HD video packs - Tech Support

My only note would be, I recommend getting the K-Lite Full or Mega packs, rather than basic. Last time I checked, basic doesn't come with the Codec Tweak Tool, which can go a long way towards fixing some bugs with the HD packs

Codec Tweak Tool is (at least now) included with basic:

Media Player Classic is not.
 
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Hey all

I'm having problems getting the HD video pack, (or any video pack) to work with WC: Prophecy.
I did all the setup listed in this link - https://www.wcnews.com/wcpedia/DVD_Movie_Upgrade_Patch
and with the help of ODVS, used K-lite as my codec.

the game runs fine, just the video shows as a black screen for me but with audio.
I have a:
4K monitor
TITAN X SLI

and windows 10 if that makes any difference.

the videos work if I remove the wcphr.dll file, all the videos play in their original format as normal again, and given that these video's are the best quality out there for this game is there anyone that has a solution to get these working?
 
ah no worries

I've downloaded the wc4gog_1.0.2_test1.zip file, on it's own it doesn't work but there's a bunch more "dll" files along with a "wc4dvdgog-win2k-patched.exe".

I tried copying all the files after the first failed attempt and running the .exe but it gave me a "missing file" error

Not sure if it's worth noting but the setup I did in order was:

Install game from GoG, along with SO
Copied all the files from "Enhancement package" from HCI, without overwriting Prophecy.exe or WCPHR.DLL and not running the "install" app as requested.
Install Pedro's OpenGL setup and ran it - my current settings for this are:
  • Screen Res - 3840 x 2160
  • Enhanced Lighting - on
  • HDR Effect - on
  • Enhanced starfields - on
  • Max anisortropy - 16
  • FSAA - 4
I've also tried turning off all the OpenGL settings as well and that's a no go
Prophecy.exe, is not running in "Compatibility" mode with "Win98".
and the HD video pack is where it's suppose to be in the "movies" folder in the main directory.

In terms of the game, it runs fine, loads all the levels and transitions, even loads the movies as intended with audio (barring the black screen issue).
It's also really weird, If I turn on subtitles for the movies, the screen ends up showing this bright grey colour instead.
 
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ah no worries

I've downloaded the wc4gog_1.0.2_test1.zip file, on it's own it doesn't work but there's a bunch more "dll" files along with a "wc4dvdgog-win2k-patched.exe".

I tried copying all the files after the first failed attempt and running the .exe but it gave me a "missing file" error

I´m a bit confused, the WC4GOG patch is for Wing Commander 4, not Prophecy (which is Wing Commander 5).

Regarding Prophecy:
There are quite a few threads were possible problems for Prophecy are discussed (here for example: https://www.wcnews.com/chatzone/threads/ive-created-a-wc4-hd-video-pack.30415/page-35) and how to install it with latest additions.

Personally I can´t help you with Prophecy, sorry - didn´t play it since 2009.

EDIT: Fixed typos.
 
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If anyone is able to help that would be awesome, as it stands now I'm still in the limbo as to how to get footage showing with the audio.

The WCPHR.DLL file is what's meant to control the access to the HD video's into the game so maybe use that as a point of reference to work on updated systems IDK.

I'll keep this as my current situation and will update if I manage to get it working but without any knowledge of the games files there's not much more I can do.
 
I wonder if anyone has managed to get this working yet? I have been trying for about a week but no luck. Seems I'm having the same issues as most, the video plays back with a black screen. I tried all the driver updates and everything else on the forum but no luck. However, I wasn't a wiz at using the K-lite program, I'm not sure what the best options are for that...

Love to get this working, make my year!
 
Hi, I'm a newcomer in the forum but a long time user of the site (thanks to all involved :) ). In the process of reliving one of my first PC titles (WCP) again, I wanted to include all the patches to bring the game to the modern age. This includes the HD movie pack (thanks ODVS). After I had some of the mentioned problems myself, I wanted to give my solution for different problems.

