Running Black & White on Windows 10

Ok, I'll give it a go and let you know. I have the CD and use Windows 7. Just been creating an HD full of all my old classic games. Got most of the DOS ones to work (Doom, Tom Radier, etc.), now working on all the Windows 9x ones like Tomb Raider II-III and this one. Just prefer not to need to pop in the CD for each game and have found workarounds on each one thus far. I'm sure mounting the files or creating an ISO would work, but the patches or updates have made some pretty easy. Thank you. Will report back later...
 
When I try to run the fan patch or the setup.exe that came with the game, I get prompted to install the .NET Framework 3.5. It never seems to work though, I've been trying to find a way to install that windows feature for days.

Is there some workaround that renders the .NET Framework 3.5 unnecessary?
 
Gebre said:
When I try to run the fan patch or the setup.exe that came with the game, I get prompted to install the .NET Framework 3.5. It never seems to work though, I've been trying to find a way to install that windows feature for days.

Is there some workaround that renders the .NET Framework 3.5 unnecessary?
Click to expand...

.NET is generally just included with your operating system these days, can you tell me more about your operating system?
 
Hi,
I just wanted to say thanks because the fan patch has fixed an issue I've had with the game - the mouse cursor would "flicker" and its position would pop back and forth between its true position and somewhere around the bottom right corner.
The issue may have been related to D3DWindower being used to run the game. It's really annoying to run lower resolution games in full screen with a multi-monitor setup so I kind of had to, but thanks to the patch, not anymore!

Speaking of which, I've noticed that the game crashes upon launch if I set the resolution higher than 2049 pixels on either axis (I used regedit to figure out the exact limit), could this be a hard limit of the game with frame buffer sizes or texture sizes? (2048 used to be the limit for texture resolutions long ago, though it's weird that 2049 still works)
This issue applies to fullscreen mode aswell.

Widescreen resolutions above full HD (or even 1080p ultrawide) might be affected unless the issue is specific to my PC somehow.
I can play on a secondary 1080p screen for now so it's not unplayable but as you might imagine I'd love to take advantage of my 4k screen :)

EDIT: The game itself doesnt give much of an error, it's the windows crash popup that appears. However in hopes of being helpful here's what it contains
  Application name: runblack.exe
  Application version: 1.0.0.1
  Application timestamp: 3d0ecf82
  Exception code: c0000005
  Exception offset: 00419f11
  Operating System version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
  Additional information 1: 6373
  Additional information 2: 6373d858c6e9abe3c415737a46e83629
  Additional information 3: 4590
  Additional information 4: 45901af7c0ccc24e07651d7082ca68f7
Click to expand...
 
Hi, that error is caused by an integer overflow, I think this is caused by the representation of the number of pixels exceeding the data type of a short (16 bits) - No real way to solve it other then rewriting a lot of graphics rendering code - or by running in just 1080p
 
Hej

have fuond and installe the game and with all the pachs. but it cant get pass the frist loading sceen.
i run it on windows 10 and it dont say what the problem is when it force me to close it
 
I am having the same problem.  I get the message "lh has stopped working" as it tries to load into the game after the intro video.  I followed the instructions of installing from the ISO then updating via the fan patch from this page.  I am running Runblack.exe as an administrator.  Any other ideas?
 
None of the creature addons for the base game are working.

I've tried installing them before installing any patches.

Then I tried installing them over patch 2 before the fan patch.

Then I tried installing them with just a cracked version 1.2 to see if they'd work, they won't even show up on V1.2.

Every time I click the creature hut he just says he doesn't have any special creatures.

I'm at a loss, I'm on Windows 10 and tried using the BaW Patch but it didn't work either. Can anyone help? Does anyone maybe just have the raw files I could just drag and drop instead of using the BROKEN installers?
 
Another issue I'm having is saving custom keybindings or God symbols.

I can change my God Symbol into say a heart or smiley face but if I go back to the options menu it resets to the eclipse, and seems to randomly reset to eclipse sometimes.

