WC3 in WinXP : old patch?

R

Ruadrim

Spaceman
Hello !

I had to format my PC a few weeks back and am in the process of reinstalling all necessary software. Of course this includes all Wing commander games :)

Anyway, when I installed WC3, while my pc was a-ok last month, I used a patch from this site : http://www.topnalias.com/JX/FR/
The patch worked marvelously and I was able to play WC3 on windows XP.

Now, I tried to do exactly the same (of course) but the dude from the site has 'updated' the patch. This patch, however, does not make WC3 playable.

Does anyone of you guys have the old WinXP patch by any chance?
 
? He updated the patch? How? I've just downloaded it again, and it's still the same: Just those files which are different in the Kilrathi Saga. - So I doubt this patch is legal anyway. (If it was, it would be on www.wcnews.com I'd guess)
Oh, I see: He added two more files: sfosaved.dat and Musiced.gid - except those, they are just the same files I got after installing my Kilrathi Saga.
Besides that: Maybe compatibility mode helps you.
 
I've tried all compatibility modes, but to no avail...

Does a patch that enables us to play old games on new systems have to be 'legal'? Origin's not supporting those games any more for XP or anything. It's a fan made thing, no?
 
Well, as you can use VDMS or SoundFX2000 as well to get it working under Windows XP, there are even legal ones ;) - And no, it is not fan made, as I said: He simply packed the Kilrathi Saga Files in an Installer and claimed he made a patch - Ok, now he finally added two more Files to make Music play possible (the Music.tre is not on the DOS-CD but on the KS Saga ones, that was the prob).
But I personally don't care if you use that patch. Just thought you should at least know what it is ;)
So my Tip: Delete those 2 files he added, use Win98 compatibility and it normally should work (without Music) - Besides that "the old version" is still on the English side.

P.S.: I personally watch this Patch, cause he, if he can really program, might find a way to stop the crashes on PIV PCs faster than 2Ghz (with HT). - This crash is for the Kilrathi Saga as well ;) :(
 
I tried the VDMS (nice system btw - time to dust of them old games :)) with the dude's patch, but it didn't work. I'm gonna do what you do and try to get it to work without his files. Thanks for the info and all :)

I'll keep you informed on my findings.
 
I tried the VDMS (nice system btw - time to dust of them old games ) with the dude's patch, but it didn't work.
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When using VDMS you don't need the Win XP patch, but just the DOS Version. It normally should at least install the game and make it playable, sometimes with sound probs, though (that is for me, for example)
 
I installed the old patch last night. Everything seemed fine. Video working well, sound perfect, but TWO times, I crashed. Crashed BADLY. The first time, it took me one hour to quit the program and go back to windows. This is the 2nd time, and I'm on another computer. The old patch seems very prone to crashing. How does the new patch work? Does anybody here have success with that?
 
As I said: In the new Version he only fixed the music bug (read: added those 2 files, that is). Except that it is the Kilrathi Saga. And yes, I tested it with my KS Saga as well as with my DOS version.
But could you post your PC Setup in this Thread? - It is about the crashing problem with the KS Saga, and thx to the patch your version is just like the KS one:
http://www.crius.net/zone/showthread.php?t=8912
Would be great ;) Thx in advance.
 
Thanks for all your help throughout my ordeals, WUQKED :)

Unfortunately, I've really lost touch with computers in recent years, so I probably wont be able to answer your questions all that precisely.

I have a Dell Dimension 4550

MoBo: Not sure
CPU: Intel PIV 2.00 Ghz
RAM: 768 MB DDR RAM
Gfx: GEForce MX 4 (64 MB RAM I think)
sound: Not sure
HDD: 80 gig
external: I didn't even know they had externals, hehe
Drive: CD-RW/DVD Dunno the speed or brand
OS: Windows XP
Directx: 9.0b
WC3 working: Actually, it's working better than when I last wrote. I disabled transition scenes, and that seemed to help immensely. I'm going to play around with it longer. If I can play this game for a total of 3 hours without a major crash, I'd say I won the war. :)
 
Thx for the data ;) - A question though: What do you mean by "disabled transition scenes"? (my English sometimes isn't the best :( )
Btw, what I noticed what helped me a bit (could play 20mins instead of 4-5mins only) was disabling Hyper Threading, but cause You've got 2Ghz, I guess no HT for you. Oh well, at least now I know it's definitely not HT, and not ATI either - seems to have something to do with Intel, it seems, no idea what exactly, though. (Don't know any AMD CPU yet having Probs to run WC3 KS/with XP patch.)
Thanks for all your help throughout my ordeals, WUQKED
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No problem :D - lol, just realized I have replied to other posts you made in the Tech-Forum ^^ Oh well, guess I'm hanging around in this (Tech) Forum too much time :D

P.S.: I just added your PC Data to the other Thread, so that every Data arte in one post to make it easier ;)
 
Thanks for adding my tech info to the other thread :)

A question though: What do you mean by "disabled transition scenes"?

