Wing Loader (KS/WCDX) Loader & Voice Over Mod

Hi all, I found out about this after getting back into Wing Commander after several years. I have the GOG versions of the games and so I tried out Wing Loader v0.92. I patched both WC1 and WC2 following the instructions above.

Wing Commander 1 works fine. The audio plays well in the Tiger's Claw and I can hear the voices in flight as well.
Secret Missions 1 works fine.
Secret Missions 1.5 crashes right in the middle of the first briefing. I never get to launch.
Secret Missions 2 works fine.

Wing Commander II doesn't load up the intro properly. It entirely skips the section of the intro where the Tiger's Claw is destroyed, and goes instead right to the Emperor and Prince Thrakhath. The game also seems to be playing pretty fast. Also, unlike WC1, the game is not in a 4:3 screen ratio. I wonder if something got messed up? An error message appears that says:
"ERROR: 145 in DIBcascade CreatePalette"
When I launch the game using WC2_wcdx.exe, it plays in 4:3 ratio but the intro still skips the Tiger's Claw destruction.

Wing Commander II - Special Operations 1 - it's been a while since I played but when I launch this in Wing Loader, WC2 just plays (still broken intro as noted above). I end up flying the first mission of WC2. Not sure if I need to finish WC2 before playing this or not. When I launch the game using SO1_wcdx.exe, the Special Operations 1 intro plays and I can jump right into SO1.

Wing Commander II - Special Operations II - same issue as Special Operations 1. It just plays WC2. When I launch the game using SO2_wcdx.exe, it plays SO2 just fine at 4:3.

I haven't tried WC3 yet but I will.
 
Kel9509 said:
Hi all, I found out about this after getting back into Wing Commander after several years. I have the GOG versions of the games and so I tried out Wing Loader v0.92. I patched both WC1 and WC2 following the instructions above.

Wing Commander 1 works fine. The audio plays well in the Tiger's Claw and I can hear the voices in flight as well.
Secret Missions 1 works fine.
Secret Missions 1.5 crashes right in the middle of the first briefing. I never get to launch.
Secret Missions 2 works fine.

Wing Commander II doesn't load up the intro properly. It entirely skips the section of the intro where the Tiger's Claw is destroyed, and goes instead right to the Emperor and Prince Thrakhath. The game also seems to be playing pretty fast. Also, unlike WC1, the game is not in a 4:3 screen ratio. I wonder if something got messed up? An error message appears that says:
"ERROR: 145 in DIBcascade CreatePalette"
When I launch the game using WC2_wcdx.exe, it plays in 4:3 ratio but the intro still skips the Tiger's Claw destruction.

Wing Commander II - Special Operations 1 - it's been a while since I played but when I launch this in Wing Loader, WC2 just plays (still broken intro as noted above). I end up flying the first mission of WC2. Not sure if I need to finish WC2 before playing this or not. When I launch the game using SO1_wcdx.exe, the Special Operations 1 intro plays and I can jump right into SO1.

Wing Commander II - Special Operations II - same issue as Special Operations 1. It just plays WC2. When I launch the game using SO2_wcdx.exe, it plays SO2 just fine at 4:3.

I haven't tried WC3 yet but I will.
Click to expand...
Hey Kel9509.

I haven't expirenced this Secret Missions 1.5 crash myself. I'm currently away for a wedding but should be back to my PC in a few days. I'll see if I can reproduce the issue and get back to you.

In regards to WC2... WCDX is not a great experience with WC2. Framerate are weird and Becuase of that when you hit play it registers a second click to skip the first scene in the intro. I have found that CNC-DDraw works better for WC2 or Dgvoodoo2.

I might have a scripting error, I'm not sure but I'll take a look when I'm back.
 
Destro said:
Hey Kel9509.

I haven't expirenced this Secret Missions 1.5 crash myself. I'm currently away for a wedding but should be back to my PC in a few days. I'll see if I can reproduce the issue and get back to you.

In regards to WC2... WCDX is not a great experience with WC2. Framerate are weird and Becuase of that when you hit play it registers a second click to skip the first scene in the intro. I have found that CNC-DDraw works better for WC2 or Dgvoodoo2.

I might have a scripting error, I'm not sure but I'll take a look when I'm back.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much! I must say that what I've seen so far is very impressive. I'm sure there's a slight error with WC2 that hopefully can be fixed.

Anyway, playing WC2_wcdx.exe, I tried CNC-DDraw in my WC2 installation folder. It didn't seem to make much of a difference, at least as far as I can tell with its default settings. The game runs fast outside of flight mode, but during flight it seems ok. That's the reason why I wanted to try this version, since DosBox has issues with the framerate and game speed otherwise.

