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

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)

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

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:
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.. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

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

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

Hi Andy,

thanks for the tipp. I checked it out on machine #3 and indeed disabling the intro did the trick. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif 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

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

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

Don

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

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

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

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!

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

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 ?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you.

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

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

Hi,

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

cheers

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

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).

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

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! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif) 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

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

Mobhack sounds like you need to buy a new larger TFT monitor. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

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

btw, new pc, Vista 64, quad core 9550, radeon 4870X2, and they run the game just fine, though just in case I have the intro disabled.
My only wish is, for something I will post elsewhere lol.

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

Try it with the intro on once and see what happens

Don

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

crashes.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: winspmbt.exe
Application Version: 1.0.3.5
Application Timestamp: 00000000
Fault Module Name: quartz.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.6.6001.18063
Fault Module Timestamp: 4812e26d
Exception Code: c0000090
Exception Offset: 00099b22
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: 5fba
Additional Information 2: b3e1f2122844d4e8d212ddae5bccb695
Additional Information 3: 6874
Additional Information 4: 42f60de55b5ca326eb05bdf47880f16c

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

quartz.dll (a part of Microsoft's own directshow it seems) has problems in Vista.

Try googling on "quartz.dll vista"


Cheers
Andy

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

It's not an issue for me. I can't play the intro in one game, I will survive. :)