WC3 Kilrathi Saga WinXP

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i use nvidia beta 66.81 video drivers, and beta 6.11 nforce drivers (which have an unchnaged gart version from 5.10)

xp sp2 (without virtual memory)
directx9c
k8n neo2 mobo, bios 1.3, s939, athlon64 w/2gigs
bfg 6800 ultra oc
audigy1 (latest creative drivers)
(also use onboard audio, but just for winamp, so i can have separate volume)

i can play kilrathi saga ok... it will hang eventually. it lasts the longest without any compatability mode set. in missions that aren't too long i can make it from mission to mission and save in between.
i've never had a lockup/crash in video scenes or on the ship. i've only had it take a crap in actual gameplay time.

-scheherazade
 
Hallo, i installed the patch for XP, and it works with changing the priority, but i never cant control my ship with the keyboard. Must I have a joystick????????
 
I recently dusted off my old copy of Kilrathi Saga, and tried running it for the first time on a 4.2 Ghz Toshiba laptop (WinXP) with an ATI m6 mobility graphics card running catalyst drivers. WC2, the WC2 expansion missions, and WC3 all work fine- but for WC1, only the main campaign works, and the Secret Mission Expansions (both 1 and 2) automatically shut down every time I try to play them. Has anybody else ran into this problem and/or has any idea how to fix it? Thankx!!
 
wc3 fix for XP

Well i don't know if this has been posted before but after alt tabbing out of the game and ctrl alt del.....go to process's, wc3 and change the priority to low. My game no longer crashes. Im running it on an

MSI BOARD
AMD ANTHLON XP 2600+
GeForce 5600
Built in soundcard
512 MB RAM


Game Runs great. occasionally it'll crash after hours of playing but since the priority is set low, it does not lock the system and i can resatart the game easily. Highly recommended fix.
 
And now to raise the dead...

Watch me kick an ancient thread back into a begrudging existance...

I've got some new ideas to try out. All this "set it to low priority" business got me thinking... Our CPUs are too fast, of course. Setting to low priority just gives all other programs a higher priority to the CPU. Unless there are other programs using a large part of the CPU, priority make little difference.

We need to eat up cycles, but without bogging down the system like most slowdown utilities do. So maybe if you run another application in the background that takes some 95% of your CPU... Something with adjustable CPU usage.

I'm going to try out running DOSBox in the background and setting the emulation cycles just so until I'm at 95-97% CPU usage. Then run the Kilrathi Saga version of WC3 in Windows at a priority mode lower than DOSBox so it can only get that 3-5%. That should be about the equivalent of an old Pentium.

I'll get back to ya'll at some point onhow it goes.
 
Why do you expect that this solution would do something different then a simple slow down utility? What eats the resources should't matter.
 
The problem is that something is affecting the speed limiter of the game to begin with. They've future proofed every Wing Commander game since 1991 to run on any speed computer, but in a few instances, this gets disabled by conflicting hardware or software. Isolating what's causing it to run fast in the first place would be a big help.
 
I would like to direct your attention towards the fact that most of the crashes occur while loading. It may be during loading "the elevator sequence", the bar area, etc. It even occurs during the loading of a new Nav point during the flight sequence (at least in my case). And yes, it may happen with the W2K patch and setting priority to Low. What I've noticed is that when setting the priority to Low made my CD drive working a bit different - it's actually reading more often from the CD. I've done a full installation. That thing did not occur in Windows 98SE or in High priority mode.
So it may be something with this rather than "CPU too fast issue" (which would also occur on Win 9x and it doesn't). Windows NT handles reading from removable devices differently than 9x. It must apply to XP as well with even more changes made. There are also some changes in DirectX for Windows XP. Or that the display drivers are WDM not VXD.
As far as speed is concerned - did anyone else get the "capship death comms" don't play to the end? The capship explodes before the entire message is played. It's clearly visible when subtitles are enabled.
 
I just tryed WC 3 from Kilrathi Saga on my System.

WIN XP Pro SP1
Athlon XP 2400
Nvidia Geforce 4200
512 MB RAM

First it locked up right after the Origin Intro. When i tryed to lower the priority
to normal i could play a few missions but it locked up when i tryed to talk to Flint the first time.

SO i thought about it and switched it to the lowest priority Settings.
Game worked well for me, i just played till Blackmane Sektor but right after i talked to Rollins after change to CD 3 the game did Crashed with an Error Msg.

Dunno if it will happen again i will try tommorow. Thx to you guys i would have never thought about priority settings without this thread.