And my custom keybindings won't save at all. I normally change the default Previous Leash and Next Leash commands to be more accessible but can't for some reason. Anyone have a clue of what to do about this?
 
Red Communist said:
None of the creature addons for the base game are working.

I've tried installing them before installing any patches.

Then I tried installing them over patch 2 before the fan patch.

Then I tried installing them with just a cracked version 1.2 to see if they'd work, they won't even show up on V1.2.

Every time I click the creature hut he just says he doesn't have any special creatures.

I'm at a loss, I'm on Windows 10 and tried using the BaW Patch but it didn't work either. Can anyone help? Does anyone maybe just have the raw files I could just drag and drop instead of using the BROKEN installers?
Click to expand...

The game stores the special creatures as a registry key basically unlocking them in the base game. The registry key can be found in this path:

Code: 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/Lionhead Studios Ltd/Black & White/BWSetup/BWFeatureKey

You can adjust this value manually by double clicking it and setting the following values (these are with all creatures unlocked):

Code: 
E3 71 F5 8C A6 58 00 5E
47 0C 51 92 43 70 C2 8B

I'll throw the registry edits into the installer later on as an option.

Red Communist said:
Another issue I'm having is saving custom keybindings or God symbols.

I can change my God Symbol into say a heart or smiley face but if I go back to the options menu it resets to the eclipse, and seems to randomly reset to eclipse sometimes.

And my custom keybindings won't save at all. I normally change the default Previous Leash and Next Leash commands to be more accessible but can't for some reason. Anyone have a clue of what to do about this?
Click to expand...

Key bindings are also stored in the Windows Registry - your PC seems to be struggling to write to it for some reason, have you tried running the game as an administrator?
 
I always run the game as admin, and with XP Service Pack 2 or 3 compatibility mode.

Not sure why it won't save to registry.
 
Here's my Black and White registry, it doesn't even appear to have the entry you suggested.
87wqwam3.jpg
 
Red Communist said:
Here's my Black and White registry, it doesn't even appear to have the entry you suggested.
87wqwam3.jpg
Click to expand...

DERP! I just realized I didn't click to extend the Black & White directory  :no

However, I was still missing the BWFeatureKey entry. I didn't know how to get it so I reinstalled the whole game as administrator, then installed up to patch 3 and downloaded the needed DLL file for that, then installed the BawPatch, and finally THAT gave me the registry entry.
 
Hey Matt,

I downloaded the game, since I lost my CD from 2001. But it seems there's an issue with the download?

I've tried to install the patches in the order you suggested, but when installing 1.1 I get the message: "Old file not found. However, a file of the same name was found. No update done since file content do not match."

I get the same message from patch 1.2's installation. Skipping 1.3 for obvious reasons. I'm then forced to go directly to fan patch 1.4, which seems to install just fine.

Besides that, I followed your guide to a T - But my game keeps crashing just a few seconds after going on the very first loading screen: "IH has stopped working.".

I've tried uninstall the game, as per your instructions (Except for the fact that I can't find any registry keys under windows. Not even a single folder called Lionhead), and then reinstalled it.
I feel like I've tried everything: High or low resolution, minimum or maximum graphics, windowed or fullscreen, with or without sound - Nothing seems to work.
Running Runblack.exe as Administrator doesn't fix it, either. I even tried running it in Compatibility Mode, and that surprisingly didn't do anything either. I'm running fast out of ideas.

Thanks in advance!


Regards

Razid

Edit: It seems I've fixed it - A complete fresh download seemed to do the trick. Now to actually enter the game and see how it runs  :yourock:

2nd Edit: The game works perfectly as long as I don't go windowed mode. If I do, I can't quite see the bottom and I get windows error sounds whenever I press MMB or Alt+1 or 2  :happytears:

Thanks a lot for the guide! You're amazing! <3
 
I lost all my save progress in the process, but I finally managed to fix all of the problems I've been having by completing the following steps.
No Windows Compatibility Mode used at any part of the process, other than Run as Administrator. XP service pack compatibility can cause problems apparently.

