WC1 seems to work well from what I have tried but WC2 is freezing regularly and forcing me to quit Dosbox. I used the installer with GOG files.

In base WC2 it seems to happen randomly during missions, in Special Operations 1 it happens reliably during the flyby sequence autopiloting to nav 1 in the first mission, in Special Operations 2 it froze during the animation that plays when your ship blows up.
 
I've pushed a new release (1.0.1) which hopefully fixes the WC2 freezing issue. @Greg14 was right about loadfix; I was just sending it a parameter which worked for DOSBox-X, but not Staging... Anyway, fingers crossed! The above config should also work.

I'm also working on finishing support for more advanced real gameport joysticks (e.g. SideWinder 3D Pro); I honestly forgot that I'd already been working on that for WC1 ages ago... But I'm polishing it up and it should be in the next release!
 
Works Great so Far. I am playing simutanously WC1 and WC2 with emulated PS4 controller .
I havent run in any issues.
GREAT JOB
 
Nice, glad it's all working! :)

I've finally got the SideWinder 3D Pro working under real DOS - turns out there was a pretty general problem with 3/4 axis sticks under real DOS, rather than something specific to the 3D Pro. I'm still looking at adding specific support for more advanced sticks, but the next release should help with pretty much every gameport setup with more than 2 axes on real hardware.
 
How possible is to add in this perfect version Kilrathi Saga Soundtrack (I know it has different format but just saying) and also speech like WCloader ?
 
Speech is potentially possible; I've certainly been looking at it!

The tool I've developed over the course of the project for modifying Borland 16-bit EXEs had to be improved quite a bit to make the WC2 work possible at all. In turn that's taken more drastic changes out of the realms of fantasy and made them a lot more tempting to actually pursue...

These are the major areas I'm thinking about:
  • Combat difficulty settings. I'd like to avoid only changing armour values etc., although that may be an aspect of it. I've done some very promising tests (at least one video ages ago on Discord - still wish I could post MP4's here!) but it needs quite a bit of extra code inserted to really make it work properly, which even with my tooling does take a lot of planning.
  • Inbuilt support for other Latin-script languages (e.g. French, German, Italian). Not difficult, just a lot of moving pieces, and there's a lot of gaps/issues for most languages. I made a post for a sub-project regarding that stuff, but no replies, so I'll probably have to just make do with what I can piece together myself. I'll probably still make the translation hub public anyway, even if I'm the only one using it.
  • Sound Blaster digital effects. Seems possible; slightly harder for WC1 but not out of the question...
  • Support for advanced gameport joysticks. Work-in-progress; next update will definitely fix 3/4 axis gameport sticks at least, but I'm working on some specific protocol support too.
  • Full-screen (cockpit-less) forward view option, similar to Kilrathi Saga. I think I can make it work but it might not be something you can toggle in-game (i.e. an external setting managed by the launcher).
The Kilrathi Saga music did an OK job for what it had to do (not use MIDI :p) - what I'd rather pursue for DOS though is General MIDI support; then you could throw a high-end SoundFont (e.g. Timbres of Heaven) at DOSBox and potentially have it sound better than any other option, especially given the dynamic nature of the music. I started doing my own arrangements for Confederation just to get things happening, but I'd much rather if someone who's already an expert with GM (especially the Sound Canvas) puts their hand up to make the replacement .MIDs. :D Please let me know if you're reading this and that's you! ...Failing that, I'll finish my own attempt at it.

I'm currently trying to fix a mostly-cosmetic but definitely immersion-breaking thing (not new to WCAT) in WC1/SM1/SM2. I want to include a fix for that in the next version; more details then!
 
Hi

Congrats on the release, amazing work!

I noticed the loadfix -a issue in the WC2 DOSBox Staging config but you already sorted out a fix. It's working perfectly with a TM Warthog Stick & Throttle and TFRP pedals. Currently merged into a single virtual 4 axis/4 button controller with TM Target but should also work fine with vJoy and Gremlin.

Had to change to the DOSBox joystick setting to timed = off/false, but that's kinda hardware dependant anyway. I'm using the mt32_old model due to the List of MT-32-compatible computer games entries for wc1 and wc2.

Had a look at the DOSBox Staging config and there are some deprecated features and some default values (in the latest v0.83.0 version) which strictly speaking don't have to be added, but I'm guessing you were going for a working config across a few of the later DOSBox versions and it does work fine in v0.83.0.

With the latest version of Staging a minimal config is included in the attached file. It's identical for both wc1 & 2 so you could install them and the WCAT launchers to the same DOSBox hdd folder and just use a single config!

Anyway, congrats they both play amazing well!
 

