Wing Commander III Shows Age :(

Col.Dom

Spaceman
I recently purchased the original, olskoo version of WC3 for the PC. Now, bear in mind I have only played the 3DO version :D

Why is the music MIDI!? The music in the 3DO version (and the PSX version) is orchestrated! If Oldziey did the music in WC3 and orchestrated it, why is the in-game music all MIDI? It's pretty lame to watch the movies with fully instrumental sound and go to the in-game interface to be greeted with... MIDI?

The VDU comm videos are all green!? Aah! The 3DO version has the VDU comm videos in full color (and in better quality)! Also, the subtitles were smoothed out and the end credits were nicley done too, not just standard MS Sans in the letter boxes and in the credits.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are features the PC version has that the 3DO doesn't like pretty sharp space craft models (even for nowadays). The 3DO's low-rez ploygons don't hold a match up to the PC.... Also, the PC has ground missions and you can actually fly into the Victory and other applicable capships. Having a keyboard helps too :p

Now, with saying all that- Is there a version of Wing Commander III for the PC that has all the finishing touches the 3DO version has??
 
yeah, tell it like it is Frosty! Oh, seriously... I encourage knowing what your talking about before stating something on this board :rolleyes:
 
not really, but if you get WC Kilrathi saga, which has wc3 for win 95, you get full orchestrated music (Much better) other than that the rest is pretty much the same, green comms, etc
 
No, you don't. KS WC3 has the same MIDI music as WC3 PC.

The 3DO did better video than the PC -- thus, the video was nicer. The game engine wasn't nearly as nice... (no fly-through anything, no planetary missions, etc., etc.).
 
Originally posted by Col.Dom
Why is the music MIDI!? The music in the 3DO version (and the PSX version) is orchestrated! If Oldziey did the music in WC3 and orchestrated it, why is the in-game music all MIDI? It's pretty lame to watch the movies with fully instrumental sound and go to the in-game interface to be greeted with... MIDI?

Keep in mind that when WC3 first came out, this was all fairly new. WC3 was one of the big reasons that FMV succeeded in games, and the 'best' way of doing things wasn't always known at the time. While its possible to create an FMV and fully score it, things become slightly more difficult when dealing with in-game music. Because player actions can make segments longer or shorter, the ability to have variable length music becomes important. I would assume that this has a lot to do with why the sound ended up the way it did.

The VDU comm videos are all green!? Aah! The 3DO version has the VDU comm videos in full color (and in better quality)! Also, the subtitles were smoothed out and the end credits were nicley done too, not just standard MS Sans in the letter boxes and in the credits.

Green comms date back to the first two WC games. While the latter games had full color comms, a decision was probably made to keep things consistant in WC3 (and presumably this same decision was overturned when it came time to do the ports and the later games). IIRC, your comms with the Victory are in full color, and it could be explained that the fighters are equipped with inferior comm equipment for space/mass reasons.
 
Back in the day the lack of color comms in WC3 was attributed to pallet issues. I always preferred the green versions -- they seemed all sci-fi-ey.


Many of WC3's lackings have to do with disc space issues -- WC3 PC was limited to 60 minute CDs, whereas the 3DO version used 72 minute CDs.
 
is it the same for psx version? How does the fmv compare 3d0 to psx aslo to pc?

AD
 
i would've preferred green as well. our own aircraft of today use a lot of green on instrument displays anyway! :)
 
Originally posted by AD
is it the same for psx version? How does the fmv compare 3d0 to psx aslo to pc?

AD

The PSX version is, pretty much, the 3DO version except for two main things:

1) The game engine is a lot closer to the PCs than the 3DO version (ie fly through capships, the manual take-offs & landings, watching the VDU start-up screen)

2) Has no HUD (the static HUD, i mean; the whole canopy & dashboard thing)

The 3DO version has lotsa' lotsa' extra FMV stuffed in. Notable ones are the "planetary assault," FMVs that replaced the atmospheric missions (PSX has these too), the Hobbes explanation holovid, a few lost Rachel scenes ("you don't trust my loadout, huh?") and CG auto take-offs for each fighter.

Now for the FMV comparison! Well, the PSX one has the best quality. The 3DO and PC version are the same, except on a TV screen it looks a whole lot better and less pixely!

*whew!* Answer your question?
 
uh loaf, how come if it's the same midi junk, they sound VERY different. I have BOTH the dos and KS, and why does KS have a massive 50mb sound file attached if it only has midis?
 
one uses regular old sb compatible drivers to play the midis where in windows version (kilrathi saga) widows drivers do all the work, and it just so happens that nowdays the midi synths are more realistic sounding.

AD
 
I've found the music in WC3 to be very beautiful... on my comp, there is almost no difference between what I hear in the movies and what plays in the missions.

On my SBPCI128, I set the music on General MIDI, and it sounds wonderful. Now I feel like playing WC3.
 
I realize that I may very well be in the minority, but I rather PREFERED the MIDI of WCIII. With a good sound card and multiple speakers, the sound is much richer, and doens't suffer from the occasional crackle that the digital remakes of WCI and WCII do.
 
Actually.. I'm pretty sure the KS WC3 music was turned digital too. I'm at work now so I can't double-check, but I do know when I tried running KS WC3 with an original WC3 CD in the drive the only thing missing was the music.
 
Back
Top