Windows 7 and WC3...
- Thread starter trinijoy
- Start date
I am using the DVD version of Wc4. I am using the KS version of WC3, WC1, WC2. And Wing 1 and Wing 2 work perfectly with 98 compatibility mode on. 256 color must be ON and desktop composition and must be turned off with desktop themes off as well, in the compatibility mode or the movies and graphics will be weird colors.
The ONLY thing I can't get to work right is the colors in WC4. That is IT. The movies play beautifully Other then that WCP works absolutely perfect, no HIGH res patch and no movie skipping patch.
Edit: In case your wondering I tried WCP both ways, and the high res Vista installer works with Windows 7.
By the way can someone help me with my other post?
The ONLY thing I can't get to work right is the colors in WC4. That is IT. The movies play beautifully Other then that WCP works absolutely perfect, no HIGH res patch and no movie skipping patch.
Edit: In case your wondering I tried WCP both ways, and the high res Vista installer works with Windows 7.
By the way can someone help me with my other post?
U
Unregistered
Guest
Hi there,
I've been experimenting with all WC titles in Windows 7 the past few days, and here's my report.
System Specs (before anyone asks...):
CPU: Intel Q9300 Core 2 Quad
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit RC
Video Card: GeForce 9800 GTX
Video Driver: NVIDIA 186.18 64bit Win7 and Vista
RAM: 8GB
Soundcard: my trusty ol' Soundblaster Audigy 2
Video codecs installed: K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 4.9.0.
WC1 incl. SM 1 and 2, WC2 including SO 1 and 2 and WC 3 - Kilrathi Saga Version:
absolutely flawless in Win95 compatibility mode, 256 colors, 640x480, visual designs off, desktop themes off - without any patches installed! Even WC3 rund and plays flawlessly.
WC3 in DOSBox:
with a little bit of tweaking, flawless. VERY minor sound skipping every now and then, but almost unnoticeable.
WC4 in DOSBox:
movies and spaceflight work perfectly, no problems at all.
WC4 DVD:
The only one that's still giving me a bit of a headache.
Win95 compatibility mode on.
Movies work perfectly (no mpeg2dec, no AC3Filter, ffdshow/libavcodec from K-Lite codec Pack 4.9.0 handles video and audio just fine). I'm using the 1.0 MCI patch, haven't tried the others because 1.0 worked from the getgo.
In-game spaceflight does show color palette issues, though. Mission introductory text shows normal colors for a second, then turns into a reddish mess. Radar blips show wrong colors (as seen right on the intro "mission", when I agree to battle it out with Maniac, his radar blip turns from white to blue instead of red - in fact, ALL enemies show up either blue or white on my radar). This happens only in fullscreen mode, though. Running WC4 DVD in a window leads to correct colors, but hey, who wants to play this baby in a window?!? ;-)
I tried everything I could think of to counteract the color issues (different compatibility mode, NO compatibility mode, hardware acceleration settings, running the game with a -d parameter, 256 colors, 640x480, visual designs off, desktop themes off, changing desktop color depth, turning all the fancy 21st century stuff in the NVIDIA driver off. and just about all of the above in combination), but to no avail.
So, if anyone can come up with a possible solution, I'd be eternally grateful. I mean it.
WC Prophecy with full enhancement pack (HiRes movies and HiRes patch):
Pretty much flawless, with our without Win95 compatibility mode. HiRes movies work great without any further tweaking (no mpeg2dec, no AC3Filter, ffdshow/libavcodec from K-Lite codec Pack 4.9.0 handles video and audio just fine). Using Zeckensack's Glidewrapper, spaceflight looks great and plays great. A bit of flickering when "switching" from movies to game and back, but nothing serious.
WCSO:
Just like Prophecy (well, without the movies ;-)). No probs.
To sum it up, Win 7 seems to be a good platform for WC in general...
...with only the WC4 DVD issues remaining, well, at least for me.
Any clue, anyone?
I've been experimenting with all WC titles in Windows 7 the past few days, and here's my report.
System Specs (before anyone asks...):
CPU: Intel Q9300 Core 2 Quad
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit RC
Video Card: GeForce 9800 GTX
Video Driver: NVIDIA 186.18 64bit Win7 and Vista
RAM: 8GB
Soundcard: my trusty ol' Soundblaster Audigy 2
Video codecs installed: K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 4.9.0.
WC1 incl. SM 1 and 2, WC2 including SO 1 and 2 and WC 3 - Kilrathi Saga Version:
absolutely flawless in Win95 compatibility mode, 256 colors, 640x480, visual designs off, desktop themes off - without any patches installed! Even WC3 rund and plays flawlessly.
WC3 in DOSBox:
with a little bit of tweaking, flawless. VERY minor sound skipping every now and then, but almost unnoticeable.
WC4 in DOSBox:
movies and spaceflight work perfectly, no problems at all.
WC4 DVD:
The only one that's still giving me a bit of a headache.
Win95 compatibility mode on.
Movies work perfectly (no mpeg2dec, no AC3Filter, ffdshow/libavcodec from K-Lite codec Pack 4.9.0 handles video and audio just fine). I'm using the 1.0 MCI patch, haven't tried the others because 1.0 worked from the getgo.