Attachments

AllTinker said:
Speech is potentially possible; I've certainly been looking at it!

The tool I've developed over the course of the project for modifying Borland 16-bit EXEs had to be improved quite a bit to make the WC2 work possible at all. In turn that's taken more drastic changes out of the realms of fantasy and made them a lot more tempting to actually pursue...

These are the major areas I'm thinking about:
  • Combat difficulty settings. I'd like to avoid only changing armour values etc., although that may be an aspect of it. I've done some very promising tests (at least one video ages ago on Discord - still wish I could post MP4's here!) but it needs quite a bit of extra code inserted to really make it work properly, which even with my tooling does take a lot of planning.
  • Inbuilt support for other Latin-script languages (e.g. French, German, Italian). Not difficult, just a lot of moving pieces, and there's a lot of gaps/issues for most languages. I made a post for a sub-project regarding that stuff, but no replies, so I'll probably have to just make do with what I can piece together myself. I'll probably still make the translation hub public anyway, even if I'm the only one using it.
  • Sound Blaster digital effects. Seems possible; slightly harder for WC1 but not out of the question...
  • Support for advanced gameport joysticks. Work-in-progress; next update will definitely fix 3/4 axis gameport sticks at least, but I'm working on some specific protocol support too.
  • Full-screen (cockpit-less) forward view option, similar to Kilrathi Saga. I think I can make it work but it might not be something you can toggle in-game (i.e. an external setting managed by the launcher).
The Kilrathi Saga music did an OK job for what it had to do (not use MIDI :p) - what I'd rather pursue for DOS though is General MIDI support; then you could throw a high-end SoundFont (e.g. Timbres of Heaven) at DOSBox and potentially have it sound better than any other option, especially given the dynamic nature of the music. I started doing my own arrangements for Confederation just to get things happening, but I'd much rather if someone who's already an expert with GM (especially the Sound Canvas) puts their hand up to make the replacement .MIDs. :D Please let me know if you're reading this and that's you! ...Failing that, I'll finish my own attempt at it.

I'm currently trying to fix a mostly-cosmetic but definitely immersion-breaking thing (not new to WCAT) in WC1/SM1/SM2. I want to include a fix for that in the next version; more details then!
Click to expand...
If you need any help with the French version, just let me know. I’d be happy to give you a hand.
 
DarkenedRoom said:
Had to change to the DOSBox joystick setting to timed = off/false, but that's kinda hardware dependant anyway.
Click to expand...
That's really interesting; did it not calibrate properly before?

Either way I need to experiment with that more...

DarkenedRoom said:
It's identical for both wc1 & 2 so you could install them and the WCAT launchers to the same DOSBox hdd folder and just use a single config!
Click to expand...
Side note, but one of the changes I made for 1.0 was ensuring that the WCAT versions of WC1 & 2 can coexist in future - i.e. for one WCAT install which has data for both games. I have an expanded version of the launcher which can work with both games simultaneously. It's a great opportunity to improve the general integration of the games, so I'm holding off for now, but I'll be launching that at some point as another way to play.

Greg14 said:
If you need any help with the French version, just let me know. I’d be happy to give you a hand.
Click to expand...
Awesome! Your translation is easily the most complete of the ones I've seen, so it's also the first one I want to integrate. :)
 
AllTinker said:
That's really interesting; did it not calibrate properly before?

Either way I need to experiment with that more...
Click to expand...

Well I have a Warthog stick and throttle, pedals and 2 x Cougar MFDs, so 5 gaming devices. So when using DOSBox I have to create a 4 axis/4 button virtual controller with vendor profiling software like TM Target or a vJoy/Gremlin/HidHide combo. So more of a hardware/virtual controller sort of thing.

It's a very minor point and I think even the old DOSBox vanilla v0.74 mentioned if you experienced stick drift in a game to try switching to the other timed setting, so I wouldn't consider a WCAT launcher thing more of a DOSBox/hardware thing. It just something to be aware of when including DOSBox configs really.

AllTinker said:
Side note, but one of the changes I made for 1.0 was ensuring that the WCAT versions of WC1 & 2 can coexist in future - i.e. for one WCAT install which has data for both games. I have an expanded version of the launcher which can work with both games simultaneously. It's a great opportunity to improve the general integration of the games, so I'm holding off for now, but I'll be launching that at some point as another way to play.
Click to expand...

lol, I was thinking about suggesting exactly that but you're way ahead already! Put a quick video on YouTube showing it off here, the initial menu is just something I knocked up to call the launcher batch files.
 
