Let The Stars Get In Your Prophecies (October 8, 2007)

[Bandit LOAF]

Are you enjoying the new starfields in Standoff? Then you'll behappy to know that Pedro and PopsiclePete have developed a new version of the WCP/SO OpenGL update which adds them to the 'original' game! Here's the official word:

This is a new version of Alex Barnfield's OpenGL dll for Wing Commander Prophecy and Secret Ops. Along with a few performance enhancements and bug fixes over the previous version, this new one also includes the same enhanced starfields that were released in Standoff Episode 4.

What it does:

• The OpenGL mode allows to play WCP and SO in virtually any resolution your monitor can support, accomodating widescreen monitors with black bars on the side if needed.
• The original art and movies are upscaled to keep their original proportions when playing in any resolution.
• Plays without the DirectX mode texture alignement bugs and reimplement the graphic options that were previously only usable in Glide mode.
• Little cosmetic enhancements, such as the enhanced starfields

This replacement GL doesn't work with HCl's patched yet, but hopefully will in the near future. The next version will also include hi-res textures for the cockpit elements so they scale better at high resolutions.

Download it here (2 mb ZIP).

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Original update published on October 8, 2007

[JonkyB]

Hi, so I'm trying to use this patch in Prophecy on my Vista computer, and the resolution and graphical updates definitely work, but the game takes a horrific dive in framerate. I've tried changing the OpenGL settings to the lowest possible resolution, turning off FSAA and running in Windowed mode, and even turning off all the effects from in-game, but it still runs at a basically unplayably slow speed. This doesn't happen when I was playing with the Glide Wrapper. Don't know what's going on - maybe I should change some other setting?

[Eder]

Hmm, I assume you have a nVidia card? There is a known slowdown problem with some of them... try changing some of the texture filtering options in the nVidia control panel, that may help. I get unplayable framerates depending on my settings as well... it's weird, because when I get it right, it goes from unplayable to perfectly smooth.

If you have an ATI, though, then I guess this is a whole new issue that Alex would love to hear about.

[McGruff]

I was just barely able to play Standoff on my 1997 piece-o-crap until episode 4's pretty starfields. Now I have to seriously weigh a modern machine against a needed suspension rebuild.

I keep getting a runtime error when the game switches to the mission info screen before and after every mission.

[Eder]

Do you have compatibility mode set up properly?

[Wedge009]

First of all, to all involved (and Pedro especially), thanks for all your hard work - I really didn't expect to see an initial version so soon after Standoff Episode 4!

Now to the issues - these are not criticisms, just feedback in the hope it will make future releases better.


Prophecy

1. With HCl's high-resolution patch, I could play just fine all the way up to my maximum resolution (1600x1200). However, at that resolution, any anti-aliasing introduces extreme lag in keyboard and mouse-click responsiveness (~5-10 seconds).

With the OpenGL renderer, lag on mouse-clicks are introduced on much lower resolutions (1024x768), with or without anti-aliasing and/or anisotropic filtering. However, keyboard controls (which is what I use to play) seem to be more responsive (less than half a second delay) except when video comms play, in which case keyboard controls are stuck in whatever state it was in until the communications finishes.

Since performance is fine on low resolutions, am I to assume that the problem will go away with a better video card? I intend to purchase one within the next few days, so it'd be nice to know if that will help resolve this issue - for reference, I'm currently using a Radeon 9600 XT.

2. Also, there seems to be some false lining around HUD elements like the missile decoy count symbol and target status (this was not present in Standoff). If you don't know what I mean, I can supply a screen shot.

3. On second thoughts, no I can't. That's the other problem. Currently all screen dumps (using the built-in Print Screen function) are black screens, with a few coloured columns on the left edge.

4. Finally, since I had HCl's high-resolution patch, I also had to rename patch.tre in addition to recopying the original Prophecy.exe to get the OpenGL patch working correctly.


Secret Ops

Unfortunately, I could not get Secret Ops to work at all with the Open GL patch. I previously had HCl's high-resolution patch installed, so I renamed that and recopied the original SecretOps.exe, but no luck. I keep getting the fatal error message, "Could not determine what GL DLL to load".


In any case, it's looking good so far. After playing the first simulator mission in Prophecy, I can say it's really nice seeing the Kilrathi star base rendered without horrible glitches from incorrect z-buffering (or whatever the artefacts caused by 16-bit DirectX rendering are called).

[gr1mre4per]

For me, as far as I can tell its working flawlessly. Fabulous work guys. There is 1 glitch, which in no way affect the speed or playability of the game, that I have found.

1> I think this is OpenGL related as I've seen it elsewhere, but the renderer cannot determine properly which surface should be above another surface. This is most noticeable with turrets on cap ships. Sometimes the cap ship hull is over the turret base, or vice versa.

Its mint thought, well done.

[Wedge009]

Originally Posted by Wedge009

Since performance is fine on low resolutions, am I to assume that the problem will go away with a better video card? I intend to purchase one within the next few days, so it'd be nice to know if that will help resolve this issue - for reference, I'm currently using a Radeon 9600 XT.

Moved up to a Radeon X1950 Pro and gameplay is smooth even at maximum resolution. I am puzzled, however, that I did not have this issue in Standoff on my previous card. I suppose efficiency will be improved on as development continues.

Oh, and screenshot dumps are still broken.

[Pedro]

Originally Posted by Wedge009

In any case, it's looking good so far. After playing the first simulator mission in Prophecy, I can say it's really nice seeing the Kilrathi star base rendered without horrible glitches from incorrect z-buffering (or whatever the artefacts caused by 16-bit DirectX rendering are called).

Z-fighting usually.

I missed this thread initially, things get broken so easily (just found out non-scaled backgrounds are broken). I've added all the problems outlined here onto my TODO list
Thanks Wedge, that was some useful feedback.

gr1mre4per if you're still getting z-fighting like as not a 32bit depth buffer could not be created, what card are you using?

[Wedge009]

Thanks Pedro. I was wondering if I should have mentioned any of this in the Standoff forums, but I thought I should keep stuff about the two OpenGL releases separate.

[wcnut]

Is this the latest release?

[AD]

Originally Posted by wcnut

Is this the latest release?

The latest standoff release? Or OpenGL patch release?

The latest episode of standoff is Episode 4. I think there's only been one release of the openGL patch so far.

[wcnut]

i ment opengl release and by my count there are 2. Though It looks like this is the latest.

[Dyret]

Nah, it's the same. You've replied to two threads about the same thing.

[victor_cole]

Just reinstalled WCP in Win7 RC with compatable mode ME with Open GL working great. Fantistic Job! Core2 Quad 2.4, 8gig ram, HD4870X2. 1280x1024 in a window.

[Quarto]

Well, you might find it interesting to hear that with the latest upgrades, I no longer run the game in 1280x1024 - my machine is not good enough for it any more .

[Lt.Overload]

It's very cool and all but when I quit the game freezes and I have to right click the .exe and close the game...