Wing Commander 4 DVD in WindowsXP (w/ DirectShow)

My guess is that each side of the DVD would not fit on a CD even considering DivX compression. But who knows?
 
Well basically it comes down to ripping a regular movie DVD to CD. I don't have any experience here, but I think 2 CDs on DIVX is okish for a DVD, isn't it.
 
Double sided, yes. But I think it is single layer, isn't it?
Which would make it only slightly bigger then a double layer single sided one. Could be wrong however.
 
Yes...it's single layer. Of course you can't know for sure unless you test the compressibility, but as a rule of thumb a single dvd side usually fits on 1 CD. It would probably also depend if you wish to retain the AC3 audio or downmix to stereo mp3...plus it would make cd switching easier since this would already be supported by the game :D
 
I'm curious......I've never seen Creative WC4 DVD version(probably never will :( ), when you guys say double sided version......is the data written on both sides of the disc hence the user has to flip the disc when it comes to a point or what?
IF the answer above is true then how many Gigs is the Disc on each side?
By the way the theory of converting the files from MPEG2 to DIVX could be impossible as the disc MIGHT have a copy protection built in.
 
Karthik@KANE said:
I'm curious......I've never seen Creative WC4 DVD version(probably never will :( ), when you guys say double sided version......is the data written on both sides of the disc hence the user has to flip the disc when it comes to a point or what?

Exactly

Karthik@KANE said:
IF the answer above is true then how many Gigs is the Disc on each side?

IIRC single layer disks have 5GB each side while doublay layer ones have 9 GB on each side. So in the end there are 4 different DVD formats:
single layer single side 5gb - this is the normal DVD-R
double layer single side 9gb - this is the normal movie DVD
single layer double side 10gb - this is WC4DVD, also the movie Starthip Troopers uses this format (at least the Region 2, German version)
double layer double side 18gb

By the way the theory of converting the files from MPEG2 to DIVX could be impossible as the disc MIGHT have a copy protection built in.[/QUOTE]
 
Two CDs is probably stretching it. You need to leave room for the various .tre files (missions, objects, music). I think WC4 has around 5 hours of video. Even if you had 500 MB of space available on the CD, that's not a lot for 2.5 hours of video.
 
I sincerely think it wouldn't be worth the effort of making all the compression THEN fixing the game code to know which cd has the each file...
 
It would be fairly trivial to make a CD change in the game code. I agree, 2CDs would be stretching it, but perhaps 4 would be OK. One change could be handled by the game itself (DVD flip), the other 2 changes could be implemented in my dll. Since it knows what files need to be played, 2 'if' sentences + a simple CD change dialog would make it work :)
 
gulikoza said:
It would be fairly trivial to make a CD change in the game code. I agree, 2CDs would be stretching it, but perhaps 4 would be OK. One change could be handled by the game itself (DVD flip), the other 2 changes could be implemented in my dll. Since it knows what files need to be played, 2 'if' sentences + a simple CD change dialog would make it work :)

How about using Real Media instead. It can hold a normal 1 & 1/2 hour movie(DVD format) for about 300megs! :D If it's legal of course! :eek:
 
I have used all the files mentioned and it's still not working :( I get a message saying VirtualProject() Failed, any ideas what this could be??
 
gulikoza said:
It would be fairly trivial to make a CD change in the game code. I agree, 2CDs would be stretching it, but perhaps 4 would be OK. One change could be handled by the game itself (DVD flip), the other 2 changes could be implemented in my dll. Since it knows what files need to be played, 2 'if' sentences + a simple CD change dialog would make it work :)

Nice, I didn't know you had it covered already. Even though I know a few things about pcs and computers, I'm not really into the programming and stuff like that.

It would be nice, the game would have better video and audio than the original CD version with 2 less disks! It would be a good trade off. But how would it be distributed, it would be kinda like pirating...
 
Karthik@KANE said:
How about using Real Media instead. It can hold a normal 1 & 1/2 hour movie(DVD format) for about 300megs! :D If it's legal of course! :eek:

Sorry, that is not true. RM is not better than MPEG4, and it is also intended for streaming, so it's even more limited.
 
gulikoza said:
am, yes...it helps if you read the readme.txt

...set the executable to run in Windows 95/98 Mode...

Ok totally n00bish but my error message isnt appearing in the readme troubleshooting are. Also how do i change the executable as I'm running XP and dont have 95/98

Sorry
 
Right click on the exe file, properties->compatibility and select Run this program in compatibility mode for. Or...NStriker has just sent me a fix which makes the game work without this option set. Click on my signature to get it on my page...
 
gulikoza said:
Right click on the exe file, properties->compatibility and select Run this program in compatibility mode for. Or...NStriker has just sent me a fix which makes the game work without this option set. Click on my signature to get it on my page...

Bingo! Thanks very much mate!
 
Hey, just got my WCIVDVD from my friend who lives in the US... And it runs! I got a kinda freeze in the first jumping to... , but a quick ESC solved it. The other movies all played fine. Thanks a lot!
 
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