Windows 7 problems and fixes

[DRG]

This thread has been started in both forums for any player of either of our games who has had a problem with the game related to Windows 7 and has found a way to make it right to post the problem and solution here so new players will have one place to look for answers to any problems they may have.

Don

[Jimil]

Hi, I've been through the forums looking at other peoples fixes, but I can't seem to find anything that works for me. I still have the colour palette making the screen horrid to look at. I'm running the game on Win7 64bit, i7 870 2.8GHz, with 4 Gig Ram, and a Radeon 5700 series card carrying lots of ram(not sure how much). The game is the download version, not the Cd version.
Any help would be great
Thanks Jim

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Jimil

Hi, I've been through the forums looking at other peoples fixes, but I can't seem to find anything that works for me. I still have the colour palette making the screen horrid to look at. I'm running the game on Win7 64bit, i7 870 2.8GHz, with 4 Gig Ram, and a Radeon 5700 series card carrying lots of ram(not sure how much). The game is the download version, not the Cd version.
Any help would be great
Thanks Jim

Vista plus Installation:
Ensure that you have installed the game outside the /program files/ vista/windows 7 "managed" hierarchy!.
Install to say C:\games\WinSPXXX
Remember to navigate to the folder you created with each patch installer as well.

Windows Vista/7 simply make a complete mess of the file handling if the programme is installed in the managed directories. Some files get placed in your user hierarchy, others get squirrelled away elsewhere, or simply do not write.

Windowed mode: Set the graphics mode to GDI, not DirectX.

Even in GDI mode, with all the compatibility switches applied, and admin privileges, if you minimise the game (ie ALT_TAB to another application) - Aero nukes the palette on restoring the window. Setting GDI mode makes this problem go away, and does not need any compatibility switches either. Performance is not an issue with modern processors.

Full screen mode - requires use of a CMD file (which will be provided with the next release, integrated with the GameOptions). This nukes Windows Explorer (and hence Aero interface) during play, and then should restore it on exit.

For now, it is attached here for manual start-up.

Unzip the CMD file to your WinSPWW2 game folder.

set up your full-screen parameters in GameOptions if needed, but don't start the game from there!.

1) Navigate to your WinSPWW2 game dir with windows explorer
2) Double Click the CMD file to start in full screen mode

Note 1 (for advanced users)
You can pin the CMD file to your desktop, task bar or start menu (you may need to create a shortcut in the usual manner).
That makes starting the game in full screen a one click affair, with no need to open Windows Explorer and navigate.
Just edit the cmd file and insert
CD $PATH$
as line 1 of the batch file, where $PATH$ is the full path to your WinSPWW2 game folder, since the game wants the current directory to be set to where it is installed on starting.

Note 2 that you will not be able to ALT_TAB out in Vista or 7 full-screen in the CMD file session. (Well, you will, but there will be no desktop !). Save and exit the game if you need to check email etc.

Note 3 that if on exiting the CMD file session, you have no desktop (icons and task bar not restored):
Press CTRL+ALT+ESC to bring up Task Manager
Press "New Task" button and enter explorer.exe as the name of the new task and then start it.

Compatibility
Note also that no "compatibility mode" switches are required on the game exe with these approaches.

Cheers
Andy

NB: The patch (with the CMD file integrated into GameOptions) should be out around March.

[Jimil]

Thanks, it worked a treat! humble am I!
Regards Jim

[user38]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

Note 1 (for advanced users)
You can pin the CMD file to your desktop, task bar or start menu (you may need to create a shortcut in the usual manner).
That makes starting the game in full screen a one click affair, with no need to open Windows Explorer and navigate.
Just edit the cmd file and insert
CD $PATH$
as line 1 of the batch file, where $PATH$ is the full path to your WinSPWW2 game folder, since the game wants the current directory to be set to where it is installed on starting.

For those of us who are not advance users an easier way of doing this is to leave the cmd file in the SPWW2 program directory, create a shortcut in that directory and copy that shortcut to the desktop.

[DRG]

Yep, that'll work too.....

Don

[user38]

I found I couldn't pin the shortcut link to the taskbar. It seems Windows 7 doesn't like users pinning anything except applications to the taskbar.

I found the solution here: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/10...ows-7-taskbar/