Windows 7?
 

Steel Panthers is still in my top ten of PC games. I'm getting a new PC soon which will have Windows 7. Any thoughts on how this game will function on Windows 7 would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Re: Windows 7?
 

We have had one report sent to Shrapnel about this.


I'm not sure why the 4.0 and 4.5 patches behaved differently but from this one report it does seem like this version of Windows may be game friendly but we'll know more in a few months

Don

Re: Windows 7?
 

Hello all !
Newcomer on this forum but having been playing SP then WinSP for a long time, I still play it a lot, and like many of you bought a new computer with Vista (no comment...) and upgraded it to Windows 7.
Got no loading/installing problem, never play intro, but in Vista like in Windows 7 I have fuzzy colors when launching the game, whether from options or directly. Used the tricks described in the Vista problems forum, which worked well with Vista, but no longer so well with Windows 7.
I found a solution, quite boring but which works : 1- stop Avast (that's the one I use...). 2- go to config panel, screen resolution (or whatever it is called in English, being French I use a French version), and modify it, 3- try to launch the game. If it doesn't work, try from options panel. If it still doesn't work, modify resolution again and try again. In the end it works. I told you, quite boring, but it's all I found. Hope it will help, and if you know an easier way, I of course am interested (even if I love modifying resolution every 10 seconds...).

Re: Windows 7?
 

Assume running in window? Sounds like something is still corrupting the pallette or games pallette is not picked up for some reason. Does it only happen at start & if switch windows or ALT TAB if full screen but is otherwise stable? Possible thing to try launch game splash screen (options) before launch the game right click on your desktop & select refresh.

Re: Windows 7?
 

As already mentioned somewhere on these forums - either WW2 or MBT, does not matter. If you have an O/S query, check both fora.

Avast happens to be the virus checker I use. Avast has a globe-spinny thing in the task tray (or several, depending on how you set it up). It seems to play with the Windows 256 colour palette as used in full screen mode, even though it should only be spinning its globe in windows mode. It also tries to pop up windows for e.g. database updates in full screen modes. The answer of course is to start the avast options dialogue and find the check box for 'check for full screen applications (eg games) ... ' in "troubleshooting" and check that box, since it is not the default Avast behaviour!.

Doing that has made it less often that the palette gets messed up if you alt-tab out to windows from full screen mode. It still does, and it definitely seems to be avast since XP was pretty stable about it before I installed it. It seems to be the spinning globe, and avast has no check box for 'don't spin your irritating globe icon in full screen mode'...

The original poster did not mention if he was talking about full screen or windowed mode, helpful information to have since they use entirely different palette handling methods. But my bet is full screen mode.

Cheers
Andy

Re: Windows 7?
 

Might be worth getting people to list there graphic card, could be an issue with 1 make of. I run avast without problems & when it does a pop up in full screen mode the game remains stable & corrupts the popup pallette, fairly basic ATI card. Make sure they have up to date drivers might help to but so many setups its hard to tell whats going on

Re: Windows 7?
 

Hi all !
As quoted I run in full screen (windowed = no problem, that's not the matter, everyone has no understood that in windowed mode it always runs).
From reading these fora, that's what I had understood about avast, hte spinning globe causes problems. But I had avast with XP and never encountered any problem. Only since Vista and Win7.
For info, my graphic card is ATI Radeon 4800 series. And driver up to date.
So, to sum it up, Avast is to be modified/disconnected, but even doing that, I have to modify the resolution one or more times. And then it works, but you have to "win your right to play"...
Thanks all for the time passed and help !

Re: Windows 7?
 

Hi all
I have the fuzzy background only in the menus, when I select the battle/Campaign, selecting troops and so on, but when I enter a battle it is as normal, no problems.
Problem has occurred since going to Windows 7 64bit Ultimate, all my hardware is the same as before the change.

AMD 6000+ 64Bit
4GB DDR2
Geforce GTX 275 with latest drivers.
Windows 7 64bit

Re: Windows 7?
 

What precisely is this "fuzzy background" anyway?.

When you have gone past the game options menu (which is a standard Windows programme), you are in the game EXE itself, and it uses the same DirectX graphics engine throughout.

Does running in Windowed mode vs. full screen show any difference?

Cheers
Andy

Re: Windows 7?
 

