WING 4 DVD on Pentium PRO - query

L

LarkInFlight

Rear Admiral
Hello,

I was trying to play Wing Commander 4 DVD on my older machine (Pentium Pro 200 128RAM) and I am not able to start the DVD movies. I installed the gulikoza's patch and MPEG2 decoder and AC3filters and.. still I can't watch the movies in the game ( the game - flight - works fine).

While I was trying to start the movie independently on some player it told me that I won't be able to play the movies because I have no MMX Processor.

My question is: Do I have to change Processor (or computer) in order to play Wing Commander 4 DVD? Do I really need MMX processor to play MPEG2 movies?

Thanks for help!
 
Your processor is way too slow. My brother's PII200 was new when the DVD came out too but it's too slow to decode the Mpeg2 too. That's why the disk came bundled with a dxr2 card and a DVD rom. The card is a hardware mpeg2 decoder and would be needed in a system of that vintage. Gulikoza's patch is a necessity on newer machines that have ample decoding power without harware acceleration. The game is designed to specifically work with those decoder cards and the patch is needed to make it recognize your computer's software DVD decoder. It's not an issue of MMX either though. A Pentium pro at 200Mhz will still be too slow even with MMX.
 
If I remember rightly, the spec for playing MPEG in software was 350Mhz. Below that, you needed a hardware decoder. Of course, the celeron was slower than the equivalent pentium. Id suggest a newer machine.
 
If you have a newer machine with XP on it there's no reason not to use it for WCIV-DVD. It usually works like a charm with gulikoza's patch and compatability mode set. The game won't run faster because of the faster CPU.
 
Well.. I really forgot I can play Wing4 DVD on Windows XP! It works well!
I'll use Pentium pro to play some other old games (wing 3 etc).

Special thanks to: GULIKOZA for his patch! (easy to use and it really works!!)

Thanks for reminding me some obvious facts AD.. :)
 
I have to ask for your help again guys..
I checked almost all topics in Tech forum regarding WC4DVD joystick problems but nothing helps!
I've got WC4DVD working (almost) perfect on Win XP. Movies play great, game works but.. I can't use joystick. I'm using my old Magnum 6, I unplugged another joystick (saitek X45USB), I've got it callibrated and it is set to work with older programs in Control Panel -> Advanced. I tried to use CTRL+J or set it in ALT+O as controller but nothig works. Funny thing is.. it works with the WC4 CD version! I believe it's something with WC4 DVD windows installer (if i can calibrate joy under DOS it works on other games - I can't calibrate it on WC4DVD it looks that this option was disabled). What else can I do with it?
 
http://http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing4/wc4joy.exe

Try that patch and see if it helps.


Really though, if windows recognized the stick it should have worked in the game... You can't calibrate the stick because it uses the windows calibration and directx. You should be able to pick joystick in the controler options of the inflight options menu (alt-O) though don't forget to click save settings after. Also make sure absolutely no other usb controlers of any type are plugged in (keyboards and mice shouldn't matter). If you do that, nothing happens? What about when you press a button on the joystick?
 
I already used the patch but I think it's for Dos version (doesn't work). I'm trying to get my gameport and usb joysticks up and running (one at a time) but nothing helps.. I've got Joystick calibrated on windows, I use ALT+O and choose joystick as controller and save and it doesn't work.. I tried everything :confused: I think I'll have to reinstall windows xp. The problem might be that I had 2 soundcards on my computer (one on mainboard and SB) or that I used to use 2 joysticks (gameport and USB) or something else. If you have some other ideas how to fix it, please let me know
 
Is there any way to set joystick manually? I don't know why the game doesn't see my joystick if it uses Windws settings and direct X.. I uninstalled sound blaster, the other joystick and the game stlill doesn't work..
 
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