1: Install Black & White base game via Setup.exe with "Run as Administrator" to a custom location on the Desktop.
(Warning: If you change the install directory, the installer doesn't create a folder by default, so you should create a new folder just for this game)

2: Install Patch 1, Patch 2, then Patch 3.

3: Download the p5dll.zip and extract p5dll.dll to the install directory.

4: Download and install all addons with "Run as Administrator".

5: Download BaW_Patch_2.exe and extract it to the install directory. Run it as Administrator and type fix for all commands.

6: Install the Fanpatch 1.4 (or higher if a new one's out when you read this) with Run as Administrator option.

7: Right Click runblack.exe, and under the Compatibility tab, check Run this program as an administrator and nothing else.

8: If you make a shortcut and it crashes or doesn't launch properly despite pointing to runblack.exe in administrator mode, try right clicking the shortcut, then under the Shortcut tab click Advanced, and check Run as Administrator.

And that should do it, it took me all of those ridiculous steps to restore basic functionality that I had when the game was new, but it looks great and runs great with the fan patch and it was worth the hassle.
 
Red Communist said:
I lost all my save progress in the process, but I finally managed to fix all of the problems I've been having by completing the following steps.
No Windows Compatibility Mode used at any part of the process, other than Run as Administrator. XP service pack compatibility can cause problems apparently.

1: Install Black & White base game via Setup.exe with "Run as Administrator" to a custom location on the Desktop.
(Warning: If you change the install directory, the installer doesn't create a folder by default, so you should create a new folder just for this game)

2: Install Patch 1, Patch 2, then Patch 3.

3: Download the p5dll.zip and extract p5dll.dll to the install directory.

4: Download and install all addons with "Run as Administrator".

5: Download BaW_Patch_2.exe and extract it to the install directory. Run it as Administrator and type fix for all commands.

6: Install the Fanpatch 1.4 (or higher if a new one's out when you read this) with Run as Administrator option.

7: Right Click runblack.exe, and under the Compatibility tab, check Run this program as an administrator and nothing else.

8: If you make a shortcut and it crashes or doesn't launch properly despite pointing to runblack.exe in administrator mode, try right clicking the shortcut, then under the Shortcut tab click Advanced, and check Run as Administrator.

And that should do it, it took me all of those ridiculous steps to restore basic functionality that I had when the game was new, but it looks great and runs great with the fan patch and it was worth the hassle.
Click to expand...

I updated the opening post with amendments to running stuff as admin. As for a lot of what you said, you shouldn't touch 1.3 or p5dll.dll at all, it was a patch meant to enable compatibility with a specific peripheral device. And 1.4 includes the same and more patches than BaW_Patch_2.exe does, using them together can cause issues.

In the end you can cut it down to simply:

1: Install Black & White base game via Setup.exe with "Run as Administrator".

2: Install Patch 1.1, Patch 1.2, Patch 1.4 all with "Run as Administrator".

3: Download and install all addons with "Run as Administrator".

4: Right Click runblack.exe, and under the Compatibility tab, check Run this program as an administrator and nothing else.

5: Copy the Audio folder from the CD to the game installation directory to fix issues with the music not playing.

Misc: If you make a shortcut and it crashes or doesn't launch properly despite pointing to runblack.exe in administrator mode, try right clicking the shortcut, then under the Shortcut tab click Advanced, and check Run as Administrator.
 
Needing to install the base game and all of the addons as an administrator is what threw me, I've never had to do that with any game before.

For a game that came out in 2001 B&W holds up surprisingly well today. Good to know I don't need BawPatch I was planning to install this on another system.
 
Yeah installing as an administrator became a requirement since Windows Vista. But the installers weren't flagged to do so, unlike modern installers. That's why most things fish up I think :(

Good to hear it's all working for you now though :D
 
Can someone private message me on this stuff.  I bought the CD after not playing in for a decade or so and have a Windows 10 laptop.  I've never done any of this iso stuff or cracking and I have followed these idiot guides to a T and still don't understand how to get this stuff to work.  I don't want to clog up  the thread, so I need someone to just hold my hand through this stuff.

Thank you,
 
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