I used the option where you no longer see the video scenes where Blair goes into an elevator, Blair opens a door, etc. Ever since I disabled these video scenes, I have had absolutely no problems. Sound is perfect, video is great, and the joystick works as it should, without calibration.
 
I used the option where you no longer see the video scenes where Blair goes into an elevator, Blair opens a door, etc. Ever since I disabled these video scenes, I have had absolutely no problems. Sound is perfect, video is great, and the joystick works as it should, without calibration.
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Who? It got fixed without the Blair walking there and there scenes? Löl :D - I'll try that out, too - I can disable them in the Options-Menu, or somewhere else? Dude, if this really works, you are my hero ;)
Now going testing :D

EDIT: Bad luck :( - I've disabled those scenes and my PC crashed twice when entering the elevator - I used Win98 compatibility btw... Oh well, but was worse a try anyway.
EDIT2: Now this got even stranger than before: WITHOUT the Blair open scenes the game always crashes when antering the elevator. WITH the Blair open scenes it doesn't crash there. :confused: Oh yeah, I guess this bug will take a LOOONG time till it's finally fixed...
 
Hey :) I'm already at the end of Wing Commander 3 Disc 2, and I haven't had a single crash or technical problem! I'm not sure why you're having problems now. You mentioned Windows 98, is that what you're using? The patch is working fine for me in XP. I'm sorry I only gave you sketchy details about my computer, if you think one particular component or driver is to blame, please don't hesitate to contact me, and I'll do my best to research what I have, we can compare notes. BTW, I'm not using DOSbox or VDMS sound, just using the run command ...
 
Nope, my PCs are all on XP (those 3 listed in the other Thread) - One already worked fine without tweaking, the other two did not. Have only tested one witht this trick, though. Maybe it works for the other one?

I guessed you were only using "run", cause the wc3w.exe is a Windows file anyway and won't work in DOSBox or VDMS ;)

EDIT: Ok, I've just retested this morning and still the gane crashes at the exact same situation without those Blair Scenes - even if I reinstall it again. Are you using a "compatibilty mode" for running the game? Or do you run it without any compatiblity modes? Cause if I don't use Win95 or Win98/Me Compatibility mode for running WC3 KS, it already crashes after the origin logo intro :( - my EPOX PC (see other Thread) doesn't need any compatibility modes at all to be able to run it. So all in all I guess you are "at the border" between playable without probs and crashing all the times, so that small tweaking already helped you. This is all guessing, cause, like everyone else here, I've got no idea what is REALLY going on there :confused: - Anyway, have fun playing the game now ;)
 
I don't believe I am running this using any compatibility mode. What can I do to be sure?

I tried playing for a little bit early this morning (I'm 1-2 missions away from disc 3) and now, I'm having problems with my joystick. The throttle is locked so that I go up automatically. It makes no sense why it's doing it now, since I've made no changes whatsoever. I'm going to try and recalibrate my joystick in control panel, maybe that will work ...

EDIT: Recalibrated in control panel, now it's working without any problem. I wonder what caused that problem ...
 
If you don'T think so, you won't ;) - You have to manually select a comp. mode, and only if you totally forgot that (very unlikely) it would be possible you did it :D
To your Joystick problem: No idea what was going on there - maybe bad contact inside the Joystick? Or simply a Windows / game bug? No idea... But if it's working fine now, I wouldn't worry ;)

Btw, my DOS-Version sound problem (via VDMS) somehow got less than before: Movies play perfect and no total sound crash anymore. - Just fiddled around with the Windows XP autoexec.nt (which is used instead of *.bat, if you didn't know that) and added some DOS-driver settings there. But cause VDMs emulates the sound, no idea why that helped a bit :confused: - Oh well, at least now I can play it to a certain part - although I would love to play it with better sound etc.
 
Still no worky. Not with VDMS, not without. The dos-version has horrible sound by the way (like WURQKED said).
Tried all the comp modes... I'm getting jealous of Dervish really :)
 
I just finished Wing Commander III. I used the old patch from the French site, and I have Windows XP, as I said before.

If anyone still has complications, I will try to help in any way I can, but I don't know so much about today's computers, and their configurations. If anyone has an idea, or wants to examine my configuration further, just tell me what to do, and I'll post as much information as I can.

Apparently, the joystick bug was caused by me accidentally running wc3joy.exe . If you use the joystick patch program a second time, it screws up your configuration.

Also I found that when I would alt tab during WC3 into windows, the video scenes appear blank, with only audio. This can be fixed by exiting the program and going back in.

I just acquired a copy of Prophecy, so this is probably where my luck will run out (but then again, I can't seem to run Privateer, either).
 
Hmm, apparently I have the new patch. Sorry to mislead, but the website posted was in French, and somehow I assumed it was the old patch.
 
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