Metal Gear Solid 2: Subastance for Vista 32-Bit... PLEASE! ANYONE FOUND A SOLUTION?

I know this is an old issue, but please does anybody know how can I run the 2002 masterpiece Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance on Vista 32-Bit? I just can't accept that a 8700M GT can't run this game. When I try to launch the game, all I get is a black/blank screen and my CPU usage just rises to 98%-100%, and have to close it using the task manager. I searched the net for 3 days, and I did the following (from what I've seen in other forums):

1. I have installed the 2.0 Patch.
2. Ran in compatibility mode for XP.
3. Used the Realtek audio drivers.

Does anybody know what else may get the game to work?

 

everyone gets that... you need a fixed exe for the card your using, some of them might be nodisks so idk if i can post them for you but you can pm me if you havent found them by googling mgs2 pc nvidia fix or the like, heres some other things:

"use riva tuner and disable pixel shaders" -mgs2 pc seems to have a pixel shading problem

or

1. Install MGS2.
2. Install the ATI 2.0 patch.
3. Find the files mgs2.exe and mgs2_sse.exe within the directory where the game was installed.
4. Backup a copy of each of these original files!
5. Open mgs2.exe with a hex editor... Frhed is a nice free utility that will suffice for this job: http://www.kibria.de/frhed.html
6. Look for the string RADEON, which starts at the following offset: 0x5f6e44.
7. Replace RADEON with ALL-IN. Don’t add or subtract anything else
8. Save the file.
9. Repeat steps 5-8 for mgs2_sse.exe. Note: this might not be necessary; on my system, Metal Gear seems to only use mgs2.exe… also, the hex offset will be different, but it’s easy to find by analogy.
and this link may help
http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/3768/t586222-mgs2-graphic-problems-solved-for-geforce-6/

 

I tried disabling the pixel shaders, but unfortunately, it did not help.

Will try the .exe modding, thanks d4mi3n! I'll tell you results as soon as I get some.

 

I had trouble running it on my ati but my friends got an nvidia on his desktop so we had one hell of a time to get it workin on both systems, gl

 

Grrrr... did the things you said, but nothing happened... damn you vista!

 

lol i googled around for the fixed exes, but i couldnt find them they disapeered, if i find them ill pm you or something

 

Did you try simply running in the game in xp compatibility mode?

 

yea, thats a given, you still get errors though, the problem lies in the software itself and newer gfx cards

 

Hey, i dont know if you guys still check this thread or not..but anyways, i have a realtek ac'97 audio card and a radeon xpress 200m gfx card, i previously had windows xp, on which the game ran just fine, but after purchasing vista...i got the black screen, along with the cpu usage % going up into the 80-90's, did some reading about it...turns out in some cases its the sound drivers being ran through directsound layer, vista doesnt really support it..so what i tried (which i dont suggest you try unless you know what you're doing) was uninstalling my sound drivers,(disabling the sound card should work just as well) and then running the game...and surprisingly it ran..without sound but still it ran..but i continually got sound error messages throughout, shut off the game hoping it would still run with the sound drivers installed,and hasnt worked since,..but for your own researching, the sound drivers are ran through "IDirectSound8" which is a directx driver,my theory is that maybe realtek ac's dont support that layer yet. so maybe after realtek comes out with the next set of vista drivers it may be fixed (i hope so). email me if you guys come up with anything.

 

its with the gfx card, i cant seem to find the fix yet, ati cards will need a different one, youll also need the 2.0 patch

 

that was the first thing i have done....

 

thanks for your interest d4mi3n...

 

hmmm.... I'll try disabling the drivers and then running the game... thanks man! I'll tell you if anything happens....

 

tried disabling the drivers... before the game can even launch i get a message regerding a IDirectSoundObject error message and the game come to an unexpected shutdown... Will other sound drivers support both the game and my 4.1 Harman Kardon sound system?

 

I once found that I got more up to date onboard sound card drivers from the motherboard manufacturers website than I did from the realtek site. Could be worth a look?

 

i have this same problem. vista is just crap for games, its crashed over 50% of the games i have tried which is why i got dualboot with xp, everything run how it should in xp. more resources for os = less resources for games it just that simple, which is why vista will never be as fast as xp at the moment. just go xp if you don't want the headache.

 

http://m0007.gamecopyworld.com/games/pc_metal_gear_solid_2.shtml#Metal Gear Solid 2 v2.0 ATI ALL-IN-WONDER & GEFORCE FIX download and install that after you get the 2.0 patch, im gonna do some work on my sound card see if there are openal drivers and whatnot see if i can get it working...razgriz what model of sound card do you have? i think that harmon kardon are the type of speakers. oh and what kind of gfx card do you have?

 

@sasanac
hmmm... will give it a try, and as soon as I see any result's, positive or negative, I will tell you...

@sewje
vista must be the most dissapointing OS to come out... The only good things it has is DirectX 10, which is quite arguable if it makes a really big difference. I heard that XP has +15%-20% performance boost in comparison to Vista... I'm staring to think that Vista is actually the Bete version of Microsoft's next OS... and we have to pay for the Beta version.... Have you ever wondered why Microsoft officially stated that they will support Vista until 2012? Even though 2012 is about 4-4.5 years away, I've never heard any company publishing an OS to say when the support will end at the date of it's release. Lets hope that Service Pack 1 will proove us wrong (which is highly unlikely if you ask me...).

