Wing Loader (KS/WCDX) Loader & Voice Over Mod

TCSTigersClaw said:
Hello , will WingLoader be combatible with W.C.A.T mod overhaul for DOS wing 1 ? :)
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I just did a test and no it is not compatible as Wing Loader makes edits to Briefing.000 and fails the checksum as a result.

I am working on a solution to allow the use of other Briefing.000 files so hopefully I can make it work. :P
 
Hey @Destro! Just to save future integration pain; assume that WCAT will check/patch any GAMEDAT file every time it starts, especially with some of the stuff I'm looking at potentially doing in the future. I'm also worried some of the things I'm thinking about could end up being breaking Kilrathi Saga compatibility (i.e. it could fail if you try to load a WCAT-modified GAMEDAT)... You'll really want to give it its own clean copy of the data; it's only ~7MB extra or whatever. :D
 
Hey @AllTinker. Thanks for the info!

Yeah, I might copy the gamedat files to a custom folder to, as you said to have two copies rather than one copy with both versions going forward.
 
Destro said:
Installation Instructions:

Wing Loader
1) Extract the contents of WingLoaderv0.92.zip somewhere on your computer. ex: C:\Games

Wing Commander I
1) Install "Wing Commander" via GOG / GOG Galaxy into the Root WingLoader folder. ex: C:\Games\Wingloader so the final result will look like C:\Games\Wingloader\Wing Commander
2) Download Wing Commander 1.5 https://www.wcnews.com/wcpedia/Secret_Missions_1.5_(Kilrathi_Saga) and extract the contents of sm15_kilrathisaga.zip into the "gamedat" folder.
*Skip the overwrite. It will not cause you issues if you do, Wing Loader Manages the Install.dat file for you.
3) Grab the latest version of WCDX https://github.com/Bekenn/wcdx/releases and extract the files into the Wing Commander install folder.
4) Run Wing Loader and click the Gear icon at the lower right and select "Patch Wing Commander I".
WC_wcdx.exe SM1_wcdx.exe SM2_wcdx.exe
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Hi @Destro

I've followed this to the letter, but when i try to run Wing Loader application to opens and its just a blank screen

1752268027874.png


I'm running Windows 11 and i have no clue what could be causing it, any advice from yourself or anybody thats come across this ??

Regards
Tubby
 
okay I've got WingLoader to load and followed the step by step, however when i try to patch it cannot find the files

could somebody simply the process, I've gone through it a few times and still have the same result
 
Knight26-77 said:
So, since this is tweaking the KS release the old DOS cheats do not work FYI. Instead you have to modify the config files. Was just playing with that.
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How do you modify the KS release config files to activate the cheats? I tried adding the parameters to the wc2.cfg but it didn't work
 
Tubby_Vermin said:
okay I've got WingLoader to load and followed the step by step, however when i try to patch it cannot find the files

could somebody simply the process, I've gone through it a few times and still have the same result
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Interesting!

The only thing I can think of for Wing Loader not opening is maybe Anti-Virus blocking it. I'm glad that it did eventually startup for you.

When you run go into the Wing Commander install folder EX: C:\Games\Wing Loader\Wing Commander do you have the files in there after running the patch? (Gear icon then "Patch Wing Commander 1". WC_wcdx.exe SM1_wcdx.exe SM2_wcdx.exe

Also when you try to run the game from Wing Loader what does the console say? Any error message or anything at all?
 
Hey Destro ! what's happening, have not followed this in over 1 and half years. Anything change or new for WingLoaded, I re-played WC with the voice over mod on your first release and that's about it...

cheers !
 
Panther1.0 said:
Hey Destro ! what's happening, have not followed this in over 1 and half years. Anything change or new for WingLoaded, I re-played WC with the voice over mod on your first release and that's about it...

cheers !
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Hey @Panther1.0

Nothing much new since my last release. Took some time to working on animations and other core features. But I am working on a few things for a future release.

- Removing Custom Script language and replacing it with Angel script. It was a fun experiment but hard to maintain.
- Loading Briefing.000 in engine rather than matching full sentences. This will streamline dialogue matching and make custom Briefing files work. Like Super Wong Commander. 😉
- New organization to support WCAT as best I can.
- Package system to read audio files from .zip files to save some space and tidy up the folders.
- Fixed crashing issues and some bugs with SM 1.5.
- Playing around with custom .VGA files to make SM1.5 feel distinct. (Very early)
- And finally, working on Super Wing Commander Voices and custom executables for SM1.5 and Super Wing Commander.

I Have no real timeline yet on a release. I'm still getting all the pieces working together and finish the new scripting so once that's done I'll post a real update. 😛
 
SanLah Zynikus said:
What I would like to do is to change the cycles to slow the game a bit (like it is seen here at 03:26 minutes). Usually I would to that in the file dosboxWC.conf, but seemingly Wing Loader does not recognize the file. Any idea how I can change the cycles?
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Using the DosBox version is one way to slow down the frame rate, and hence make it slightly easier to react. But WingLoader uses the Kilrathi Saga versions of the game which is Windows-based.

A little known feature of the Kilrathi Saga version is that you can use Alt-M and Alt-N to change the framerate of Wing Commander 1 and Wing Commander 2. This has the same effect as changing the cycles in DosBox, and moreover, you can do this within the flight engine of the game itself to adjust it on the fly to make things faster or slower if you want while flying.