However, either with CNC-DDraw or not when using WC2_wcdx.exe, I noticed that if I use my joystick to select the intro, there is no "second click" and the intro plays normally with the Tiger's Claw destruction. Very odd that the mouse has an issue but the joystick doesn't. I wonder if this can be fixed also somehow or not?

CNC-DDraw doesn't work at all with WingLoader. I meant, it's still not at a 4:3 ratio and didn't appear to make any bit of difference whatsoever.

Anyway, I'm happy to report I also tried WC3 with the HD videos and it runs perfectly!
 
Hi Destro, New user here, and I wanna thank you and kudos for your hard work this is a stellar mod/launcher!

I have a question, the demo Youtube video you have, the hornets look to be in better detail. I was trying to find out where to get that mod, do you have any idea where to get the graphics for those ships?

Thanks.
 
Vackscene said:
Hi Destro, New user here, and I wanna thank you and kudos for your hard work this is a stellar mod/launcher!

I have a question, the demo Youtube video you have, the hornets look to be in better detail. I was trying to find out where to get that mod, do you have any idea where to get the graphics for those ships?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Thanks Vackscene!

I got the better detail hornet from the the link below. Scrolling through the forum are several ship replacements including the Tigers Claw and much more. :)

https://www.wcnews.com/chatzone/threads/wing-commander-sprite-enhancement-experimentation-and-information.29588/
 
Destro said:
Thanks Vackscene!

I got the better detail hornet from the the link below. Scrolling through the forum are several ship replacements including the Tigers Claw and much more. :)

https://www.wcnews.com/chatzone/threads/wing-commander-sprite-enhancement-experimentation-and-information.29588/
Click to expand...
Wow, those new sprites are awesome. Did they just do the Hornet, Tiger's Claw, and the Exeter? It'd be awesome if those could be incorporated into the patch as well.

Have you had any luck in figuring out why WC2 and its Special Operations don't load, when using the GOG version of the game as patched? Also, same deal with Secret Missions 1.5?

If not using the GOG version is the issue, I can give other versions a try....
 
Kel9509 said:
Wow, those new sprites are awesome. Did they just do the Hornet, Tiger's Claw, and the Exeter? It'd be awesome if those could be incorporated into the patch as well.

Have you had any luck in figuring out why WC2 and its Special Operations don't load, when using the GOG version of the game as patched? Also, same deal with Secret Missions 1.5?

If not using the GOG version is the issue, I can give other versions a try....
Click to expand...
Hey sorry. I've been really busy lately but i have been looking into that... Unfortunately. I wasn't really able to reproduce your issue but I have a thought as to what is happening.

Wing Loader will always run the patched Wcdx version of wing commander 1 & 2, regardless to if ddraw is Installed, as wing loader calls for WC2_WCDX.exe rather than the original file WC2_KS.exe that my patch provides.

If you want to use Ddraw you need to run WC2_KS.exe instead.

If you want Wing Loader to use the Ddraw version go into the data/scripts and open main.se and search for WC2_WCDX.exe and replace that with WC2_KS.exe

As for the 1.5 missions not working. That I can't reproduce. I'm sure you've tried but full reinstall and re patch is all I can think of. Or for some reason you downloaded the dos version of the 1.5 mod? But I don't think it matters too much.
 
Hey everyone! It's been a minute! :P

I figured I'd give a brief update on what's new and what I've been up too.

Now that Wing Loader is out there and WC3 HD videos are patched into the game, I want to take a step back from Wing Loader for a bit as I realize I've been working on this one app for about 4 years now! :P Don't worry, I'll still support it, add features and be active in the community but I want to get back to what Wing Loader actually was built to be... a space sim engine, using Wing Commander as it's inspiration. I'll admit it's wasn't ever a really great one as I'm a self taught programmer and don't know all the best practices, but never the less, I've learned a lot over the years and going to take another crack at it.

I'm still a long way off, working on development tools, updating the code to have more dynamic and interesting features such as collisions and spawn rendering for projectiles and enemies, physics etc. I'll put out an update later once I have something fun stuff to show off.

In the meantime. I made a Brief History to show off several stages of the engine. From it's beginnings as a Wing Commander 1: Reamke engine, very early c++ and opengl tests to a version of a more moderen space sim before Wing Loader started. I had some more polished versions, but they were lost, however it still gives a taste of what it was capable of such as Live Chroma Keying (Darth Vader), projectiles, flyby camera, instancing asteroids, planet orbiting, subtitles (hope you like sublime lol)

Enjoy and hopefully I'll have something fun to show off in 2025!

