Guide to a Working WC4DVD [YMMV!]

Aridyme

Spaceman
This is an attempt at a guide for getting WC4 DVD to work without having to install a hardware MPEG2 decoder board.

The WC4DVD I'm referring to is the single disc, double-sided DVD with the movies in MPEG2 format in VOB files.

Years ago, I bought this DVD and brought it home and played the entire thing through. I remember I was running Win98 and had WinDVD and some version of Ravisent Cinemaster installed. Back then, the game just worked. Just recently I felt like getting the game up and running again, but I ran into some problems such as the "Movie not found" error and the problem with WinDVD not working with branching videos. After three OS installs/reinstalls, recovering from a wiped partition, and a bunch of tinkering, I got the game working on my HTPC. Here's my solution:

You will need:
1) An older Ravisent Cinemaster decoder engine (such as ATIDVD 3.0 or 3.1)
2) DVD Genie
3) Windows 95/98 (ME?) -- no NT/2K/2K3/XP

The hardware I got the game running on:
Asus P2B
Intel Pentium 3 733MHz
256MB PC133
ATI Radeon 8500LE 64MB
SB Live! Value

The steps:
1) Install the Ravisent Cinemaster decoder engine
2) Install DVD Genie
3) Open System.ini in your Windows directory and go to the [mci] section

4) Look for an entry like something=MciCinem.drv DVD
For example, I have DvdVideo=MciCinem.drv DVD

5) Open Win.ini in your Windows directory and go to the [mci extensions] section

6) Add an entry for vob using the "something" from the entry in System.ini
For example, my "something" was DvdVideo, so I would add the entry vob=DvdVideo

7) Save and close both files
8) Open DVD Genie
9) Go to the Cinemaster (old) tab
10) Change the following settings:

Decode setting: Full Quality (CPU) OR Katmai Enhanced Full Quality (CPU)
Deinterlacing: Smart Detect
Hardware Optimization: checked
3:2 Pulldown Reconstruction: checked


11) Click on More Options, and change the following settings:

Surface Flip Mode: Soft-Deinterlace (400MHz CPU+)
Surface Flip Position: Wait full frame (ATI128/Mobility)


12) Apply the settings
13) Play the game

The critical setting here is the "Decode setting". Do not select any video card specific setting here. For instance, if I chose ATI Rage Pro for my Radeon 8500, I'd get the "Movie not found" error. If I chose the ATI Rage 128/Radeon, then the program will crash and Windows will hang.

The other settings are the values that gave me the smoothest video playback.

The result:
The videos play great. Branching videos work as well -- after the first choice (whether or not to give the guy at the bar money for a meal), the video corresponding to your choice plays to the end, and then the next video in the branch plays (bartender tries to remember where he's seen Blair before).

There is one small bug -- the text for your choices in the movies does not appear. However, you can still press up and down and hear Blair say the choices. You just won't see the text.

Hopefully this will work for everybody. If anybody has questions or needs further help getting the game running, I will be around. Though, as the topic says, YMMV (your mileage may vary) and I can't promise that the game will work for everybody. Good luck! :)
 
Any idea as where to get "An older Ravisent Cinemaster decoder engine (such as ATIDVD 3.0 or 3.1)"?
 
I've done a little more testing and I've found that the Cinemaster engine that comes with ATI DVD 4.1 seems to work perfectly, and it seems that it works without having to tweak anything using DVD Genie.

Also, you don't need to install anything to get the game working. All you need is the following set of files in your Windows/System directory and the additions in your Win.ini and System.ini (mentioned above).

From ATI DVD 3.0
Cinemast.dll ....... 4,704 bytes
Cinmhook.dll ...... 29,696 bytes
Cinmst32.dll ... 1,078,272 bytes ... 1.0.27.4247
Mcicinem.drv ..... 144,912 bytes ... 1.1.0.84

From ATI DVD 3.1
Cinemast.dll ....... 4,704 bytes
Cinmhook.dll ...... 29,696 bytes
Cinmst32.dll ... 1,205,760 bytes ... 1.0.28.5034
Mcicinem.drv ..... 144,912 bytes ... 1.1.0.84

From ATI DVD 4.1
Cin32thk.dll ...... 34,816 bytes ... 0.9.0.4
Cinemast.dll ....... 6,192 bytes ... 0.9.0.8
Cinmhook.dll ...... 30,720 bytes ... 1.2.1.47
Cinmst32.dll ... 2,936,832 bytes ... 4.38.4.6607
Mcicinem.drv ..... 141,936 bytes ... 1.3.3.107

I can only reference ATI DVD because it's the only source of the Cinemaster files I have. Note that the game will not work with ATI DVD 5.0 and up.
 
Aridyme said:
I may have found an easier solution. If you'd like to help me test it, please PM or email me.

I'd love to help you. Mail me at
karl (at) frank (dot) name

I fear however that the solution will only work for ATI based cards ...

(Cannot PM you and I don't know an e-mail of your's)
 
cff said:
I fear however that the solution will only work for ATI based cards ...

I don't believe that that will be the case, but we'll see, eh?

If you have any problems then try changing settings with DVD Genie.
 
anyone have any luck with this? if so can they post a zip file of the files we need?

Thank You.
 
yes please if you could either post the files somewhere, or email me at donald@projectigi2(dot)co(dot)uk

thank you very much.
 
I'm considering purchasing a WC4DVD from a website, but I don't know if its the single or double-sided one.. is there anyway to tell from the packaging before I order it?
 
macnbc said:
I'm considering purchasing a WC4DVD from a website, but I don't know if its the single or double-sided one.. is there anyway to tell from the packaging before I order it?

Neither has a packaging as far as I know. The double sided was only ever sold OEM in a cardboard envelope. The single sided one is sold in a white paper envelope IIRC.

Re: Running the double sided DVD version: I'v yet to succeed to get it to run on a Geforce3 WITH the files suggested here.
 
First off, I don't know if I'm allowed to distribute the files. I'll have to remove them if I'm told to. I have emailed both ATI and the mods here on the forums regarding the files but I haven't gotten any response from either.

Judging from cff's experiences it seems that it won't work for everyone. But anyway, here are the files:

http://members.shaw.ca/Aridyme/WC4DVD/

There you will find DVD Genie v4.10 and three WC4-xx.zip files, where the "xx" refers to the version of the ATI DVD software from which the Cinemaster files were taken.

It'd be great if you could post your results if you try this out.

Good luck!
 
System Specs:
XP pro SP2
Pentium 4 1.7Ghz
512MB Ram
Audigy Platinum Ex
Geforce 4 4400Ti

I downloaded the files, unzipped them and transfered to c:\windows\system, it asked to overwright files ( i said yes) I then made changes in Genie as per instructions, and started the game, no videos played just the usual error message, so it looks like Geforce cards dont work, looks like I need to dig out Win98 or ME and install as a virtual machine to play WC4 oh well.

thanks for trying hopefully someone can come up with a patch/workaround for geforce users.
 
The problem might not be compatibility with GeForce cards since this will not work in Windows 2000/XP/2003 as I indicated in my original post.

WC4DVD relies on the MCI interface to work, and those operating systems don't have it. They use DirectShow instead.
 
Jup. Sounds like an incompatibility with the OS (or false configuration).
The symptoms of an incompatible graphic card/player are these: The intro plays fine up until you have to make a choice in the movie. After the choice you'll get a movie missing error.
 
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