Starlancer

AlexanderDeath, I still have all of the files listed earlier in the thread. PM me an address and tell me exactly which ones you want.

Also, I did FTP all of the StarLancer files to a WC CIC server using an account LOAF had one of the staff set up for me back in August 2009, but I have no idea on the status of the effort to make the files available to the community. I did email LOAF at least once to follow up on this effort, but did not get a reply. You might PM LOAF and see if he can tell you what the status is.
 
FanieT said:
I had a lot of problems with Starlancer and Windows XP and then with Windows 7. Then I discovered the problems with stability stemmed from the game having a problem with multi-core and hyperthreading. Thanks to Pix's for this info - see http://pix.blog.idnet.com/?cat=70

This is the way I made it stable and I only had one crash thus far and this was due to Norton AV.

Try the following for stability:

1. Download imagecfg (a tool that came with windows 2000 server)
2. Unzip it to Windows\system32\ as well as Windows\system32\dllcache\
3. Make a backup copy of your exe and icd files. (the batch file changes the lancer.exe and lancer.icd files)
4. create a batch file named Starlancer.bat with the following in it:

“imagecfg -u lancer.exe
imagecfg -u lancer.icd
imagecfg -a 0x1 lancer.exe
imagecfg -a 0x1 lancer.icd
pause

5. run the Starlancer.bat file once.
6. Play the game using the normal shortcut.
7. do this after each clean install
8. By the way in the properties of the lancer.exe do not use any compatibility fix and run as administrator.
9. Also ensure that you use the newest secdrv.sys and binkw32.dll (search other installed games and copy the newest into game directory after making a backup copy of the old ones)
Click to expand...

OMG, that's it !!! This is the solution to get StarLancer run on Windows 7 64/bit ! Exactly following this instruction:
1. Install Starlancer from cd 1 + 2
2. Download imagecfg (google: imagecfg download) and extract it to Game Directory like: D:\StarLancer
3. Create a batch file (txt-file and rename it) named Starlancer.bat with the following in it:

imagecfg -u lancer.exe
imagecfg -u lancer.icd
imagecfg -a 0x1 lancer.exe
imagecfg -a 0x1 lancer.icd
pause

4. copy this in the Game Directory like: D:\StarLancer
5. Start the starlancer.bat and it looks like this: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/26/35602576.jpg/
6. don't close the window !
7. start the game using the normal shortcut
8. do not use any compatibility fix and run as administrator. this is correct: http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/858/93213810.jpg
9. alternative download the fixed executable from http://gf.wiretarget.com/starlancer.htm
10. enjoy this fine game (i played it scince 11 years ago and i'am 45 years old...)

readyred... :)
 
Right, bumping ancient thread...

Managed to get the game stable and applied some tricks to make the game look like you remember it:
Running on windows 10 x64..

Like ReadyRed started out:
PART 1, stabilizing the game:
1. Do a full install from cd 1 + 2
2. Download imagecfg (google: imagecfg download) and extract it to Game Directory like: D:\StarLancer
Then 3: Apply the NOCD patch you can find here: http://gf.wiretarget.com/starlancer.htm
4. Download imagecfg from here: https://robpol86.com/imagecfg.html, unpack into the game directory(Default= C:\programfiles(x86)\microsoft games\starlancer)
5. run a command prompt with administrative priveleges(search icon, cmd, right-click, run as administrator), and navigate to your game directory.
6. run the following commands(just like ReadyRed above);"imagecfg -a 0x1 lancer.exe" "imagecfg -a 0x1 lancer.icd"
7. Take the starlancer shortcut, set it to "always run as administrator"
-NOTE: You only need to run these commands once, since you are actually patching the exe, not running it in some special way-
8. Download and apply the medal case fix: http://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/727-starlancer-crash-fix/
Part 2:, enhancing the graphics to more modern standards, fixing the vomit-look starfields and get those connect-the-dots nebula to look proper again:
9. Download dgvoodoo2, version 2.53 from here: http://www.dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2.html
9.1 Extract both the Dgvoodoo2.exe and the 3 DLL's in the MS subfolder into the starlancer game directory itself(no subdirectories)
9.2 Run dgvoodoo2: Select your output device, force it to the resolution you want(I use 1440p(2560x1440), enable all the alternate effects, change the top option to the current folde(under the drop-out-box it's your first choice), on the directX tab, select the ati or nvidia card as output. Max out the vram(256mb probably) Enable the following: "Force Biliniar filtering", "Force Liniar mip filtering". Set Resolution to your display(in my case 2560x1440). Enable Application Controlled Fullscreen, set Anti-Aliasing to "App driven", Enable "Apply Phong Shading when possible"
9.3 Run the game(it'll do some detection work first, go to options, select video, set it to 1024x768 mode, it should see the dgVoodoo2 as a display adapter and that is what you should select. Close the game.
- AFTER APPLYING THE UNDERLYING, NEVER USE THE GRAPHICS OPTIONS MENU AGAIN, IT'll default back to 640x480 when you do, if that happens just repeat step 10 and 11-
10. Using notepad, open the starlancer.ini file, change the values XRES to 1280 and YRES to 1024, (this is the maximum stable resolution the game engine will do!)
11. Launch the game, everything should redraw properly now.. Nvidia and AMD cards will display better graphics with their respective virtual super resolution features enabled...
Bring back force feedback:
12: Set the compatibility mode for your starlancer shortcut to windows XP. The game will then be able to work with FF again, on any joystick that's correctly set up.
Part 3: Enhance Sound(restore the positional audio):
13: - If you have a modern creative labs soundcard, the game will recognize the alchemy wrapper after you installed it, and run EAX, you can download it from here: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Other-AUDIO-Tools/Creative-ALchemy.shtml . - A3D audio was an original feature of the game, and should now be available on any card using the A3D-Live! Soundwrapper ( https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.worknd.ru/ ) , but starlancer did not detect it, I still need to look deeper into that. Install the wrappers and they(assuming A3D will work) will be selectable from the audio configuration menu)
Part 4: Multiplayer
14. Multiplayer still works over VPN. No enhancements needed, just people to play with, you can set it up yourself quite easily and free using Softether VPN ( https://www.softether.org/ ) and selecting to add your server free of charge to the MS Azure network.

