New Privateer 2 Patch Adds Deinterlace Feature & Makes Numerous Improvements (October 1, 2013)

[HCl]

I think the Midi Mapper is gone in Windows 8(.1)

Ah yes, a very good point! Last time i looked into this I somehow managed to miss this nugget of information. From the Coolsoft web site:

Anyway #0 won't lead to a well known situation like in pre-Windows 8 era; #0 could be MGWS or any other one.The only way to select a specific device is use a MIDI software with a configuration option to select a device.

So, for greater flexibility, we'll want to override Privateer 2's default MIDI device and have a way to force one MIDI device in particular. No problem, I can do this on my wrapper, i'll post something on this soon!

 

[HCl]

Ok here's a new version of the patch, with a couple MIDI-related tweaks. It's now possible to override the default MIDI device and choose a specific device, using darkfix_setup.exe (there's also some display-related options there, but ignore them for now, they are disabled). Should be particularly useful for Windows 8 systems, given that the MIDI mapper is now gone.

Interestingly, overriding the default MIDI device solves the need to use Win95 compatibility in order to get MIDI music at all. In any case, you may want to keep Win95 compatibility for now anyway, as it may still provide a smoother gameplay. At least until i tweak a few P2 threading issues a bit. Your experience may vary, so try with and without Win95 compatibility and use whatever feels best.

P2 still does not work properly with VirtualMIDI Synth under Windows 7/8, but these changes ended up providing a few clues as to what may be wrong. Not sure if I can fix it easily, but we'll see… In any case, you should be able to make it work for now by explicitly choosing the Microsoft GS Wavetable on darkfix_setup.

PS: if you made any changes to DARK.FIX since installing the previous version of the patch, you may not want to overwrite it with the default version included in this zip.

 

[TCSTigersClaw]

Wow Great Mario ! Now I Have to update my thread in tech support with the latest patch of yours . I will test it tonight

 

[SiG]

Ok here's a new version of the patch, with a couple MIDI-related tweaks. It's now possible to override the default MIDI device and choose a specific device, using darkfix_setup.exe (there's also some display-related options there, but ignore them for now, they are disabled). Should be particularly useful for Windows 8 systems, given that the MIDI mapper is now gone.

Interestingly, overriding the default MIDI device solves the need to use Win95 compatibility in order to get MIDI music at all. In any case, you may want to keep Win95 compatibility for now anyway, as it may still provide a smoother gameplay. At least until i tweak a few P2 threading issues a bit. Your experience may vary, so try with and without Win95 compatibility and use whatever feels best.

P2 still does not work properly with VirtualMIDI Synth under Windows 7/8, but these changes ended up providing a few clues as to what may be wrong. Not sure if I can fix it easily, but we'll see… In any case, you should be able to make it work for now by explicitly choosing the Microsoft GS Wavetable on darkfix_setup.

PS: if you made any changes to DARK.FIX since installing the previous version of the patch, you may not want to overwrite it with the default version included in this zip.

Thanks! darkfix_setup worked wonders! Now I'm able to play the game with sound!

btw I'm running this game natively on Win 8.1 native and so far no issues. Running it on 95/98 & ME does make video playback go smoother but them my joystick starts giving me funnyreads as the game will randomly switch cameras.

 

[HCl]

Great, glad to know that helped

Thanks for the feedback, it's good to know how the patch is handling in Win8. I'm only able to test it in XP and Win7 right now, so that's definitely useful information.

The joystick issue is new though, i don't think i ever came across that. I'll keep this on my list of things to revisit and try to run some tests on that once I can set up a Win8 testing environment.

 

[SiG]

Great, glad to know that helped

Thanks for the feedback, it's good to know how the patch is handling in Win8. I'm only able to test it in XP and Win7 right now, so that's definitely useful information.

The joystick issue is new though, i don't think i ever came across that. I'll keep this on my list of things to revisit and try to run some tests on that once I can set up a Win8 testing environment.

The joystick issue mostly happens when going into compatibility mode for older versions of Windows (it shows up around XP compatibility mode). My guess is that the polling rates aren't neutralized or something...

Anyways, I find the issue was solved when callibrating my joystick in native mode, then playing again on compatibility mode. Still wondering though if rudder control and hat switch are really not supported in this version.

 

[otto4711]

hello

nice work with the patch
but i have a small question
i am using the deluxe windows version

is there a way to get the interlaced videos back ?

would be nice to have an option for interlaced and deinterlaced
i liked the way the videos looked

 

[ChrisReid]

I don't believe there's a toggle, so you are 'stuck' with the deinterlace. However, your original install should be preserved and you can run dark.exe instead of darkfix.exe to play the original version. You can also separately apply the speed fix patch to regain one of the most important bits of functionality at the latest patch provides: https://www.wcnews.com/wcpedia/Category:Downloads#Privateer_2:_The_Darkening

 

[Ropay]

Bit late to the party here but I'm running the new Darkfix.exe (test 3) and I was wondering if the hex addresses for changing the game speed of the UI and Space are still at 87D79 and 87D8D respectively? I see they're both currently set to 10 but even if I change them I don't really notice any change in speed of the actual game. The reason I'm asking is because I actually find the new .exe a teeny bit too slow for my liking especially when facing planets, capital ships or other objects. Saying that, I also wondered if this had anything to do with the midi stuff (which I haven't changed yet admittedly) or even my mouse settings as it seems a lot less responsive in flight. I guess I could try my joystick but I've actually got quite used to using the mouse. It does seem like a slightly noticeable drop in fps though but then again it's not the end of the world - I was just wondering. Cheers guys.

 

[Nightvoice]

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyy! I finally got my favorite game back! Been waiting years for this, and it works flawlessly. Thanks for making this utility!

