Wing Commander 4 DVD in WindowsXP (w/ DirectShow)

No Sound

The video plays fine, but I get no sound. I know my sound is working because when I highlight the text choices, I hear the sound spoken. But when the FMV kicks in, no sound. But video plays and plays nice and smooth.

I am running Windows XP. I have set the .exe to run in Win95 compatibility mode. I have installed the mpeg2dec filter and I have uninstalled any other mpeg2 filters that I had prior to this (the only one was elencard-mpeg2 player).

It seems like most folks are not having sound problems so I am hoping it is something simple that I am missing.

Thanks in advance. This is truly awesome as I like most folks have been sitting on these WC4 DVDs waiting for someone to come along and write a dll so I can play on a modern machine. Thank you so much for doing that.

-thedavester
 
dscott: Post the debug logs here, it probably won't be possible to fix anything without them.
 
No Sound

So far, working perfectly. Again, I can't thank you enough. You have ended what must be around 8 some odd years of frustration. Playing the game as we speak. I should be up all night. :D
 
My plesure :cool:. I must say I did learn a thing or two while programming in DirectShow so it was fun :D. The new site is up, with version 1.0 :p. cff, I've included that fix for you, please tell me if there's any change (or if I've broken something for somebody else :) )
 
Hi,

I just tried your patch out today and the movies really work great.
But I have the strange problem that the game itself doesn't work. Right after the last movie of the intro (the liftoff from the planet) is played, the monitor just shows a black screen and all I can do is to press Ctrl-Alt-Del.

When I start the game with the original DLLs, I just get the usual error messages in the beginning (without the movies of course), but the game itself runs fine.

What could be the problem? I am running Windows ME, if this helps. Installed DVD Software is WinDVD.
 
hmm...I didn't test it in WinME. I only have XP and win 98 on the old computer. I'll see if I can install ME somewhere and try it out. In the mean time you could try if one of the older versions works for you or is it an entirely new issue...
 
Sorry, I didn't mention, that I already tried out all of your versions and I could find no difference. The video is running great everytime, but after this the game unfortunately crashes. But if I understand correctly you only changed the playback code, so my problem seems to be related to something different.

Don't we all love the different versions of Windows? ;-)
 
Windows ME is the Devil.
I reverted to 98se within a week of trying it.
(if I could get a copy of 98se again, i'd probably revert from this damned xp)
 
WinME has got to be the WORST OS ever! I never had any windows related problems in XP so I try to stay the hell away from 98se as well :D. OK, enough ranting...I tried the game and it works...OK? No, not really, but read on. Fresh install, only ATi Radeon & Audigy2 drivers (+ DX9.0a which they install). Mpeg2dec does not load on ME, same error as with w98, so I used Ligos filters. Movies work ok and it switches to the game fine as well. So I could not recreate the problem. But when I exit the game...my monitor just goes nuts. Display keeps flickering (changing resolutions also, I can hear the CRT clicking). This also happens without my patch! I'm sorry but I don't think I can debug like this. If my CRT dies I don't think M$ will give me $1000 check for a new 19" monitor :D. This was ment for XP anyway. I think it's a bonus it works on 98 as well...but any more than that....
 
Still not working...

Hi guys, long time lurker, first time poster. Thanks Gulikoza for allowing me to play this without having to use the Dxr2. I have a problem that I have not seen posted here. The first few movies play each time I load the game. If I start a new game, I can make it right up until Orlando is destroyed. If I save and reload it later, I can play a few more movies and then I lose them again. After playing around with the installed filters I got it so that instead of losing the whole movie, I just lose video. I have compressed the logs from the debug version and hope that you can help me.

Thanks!

bsierad

Rename txt to zip
 

Attachments

This is another one of those "Long time lurker, few time poster" kind of jobbies...

This patch could quite possibly be the most exciting thing to happen in the Wing Commander universe in a long time. I've always considered WC4 without the DXR card the Holy Grail of Wing Commander (I've only ever had the horribly poor quality DXR2), and to be able to finally see and play it in its full glory is simply amazing.

When this is combined with the developments of 386 DOS emulation (DOSBox) and the *EXCELLENT* work being done by Canadacow on the MT32 emulator for DOSBox (it works nearly flawlessly with WC1 and WC2 now), and the likewise excellent work by all those that have worked and are working to bring new life to Wing Commander through mods and TCs, which have the rich story that most modern games lack, in the universe we all know and love...

