Wing Commander 4 DVD in WindowsXP (w/ DirectShow)

gulikoza

gulikoza

The DVD Patch Guy
No, this is not another post on how to run WC4 DVD version in Windows XP. It is infact quite the opposite. Today is your lucky day...I'm gonna tell you how to run the game in windowsXP, with movies and all, but most importantly with any DirectShow based mpeg2 decoder. How is this possible? Well, it is with a help of a .dll I've written.

So, download this file, extract it in your wc4 dvd and enjoy. Technical details are in the readme file. Remember this is the first public version, so it might not work. I have tested it through the first mission and it works great. I've sold my DXR2 so time ago so I don't really remember how it should be, but I think I managed to get everything working. Replies welcome! :D
 
Awesome! Is this XP Specific, or can I use it in 9x? I'd love to free up a PCI slot in my WC Computer...
 
Why would you need this for win9x? Mine works fine on both my win95b and win98se machines without this dll. But I will try this dll on my brand shiny new XP box tonight!
 
Hey, that's great.

I just tested it, and the intro plays perfectly. I have had some trouble playing the other videos, however. They don't play from the beginning, but the amount of time that is skipped varies. In some cases it seems to skip the entire video.

On route to Orlando, it began to load the Avenger video (the screen went dark for a bit while the DVD was being read), but it skipped straight back to combat.

On the Lexington I walked over to the pilot lounge. The video of Blair walking through the corridor started a few seconds into it, and there was no sound.

I clicked Vagabond in the lounge, the screen went dark for a few seconds, and then the video appeared around two thirds into the conversation. After the conversation I clicked him again and this time it started a little sooner, maybe only one third into it.

I'm not sure if there is a relation between the length of time the screen stays black and how much video it skips. It's definitely not 1:1. Could it be a buffer issue?

Some system specs in case these are helpful: Pentium 4 2.4, Radeon 9800, Sound Blaster Live, Creative Labs 12X DVD drive, XP Pro, DirectX 9.

To have come this far is great though. A bit of tweaking and we can all throw out our DxRs.
 
It DOES work with win98SE. However I get a similar error as Kris does.
Intro movie plays. I used ESC to skip to first decision. Make decision. Black screen. No sound, no movie, DVD and HD work like crazy. About 5 seconds later movie DOES start playing but without that 5 seconds. There seems to be a slight glitch left with the start of the movies, but besides that AWESOME work.
 
Too bad :(
I'd like to try it out, too, but I seem to be unable to download it (site doesn't respond). Could someone else upload it, too? Would be great :)

EDIT: :D After 2 min loading, the download finally started, so forget what I wrote ;)
 
I've tested the dlls with my PC, and it seems to work perfect :D - Great work! :cool:
Sorry for those having trouble with it :(
Here are the specs of my PC:
Shuttle XPC SB51G
PIV 3.067GHz HT
1GB DDR 333MHz
ATI R9700 Pro with Cat 4.3
OnBoard Sound AC97
80GB WD 8MB Cache
LG CD-RW/DVD 48x/24x/48x/16x
Windows XP Pro SP 1
DirectX 9.0b

I'll try out some other PCs this afternoon and report back later, if they work, too. Hopefully that'll help somehow to fix the bugs.

P.S.: If you need more Info about my PC-setup, just ask ;)
 
Glad to hear it works for some of you. I have an idea what to do for the next version. Currently the DirectShow is set up to hide the movie window after it completes the playback and reuse it for the next movie. It also keeps the old DirectShow graph and just changes File Source. This is an optimization I made just before releasing since DirectShow graph building takes about 3-4 s on my computer. This is obviously too long to wait before each sequence. I will modify it to reopen the movie window everytime and only keep rendering graph it might work better...
 
Here is the update: dxmci_update.zip. As said...this will reopen dx playback window after every MCI_CLOSE. I have also included some checking if DirectShow graph fails, so you should get an error if you do not have mpeg2 filters installed...
 
I've just tested the FIRST Release with two more PCs. For both the Patch works perfect :D
Here are the specs.

MoBo: Abit IC7
CPU: Intel PIV 3.2GHz HT
RAM: 1GB DDR 400MHz
Gfx: Saphire R9800 Pro 256MB with Cat 4.2
sound: Creative Audigy
HDD: Maxtor 250GB 8MB Cache
Drive: Pioneer 16x/40x DVD
OS: Windows XP SP 1
Directx: 9.0b

MoBo: Epox 8KHA+ (KT266A)
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1700+
RAM: 256MB DDR 266MHz
Gfx: Winfast Geforce2 GTS 64MB with Det. 40.72
sound: Creative SB Live! Value
HDD: IBM 80GB 2MB Cache 7200rpm
Drive: LG 16x/40x DVD
OS: Windows XP SP 1
Directx: 9.0a

I'll try out the second version now with the last PC I described and report back then ;)

EDIT: Is it only me or is the link not working? I'll try it with my other PC now...
 
Lol ^^
Thx that mirror works ;)

EDIT: Ok, that version seems to work, too, for my Epox PC (only had a short video stutter in one video, but guess it was a smaller DVD-read error. This drive isn't that great anyway.)
EDIT2: :) Release2 works great for my ShuttleXPC, too. - So should do it for my 3.2GHz as well. Too lazy to test now anyway ;) I hope this version works for those suffering the bug, too. Good luck guys ;)
 
Good thing it didn't make things worse :D. Thx for the system reports but I really don't know what to do with them. DirectX & DVD decoder filter versions probably play bigger role when something is not working...I use WinDVD filters so that would probably be the safest bet to try first. I couldn't get it working with PowerDVD though. Will try some more...
 
I see. I'm using WinDVD as well, so guess the same filter. WindDVD version is 4 on every one of my 3 PCs. So I guess that is why i don't suffer the bug.
EDIT: if you tell me how to change the filter, I'll try out PowerDVD, too. It's btw already installed as well on my Epox PC
 
regsvr32 can be used to register or unregister (regsvr32 /u) directshow filters. You can also load something like vobsub to verify what filters are used for decoding. Ivivideo.ax & iviaudio.ax are WinDVD filters. CLVSD.ax is cyberlink video filter, but WC4 vob files also don't play in MediaPlayer Classic with this filter...
 
Who? Sorry, don't know anything about that stuff. :(
Did I get you correct? I have to run (for example): "regsvr32 Ivivideo.ax" or whatever Filter I want to be used to change that? I guess it's best if I keep my fingers from that stuff, sorry. :/ - Well, IF I got you right it shouldn't be too difficult, but no idea, IF I got you right or wrong.
EDIT: So sorry that I can't help testing anymore :( - But hopefully it will work for more people with Release2 ;)
 
Hey,

the updated version didn't change anything for me. I do have PowerDVD installed. I'll see about installing WinDVD.
 
You are a GOD among men!

I've been wanting to play my Wing Commander IV DVD for years - since my sister gave away my old PC with the Creative kit in it...

This driver works nearly flawlessly for me - the videos mostly play. It seems that any time I have to make a choice, the next video doesn't play and it skips directly to the standard video after that, but oh well - beats the hell out of the "Can't find video" error!

Once again, thank you!
 
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