First my install order
  1. Install Game
  2. Copy all files from the "Wing Commander Prophecy - Enhancement Pack" (wcpep_release.zip) to the game folder
  3. DELETE wcphr.dll ... For me step 4 somehow did not overwrite the file, but we want a new one
  4. Install the "Wing Commander Prophecy and Secret-ops Model Update Pack" (OpenGL-WCP_setup(TEST-MUP)-RELEASE-CANDIDATE.exe)
For me I had the least problems with the wcphr.dll from the MUP.

Problems:

Top left quarter of video fills the entire screen
Probably a HighDPI display is used together with the DPI scaling function of Windows 10. This also scales the Video. To circumvent this, alter the "High DPI settings" in the compatibility tab of the prophecy.exe. Overwrite the setting to use application based settings.​
highDPI.PNG

Audio plays, but black screen when video should be playing
Since the audio plays, you know the direct show splitter is working. The video not playing can be due to the renderer or the codec. On my AMD APU the video is black when I do NOT use anti aliasing (FSAA) in the OpenGL settings. On my NVIDIA GeForce, this makes no difference. If the problem is not solved by activating FSAA, you should consider the codec and install the K-Lite codec pack.​

Video appears squished in top left quarter of screen
This can be a scaling problem (play with the FSAA setting). For me it was a wrong wcphr.dll.​

Black screen and no audio when video should be playing
  1. This can be a splitter/codec problem -> install K-Lite codec pack
    For videos from ODVS (MP4 extension) at least the sound should play, since he used H264 for video and AAC for audio. Both codecs should be present in Windows 10 (you can test this with the Windows Media Player). This leaves splitter and/or render problems. The old DVD videos (VOB extension) use MPEG2 for video and AC3 for audio. Here you probably need codecs.
  2. If the problem does not go away, this can also be a problem of your installation (wrong wcphr.dll).
Washed out picture
If your videos look like the above picture, they play with the wrong picture output levels after color conversion. PC monitors use a range of 0 to 255 for the allowed luminance of each channel, whereas TVs use a range of 16-235. If your renderer produces a converted output for the TV range, but you use a monitor output (which you probably will), deep black will be displayed as dark gray and your highlights will not be as bright as they could. The other way around, you would clip highlights and dark areas will go under in a see of black.​
picture-settings.png
For me the AMD APU out of the box produced the right picture (below). The NVIDIA card produced the wrong. Since I was lazy, I did not change settings for the direct show filter or renderer, but changed the settings in the NVIDIA control panel:​
Video -> Adjust Video Color Settings
- choose your main monitor under 1. if you have more then one​
- go to "2. How do you make color adjustments?"​
- set to "with the NVIDIA settings"​
- Switch to "Advanced" tab​
- Change the dynamic range to 0-255​
I hope this helps some folks with WCP problems :) .
 
Hi, I'm a newcomer in the forum but a long time user of the site (thanks to all involved :) ). In the process of reliving one of my first PC titles (WCP) again, I wanted to include all the patches to bring the game to the modern age. This includes the HD movie pack (thanks ODVS). After I had some of the mentioned problems myself, I wanted to give my solution for different problems.

First my install order
  1. Install Game
  2. Copy all files from the "Wing Commander Prophecy - Enhancement Pack" (wcpep_release.zip) to the game folder
  3. DELETE wcphr.dll ... For me step 4 somehow did not overwrite the file, but we want a new one
  4. Install the "Wing Commander Prophecy and Secret-ops Model Update Pack" (OpenGL-WCP_setup(TEST-MUP)-RELEASE-CANDIDATE.exe)
For me I had the least problems with the wcphr.dll from the MUP.