Microsoft was the only one who profitted from the sales, the users did not, unlike XP... Im 90% that Vista is the experimental version of the next Windows...

Bill, proove me wrong man...

 

I currently have the 2.0 Patch modified for GeForce cards. About my sound card, I have a Realket HD 24-Bit sound card, capeable of 7.1 sound system. My Harman Kardon speakers are the standard 4.1 Toshiba uses in their X200/X205 and Qosmio G40/G45 notebooks (I have a X200) which is 2 Bass and 2 Tweeters plus a Subwoofer. To conclude, I use a GeForce 8700M GT 256MB using the stock stock drivers (101.38) to be able to overclock with RivaTuner.

 

okay,.. im reading about the directsound issues right now, you've probably been asked alot but, do you have the newest drivers for your sound driver? and about your gfx card i think there may have to be some hex editing inside the games .exe file i can probably do it though....i've been wanting to play this game forever i might just end up ging back to xp until they find a way around this, oh and by the way for everyone using f-xi or audigy sound cards http://connect.creativelabs.com/alchemy/default.aspx ALchemy was made just for getting around the directsound issue in games

 

:::::Got Metal Gear Solid 2 Working on vista 32bit (And Windows 7):::::

More Questions/Comments E-mail [email protected] (with subject header "MGS2" so i know it isnt spam)

Okay i got it working, The problem was sound card protocols being ran through IDirectSound layer, and the Realtek and many other sound cards is that they dont have interpreters for that layer on vista, so an external audio card like creative X-Fi and audigy and they're program called ALchemy can make things like this all better and fix many sound problems on vista with older pc games.

I have personally bought both a X-Fi notebook edition, and an audigy 2 zs notebook sound card, with ALchemy worked PERFECT.


So to get it working i
1. disabled my sound card,
2. plugged in an xbox 360 controller (it works WITH sound as well, you need a 2.55 mm headseat like the one you'd buy for a phone)

And after i did that it ran without a hitch.

OR
you can buy the external audio cards from creative and download ALchemy.
on ebay both the Audigy 2 and the X-Fi are fairly reasonably priced.



::::Update::::
No my patch isnt done,(nor will it) since i came across this handy little program,
Its called ALchemy Universal by daniel kawarami, i was making the same thing, only mine isnt nearly as far as his.
What it does is enables EAX effects for games running under vista, and in the case of MGS2 it resovles the dreaded 'Black screen of sadness'.

(I updated the link for anyone who was having trouble.)
Instructions: Simply download the file (Linky http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JLQI01IA ) and run it, after its installed open the start menu > All Programs > Creative> ALchemy universal click the program,
once its open click "Add" Enter the name, then below it gives 2 choices one by registry path and the other is by file path, click by file path put in the path(i.e. C:/Program Files/Konami/MGS2)
And thats it! play the game




(This is not my program i have tested it and it works. So please dont email me if it doesnt work for you.) For patches and no cd cracks http://www.gamecopyworld.com is your friend


And for those of you running Windows Vista SP1, this game will have serious sound issues, probably because Sp1 has some problems with older directx, im not sure nor do i know how to fix it.

Please give credit where credit is due, making this fix cost me time and money, if you post this link etc, remember where it came from.

 

...No ones replied for a while, im guessing everyone has it fixed?

 

actually I think everyone found out that Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was a much better game (hell MGS2 was the worst in the entire MG series IMO) and started playing that instead

 

how the hell does it work?
if somebody got it workin' plz tell me & plz attach the edited crack

 

Not meaning to bump an old thread, just wanted to confirm that installing Alchemy Universal does make the game run 100% with sound, no need to waste money on an external Creative soundcard. Works lovely on my m1330 with onboard Sigmatel HD Audio. Huge thanks to Kikohin!

I am also using a modded executable availiable at Mininova that makes the game work properly on GeForce cards in Vista.

 

there are 2 Exe files, one for ATI and other for Nvidia, so get yours..

 

Kikohen you are a legend!

Old thread I know but respect.

 

I think with all the hassle and bugs in the PC port of Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, for those with faster computers, maybe it would be a better idea to simply get a PS2 emulator and emulate the PS2 version?

 

Thanks Kikohin it works

For advanced users that wants to know what this is

It's a patched version of the old dsound.dll that still had the IDirectSound COM interface. The file is automatically used instead of the system32/SysWOW64 one when placed in the exe dir. It reads settings from a dsound.ini in the same dir that has these default values

Buffers=4
Duration=25
MaxVoiceCount=128
DisableDirectMusic=0

You don't need to install this program to use it. To get this dsound.dll (1,200,128 bytes) without running the installer either (1) extract ALUNI_PCVTAPP_LB_1_00_08.exe with Winrar and copy it from Bin.cab or (2) install it in a VMWare installation and copy it from the program directory. It's not using any drivers or registry settings.

The sound will also work if you use an older dsound.dll that still has the old IDirectSound COM interface (that you can copy from a Windows XP installation for example). The advantage of using this patched version is that the well known sound buffering problem in Vista is fixed with this dll. If you use the original Microsoft dsound.dll (with the IDirectSound interface) the sound will have a constant skipping noise in Vista.

 

Solved Metal Gear Solid 2: Subastance Windows 7 64 bit - Windows 7 Forums

works for win7 dont know about vista