[IMG]<a href="http://s890.photobucket.com/albums/ac103/zonks/?action=view&current=Snap1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i890.photobucket.com/albums/ac103/zonks/Snap1.jpg" border="0" alt="SPWW2"></a>[/IMG]

Above is the main screen and is also the same for all others except the battle screen, which is fine.
I will have a go in windows mode next.

Mark.

Re: Windows 7?
 

Windowed mode works fine.

Re: Windows 7?
 

That is the psychedelic screen, where some other Windows programme has messed up the 256 colour palette.

I find that it seems to be the Avast anti-virus on my machine that triggers that (e.g when it does a database update in the background). A restart of the PC clears the problem. If it has not been happening before on your PC, then suspect something new - software or hardware (e.g. a new video driver update). Also - running memory-hogging programmes like MS Office (word, excel etc) sometimes gives me the problem if I then decide to play the game. Probably from lack of virtual RAM - sometimes, just closing down word, Excel etc will allow me to restart the game in normal 256 colour, but sometimes one has to reboot the PC and play it "fresh" without having run any other programmes.

But if it happens a lot, then windowed mode is just as good esp if you have the CD version. If you have the CD version then set up the resolution to something larger than your desktop. You now have a "full screen" game, but with the Windows taskbar visible at the bottom of the screen - you can see if email has arrived, and you have a clock. You may need to configure the mouse scroll area, if you have problems with scroll detection at the bottom of the screen. Also, remember to use the default Windows taskbar (standard height, and no auto-hide) as described in the tuning your machine section of the GG. Windowed mode full screen is also the best option for wide-screen monitors.

I must admit that I really hardly bother with Full Screen DirectX. It has performance advantages for folks with older more restricted machines, but modern CPUs manage the game with no lag, so using a windowed mode means that the programme is more "friendly" to other windows apps. (It will still hog CPU since it is a traditional DOS engine at heart).

Full Screen DirectX mode may still be useful to those who only have the D/L version and like running in 800x600 full screen mode. However, some flat-screen wide monitors dont show that very well, as it is not a native resolution. CRT monitors don't have the problem, obviously! :).

Cheers
Andy

Re: Windows 7?
 

I think it may be Windows 7 64bit or the drivers that go with it, I have a ton of resources available, both RAM and Virtual.
I had never seen this before, only after installing windows 7, but as long as it runs fine in Windowed mode Im happy.

This was the first time I ever started it up in windowed mode and it don't look too bad at all, I have the CD version so I can run it at 1280 x 1024.
Thanks for the tips Mobhack.

Mark.

I never run full screen, always windowed mode.

98% of the time I'm in the game it's for development and I need access to other programs that are running and at any one time that could mean the game, paint Shop Pro, a text editor, outlook express, internet explorer , windows explorer and sometimes Borland C++ builder. I have, on occasion, had all that AND both winSPWW2 and winSPMBT running

That's with a 7 year old computer running XP

The game generally works better in windowed mode in 99% of the cases where full screen is an issue . The only issue I have with full screen is the palette is slightly off with all colours shifted a bit to red and magenta so not only does full screen not allow me easy access to these other programs while I play or test it doesn't give me optimal colour either.,

We included both modes because at the time with all the different OS and computer set ups this offered the best way to ensure virtually everyone would find one mode to suit them best. Unfortunately what has happened is " full screen" is being treated as the primary way to play the game and that was never the intent when we set up both modes. If one mode works better on your machine than the other then that's the mode you should be using for your machine. Full screen is NOT the mode players should be using if they have problems like this. That's why both modes are included.




Don

Fuzzy screen
 

Hello all !
I do have exactly the same screen than the one showed by Zonks, but never went further in the game when having this screen. I'll try.
And agreed about Avast, when disconnecting it I have a chance to play, while otherwise one can do anything, it doesn't work in full screen. Maybe have to accept windowed (I have the CD, but never liked this windowed version...).
Regards and greetings to you all, you anyhow do a magnificent work we all appreciate !

Re: Windows 7?
 

I had the same problem with the psychedelic screen in this game and also SPWAW. I run it in the Windowed format and its perfect.

By the way, I purchasing the cd enhanced version will it allow me to play full screen? I have a 24" widescreen monitor

Re: Windows 7?
 

If you have problems running it in FS with the DL version your have trouble with the CD version but you will be able to run windowed at the higher resolutions which should hopefully fill your screen. Let us know how it works out

I assume then that becasue WaW only runs full screen it was unplayable for you or was there a workaround ?