 
This gave me massive vibes for early Vegastrike engine development. Back when HellcatV was writing the engine in university we had a super limited play area and the original skybox textures were ripped from Quake 2. You could fly for about 50 meters before you flew out of the Z-buffer.
 
Destro said:
Wing Loader will always run the patched Wcdx version of wing commander 1 & 2, regardless to if ddraw is Installed, as wing loader calls for WC2_WCDX.exe rather than the original file WC2_KS.exe that my patch provides.

If you want to use Ddraw you need to run WC2_KS.exe instead.

If you want Wing Loader to use the Ddraw version go into the data/scripts and open main.se and search for WC2_WCDX.exe and replace that with WC2_KS.exe

As for the 1.5 missions not working. That I can't reproduce. I'm sure you've tried but full reinstall and re patch is all I can think of. Or for some reason you downloaded the dos version of the 1.5 mod? But I don't think it matters too much.
Click to expand...

You say that Wing Loader will always run the Wcdx version. I looked into the scripts and I can assure you there is a script error, at least in the version to patch the GOG version. It did not run the WCDX version. In the original MAIN_SE, the script to load WC2 is as follows (copied directly from the file):

SUBSCRIPT|9|//|RUN WING COMMANDER II: SPECIAL OPERATIONS 1|
Debug|Out|WC2SO1 Run|
Audio|Play|[Audio.SNDFX.2]|[Channel.Dummy]|
If|Num|[Num.OriginIntroVideo]|=|1|
Video|VLC|Data/Videos/Origin_Intro.mp4|
EndIf|

If|Num|[Num.WC2Enhanced]|=|0|
Run|CMD|cd Wing Commander II\DOSBOX\ && DOSBox.exe -conf "..\dosboxWC2.conf" -conf "..\dosboxWC2_single.conf" -noconsole -c "exit"|
EndIf|
If|Num|[Num.WC2Enhanced]|=|1|
Run|EXE|\Wing Commander II\SO1_KS.exe|
EndIf|
END|

SUBSCRIPT|10|//|RUN WING COMMANDER II: SPECIAL OPERATIONS 2|
Debug|Out|WC2SO2 Run|
Audio|Play|[Audio.SNDFX.2]|[Channel.Dummy]|
If|Num|[Num.OriginIntroVideo]|=|1|
Video|VLC|Data/Videos/Origin_Intro.mp4|
EndIf|

If|Num|[Num.WC2Enhanced]|=|0|
Run|CMD|cd Wing Commander II\DOSBOX\ && DOSBox.exe -conf "..\dosboxWC2.conf" -conf "..\dosboxWC2_single.conf" -noconsole -c "exit"|
EndIf|
If|Num|[Num.WC2Enhanced]|=|1|
Run|EXE|\Wing Commander II\SO2_KS.exe|
EndIf|
END|
Click to expand...

Notice the "KS.exe"? So I changed them all to the WCDX exes. Wing Commander 2, as patched with WCDX, then loaded fine, and I actually played it all the way through and beat it. But the Special Operations 1 and 2s will still not load, only launching Wing Commander II (when even using "SO1_WCDX.exe" in the script for SO1 and "SO2_WCDX.exe" for SO2). It only launches Wing Commander II for all 3 of the games. I don't know enough about the scripting to understand why. This isn't an issue for any of the Wing Commander 1 expansions.

As for Secret Missions 1.5, there was an issue with the first briefing (I found that someone else in these forums had the same issue). But other than that, I was able to play through it all.

So I think there's something in the MAIN_SE file that's mistakenly lauching WC2 instead of the SO1 and SO2 games.

Overall, your program rocks and I'm sure that the scripting error can be fixed. And I look forward to your other releases.
 
Kel9509 said:
You say that Wing Loader will always run the Wcdx version. I looked into the scripts and I can assure you there is a script error, at least in the version to patch the GOG version. It did not run the WCDX version. In the original MAIN_SE, the script to load WC2 is as follows (copied directly from the file):



Notice the "KS.exe"? So I changed them all to the WCDX exes. Wing Commander 2, as patched with WCDX, then loaded fine, and I actually played it all the way through and beat it. But the Special Operations 1 and 2s will still not load, only launching Wing Commander II (when even using "SO1_WCDX.exe" in the script for SO1 and "SO2_WCDX.exe" for SO2). It only launches Wing Commander II for all 3 of the games. I don't know enough about the scripting to understand why. This isn't an issue for any of the Wing Commander 1 expansions.

