W.C.A.T. - WC1 DOS Overhaul Mod [Beta v0.8 R4 Released]

My config specifies:
Code: 
cpu_cycles           = 32000
cpu_cycles_protected = auto
According to the release notes auto means cpu_cycles controls everything, which is what's needed here. If those are the settings being used (with 60000 instead), then either the documentation is wrong or there may be a bug in staging...

If people are having issues with staging I do include a config for DOSBox-X too; which I prefer personally, but doesn't have some of the visual effects.
 
Beats me.. I do have cpu_cycles set to 60000 and cpu_cycles_protected set to auto. I tried setting cpu_cycles_protected to also 60000 for jokes but didn't make a difference. Must be some kind of bug in the binary release of linux 82.2?

I generally prefer staging and this is the only time I have ever hit this situation...
 
Bizarre! But good to know - thanks for that! It definitely sounds like a bug, but I'll have to replicate it and do some testing before I can file a bug report - if anyone else is up for that go for it. :D

I'm not doing anything complicated to launch Wing Commander - the launcher completely closes and DOS handles launching into WC via batch file shenanigans. DOSBox (as opposed to something like PCem/86box) is more of a DOS simulator than a full PC emulator though, so weird behaviour like this is understandable... I guess they might never have tested a batch file launching a 32-bit program then a 16-bit one... I guess? I especially have no idea why it would only(?) be under Linux.
 
Amazing! Playing on bare metal, Pentium 90. I'm selecting MT-32 sound but I also have an SB16 in the system. The MT-32 routes to line-in on the SB16 for mixing with other audio sources, but this launcher appears to mute line-in and cd-in on the SB16 when it starts in MT-32 mode. Can this be disabled or made optional?

On bootup, I run mixerset to restore my saved mixer settings, which include line-in and cd-in at 100% volume. The MT-32 is attached to line-in. When running this excellent mod, I see the LCD on the MT-32 do its thing, but there is no sound because the launcher seems to have muted line-in. This is confirmed by mixerset when I exit WC back to DOS. It shows line-in and cd-in to 0% volume.
 
conzyor34 said:
this launcher appears to mute line-in and cd-in on the SB16
Click to expand...
A quick workaround for the current version is to run set BLASTER= to clear your BLASTER variable before running WCAT; that'll prevent the launcher from initialising the SB16 DSP and resetting the mixer. I've fixed it for the next version, which hopefully isn't too far off!
 
I have both the DOS & GOG versions of WC1. After I copy the DOS gamedat files to WCAT's gamedat & run the Launch Utility, I get checksum errors for BRIEFING.000 & COMMUNIC.DAT.

The GOG version has checksum failures for BRIEFING.000, CAMP.000, FONTS.FNT, INSTALL.DAT, MODULE.000 & one more file, which is not shown as it is cut off.

What gives? They run fine under their respective platforms. :(
 
Are you running WCAT 0.8 R4?

I'm curious which DOS version you have (or at least which checksums you have), but the GOG version should always work unless you've modified it in some way - I'd download a fresh copy from GOG either way.
 
@AllTinker , yes, I have the latest version of WCAT. The launcher doesn't say what the checksums are, just that they failed.

Anyway, I took your advice & reinstalled the GOG version, and it worked! :D Thanks a lot!
 
Excellent, glad you got it working. :)

It's not obvious, but the launcher creates a CHKFAIL.TXT file if there's any checksum mishaps. I've tried to handle as many different versions of Wing Commander as I've been able to find, but there may be others out there; I still need to do another review of that side of things.

In terms of a general update for everyone the next version is still on the way, and I've made some promising progress on WCAT for Wing Commander 2... There's also a pretty big update for Originator coming, and more besides. Hopefully it's a productive year! :)
 
cause one project i'm wanting to make is a WC multiverse game consisting of characters from Sonic The Hedgehog, Super Mario and TMNT. while also using assets and the engine from WC's 1, 2 and Academy. which i feel like, more likely than not would mean i would use Confederation to make it!
 
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Once I'm ready to put WCAT aside that'll open some time back up for Confederation. :) I don't have too much left on my list for WCAT; obviously making an attempt at WCAT for WC2 is the biggest thing. WC2 is such a mess... :p

Some things - like broad language/translation support - are going to be just orders of magnitude easier to do in Confederation. I'm very limited in what I can do with WCAT, and everything takes honestly somewhere in the vicinity of 50 to 100 times longer. If I had full source code to WC1/2 (neither of which exists anywhere known, currently; the CIC has archived partial source for WC1) and could just compile a new EXE... What took about a year - after I even made it to the starting line - probably would've taken maybe a week tops...

A lot of the code Confederation relies on has continued to improve via work on Originator and other projects. With the massive amount of reverse engineering of the WC1 code I've had to do for WCAT I'm completely confident that Confederation can replicate WC1 near-perfectly (with the caveat that I don't intend to replicate the minutiae to the exclusion of improvements). Confederation definitely fills a different niche though; the chances of it ever running on a real vintage DOS machine is close enough to be called zero. :D
 
This is fantastic, I finished WC1 from GOG finally with the WCAT tool.

Thank you for this amazing tool, I would have never made it through it without your fixes.

By the way, the end credits didn't play for some reason, final scene right before end credits on main campaign and Secret Missions is stuck on the uniform medals, but that was just a minor glitch to report.

I wanted to continue in the series and play Wing Commander II from GOG "as is" immediately after, but it got all sorts of weird timing problems. I also tried the Wing Loader version but it keeps skipping through text and cuts off cinematics or the speed is off in other ways during gameplay.

I'll wait for a WCAT for WCII I guess...😏
 
Nice, glad to hear you made it through. :)

SpaceProbe said:
By the way, the end credits didn't play for some reason, final scene right before end credits on main campaign and Secret Missions is stuck on the uniform medals, but that was just a minor glitch to report.
Click to expand...
That's interesting - I don't think I've changed anything related to the ending, but I'll see if I can replicate/fix that!
 
Just for the sake of showing something here, someone on itch asked for an option to change how blue the space background is, so in the next version there'll be three options; standard, reduced and zero:
space-stock.jpg
space-low.jpg
space-off.jpg


The difference between reduced and zero is more obvious when it's fullscreen - and especially when the game uses letterboxing at various points, since you can still see the boundary of the view.
 
Vidmaster said:
More black space everywhere, thanks. How are cutscenes affected by this?
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Almost every cutscene uses the global spaceflight space colour. Even things like below (with reduced selected), or the window behind Shotglass in the rec room, just work:

cutscene-low.jpg


The only one I've had to modify separately is the OriginFX logo, which is completely hard-coded.
 
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