Don

Re: Windows 7?
 

It is the same game, so if your video card is barfing on 256 colour full-screen mode now, it will still barf on 256 colour full screen mode. Your hardware has not changed in any way.

Full screen windowed mode is already described in the posts above, so simply follow the advice already given once you get the cd version. The relevant item is your screen size in pixels, and not the inch size. e,g 1024 by 768 mode worked fine on my 1024 by 600 wide-screen netbook as a full screen window mode there. It simply displayed the game in a 1024 by (600-XP task bar height) window.

Andy

Re: Windows 7?
 

Long time since I played but WAW was unstable graphicly in XP without serious tinkering.

Re: Windows 7?
 

Never had any problems running win-spww2 or win-spmbt from Win Seven. I have 3 machines here: One desktop pc with a nvidia gtx260 running seven-x64, another desktop with a nvidia 7950 running seven-x86 and a laptop with an ati chip running seven-x86. All is running smoothly as it did before with vista-x64 and x86. Only problem that still persists is the intro bug (disable intro and all is fine).

Happy Holydays from a former SP-Camo Beta Guy

cheers

Helge

Re: Windows 7?
 

Helge, were all those machines upgraded to Windows 7 or where they new machines with Win 7 already installed ? ( I'm guessing they were upgraded but IDK for sure )

Do you think the reason some people are having trouble with Win 7 is hardware related ( older sound or video cards etc ) or related to setting up the game to work with Win 7 ??

Did you need to adjust any settings to get the games to work with either the Vista or Win 7 ?

Don

Re: Windows 7?
 

Don,

I did clean installs on all machines as follows:

1.) Backup all personal important data by manual copying on usb-harddrives
2.) Reboot with the Win-Seven DVD
3.) Repartition the drives to your personal needs and format the drives with NTFS
4.) Install Win-Seven
5.) Manually copy the Win-SPWW2 and Win-SPMBT folder back to your drives
6.) Manually create a desktop link to gameoptions.exe of MBT and SPWW2
7.) Copy this link to your desktop
8.) Right click on the link and set in the compatibility mode "run as admin"

I run both games on all machines in windowed mode, because I have 1600x1200 and 1600x1080 resolution on my PCs and 1280x800 res on my laptop. Only thing I switched off in the gamesoptions app was the intro, since this killed the games due to whatever incompatibility with vista/win7.

Yes, I´m pretty convinced problems to run WinMBT and WinSPWW2 properly are caused due to device/graphic/sound driver issues, since the games seem to use standard Direct-3D and sound API calls. I even can run the two games without having them installed on the harddrives from a 2 gig USB Stick. I indeed already used this method for my pc at work where this method also worked.

I think you can easily test a whole spectrum of OS compatibility by using Microsoft Virtual PC, where you can check out XP/VISTA/Windows Server in Virtual Desktop machines. IIRC I made a post about this last year or even longer in the past.

Ahh, here it is:

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...virtual&page=2

and here:

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showp...01&postcount=9

So running the games from a virtual XP machine might be a last help measure for some folks, where due to whatever reason all other help might fail.

cheers

Helge

Re: Windows 7?
 

Thanks Helge. Hopefully this will help those having problems

Don

Re: Windows 7?
 

I have found a very simple solution to my Windows 7 full screen mode problem. Before I start the game I change to the refresh rate for my monitor from 59 Hertz to 60 Hertz. After the game closes, the refresh rate goes back to 59 so I have to do it every time I start the game, but it works every time. I do not have to set the game to Windows XP compatibility or make any other changes in my system.

System Info:
OS: Windows 7
Graphics Card: Nvidia 9800GT
Monitor: AOC 2019Vwal LCD


Dan

Re: Windows 7?
 

Interesting. What problems show up when you don't make this change ??

Do you still need to shut off the intro screen ??

Don

Re: Windows 7?
 

I get the garbled screen shown earlier in the thread and no I don't need to make any other changes.

Re: Windows 7?
 

What inspired trying a change in the refresh rate ?

Don

Re: Windows 7?
 

Sorry to jump in but laugh if that solves it, no longer have installed or would test perhaps someone else could, also higher refresh rate like 70Htz if supported.
A question I assume you are set to display at 60 not 59HTz, if so wonder if there is a glitch in Win 7 causing this, doubt very much its the graphic card perhaps someone should tell microsoft

Re: Windows 7?
 

