The TotE Demo fixed my DX10 problems with HOMMV and HoF

[lotusreaver]

Installing this demo fixed all of my problems with HOMMV and HoF with DirectX 10. I'm not sure why or how, but it did.

When my computer crashed, I bought a new one preloaded with Vista and DX10, but without DX9. This prevented HOMMV and HOF from working via the well-documented "missing DX9 file" error message when running H5_game.exe.

When I installed the demo for Tribes of the East last night, it somehow resolved these issues. Sure enough, I can play HOMMV and HOF again. No error messages on startup. Game runs without a problem.

I decided to test this and uninstalled HOMMV and HOF. Then, I reinstalled them. The "missing DX9 file" problems came back. Then, I uninstalled the TotE demo and reinstalled it. Once again, it fixed the issue and I was able to run HOMMV and HOF again.

If any of you have had "missing DX9 file" errors because you're running the game on DX10 and Vista, try this and see if it works. I'm curious to see if mine is an isolated case, or if this is a reliable workaround to an annoying issue.

[okrane]

lol

[lotusreaver]

I found the reason why installing the TotE demo resolved the DX9 issue. It's actually quite simple. But I figure I'd post it here for closure's sake and in case somebody who encounters a similar problem happens to Google this thread.

Upon closer investigation, it seems that the reason the TotE demo resolves the DX9 issue is because of a critical 2MB file called d3dx9_25.dll. This is a file that computers with DX9 automatically have. However, if your computer came with Vista preloaded, you won’t have this file because it comes with DX10 by default and Heroes V doesn’t recognize the DX10 equivalent.

When you install the TotE demo, it actually copies the d3dx9_25.dll file to its ‘bin’ folder. The installation processes for Heroes V and HoF don’t copy this file. That’s why when you install only Heroes V or HoF, you get DX9 errors; but when you install the demo, they disappear.

Ultimately, you don’t really need to install the TotE demo at all to fix the problem. You just need to obtain the .dll file from a friend and put it somewhere on your computer. Mystery solved.

[PhoenixReborn]

I think the reason that Okrane lol'ed is because you can install directx9 from the game cd.

[lotusreaver]

The difference here is that I've heard of issues that occur when installing both DX9 and DX10, so I was reluctant to do so. In this case, I didn't install DX9. It was just because of a single missing .dll that Heroes V requires to run.

[Ya5MieL]

Everyone just downloaded the dll from the internet, so there was no need to wait for tote for a game to work on vista.

In my specific case, TotE did NOT copy the dll into its bin folder, so I actually had to copy one from original h5 folder to TotE folder to make it work.