Warning: VISTA-SP1 and WinSP:WW2/MBT problems!

[TheDesertFox]

Gentlemen,

It seems to me there is something in VISTA-SP1 that might render your WinSP:WW2/MBT games dysfunctional.

Please let me know if you have the same problems getting WinSP:WW2/MBT to work after patching your VISTA to Service Pack 1 level.

Source of VISTA SP1 RTM or formerly refresh 2 (build-string: 6001.longhorn_rtm. 080118-1840) are the Microsoft Update Servers after making use of the registry hack ( see here for details: http://winfuture.de/news,37331.html).

Both games hang during the intro screen and the program is aborted on PCs 1,2 and 3

After uninstalling VISTA-SP1 from both PC 1 and 2 and rolling back to pre-SP1 state (all patches up to 13/02/08) the games are working fine again. On PC 3 both games are hanging as they were before on PCs 1 and 2 with VISTA SP1. I´m not going to roll back this PC because I´m not gaming on it.

BTW: Everything else except both mentioned SP games runs perfectly flawless after switching to ServicePack-1, including SP1, SP2 etc via DOS-BOX. Because of this, I would love to know if someone is experiencing the same problems as I have. If so, once the problem is confirmed and isolated, Don and Andy hopefully can find a workaround for this little hickup.

cheers

Helge

Hardware:

1.) ASUS P5B-Deluxe Wifi MoBo (Intel 965 chipset), Core2Duo @ 3300Mhz, Nvidia 8800 GTS (640MB), 4 gig RAM, VISTA Ultimate x64 (switched back to pre-SP1)

2.) AMILO Notebook, AMD Turion TL-52 1600Mhz, ATI Radeon XPress 1100, 1 gig RAM, VISTA Ultimate x32 (switched back to pre-SP1)

3.) ASUS P5LD2 MoBo (Intel 945 chipset), Core2Duo @ 2666Mhz, Nvidia 7950 GT (512MB), 3 gig RAM, WISTA Ultimate x32 SP1 (WinSP:WW2/MBT dysfunctional)

[Mobhack]

Helge

On the Game Options screen (if you can get there) - try setting Show Introduction = "No".

(if you cannot get to there, go into the /game data/Camogame.ini file and change the setting as follows, then try again:

;Skip (0) or Show (1) the introductory splash movie
ShowIntro=0

If everything runs OK - then Vista SP1 seems to have borked DirectShow ?. If so, then sound may also become a problem with Vista SP1 as well..

We are only using DirectShow to splash up a timed JPEG (we could have used it for intro movies but decided not to bloat the package size up way back, for something 99.99% of end users would simply skip). However DirectShow is also the basis for the games sound system, as unlike DirectPlay, it handles MP3 (and other non-WAV) file playback.

DirectShow has been part of the Microsoft DirectXX system since before DirectX7, so it should be stable. Probably a(nother) driver issue with the new version of Vista?.


Cheers
Andy

[TheDesertFox]

Hi Andy,

thanks for the tipp. I checked it out on machine #3 and indeed disabling the intro did the trick. So it seems they somehow modified directshow in servicepack 1 rendering the intro dysfunctional.

Over the weekend I´ll reinstall Vista-SP1 on machines 1 and 2 and check if disabling the intro there will have the same positive effect.

cheers

Helge

[DRG]

Helge, did you disable the sound as well or just the intro ?

Don

[TheDesertFox]

Don,

I disabled just the Intro. Sound runs perfectly well.

Also, I now have reinstalled Servicepack 1 on both PC 1 and 2 and also there both WinSP:WW2/MBT run perfectly well in windowed mode (1600x1200 on PC 1, 1280x800 on PC 2 and 1280x1024 on PC 3). Drivers are 169.25 for both Nvidia cards on PC 1 and 3 and 8.2 for the ATI on PC 2.

Soundcards are Soundblaster X-Fi on PC 1, Realtek Onboard on PC 2 and Soundblaster Audigy on PC 3.

Everything seems to be fine now, except the Intro which kills the games on all PCs when Vista Servicepack 1 is installed.

cheers

Helge

[RobertWink]

woo, thanks guys!

got me up and running again on my Notebook.. I assume it will work the same at home! excellent! I was going crazy!

[Horses]

Dear all,

yesterday I installed Vista including SP1 and all works fine except WinSP:WW2/MBT.
My Machine is Intel-based, Nvidia 8800GTS with Drivers 169.25. I have both CD-Versions of WinSP:WW2/MBT and wish to run them under 1280x1024 (=native solution)in windowed mode (as in Windows xp).
I'm very annoyed, because no "solution" works. Disabling the intro,changing to fullscreen,changing settings in the Compatability tab doesn't work. The Game options screen opens, but when I press "Play WinSPww2" nothing happens now. At first after a fresh install of WinSPww2 it started but the menue was stretched and unreadable.

Looking forward to any help to run these great games in Vista.

@TheDesertfox
Can you post your Nvidia driver settings please ?

[TheDesertFox]

Horses said:

@TheDesertfox
Can you post your Nvidia driver settings please ?

Hi,

sorry, no special settings. I use the default settings and haven´t changed anything since.

Which Intel chipset do you have ? My both i965 and i945 based Mobos work fine as you can read above.

Do you use the newer 512MB based 8800 GTS (G92 chip) or the older 640MB version (G90 chip)?

You mentioned the menu stretched. Do you use a widescreen monitor (native 1280x800 or 1440x900 or 1680x1050) ?

BTW: I now have the beta 169.44 drivers installed and they work well on my machines as did the 169.25 before. Also the new 8.3 ATI drivers aren´t causing any problems for me on the notebook.

cheers

[TheDesertFox]

Gentlemen,

For those of you who can´t get the game running at all due to whatever reason on your Vista-SP1 machines this info might be helpfull:

On my Vista 64 machine (4gig RAM) I run several Virtual PCs (XP, Server 2003, Server 2008, Vista etc.) using MS Virtual PC 2007 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...c/default.mspx).

One of these Virtual PCs is running Vista 32 Ultimate with SP1 integrated. Interestingly, if I try to start WinSP:WW2 with Intro enabled inside the virtual PC it runs flawless! No hang, no nothing.

As far as I know in each of these Virtual PCs the following hardware is emulated:

Virtual PC emulates a 32-bit Intel Pentium II processor (but virtualizes the host processor on Windows versions) with an Intel 440BX chipset, a standard SVGA VESA graphics card (S3 Trio 64 PCI with 4 MB Video RAM, adjustable in later versions up to 16 MB), a system BIOS from American Megatrends (AMI), a Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 ISA PnP (native Vista audio when Vista acts as host and guest), and a DEC 21041 (DEC 21140 in newer versions) Ethernet network card.

So using Virtual PC 2007 might be a possibility to get the game running if it refuses to work in the native environment. I think it is worth a try.

cheers

Helge

[Wdll]

Wouldn't you need a seperate licence for the Vista installed in the VPC?
Also, how can you change the video ram?