Mfg
Chris
Germany
 
Unregistered said:
I just tryed WC 3 from Kilrathi Saga on my System.
Click to expand...

Chris from germany, did you set the compatibiltity mode to either win95 or 98?
 
Sorry forgot to mention it ;)

First i tryed with Compability Mode for Win95 but after i changed the Priority to the lowest setting it worked fine without any compability mode.

The only thing is that Error i got before the first Mission in Blackmane.
It seems that i get that one after this mission:

Gump ID 18 attempted to load a shape larger (or negative) than biggest free block of memory. [D:\wc3\src\gameflow\G_GUMP.CPP, 1007]
Click to expand...

I guess i have to reset my virtual memory settings to solve that one.
Also i find it amusing for a Game as old as WC3 to need more than 512 MB of RAM *G*

Mfg
Chris
 
Moah forgot to ask something else....

Does anyone know if its possible to preset the priority for a Programm permanently? So that next time i start WC3 it will be automaticly set to Low Priority?

It's kinda annoying to Alt+Tab all the time ^^

Mfg
Chris
 
WinXP comes with all you need:

Open a command window and enter

start /?

you will get the description of the start command as shown below (German version).

In short, try to run WC3 with

START /LOW wc3.exe

START ["Titel"] [/Dpath] [/I] [/MIN] [/MAX] [/SEPARATE | /SHARED]
[/LOW | /NORMAL | /HIGH | /REALTIME] | /ABOVENORMAL | /BELOWNORMAL]
[/WAIT] [/B] [Befehl/Programm]
[Parameter]

"Titel" Der Titel des neuen Fensters.
Pfad Startverzeichnis.
B Startet Anwendung, ohne ein neues Fenster zu öffnen. Die
Anwendung ignoriert STRG+C. Wenn die Anwendung nicht selbständig
STRG+C überprüft, ist STRG+UNTBR die einzige Möglichkeit, um die
Anwendung abzubrechen.
I Die CMD.EXE beim Aufruf übergebene Umgebung soll die neue
aktuelle Umgebung sein.
MIN Startet das Fenster minimiert.
MAX Startet das Fenster maximiert.
SEPARATE Startet 16-Bit-Windows-Programm in separatem Speicherbereich.
SHARED Startet 16-Bit-Windows-Programm in gemeinsamen Speicherbereich.
LOW Startet Anwendung in IDLE-Prioritätsklasse.
NORMAL Startet Anwendung in der NORMAL-Prioritätsklasse.
HIGH Startet Anwendung in der HIGH-Prioritätsklasse.
REALTIME Startet Anwendung in der REALTIME-Prioritätsklasse.
ABOVENORMAL Startet Anwendung in der ABOVENORMAL-Prioritätsklasse.
BELOWNORMAL Startet Anwendung in der BELOWNORMAL-Prioritätsklasse.
WAIT Startet die Anwendung und wartet auf das Ende.
Befehl/Programm
Wenn ein interner Befehl oder eine Batchdatei verwendet wird,
wird das neue CMD-Fenster mit Parameter /K gestartet.
Das bedeutet, dass das Fenster erhalten bleibt, nachdem der
Befehl ausgeführt wurde.
Wenn dies nicht der Fall ist, wird das Programm entweder
als Anwendung in einem Fenster oder als Konsolenanwendung
gestartet.
Parameter Parameter, die an den Befehl oder das Programm übergeben werden
sollen.


Wenn die Befehlserweiterungen aktiviert sind, wird der Aufruf von externen
Befehlen durch die Befehlszeile oder den START-Befehl folgendermaßen verändert:

Nicht-ausführbare Dateien können durch ihre Zuordnung zu einem Dateityp
einfach durch Eingabe des Namens als Befehl aufgerufen werden (z.B. würde
WORD.DOC die Anwendung starten, die der .DOC-Erweiterung zugeordnet ist).
Weitere Informationen, wie Sie diese Zuordnungen innerhalb eines Befehls-
skripts ändern, finden Sie beim ASSOC- bzw. FTYPE-Befehl.

Wird eine grafische 32-Bit-Anwendung aufgerufen, wartet CMD.EXE nicht auf
das Beenden dieser Anwendung, sondern kehrt sofort zur Eingabeauforderung
zurück. Das gilt NICHT, wenn diese Anwendung aus einem Befehlsskript
heraus aufgerufen wird.