 

[spacerat]

Hey! First I must say you've made a terrific job creating this patch as I am finally able to play this game after all those years! Thank you very much!
But here's a little issue of mine - I can't enter the options screen (Alt O). The game instantly crashes after hitting the said keys. I managed to configure my Saitek X52 Pro stick in the dark.fix file but can't get the throttle to work correctly. I tried to experiment with the Joy2 cy, ly and ry values but without any success. No matter what I set, the throttle cannot be set to zero - when I fully retract the stick I still cruise at speed of approximately 260. The only different behavior I was able to cause is when I set all the values to zero - then the throttle does nothing except when moved to 100%, then the ship accelerates indefinitely until the throttle stick is pulled back...

The calibration dialog is inaccessible due to the Ctrl O bug under both normal and Win 95 compatibility (running Win 7 32 bit Home). The game throws some kind of error but I can't say what it says as the screen goes black and I am unable to switch from the game. The only way to kill it ( I was able to find) is to run Task manager through Ctrl+Alt+Del and then hold Ctrl+Shift+Esc - the task manager then keeps flashing and after some trial and error I am able to kill the error or application using my mouse (that is the way I found that the game actually threw an error at all). Haven't found any log file to look the error up. Any suggestions how to configure the throttle in the config or how to calibrate it in the game would be very appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

[spacerat]

OK, I've probably sorted it out - I had a DOS version and just patched it by this new patch expecting it would be enough as the path turns the game in Win version. Well, I was wrong. So I fixed the problem by patching the DOS game by the standard Win patch and only then I applied this "deinterlace + other features" patch. Alt O now fully works, in-game joystick calibration is precise enough. I can even configure the HOTAS controls using the Saitec profiler so I can control the game just using the stick...

The only thing that bothers me now is the mouse responsiveness. In some game windows the mouse just stops responding (randomly, not always). I thought that is one of the main issues the patch is supposed to solve but not for me...at least not fully. Maybe I am missing something but some windows have to be operated by clicking the button (saving, diary entries, entering the booths...) so this bug is a game-stopper . It really sucks after completing a time-consuming or tough mission, landing on a planet and...whooops - kill the process in task manager, load the last save and do it once again...

Still a great patch, though. It may be even my own stupidity - could be still overlooking something. Could anybody help, please?

 

[spacerat]

OK, maybe I found the cause of mouse problems - Norton Security. It sometimes grabs focus switching any running fullscreen game to desktop. In this case it just causes a little "wink" as the game loses the focus and immediately regains it back . And this switch probably "kills" the mouse...

Well, guess I just have to live with it...

 

[wcnut]

Another note for people using CoolMidiSynth, I highly recommend Timbres of Heaven Soundfont. It is easily among the best sound fonts out there while still being small enough to load into ram quickly. On that note, I'm pretty sure CoolSynth has the option to load the whole font into ram all at once and never have to deal with it again.

http://midkar.com/soundfonts/index.html

 

[Lendari]

Greetings from 2017! I don't know if anyone still plays this game, but I wanted to share my success.

- Windows 10 Pro
- Privateer 2 DOS distribution from gog.com
- Unofficial Patch
- CoolSoft MIDI Synth
- Fluid R3 sound font

General Notes

- Set DARKFIX.EXE to run in 640 x 480 screen resolution and disable DPI scaling to further improve the clarity of the graphics.
- Set DARKFIX.EXE compatibility mode to "Windows 98\ME" to allow the MIDI synth driver to work correctly.
- In CoolSoft MIDI Synth DISABLE the option to "increase process priority to realtime" to keep the game from crashing when exiting the PAD screen and just kinda randomly in general.
- In game DISABLE the "high quality" option on the in-flight options screen (ALT-O) to get the frame rate as high as possible.

Thank you to the people who took the time to restore this classic game to playable status! Great work! The GOG guys should hire you.

 

[Nutellaloeffler]

Hi, im new to this Forum. Well i bouthg the German Version of Privateer 2 from GOG.
The Interlaced Videos are disturbing..so that i have found thagt website to giving a patch who fx that interlaced vidoes problem.
When iam using the Patch i have the problem ingame that i dont have a Fullscreen anymore . How can i change that?

thx and sorry for my limitated English knowledge

 

[AD]

Hi, im new to this Forum. Well i bouthg the German Version of Privateer 2 from GOG.
The Interlaced Videos are disturbing..so that i have found thagt website to giving a patch who fx that interlaced vidoes problem.
When iam using the Patch i have the problem ingame that i dont have a Fullscreen anymore . How can i change that?

thx and sorry for my limitated English knowledge

Do you mean the game runs in windowed mode? Try pressing ALT+Enter while playing and see if it goes full screen.

 

[Nutellaloeffler]

Hi, no not Windows Mode but its like - 4:9 - not full widescreen ...

 

[AD]

Hi, no not Windows Mode but its like - 4:9 - not full widescreen ...

The game was designed for a 4:3 aspect ratio monitor. Are you getting black bars on the side? that is normal. I don't remember if there's a way to actually stretch the image with the existing patch. If you just run GOG's dosbox version instead you can set the dosbox parameters to stretch the image to fit your widescreen monitor, but just keep in mind that it will be distorted.

 

[CyBear]

Hello fellow P2 fans! I can't seem to get the game to start using the DARKFIX.EXE. I think the issue might be that I have the game installed on E: rather than C: and thus need to edit the .EXE as was mentioned earlier in this thread. However, I have no idea how to edit it. Trying to open it it notepad results in something that is hardly readable. Is there some addotional software I need in order to edit it? When I open the config there is nothing shown in the "Display" box, and the "Windowed" and "Keep Aspect Ratio" options are greyed out.
I'm on windows 10 btw. Any and all help is much appreciated.