59hz is certainly not any frequency I have seen ever.

LCD monitors have a typical refresh rate of 60hz, some with a 70hz option.

59hz - could be because you have a hardware problem of some sort perhaps, like a dodgy or over-strained power brick perhaps, or video card not seated properly?

Andy

Re: Windows 7?
 

I have an old Sony Mulitscan 200sx CRT monitor that has non-standard refresh rates, normally for windows it isn't a problem, however for linux I have to manually edit the xorg.conf to the correct refresh rates or I get garbled video with the nvidia drivers, so I thought I would give it shot and it worked. Nothing else worked.

Re: Windows 7?
 

actually most monitors have a wide range of refresh rates.
From the AOC website the refresh rate for my monitor are:
Scanning Frequency Horizontal: 30K~81KHz
Vertical: 55~75 Hz

so 59 Hz is well within it's operating range.

Re: Windows 7?
 

True, but the windows settings on any LCD monitors I have seen these days only ever gave 60hz (default) and 70Hz.

Now, the good old CRT monitors were a different beast entirely, and you were offered some strange rates, e.g. the larger pixel resolutions available, but at some very low and interlaced mode. (Those sort of "swam" in front of my eyes, and caused eye strain in a very short time). With CRT, it was a case of finding the largest pixel size that supported a rock-steady (75hz?) refresh rate.

Andy

Re: Windows 7?
 

That was my point 60 & 70 are whats offered & you said you have to reset each time so is it changing to 59 on its own despite the fact the setting is 60?
I am assuming you run in full screen at a diffrent resolution to your desktop so when it resets display resolution for some reason it is also changing the refresh rate. What is your desktop set to display at & what does it actually use 59 or 60? Guessing 59 which is why you need to reset each time.

Re: Windows 7?
 

Same resolution (1680x1050)both modes. I see no difference in anything except for WinSpWW2 and WinMBT, maybe it's an odd monitor or maybe its just a quirk with the nvidia driver (which seems to be setting the refresh rate), I'm using the latest release from nvidia, but since I see no difference at all for Windows I see no reason to complain. The switch to 60Hz for SPWW2 and MBT only takes 2 seconds so it's no hassle at all.

Re: Windows 7?
 

No your not AFAIK Camo games do not support that resolution so the monitor has to reset to the diffrent resolution. If you ALT TAB out of the game back to desktop screen probably goes very briefly black as changes resolution. If you now go back to the game the same happens but in your case graphics are probably corrupted as going to desktop reset to 59Hz.

The important point here I think is what is causing the refresh change hence why I asked what your desktop is refreshing at. Something is causing the discrepancy & as I assume you are checking changing the refresh rate while in your desktop I would say the error lies with windows unless everybody with problems are nvidia users in which case its there fault. Its fair to assume it is not the games fault as if you set to 60 before switch to it the game does not corrupt the setting & runs fine so you may have solved a mystery:D

As a thought for team nvidia or microsoft might be cheating as thats a diffrent ratio most were based on 640x480 ratio of 1.33 or close but thats 1.6 or maybe switching between to greatly varying ratios is causing the refresh error somehow out of my depth

Re: Windows 7?
 

Said out of my depth cant see ratios having anything to do with it, mine is an ATI card but had a quick look & can do some strange resolutions like 1024x480 so ratio is not a problem 1680x1050 is a native widescreen setting. Also looked at my video card & if access it directly not through properties does indeed support some strange refresh rates inc 59Hz. Still do not understand why his switches back to 59 from 60 once he has set it though. It could not possibly be Win7 hijacking stuff for its own purposes my card is default installed in the dreaded program files folder. I am jesting here but .....

Re: Windows 7?
 

Well the odd thing is when I check the refresh using the monitor control settings it says its at 60.1 Hz but Windows says 59 Hz, but as I said, I have no problems with Windows at that setting and no problems with WinSPWW2 and WinMBT when I set it to 60Hz so I'm satisfied. I just thought that other people might try it if they can't get them to work any other way, I couldn't. This computer dual boots (actually quad if you count Debian and Fedora) into 7 and XP, but changing to 60 Hz is much quicker then shutting down and booting into XP and I get full screen and I don't have to use XP compatibility or use a virtual machine. My SPWW2 resolution is 800x600, but that's fine for me too.