Wenn eine Befehlszeile ausgeführt wird, die mit den Zeichen CMD ohne
Erweiterung oder Pfadname beginnt, wird CMD durch den Wert der
COMSPEC-Variablen ersetzt. Damit wird vermieden, dass man versehentlich
eine andere, ggf. zufällige Version der CMD.EXE verwendet.

Wenn eine Befehlszeile ausgeführt wird, die mit Zeichen beginnt, die keine
Dateierweiterung enthalten, dann verwendet CMD.EXE den Wert der Umgebungs-
variablen PATHEXT, um zu bestimmen, welche Erweiterungen in welcher
Reihenfolge verwendet werden. Der Standardwert für die PATHEXT-Variable
ist:

.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD

Dabei ist die Syntax dieselbe wie in der PATH-Variablen, das heißt, die
einzelnen Einträge werden durch Semikolon getrennt.

Wenn mit dem START-Befehl ein Programm bzw. Befehl aufgerufen wird und keine
entsprechende Dateierweiterung gefunden wird, aber der Name ohne Erweiterung
einem Verzeichnisnamen entspricht, wird der Explorer mit diesem Pfad
aufgerufen. Von der Befehlszeile ausgeführt entspricht das einem CD /D mit
diesem Pfad.
 
Hum,
i tryed that, but when i checked the Priority in the Task Manager it STILL was set to higher Priority.

I startet the Game with:
Start /low wc3w.exe

(its Kilrathi Saga WC3 for Windows.)
 
Hi people.

I've noticed that this thread hasn't been posted on for a while and was wondering if anyone had found a solution yet? I'm new to this site and haven't been able to find the solution if it has been posted.

I've been playing wc3 Kilrathi Saga and have had loads of lock-ups but kept on replaying the missions, reloading e.t.c
But now my system wont load past the Jumpimg to ariel system fmv (system after Blackmane), as soon as the jump fmv finishes it just hangs and I have made numerous attempts now.

My system specs are: 3.0ghz p4ht, 512mb ram, 128mb AGP Ati Radeon9200w/ati catalyst 6.1, Realtek AC97 (I think) soundcard, Win xp xp2, saitek 3d rumble force joystick.

I have tried all the different compatibility modes in various combinations and tried changing the priority.

Please help!!
 
macleod2024 said:
I've noticed that this thread hasn't been posted on for a while and was wondering if anyone had found a solution yet? I'm new to this site and haven't been able to find the solution if it has been posted.

I've been playing wc3 Kilrathi Saga and have had loads of lock-ups but kept on replaying the missions, reloading e.t.c
But now my system wont load past the Jumpimg to ariel system fmv (system after Blackmane), as soon as the jump fmv finishes it just hangs and I have made numerous attempts now.

My system specs are: 3.0ghz p4ht, 512mb ram, 128mb AGP Ati Radeon9200w/ati catalyst 6.1, Realtek AC97 (I think) soundcard, Win xp xp2, saitek 3d rumble force joystick.

I have tried all the different compatibility modes in various combinations and tried changing the priority.
Click to expand...

There's a lot of different issues being discussed in this thread and a lot of different treatments for different problems. Issues like yours sometimes relate to the sound card. You might try tweaking the advanced settings and directx options in regards to that. It could be something as simple as dirt on the disc in the place of the movie that your game is trying to access. Origin used to recommend reinstallation as well. I've also recently been trying to gauge people's results from trying different command line video options.

Command-Line Parameters for Wing Commander 3 for Windows 95.
If you are experiencing performance problems or other technical difficulties with Wing Commander 3 for Windows 95, you may want to try using one or more of the available "Command-line" parameters for running the game. Since the game normally runs like any Windows 95 program, you will have to open an MS-DOS Prompt within Windows 95 to execute the command-line parameters. Click on START, on PROGRAMS and then on MS-DOS PROMPT. Change to the Wing Commander 3 directory on your hard drive (by typing CD\PROGRA~1\KILRAT~1\WC3). Type "WC3W " followed by one of the following switches:

Command-Line parameters:
-D This forces the hardware "double-buffering" to turn off. Can be helpful with video-related problems.
-NO_INTERLACE This disables the scanline "skipping" in the Wing Commander 3 movies.
-NO_SOUND Use this to disable Wing Commander 3's use of DirectSound.
Click to expand...
 
I'm not sure what the compatibility wizard is exactly, but Kilrathi Saga was a very early Windows 95 product, so you typically do have to take extra steps like that to run it smoothly in XP. One of the sad things I see today is that people pay more than $50 for a single KS disc sometimes for versions of the game they could probably get to run better for $10 in DOSBox on their operating system.
 
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