This information has been largely lost because this feature is documented not in the Kilrathi Saga manual, but in the quick reference card (or flight manual, whatever it's called). As far as I can tell, the quick reference card or flight manual is not available online, only the larger game manual is online.
 
Destro said:
Hey @Panther1.0

Nothing much new since my last release. Took some time to working on animations and other core features. But I am working on a few things for a future release.

- Removing Custom Script language and replacing it with Angel script. It was a fun experiment but hard to maintain.
- Loading Briefing.000 in engine rather than matching full sentences. This will streamline dialogue matching and make custom Briefing files work. Like Super Wong Commander. 😉
- New organization to support WCAT as best I can.
- Package system to read audio files from .zip files to save some space and tidy up the folders.
- Fixed crashing issues and some bugs with SM 1.5.
- Playing around with custom .VGA files to make SM1.5 feel distinct. (Very early)
- And finally, working on Super Wing Commander Voices and custom executables for SM1.5 and Super Wing Commander.

I Have no real timeline yet on a release. I'm still getting all the pieces working together and finish the new scripting so once that's done I'll post a real update. 😛
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sounds fantastic! thanks for the update.

cheers!
 
Wing Commander 3 crashes to desktop after going to Waypoint 2 in Ariel 2 mission...

Edit: Downward compatibility seems to fix the crash...

Joystick is not working in Wing 3 Wing Loader...

Why this error occurred in WC4?

1756459831252.webp
 
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I am prepping stuff for a new Wing Commander (3 + 4 + Prophecy) run and have considered giving this a try, finally.

While reading through the instructions, I was wondering how "hard-coded" that `C:\Games\Wingloader` and `C:\Games\Wingloader\Wing Commander III` stuff really is. Is it just directory-based? Could I just prepare a WingLoader directory with various files from my CDs and GoG releases, back it up and store in on my NAS for the future? EDIT: Seems not hard-coded at all. Great. I forsee a big WC-Everything-Folder in my future, ready to be passed down to future generations.

I am somewhat confused about game detection:
Right now, Wing Loader displays WC1+2+Addons, with neither of these games having been installed.
WC3 can apparently be patched, but cannot be launched. Why have install instructions for it then?
 
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Vidmaster said:
I am prepping stuff for a new Wing Commander (3 + 4 + Prophecy) run and have considered giving this a try, finally.

While reading through the instructions, I was wondering how "hard-coded" that `C:\Games\Wingloader` and `C:\Games\Wingloader\Wing Commander III` stuff really is. Is it just directory-based? Could I just prepare a WingLoader directory with various files from my CDs and GoG releases, back it up and store in on my NAS for the future? EDIT: Seems not hard-coded at all. Great. I forsee a big WC-Everything-Folder in my future, ready to be passed down to future generations.

I am somewhat confused about game detection:
Right now, Wing Loader displays WC1+2+Addons, with neither of these games having been installed.
WC3 can apparently be patched, but cannot be launched. Why have install instructions for it then?
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C:\Games is not a die hard requirement, I find on Windows anything in the User Dir so Desktop or Documents can cause permission issues when launching the game on some systems, but you can put it really anywhere you'd like.

Wing Loader does not check for the game files or anything, all supported titles will always be there even if you only have say WC4 installed. I intend Wing Loader to be a one stop launcher for the series so assuming that everything is installed aka WC-Everything-Folder. That's what I do. 😜 Perhaps in the future I will add a detection system to only show installed games.

Patching was a secondary objective, I never planned to even do this but I thought it was easier than manually installing everything so quickly whipped it together. If you don't have WC3 installed into the WingLoader folder and try to patch, it will still come up "Patching Successful", it really just extracts the missing KS files and extracts a .Bin file in the game, but of course wont launch without the games exe and data. If WC3 is installed in the correct folder it should properly. Same goes for WC1+2 Patches.

When you say WC3 cannot be launched, do you have the game installed in the Root Wing Loader folder? AKA C:\Whatever\WingLoader\Wing Commander III

If you do it should just be Patch and run.
 
Destro said:
When you say WC3 cannot be launched, do you have the game installed in the Root Wing Loader folder? AKA C:\Whatever\WingLoader\Wing Commander III

If you do it should just be Patch and run.
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It is placed there, by copy&paste that is.

Let me be more precise: I see no Option to launch WC3 or 4.
Oh, you have to press up and down. I see.
 
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Firstly, thank you Destro for your excellent work on WingLoader!

I thought I would report a bug that I seem to be having though.
Every time I try and launch the Special Operations for WC2 through the launcher, it just seems to run the base WC2 program instead.
I can run the SO1_wcdx.exe and SO2_wcdx.exe files from the directory manually just fine, but the loader does not seem to want to run them.

I am using the latest 0.92 version that is linked here, and have followed the associated instructions with only a few exceptions:
1. I have installed the game to "D:\Games\WingLoader\Wing Commander II" (though Wing1 doesn't have any issues with the secret missions and it is similarly installed to "D:\Games\WingLoader\Wing Commander I")
2. I extracted the files from the GOG installation executable using innoextract.exe (to avoid needing to install), though it would seem all files are present.

My quick testing of WC1 and WC3 seemed to work just fine, so I only have this weird quirk with WC2.

I haven't started a WC2 campaign yet (was testing them all before starting to confirm the patching worked, etc) but I didn't think I needed to have a pilot to start the extra missions. Aside from that I am not sure what else might be causing this issue.
 
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