Is it possible to be able to roll with the keyboard while simultaneously steering with the mouse?
Currently any key press seems to interrupt the mouse turning, the white crosshair disappears and the ship doesn't follow the original path anymore and just flies straight on (while rolling).

The Kilrathi Saga version was apparently reworked in this regard and it works fine there, but I wanted to give WCAT a try for my once in a couple of years replay of Wing Commander. 😁

I've sunk a couple of hours trying to get this working with a virtual joystick, but the joystick steering is really horrible when used with a mouse, i.e. you have to keep moving the mouse to keep turning, just like you have to keep the joystick pointed in that direction, which is really unplayable.

I do have a joystick, but I really wanted to use the mouse and keyboard this time, just like when I was a kid in the 90s.
 
sp00n said:
Is it possible to be able to roll with the keyboard while simultaneously steering with the mouse?
Currently any key press seems to interrupt the mouse turning, the white crosshair disappears and the ship doesn't follow the original path anymore and just flies straight on (while rolling).
Click to expand...
Hmmn, I'll see if I can stop it disabling the mouse specifically for rolling...

The whole keyboard/mouse/joystick layer is such a mess - I'm tempted to just bite the bullet and rework it from the ground up so you have to choose ONE steering method (i.e. keyboard or mouse or joystick), which would make a lot of these automatic switching issues just go away... I could leave the existing setup as an option. That's a longer-term thing though.
 
Having to choose between mouse and keyboard would be even more horrible though if that meant you couldn't use Tab anymore for the afterburner 😅
 
That's what I meant by "steering method"; i.e. arrow keys/numpad, mouse movement, or joystick movement. With keyboard fallback for anything missing.
 
There might be a bug in Chengdu mission 1.
Some of the four Krants that are pursuing the Hornet seem to explode on their own after a certain amount of time? I don't see anybody firing on them besides me, and haven't yet succeeded in destroying all 4 of them, one or two always seem to just blow themselves up.


Also, what exactly do you mean with "Losing a wingman should now be unnecessary for a perfect medal sweep" in your notes for WCAT? I'm currently attempting the path mentioned here (so
Enyo >L> Gateway >L> Chengdu >W> Brimstone >L> Port Hedland >L> Hubble's Star >W> Rostov >W> Venice), which apparently would normally require to sacrifice two wingmen.
 
sp00n said:
There might be a bug in Chengdu mission 1.
Some of the four Krants that are pursuing the Hornet seem to explode on their own after a certain amount of time? I don't see anybody firing on them besides me, and haven't yet succeeded in destroying all 4 of them, one or two always seem to just blow themselves up.
Click to expand...
This isn't a bug so much a game engine quirk, which this mission happens to show off more reliably than most. It happens in the unmodified game too; basically if a spawned ship enters a different "action sphere" it doesn't just get cleaned up; it gets blown up. It's just a weird engine resource management thing!

sp00n said:
Also, what exactly do you mean with "Losing a wingman should now be unnecessary for a perfect medal sweep" in your notes for WCAT? I'm currently attempting the path mentioned here (so
Enyo >L> Gateway >L> Chengdu >W> Brimstone >L> Port Hedland >L> Hubble's Star >W> Rostov >W> Venice), which apparently would normally require to sacrifice two wingmen.
Click to expand...
I mean that exact bug should be fixed. It was fixed last time I specifically tested it, which admittedly was years ago at this point, but I don't believe I've changed anything relevant to that bug since... I'll have another closer look at it before I release the next version.
 
Yeah, I've now seen the topic here, which seems to discuss the same issue. After a couple of more tries I managed to kill the Krants in time in Chengdu 2, but the second wave of Ralari + fighters was another issue, I've only seen them spawn twice I guess in all my tries.
It's also a bit weird that the mission debrief text reads as if you've succeeded if the Valkyrie Hornet you were meant to protect safely lands but you haven't encountered the Ralari, all while the music is the one for a failed mission.

Also, at least the "impossible" Silver Star in Brimstone 2 was achievable without sacrificing the Wingman for me. I just wonder what exactly do did in these missions, simply reduce the amount of required medal points for all the previously impossible missions?
 
I have also noticed a few spelling errors in the dialog during my playthrough, which might be something you'd like to fix as well.

Especially mixed up "ei" vs "ie" like in sheild vs shield and (be)seige instead of (be)siege.

E.g. in Brimstone 3:
Where I just noticed that "transport" is written wrong as well 😬

1792715101222.png
 
sp00n said:
I have also noticed a few spelling errors in the dialog during my playthrough, which might be something you'd like to fix as well.
Click to expand...
Excellent, yes, I've been trying to correct spelling and other errors when I see them - I really should dump the full text into a spellchecker. :D
 
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