Wing Commander IV - Online! (August 11, 2010)

Gah, sorry, forgot to tell that in the fist post: I'm testiting with a German WC4 version (that always worked fine with other patches, also Gulikozas original one), so I forgot.

Effects on a non-English WC4:
- Movies in English (logically)
- Inflight dialogue, comms etc. in German
- Menus, mouseover, screen text In English
- Interesting: Text for selections/decision points in movies are English, voiceover of options is German

All in all it works perfectly.

Maybe a little offtopic, but since I'm at stuff I forgot to mention: Some of the movies in the downloadable movie packs seem to be in there twice, so when you copy it all together, the system reports some redundant files.
 
Good point ! I didn't think of this in my installer: edit the WC4DVD shortcuts (on the desktop and start menu) and at the end of "WC4DVD.EXE" add "-l1" (that's lowercase "L"). That'll make the game run in german. To make it French, add "-l2".

I'll edit the installer so it'll do it automatically. Thanks for pointing that out !
 
criticalmass said:
Maybe a little offtopic, but since I'm at stuff I forgot to mention: Some of the movies in the downloadable movie packs seem to be in there twice, so when you copy it all together, the system reports some redundant files.
Click to expand...

Packs 1 and 2 are Side A and Packs 3 and 4 are Side B. We retained all videos in order to match what's included on the discs, but there are a few duplicates. These are mostly things that you wouldn't want to flip discs for (ejection pickups, jumping, etc), but there are some that seem to be mistakenly on both sides of the disc (some MIP discussion, random Tolwyn vids, etc).
 
Just tried a quick reinstall w/out uninstalling it first - installer runs smooth and recognized that all files already were in place, shortcuts get configured accordingly, but no luck with the DXMCI tool yet, same W32 error. I deleted the start menu entry and had the Installer create a new one, but with the same result. Does it have to do with the application call? That would be [%WINDIR%\system32\rundll32.exe dxmci,configure] but I don't see anything special there. Do you think a full reinstall helps?

@Chris: Thanks for clearing this up and providing another charming piece of WC trivia - only logical that the transition scenes are on there twice..
 
Ok, that means I couldn't properly detect your Windows was 64 bits. I updated the installer to make two shortcuts, one for Win32 and one for Win64. If you want to update your shortcut manually, change it for "%WINDIR%\SysWOW64\rundll32.exe dxmci,configure".

The game runs correctly in German for you now ?
 
MS really screwed this one up :) The link works if started from a 32-bit application (say a file manager like Total Commander), but fails if started from explorer or the desktop. I really think this runtime changing of system32 is a bad idea...and there seems to be no variable that would hold the value of 32-bit system32 directory...
MS should really go and use system64 for the 64-bit stuff (like linux has lib64) instead of putting 32-bit stuff in SysWOW64 (!).

- There seems to be no sound in transition (walk-from-place-to-place) scenes
Click to expand...

Apparently the sound engineer semed to have forgotten to put the sound in these scenes (perhaps somebody should mix the sound from the CD movies and replace the vobs? :))

- Sound in the movies is considerably lower than ingame sound & dialogue
Click to expand...

Movie sound is AC3. You could probably boost the sound in the ac3filter control panel.

Once I try to watch any of the movies, the video is improved to DVD quality for sure, but the movies also have no sound. I am running Vista64 bit.
Click to expand...

Install AC3 filter...the CDtoDVD installer only contains the video codec, if you don't have any sound, you're probably missing the audio decoder.
 
gulikoza said:
MS really screwed this one up :) The link works if started from a 32-bit application (say a file manager like Total Commander), but fails if started from explorer or the desktop. I really think this runtime changing of system32 is a bad idea...and there seems to be no variable that would hold the value of 32-bit system32 directory...
MS should really go and use system64 for the 64-bit stuff (like linux has lib64) instead of putting 32-bit stuff in SysWOW64 (!).
Click to expand...
Agreed. Microsoft really screwed this one.

gulikoza said:
Apparently the sound engineer semed to have forgotten to put the sound in these scenes (perhaps somebody should mix the sound from the CD movies and replace the vobs? :))
Click to expand...
Yes ! We do have a lot of talented WC fans around that could extract the soundtrack from the CD version and add it to the DVD scene ! Someone do this ! :)

gulikoza said:
Movie sound is AC3. You could probably boost the sound in the ac3filter control panel.