Its a good time to be a Wing Commander Fan.


Mantor

Technical notes: I had initial problems with WC4 crashing shortly after launch, but these were remedied by removing Power DVD and installing the open source AC3 filter linked earlier in the thread. I haven't done any extensive experimenting, but I plan to attempt to install WinDVD tonight and see if it can coexist with WC4, and also to start playing into the game to see if things work up to and past Orlando (you would not BELIEVE how much dust is on my old Sidewinder FFP). So far though, the game runs flawlessly, with none of the odd symptoms listed by others. For anyone interested, this is running on XP Professional Service Pack 2 RC1, with an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro with latest drivers.
 
This patch could quite possibly be the most exciting thing to happen in the Wing Commander universe in a long time. I've always considered WC4 without the DXR card the Holy Grail of Wing Commander (I've only ever had the horribly poor quality DXR2), and to be able to finally see and play it in its full glory is simply amazing.

When this is combined with the developments of 386 DOS emulation (DOSBox) and the *EXCELLENT* work being done by Canadacow on the MT32 emulator for DOSBox (it works nearly flawlessly with WC1 and WC2 now), and the likewise excellent work by all those that have worked and are working to bring new life to Wing Commander through mods and TCs, which have the rich story that most modern games lack, in the universe we all know and love...

Its a good time to be a Wing Commander Fan.
Click to expand...
Couldn't have said it better. :) And it is indead not long ago that I set up my K6-2 with parts lying around, combined with a DXR2 (or 3, forgot it) card, which came with my WCIV copy, to be able to finally play all those WC games (had only played WCV+SO and half of WCIII till then). I even got a Voodoo1 to play WCV in glide. And NONE of them ran with my Main rig under XP. And now? Well, ALL of them work with my Main rig! Thx to all the proggies/patches you mentioned. ;) - Ok, still have minor problems with WC3, but that's all! - And plenty of other WC Fans also search for a solution for that one, so sooner or later that'll be fixed as well :)
So really great times for WC Fans. :D
 
bsierad: What do you mean loose? Blank screen? Only sound?? I don't see anything strange in the logs, it should work. I hate to repeat myself but please try one of the earlier releases...that playback window keeps bugging me :D

Mantor: DShow is a funny thing. What filters are used is based on their priority. PowerDVD seem to use very low priority so they will only be used if no other programs are installer. Ligos on the other hand will always be the first to load. Mpeg2dec's priority is a bit higher than WinDVD...I believe it should work normally with most filters, but some, like PowerDVD crash for some reason (I believe it is the PDVD filter crashing not my program...at least that is what windows reports :D).
 
It works! it wks! It works!

Sorry guys, I just...I'm so happy!!!

I'm using WinDVD and it works PERFECT!!!
 
And that would make sense, as PowerDVD was the only filter I had at the time.

Now here's an odd question, and I don't know the answer to this one...

If PowerDVD is the only DVD decoder I had installed (and as far as I know it was), and I removed the program and all of its files, how in the world am I able to play the video with nothing but the AC-3 sound filter installed?

Do I have another decoder lying around I don't know about?

(I'm sorry for the uncertainty and lack of technical detail. I'm at work, and I actually only played with this for about 20 minutes last night)

Mantor

gulikoza said:
Mantor: DShow is a funny thing. What filters are used is based on their priority. PowerDVD seem to use very low priority so they will only be used if no other programs are installer. Ligos on the other hand will always be the first to load. Mpeg2dec's priority is a bit higher than WinDVD...I believe it should work normally with most filters, but some, like PowerDVD crash for some reason (I believe it is the PDVD filter crashing not my program...at least that is what windows reports :D).
Click to expand...
 
Well...no idea :D. There must be another mpeg-2 decoder used. If you are really dying to know, the debug build will report which filters are in use...
 
I'll probably play with it tonight, for sure. I've been doing a lot of beta testing for work, installing and uninstalling apps to test compatibility... so who knows whats in there.

So now that we have WC4 DVD working smooth, we just need Prophecy DVD to top things off. Talk about Holy Grail... Or maybe not, the actual grail of biblical fame may be easier to find than Prophecy DVD... LOAF?
 
Gulikoza - After the first few I play, the screen goes black. I've played around a bit and now I do keep sound when it does that but once the video is gone, I need to push escape even after the audio ends to proceed to the next video / end the video. Maybe I just need to remove all these other filters and just reinstall Windvd et al.

Thanks again!
 
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