WCIV Joystick and FMV issues

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Vectorspace

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I have in my possession the Wing Commander IV DVD edition. I run Windows 2000.

I used the exe patch so it would run without compatibility mode
I added gulikoza dll's so the FMV would run without the extra hardware
I added the mpeg2 filter

The game will run, but for two flaws:

The FMV is so washed out it's practically black & white, and so dark I can barely make anything out. When I play the VOB files in a media player they look fine.

The game will not recognise my joystick (a 1st generation MS Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro - gameport as opposed to USB). When I go into the settings and select joystick, then click save settings and return to flight, it still doesn't work and when I go back into the settings it has reverted back to keyboard. When I click the calibrate joystick button in-game nothing happens. The joystick is set up properly in Windows Game Devices.


Can anyone help me? I really want to play this game.
 
Vectorspace said:
I used the exe patch so it would run without compatibility mode
Click to expand...

Did you try actually running it in Windows 2000's compatibility mode? Here's how you enable it:

1. Make sure you are running SP4 with the latest version of everything (drivers and directx).
2. If you have not yet, run this command in start > run: regsvr32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll
3. Create a shortcut to the file you want to run
4. Bring up the shortcut's properties (right-click menu) and enable Windows 95 compatibility mode (which will now be enabled from the above step)
5. Run the program *using the shortcut*

So you need an updated 2K, you have to turn on compatibility mode via command line entry, and then you can only enable compatibility mode via a shortcut link.
Click to expand...
 
Yes, I had already attempted that.

With the shortcut set to Windows 95 or 98 compatibility mode, I get the virtualProtect() failed error if the exe isn't patched. If it is patched, I get the same results regardless of whether or not compatibility mode is enabled.
 
Vectorspace said:
I have in my possession the Wing Commander IV DVD edition. I run Windows 2000.

I used the exe patch so it would run without compatibility mode
I added gulikoza dll's so the FMV would run without the extra hardware
I added the mpeg2 filter

The game will run, but for two flaws:

The FMV is so washed out it's practically black & white, and so dark I can barely make anything out. When I play the VOB files in a media player they look fine.

The game will not recognise my joystick (a 1st generation MS Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro - gameport as opposed to USB). When I go into the settings and select joystick, then click save settings and return to flight, it still doesn't work and when I go back into the settings it has reverted back to keyboard. When I click the calibrate joystick button in-game nothing happens. The joystick is set up properly in Windows Game Devices.


Can anyone help me? I really want to play this game.
Click to expand...



It sounds like an overlay problem. There's one version of gulikoza's patch that allows you to adjust some settings that might help compatability with win2000. Alternately I would look to see that you don't have any wierd settings applied to your video card settings in control panel.

If this isn't the one you tried, try this patch for the DVD: http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing4/wc4dvdwin2kfixalt.zip

Regarding your joystick, have you checked to see if windows recognizes it outside the game? Did you try this joystick patch? http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing4/wc4joy.exe
 
I tried wc4dvdwin2kfixalt.zip - it said the exe file size was wrong. My video driver settings are all fine as far as I can see.

Yes, Windows recognises my joystick. I tried that joystick patch, but nothing changed. I don;t think its for the dvd version - the readme talks about deleting a JOY0.DAT file after running the exe, which I don't have.
 
Vectorspace said:
My video driver settings are all fine as far as I can see.
Click to expand...

You want to try to go and disable as much extra stuff as possible so that it doesn't create any conflict. This includes stuff that is normally beneficial like video hardware acceleration or antialiasing. You don't have PowerDVD installed, do you?

Vectorspace said:
Yes, Windows recognises my joystick. I tried that joystick patch, but nothing changed. I don;t think its for the dvd version - the readme talks about deleting a JOY0.DAT file after running the exe, which I don't have.
Click to expand...

The file should be created after you first calibrate a joystick. Deleting it is just like clearing a calibration and starting fresh.
 
That explains why the file isn't there - as I mentioned earlier, when I click on the calibration button nothing happens.

Antialiasing is set to application-controlled, and I do not have PowerDVD installed.
 
Not being able to run the win2kalt fix might be a problem that keeps you from moving ahead here. Sometimes there's not a lot more you can do to get things working in Windows 2000 without the programmers of the Win2k patches coming up with something new. You might try to get ahold of nstriker or gulikoza directly.
 
Thanks for trying.

I'm upgrading to XP soon, maybe that will help.
 
The alt patch is for the alternate wc4dvd version (there are at least 2 different versions), if the first one applies, it's ok, if it doesn't, try the other. The patch only fixes VirtualProtect() error, nothing else.
As for the video, this greatly depends on the directshow filter and overlay settings. It is quite unfortunate that a lot of software installs mpeg2 filters - Nero, DVD players...it's hard to say which one is to blame.
 
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