I finally set up DBPro to work with Vista. In part I did so by going here
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=104612&b=1
and following the directions. Partly I did so by using my Windows Explorer utility to open C:\Windows\System32\ and seeing if d3dx9_31.dll and d3dx9_32.dll were listed [and neither one was!]
So I got online, entered those Directx upgrades in my search engine and then downloaded them and then transfered them to C:\Windows\System32\
Now here's where it gets tricky, the instructions at:
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=104612&b=1
tell you to click on Start>All Programs>The Game Creators [if you DBPro application doesn't function properly] and right click on the DarkBASIC Professional icon [which is all very well and good except that my computer put that icon one level lower inside a DarBASIC Professionals Online folder - so be aware of that eventuality], and so once you have right clicked on the icon you Click on Advanced and then place a tick mark in the Run as Administrator box, and then click OK and then OK again.
I did this and IT STILL DID NOT RUN PROPERLY. I also followed several other several other sage suggestions in that list of directions, to no avail, and was about to permanently remove DBPro as a hopeless fouled up and useless waste of time and money and then KA-ZAM!!! It hit me that I should maybe ALSO right click on the desktop icon shortcut and examine it for intelligent signs of life.
Well what do you know but that there is ALSO an Administrators box there that ALSO has to receive an independent tick mark!
Sigh!
Well, this I did and guess what? By golly DBPro works just fine for me now! I apologize for everything evil that I was thinking about this great product!
Oh yeah, weeks ago I purchased Jonathan S Harbour's and Joshua R. Smith's DarkBASIC Pro Game Programming, Second Edition; and I heartily recommend it to any other bewildered newbies trying to get a handle on the application. My only lament is that it took about four weeks for it to get to my house via Amazon.com. I just got it yesterday in fact.
Oh yeah, I used to be a regular member of these forums several years ago, but left due to circumstances beyond my control - my old computer system went up in smoke [literally the hard drive smoked] and afterwards I just had too many other things to do; but now I'm back and this time I hope to be able to learn enough about DBPro to do something really nifty with it.
Opus
Eternal student in search of knowledge. But will settle for the occasional epiphany.