Problems:

Top left quarter of video fills the entire screen
Probably a HighDPI display is used together with the DPI scaling function of Windows 10. This also scales the Video. To circumvent this, alter the "High DPI settings" in the compatibility tab of the prophecy.exe. Overwrite the setting to use application based settings.​

Audio plays, but black screen when video should be playing
Since the audio plays, you know the direct show splitter is working. The video not playing can be due to the renderer or the codec. On my AMD APU the video is black when I do NOT use anti aliasing (FSAA) in the OpenGL settings. On my NVIDIA GeForce, this makes no difference. If the problem is not solved by activating FSAA, you should consider the codec and install the K-Lite codec pack.​

Video appears squished in top left quarter of screen
This can be a scaling problem (play with the FSAA setting). For me it was a wrong wcphr.dll.​

Black screen and no audio when video should be playing
  1. This can be a splitter/codec problem -> install K-Lite codec pack
    For videos from ODVS (MP4 extension) at least the sound should play, since he used H264 for video and AAC for audio. Both codecs should be present in Windows 10 (you can test this with the Windows Media Player). This leaves splitter and/or render problems. The old DVD videos (VOB extension) use MPEG2 for video and AC3 for audio. Here you probably need codecs.
  2. If the problem does not go away, this can also be a problem of your installation (wrong wcphr.dll).
Washed out picture
If your videos look like the above picture, they play with the wrong picture output levels after color conversion. PC monitors use a range of 0 to 255 for the allowed luminance of each channel, whereas TVs use a range of 16-235. If your renderer produces a converted output for the TV range, but you use a monitor output (which you probably will), deep black will be displayed as dark gray and your highlights will not be as bright as they could. The other way around, you would clip highlights and dark areas will go under in a see of black.​
For me the AMD APU out of the box produced the right picture (below). The NVIDIA card produced the wrong. Since I was lazy, I did not change settings for the direct show filter or renderer, but changed the settings in the NVIDIA control panel:​
Video -> Adjust Video Color Settings
- choose your main monitor under 1. if you have more then one​
- go to "2. How do you make color adjustments?"​
- set to "with the NVIDIA settings"​
- Switch to "Advanced" tab​
- Change the dynamic range to 0-255​
I hope this helps some folks with WCP problems :) .
Thank you so much, @god_at_hell - this is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for when I set up this thread. Genuinely, that's a super-helpful deep-dive into the technical details behind the reasons these issues arise as well as methods to combat them. That's a spectacular help to this community, so thank you so much. I'll be pointing people to your post in the future, and probably referring back to it myself next time I set the game up for a play through!
 
Awesome! Glad you got everything working, and thanks for sharing your observations. There's so much variation in hardware out there that we can't possibly account for every edge case but this kind of info is super helpful for helping others diagnose their issues.
 
Glad I can help :)
I plan to revisit all the WC parts I grew up with (I bought a T16000M FCS for this, 'cause my Wingman Interceptor does not work with modern hardware ... so I am committed :D). This means I will probably post more problems/solutions in the future, if I do not find something in older threads.
 
Glad I can help :)
I plan to revisit all the WC parts I grew up with (I bought a T16000M FCS for this, 'cause my Wingman Interceptor does not work with modern hardware ... so I am committed :D). This means I will probably post more problems/solutions in the future, if I do not find something in older threads.

Nice choice of stick! Only one in two decades I've not hated.
 
when I install the WC4 5.0 Pack, All I get is a missing file notification and video playback error every time a video tries to load.
 
when I install the WC4 5.0 Pack, All I get is a missing file notification and video playback error every time a video tries to load.
Can you please detail your installation steps you took to try and get them running? Also, did you have it running with any previous versions of the HD packs?
 
1.) Install WC4 from GOG Galaxy
2.) CTL+C all VOB Files in part1 zip file
3.) CTL+V into WC4Dir/vob/
4.) Redo 2+3 for part2 zip
5.) launch wc4dvd.exe
6.) error message
7.) punch hole through monitor over this bullshit
 
1.) Install WC4 from GOG Galaxy
2.) CTL+C all VOB Files in part1 zip file
3.) CTL+V into WC4Dir/vob/
4.) Redo 2+3 for part2 zip
5.) launch wc4dvd.exe
6.) error message
7.) punch hole through monitor over this bullshit
Did you get the GOG version working correctly before trying the HD pack?
If you go to your VOB folder and play one of the HD version video files separately from the game on it's own, does it play correctly?
if the answer to either of these is no, then you might need to install the appropriate video codecs
 
yes, and yes. Gog version works natively in full 16:9. error only occurs on the new wc4 videos. VLC recognizes them without issue.
 
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