Install AC3 filter...the CDtoDVD installer only contains the video codec, if you don't have any sound, you're probably missing the audio decoder.
Click to expand...
When I built the installer, the AC3Filter website was all buggy and I couldn't download it at all. But since working audio codecs are bundled with a bunch of media player software these days (like VLC, for example), I guessed it wasn't a big deal. I guess I should add the AC3filter installer to the CDtoDVD setup as an optional install.
 
PopsiclePete said:
When I built the installer, the AC3Filter website was all buggy and I couldn't download it at all. But since working audio codecs are bundled with a bunch of media player software these days (like VLC, for example), I guessed it wasn't a big deal. I guess I should add the AC3filter installer to the CDtoDVD setup as an optional install.
Click to expand...

That's probably a good idea. One of the more frequent questions I get on irc/email about the WC4 DVD pertains to sound, and AC3filter often fixes it.
 
VLC uses internal filters and MPC-HC as well...with dxmci a registered directshow filter is required.
 
criticalmass said:
Gah, sorry, forgot to tell that in the fist post: I'm testiting with a German WC4 version (that always worked fine with other patches, also Gulikozas original one), so I forgot.

Effects on a non-English WC4:
- Movies in English (logically)
- Inflight dialogue, comms etc. in German
- Menus, mouseover, screen text In English
- Interesting: Text for selections/decision points in movies are English, voiceover of options is German

All in all it works perfectly.
Click to expand...

Hm, is it possible to make the decision parts appear in English too? I mean, if the movies you're watching are in English, but the voice over options in the movies are in German.. kinda distracting.

Haven't tested it for several weeks, but I think the windows 95 patch for the cd version of WC IV made the decision parts appear in English, if you started the exe with the default settings (default was English language)
 
Nice job with the DVD patch.
But, does this all work with Windows 98?

My only joystick uses the gameport and my primary PC doesn't have one.

So I am stuck with an old P3 with Windows 98 for all joystick based games. (including WC).

Of course, I could buy a new joystick, but, since there are almost no new games that need one, there is no point.
 
Whoa, this feels like royal treatment now ;)

gulikoza said:
- Sound in the movies is considerably lower than ingame sound & dialogue
Click to expand...
Movie sound is AC3. You could probably boost the sound in the ac3filter control panel.
Click to expand...

Upping AC3filter gains by +7.5 does it for me, movie sounds are now on the same level as ingame dialogue.

Thanks folks, again.
 
boringnickname said:
Hm, is it possible to make the decision parts appear in English too? I mean, if the movies you're watching are in English, but the voice over options in the movies are in German.. kinda distracting.

Haven't tested it for several weeks, but I think the windows 95 patch for the cd version of WC IV made the decision parts appear in English, if you started the exe with the default settings (default was English language)
Click to expand...

I guess the decision part voiceovers are not multilanguage, and it's not very distracting. But I'll try what a Win95 patch does on Win7, just for the heck of it...
 
Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions ! I will continue updating this installer until it allows my granny to install WC4 DVD painlessly :p

boringnickname said:
Hm, is it possible to make the decision parts appear in English too? I mean, if the movies you're watching are in English, but the voice over options in the movies are in German.. kinda distracting.
Click to expand...
Yes, is you set the game to German, the decisions strings will be in German. See it like this: they are subtitles for the voiceovers, just like the [missing] movies subtitles. I don't see it as a problem :)

boringnickname said:
But, does this all work with Windows 98?
Click to expand...
I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't, but you may have some extra tweaking to do to have the codecs working. If you give it a try please report back !
 
PopsiclePete said:
Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions ! I will continue updating this installer until it allows my granny to install WC4 DVD painlessly :p

Yes, is you set the game to German, the decisions strings will be in German. See it like this: they are subtitles for the voiceovers, just like the [missing] movies subtitles. I don't see it as a problem :)
Click to expand...


What I meant: What if you have German WC IV CDs but you're running this DVD project in English? (set the exe switch to English language)

As far as I can remember, the WC IV Win95 patch (for the CD version) *displayed the decision parts in English, if you ran the Win95 exe with the English-language switch. (even when have a German CD version)

*Not sure about the voice over
 
The decision voiceover is in English (from the DVD, contrary to your dubbed movies from the CD version, I think) and the decision text will be in whatever language you set the EXE to run to.

My own version of WC4 is in English, so I can't test much to tell you the exact behaviour of an hybrid-language install. Please do test it and tell me !
 
boringnickname said:
Nice job with the DVD patch.
But, does this all work with Windows 98?
Click to expand...

Yes, WC4 on DVD was designed to work with Windows 95/98. :) The additional patches that fix it circumvent the hardware that you used to require (and add compatibility fot NT+), but they should not break the basic compatibility that originally existed.
 
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