In-game spaceflight does show color palette issues, though. Mission introductory text shows normal colors for a second, then turns into a reddish mess. Radar blips show wrong colors (as seen right on the intro "mission", when I agree to battle it out with Maniac, his radar blip turns from white to blue instead of red - in fact, ALL enemies show up either blue or white on my radar). This happens only in fullscreen mode, though. Running WC4 DVD in a window leads to correct colors, but hey, who wants to play this baby in a window?!? ;-)
I tried everything I could think of to counteract the color issues (different compatibility mode, NO compatibility mode, hardware acceleration settings, running the game with a -d parameter, 256 colors, 640x480, visual designs off, desktop themes off, changing desktop color depth, turning all the fancy 21st century stuff in the NVIDIA driver off. and just about all of the above in combination), but to no avail.
So, if anyone can come up with a possible solution, I'd be eternally grateful. I mean it.
WC Prophecy with full enhancement pack (HiRes movies and HiRes patch):
Pretty much flawless, with our without Win95 compatibility mode. HiRes movies work great without any further tweaking (no mpeg2dec, no AC3Filter, ffdshow/libavcodec from K-Lite codec Pack 4.9.0 handles video and audio just fine). Using Zeckensack's Glidewrapper, spaceflight looks great and plays great. A bit of flickering when "switching" from movies to game and back, but nothing serious.
WCSO:
Just like Prophecy (well, without the movies ;-)). No probs.
To sum it up, Win 7 seems to be a good platform for WC in general...
...with only the WC4 DVD issues remaining, well, at least for me.
Any clue, anyone?
Rogue Designs
Spaceman
Ooops...
The post above this one is mine, I just noticed I wasn't logged in when I submitted the post... sorry.
Anyway, I'm still trying to solve the color issues in WC4DVD in Win 7. It's bugging me that this is the ONLY WC title I can't play properly right now.
I'm beginning to wonder if this is a 64bit problem...?
The post above this one is mine, I just noticed I wasn't logged in when I submitted the post... sorry.
Anyway, I'm still trying to solve the color issues in WC4DVD in Win 7. It's bugging me that this is the ONLY WC title I can't play properly right now.
I'm beginning to wonder if this is a 64bit problem...?
I've ran into a sollution to your color problem whilst surfing, it's a bit of a blunt one but it does work. I had the same problem in WC4 and the WIN95 Kilrathi saga version of WC3.
If you end the Explorer.exe proces and then run the game all colors are fine.
It's not a perfect solution because you stopping explorer.exe does cause your desktop to vanish. You can still start the game using the taskmanager and right clicking.
PopsiclePete
Mission programmer
I can confirm that killing explorer.exe fixes the problem, at least on my PC. This is a big problem, if anyone can find a better fix than that please share !
Mr_Rainmaker
1st Lieutenant
I can tell you that Privateer 2 also works great on Windows 7. I´ve installed the speedfix patch though and the sound is a bit "crackling" at some places (the booth for example) but everything else works just fine.
Make sure you check the boxes in the compability pages.
Make sure you check the boxes in the compability pages.
U
Unregistered
Guest
Installed the CD DOS version of WCIV in Windows 7, applied the Windows upgrade patch, and it works perfectly. Cinematics don't even skip, like they did in dosbox. Joystick works in digital.
It was a little tricky, had to install WCIV through dosbox first. Also, the mounted drive letter has to match the letter of the drive with the CD in it.
Cinematics don't even skip, like they did in dosbox. Joystick works in digital.It was a little tricky, had to install WCIV through dosbox first. Also, the mounted drive letter has to match the letter of the drive with the CD in it.
U
Unregistered
Guest
little mistake
Sorry, that's what it was supposed to say. Just to avoid confusion.
Installed the CD DOS version of WCIV in Windows 7, applied the Windows upgrade patch, and it works perfectly.
It was a little tricky, had to install WCIV through dosbox first. Also, the mounted drive letter for the cdrom in dosbox has to match the letter of the drive with the CD in it.
Sorry, that's what it was supposed to say. Just to avoid confusion.
Mekt-Hakkikt
Mpanty's bane
Sounds good - I am getting myself a new computer (hopefully before the end of november) and it'll have Windows7 so I hope I can get a WC fix after far too many years.
Hi all, while trying to get my old windows games to run I found a more elegant solution for the palette issue of KS WC3, at least on Windows 7 x64.
In order to run the game with a normal palette (and without ddhack) take the following steps:
- Change the desktop background to 100% black colour
- Open the "Screen Resolution" screen of Windows 7 (right click on the desktop)
- Start WC3W.EXE and Presto: WC3 KS with normal palette on windows 7
This fixes the palette issues of old windows games like Diablo and the like....I don't know why this works but it does.
Hope this might help anyone..
ChrisReid
Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Are you doing anything in the Screen Resolution screen? Just opening it? Not changing the resolution to 640x480 or anything? That's pretty cool.
Well it's been over ten years since I played WC3. I recently acquired both the KS and GOG versions. Re-united with and old friend...I am so psyched!
Besides the video trick (anyone know why that works?) I have a couple other preferences for KS in Win7. I've always liked my Logitech 3D pro very much but could not figure out how the get the Logitech Profiler to work for KS. I like minimizing keyboard use so this was imnportant to me. Setting the Logitech Profiler compatibility to "Run as Administrator" did the trick.
Also I prefer to use a standard user account versus an administrator account. Setting the KS launcher compatibility to "Run as Administrator" makes it so.