As for Secret Missions 1.5, there was an issue with the first briefing (I found that someone else in these forums had the same issue). But other than that, I was able to play through it all.

So I think there's something in the MAIN_SE file that's mistakenly lauching WC2 instead of the SO1 and SO2 games.

Overall, your program rocks and I'm sure that the scripting error can be fixed. And I look forward to your other releases.
Click to expand...
Huh.... I might have picked some oopsie daises there. lol. I'll look into that a bit more. But the scripting you forwarded should run the Kilrathi Saga versions, not WCDX. You are correct, SO1_WCDX and SO2_WCDX should run their respected Add-ons, unless the issue is with my Gog Patch. It might be just coping the main game instead of the add-ons.

Thanks for the update. I'll have a look at it more closely.
 
Destro said:
Huh.... I might have picked some oopsie daises there. lol. I'll look into that a bit more. But the scripting you forwarded should run the Kilrathi Saga versions, not WCDX. You are correct, SO1_WCDX and SO2_WCDX should run their respected Add-ons, unless the issue is with my Gog Patch. It might be just coping the main game instead of the add-ons.

Thanks for the update. I'll have a look at it more closely.
Click to expand...
Kel9509 said:
You say that Wing Loader will always run the Wcdx version. I looked into the scripts and I can assure you there is a script error, at least in the version to patch the GOG version. It did not run the WCDX version. In the original MAIN_SE, the script to load WC2 is as follows (copied directly from the file):



Notice the "KS.exe"? So I changed them all to the WCDX exes. Wing Commander 2, as patched with WCDX, then loaded fine, and I actually played it all the way through and beat it. But the Special Operations 1 and 2s will still not load, only launching Wing Commander II (when even using "SO1_WCDX.exe" in the script for SO1 and "SO2_WCDX.exe" for SO2). It only launches Wing Commander II for all 3 of the games. I don't know enough about the scripting to understand why. This isn't an issue for any of the Wing Commander 1 expansions.

As for Secret Missions 1.5, there was an issue with the first briefing (I found that someone else in these forums had the same issue). But other than that, I was able to play through it all.

So I think there's something in the MAIN_SE file that's mistakenly lauching WC2 instead of the SO1 and SO2 games.

Overall, your program rocks and I'm sure that the scripting error can be fixed. And I look forward to your other releases.
Click to expand...

Ok, I found the issues in the scripting.

1) I had SO1_KS.exe instead of SO1_WCDX.exe as you pointed out. WCDX doesn't work so great with Wing Commander 2 and I was planning to use cnc-DDraw for this title instead and after testing I must have accidently left it that way.

#2) Main.SE line starting at Line 331

[Num.Selection] is an int value that counts up or down when you press left or right to determine what add-on you're selected on for Wing Commander 1... Wing Commander 2 uses [Num.Selection2] It resets to 0 when moving up or down so it's always 0 when not on WC1.

//Corrected Scripts. Line 331
SUBSCRIPT|7|//|GAME Wing Commander 2 Selector|
If|Num|[Num.Selection2]|=|0|//|RUN WING COMMANDER II|
Script|Run|-8|
EndIf|
If|Num|[Num.Selection2]|=|1|//|RUN WING COMMANDER|
Script|Run|-9|
EndIf|
If|Num|[Num.Selection2]|=|2|//|RUN WING COMMANDER SECRET MISSION 1|
Script|Run|-10|
EndIf|
END|

I've attached an updated Main.SE here. Let me know if that works. Sorry it took so long to figure this out for you.
 

Attachments

Hello everyone out there in the universe :-)

I'm currently trying to get Wing Commander 1-3 to run on the Steam Deck in the best possible version.
Currently I'm stuck with the HD movies from WC3.

I patched all three parts using the WingLoader v0.92 according to the instructions from @Destro and using the GOG versions as a basis.
This seems to work very well on Windows.

I then transferred the entire Wingloader directory with all three Wing Commander parts to the Steam Deck.
This worked very well on the first test.

With the exception that with WC3 only the old movies are played. (interlaced)

The behavior seems the same whether I start WC3 through the WingLoader or start the WC3W.exe directly in Proton.
What I also noticed is that no log file is created in the Wing Commander III folder under Linux/Proton/Steam Deck.
Under Windows I get a wc3w_en.log file there.
This could give me information about what is going wrong, but I'm not sure if Proton redirects such write operations somewhere else, I haven't found anything about it.

@Destro You wrote that you also tried it on the Steam deck. Did the HD movies from WC3 run on yours?
Or does anyone have any other tips for me?

