]

Try it at a frame skip of at least 6. The game is laggy, but I thought it was normal for the emu. Then again, only DS games I really care to play are the castlevania ones. Auto frameskip isn't always the best. I usually get mine going about 40fps on average.

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

Bah I will see...although that's like major cheating, actually I have no frameskip enabled...not auto.

[LightningLockey]

Never thought of it as major cheating. I guess if it is used to speed the game up it would be. But in this case, it would be trying to get the game to run faster. Having it set slower then normal would be even more cheating for you have more react time during boss battles or tough jumps like in the clock tower level.

Btw, I really do appreciate someone else getting a look at it to see if the problem can be reproduced.

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

It's not cheating the game, it's cheating at emulation, making it appear faster than it actually is.

[LightningLockey]

Oh, as in benchmarking the emulator and saying to plays castlevania at 40fps? Ok, I see what your saying now.

How about that whitescreen, have you gotten one yet?

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

No...but then again I aint been playing XD

Sorry I am just a lazy bastard...I am to busy watching anime to try and play this game a bit.
To be honest I have never been a fan of Castlevania so I unfortunately kinda aint amped to test it.

I will check it out sometime though....sorry I hope you can understand...

[LightningLockey]

I have a picture of the 'best' white screen where it isn't totally white. For some reason in the lost village, the background sometimes doesn't turn white. Often the entire screen is white. Sometimes the background will be grey and the monsters and platforms white or lighter shades of grey.

This is the Lost village, and area you fight after the first real boss.

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

Bah, since it's a platformer/rpg I should play it...which is why I got it in the first place, since I like almost all GBA platformers that I have played...is the GBA Castlevania (or Castlevanias) any good?
So that I can get used to the story and gameplay and therefore get more into it, so that I can test it?

Those screens looks more like CPU lag to me than something else, like it can't quite generate the graphics quickely enough....Considering that these emulator's don't make use of Dual-Core's yet we should be just about even (although you can use one core for the emu and another for background tasks). So I think I would experience the same errors.

[LightningLockey]

To sum it up in the gba version (Harmony of Dissonance) this guy IS suppose to become Dracula. He doesn't want to and had to eventrually do battle with the source of evil in Dracula's Caslte. To become Dracula, he has to absorb the souls of the most powerful demons in the castle. They are, of course, the bosses and you have to beat them all just once to get their power. The lesser monsters are harder to get.

Best soul I found and used the most is the axe armor. It is a more powerful version of the skeleton that you get in the beginning.

In this game, a crazy woman running a cult, wants to have Dracula reborn. She found three people that are heirs to his power. Soma and 2 others you'll meet in the Wizard Lab (level 2).

The only CV that annoyed me on the gba was the 2nd one, aria of sorrow. The other two were not too bad. Harmony (though you don't get to use a whip) I found to be the best.

And as for the lag part, it is most likely when my computer resorts to using the page file on my hard drive. Between your video card and ram, you might not have as much trouble.

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

So I should play Harmony of Dissonance?

[LightningLockey]

Your making a mole hill into a mountain with this...

Can you just see if you get a white screen? It shouldn't take too long. I've just started a new game and kept playing until I got my first white screen. I didn't even make it to where you meet up with your friends at the castle bridge, let alone at the first real boss.

If you want to actually go and beat it, then go and play harmony on the gba. You'll get some story from this game, but nothing that will totally spoil the first game. If you get to the Wizard lab without a white screen, it will prove that a graphics card is needed for this game to run as of now.

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

Bah ok gonna give it a shot just now then.

[LightningLockey]

Thanks, now we'll get closer to what is causing this issue.