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

[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?

[TheDesertFox]

Hi,

no, with Ultimate you are allowed to use the same licence on your native and your VPC. With Enterprise you are allowed to use up to four VPCs with the same licence on one machine.

In fact the VPC on my Vista64 rig is the same licence as my notebook.

I dunno about Home Premium, but anyways you can install XP as a VPC on that machine (if you have a licence handy).

To change VRAM from the default setting to the max of 16megs you can edit the *.vmc file and adapt these lines:

<video_adapter>
<vram_size type="integer">128</vram_size>
</video_adapter>

That will give you 16megs of VRAM, which isn´t necessary for WinSP but might be handy for other apps.

cheers

[Wdll]

Thank you.

BTW, aren't the requirements of winspmbt 32MB of video ram?

[TheDesertFox]

Hi,

yes 32megs is what the gameguide recommends. However it runs flawless in 1280x1024 on my VPC.

cheers

[Horses]

Hi,

thanks for your help and support.

Both WinSP:WW2/MBT are running fine and smooth now in windowed mode. The problem was the font size (it was too large). I adjusted it to standard settings 96DPI and now all is ok.

@TheDesertFox
I use the older 8800GTS G80 with 320MB with Asus Mainboard (P35-chipset).

[Mobhack]

Horses said:
Hi,

thanks for your help and support.

Both WinSP:WW2/MBT are running fine and smooth now in windowed mode. The problem was the font size (it was too large). I adjusted it to standard settings 96DPI and now all is ok.

@TheDesertFox
I use the older 8800GTS G80 with 320MB with Asus Mainboard (P35-chipset).

I now recall someone had a problem with Mobhack, way back in the Windows 98 days (before I needed reading glasses!), and it eventually turned out that he had reset his windows to use large fonts.

Changing any version of Windows away from the default 96DPI is never a good idea, as it can thoroughly mess up any dialogue boxes, buttons, display of images etc - the size of the dialogue box or text button or image box X-Y pixels is fixed to whatever was used in the form designer and won't rescale, but any now-larger text (or image, if it rescales them - been a long while since I looked at the problem) then tries to squash into the existing pixel area and simply makes a mess. Therefore highly not recommended!.

In the old CRT days - the best way to make Windows larger for poor eyesight etc (without pulling one's reading glasses out! ) was to simply use a smaller window size on your monitor (e.g. 800 by 600 instead of say 1024 by 768). The "feature" to change windows DPI seems really never to have been a usable one due to side-effects, and it seems Vista continues that tradition!. Nowadays, with LCD screens, using a non-native resolution can result in "fuzzy" screens, one reason I still have the 10-ton (or so it seems if I shift it!) 19 inch CRT gathering dust in the spare bedroom. It's the only way I can test the game at maximum resolution now, as my LCD 1280 by 1024 monitor simply cannot handle that resolution, though the graphic card will - and will happily let me try it on the LCD monitor, but with a blank screen as a result. The monitor hardware seems not to tell the GFX card it can't hack the resolution, and so Windows believes the GFX card it seems. (The CRT was also better at colour handling - my desktop used to be the "autumn" one with the trees and leaves etc, but the new LCD screen seems somewhat washed-out & faded with browns and so I tend to use a blueish one instead now).

Cheers
Andy