Thanks a lot in advance :-)

cheers,
Zahadum
 
Zahadum said:
Hello everyone out there in the universe :-)

I'm currently trying to get Wing Commander 1-3 to run on the Steam Deck in the best possible version.
Currently I'm stuck with the HD movies from WC3.

I patched all three parts using the WingLoader v0.92 according to the instructions from @Destro and using the GOG versions as a basis.
This seems to work very well on Windows.

I then transferred the entire Wingloader directory with all three Wing Commander parts to the Steam Deck.
This worked very well on the first test.

With the exception that with WC3 only the old movies are played. (interlaced)

The behavior seems the same whether I start WC3 through the WingLoader or start the WC3W.exe directly in Proton.
What I also noticed is that no log file is created in the Wing Commander III folder under Linux/Proton/Steam Deck.
Under Windows I get a wc3w_en.log file there.
This could give me information about what is going wrong, but I'm not sure if Proton redirects such write operations somewhere else, I haven't found anything about it.

@Destro You wrote that you also tried it on the Steam deck. Did the HD movies from WC3 run on yours?
Or does anyone have any other tips for me?

Thanks a lot in advance :-)

cheers,
Zahadum
Click to expand...
Hey Zahadum.

I too set everything up on windows and the copied the wing Loader folder over to the SD card, the added WingLoader.exe as a non-steam game, the set compatibility to Proton 9.0-3.

If everything is patched correctly it should work. I hadn't tested the HD movies patch on my steam deck before this, just my version that I was building.

I downloaded the latest version of the patch 0.2.0 and the libVLC package, dropped those both in the Wing Commander III folder inside of Wing Loader and the the ODVS videos inside the movies folder and it launched and plays the HD videos on my steam deck using Proton 9.0-3.

The only thing that I can think of is you mentioned that the videos are playing "interlaced". With the patch applied for me, the original origin intro plays (ODVS does not have a HD version of that) and it's not interlaced if the patch is applied correctly.

Perhaps try downloading the latest version of the patch 0.2.0 and libVLC and installing them via the steam decks desktop.

https://github.com/mattwells77/Wing_Commander_III_Enhancement_Patch/releases
 
Destro said:
Hey Zahadum.

I too set everything up on windows and the copied the wing Loader folder over to the SD card, the added WingLoader.exe as a non-steam game, the set compatibility to Proton 9.0-3.

If everything is patched correctly it should work. I hadn't tested the HD movies patch on my steam deck before this, just my version that I was building.

I downloaded the latest version of the patch 0.2.0 and the libVLC package, dropped those both in the Wing Commander III folder inside of Wing Loader and the the ODVS videos inside the movies folder and it launched and plays the HD videos on my steam deck using Proton 9.0-3.

The only thing that I can think of is you mentioned that the videos are playing "interlaced". With the patch applied for me, the original origin intro plays (ODVS does not have a HD version of that) and it's not interlaced if the patch is applied correctly.

Perhaps try downloading the latest version of the patch 0.2.0 and libVLC and installing them via the steam decks desktop.

https://github.com/mattwells77/Wing_Commander_III_Enhancement_Patch/releases
Click to expand...
Hi Destro,
Thanks for your swift reply.
You're right, I hadn't noticed:
On Windows the intro is non-interlaced (and the films in HD) as it should be.
on the Steam Deck the Origin intro (and all the other films) is interlaced.
-> so mattwell's enhancement patch isn't working properly for me on the Steam Deck?

at which point exactly is this interlacing fixed for the origin intro? May be I can find my issue at that point?


I copied everything again from the working Windows version.
I also tried to reinstall the patches...
Unfortunately, that didn't change anything. (I also used the same version of Proton as you ...)

@Destro: do you have a “wc3w_en.log” log file in the WC3 folder on the Steam Deck?
I don't have one, and it's only created on Windows. I think it could provide some information about what's going wrong on my system.

I also activated the Steamdebuglog to test it... it's very large and confusing... so it's hard to find anything there.
I didn't see anything unusual...

But it is good to hear, that it is working for you, so there must be a solution for me :)
 
I found the solution.
And that's where this thread ends... 😅

...just kidding

The problem is that Proton doesn't use the patched ddraw.dll.
You have to use Steam/Proton override to tell it to use the ddraw.dll from the game directory.
Put in the Steam entry for the game under:
Properties -> Shortcut -> Launch Options:
WINEDLLOVERRIDES=“ddraw.dll=n,b” %command%
the line above, then it worked for me.
With the reference to the non-working patch, you steered me in the right direction. Thanks to you. :-)
 
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