Please do note, especially those under 20 reading this: Starlancer is still as I'm typing this a 17 year old game, running with it's original textures. Especially the launching from the Reliant part looks off, but that is because there was barely a texture to begin with, some things you can only push so far.

And ofcourse, It would be a good idea to actually all put this in an autamated patch, but first I would need to know if applying the NOCD patch is actually ok, that specific patch does break the game's copy protection.

EDIT on 24/05/2020: Thanks to forum user Masquerade, we can now enjoy the EAX version again!(now on ANY soundcard!)
1 Download Creative Alchemy Universal here: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/28-creative-alchemy-universal/ and install it.
2 Download the starlancer directional sound patch here: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/1440-starlancer-dsound-fix/ and extract MSS32.dll over the existing in file the root folder of your starlancer install
3 Open Creative Alchemy Universal, and add an entry for starlancer, edit this to use either your install path or registry path(both will work!)
4 Start the game and in the options menu set the sound to EAX.

Note 1: You have to keep the Creative Alchemy Universal program active in the background
Note 2: When I had set my DAC to 192Khz, there was no sound. The game appears to only work with 48Khz

Finally we can now see the game as fully restored to glory and beyond! A3D would have been better, but seems lost forever.. for now.. Maybe we will find a solution in 2023!
 
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I just reinstalled Starlancer on my Win 10 machine. Had to remove the safedisc protection to run it but it works. Actually, I have dgvoodoo2 set for 1920x1080 while keeping the aspect ratio. It is only mildly stretched. Setting the in-game rez to 1024x768 increased the detail without altering the screen in any bad way.

My method to get it running under Win10 was a far simpler affair following the instructions off of Starlancer's pcgamewiki page.

Need to get Gameranger again and see if we can get co-op running again.
 
Whistler said:
I just reinstalled Starlancer on my Win 10 machine. Had to remove the safedisc protection to run it but it works. Actually, I have dgvoodoo2 set for 1920x1080 while keeping the aspect ratio. It is only mildly stretched. Setting the in-game rez to 1024x768 increased the detail without altering the screen in any bad way.

My method to get it running under Win10 was a far simpler affair following the instructions off of Starlancer's pcgamewiki page.

Need to get Gameranger again and see if we can get co-op running again.
Click to expand...
Hi,

I also came across the pcgamerwiki. but I did want to avoid the starfield/nebula issue since it really does jump in the eye... I also wanted the game to look good again.. The game does support modding appareantly, but the internet dropped silent for this game as far as mods go. And the pcgamerwiki does also use most of these solutions: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/StarLancer, my solutions can use Display enhancers to de-pixelate the cutscenes(works only to an extent). Also you'll avoid the black bars to the side when you are using a 16:9 display.

As for gameranger, it is not THAT reliable since it is a feee service. I found a more stable solution using VPN however, with starlancer, everybody needs to gather up to continue the savegame..

No need to remove the DRM so far btw...
 
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The DRM issue I have is mostly a hardware technicality, I have no optical disc drive in my new machine currently. My old one still has a DVD rewriter so I networked the CD drive for installation purposes but I don't want to leave the other system on just to make a CD check everytime I run the game.

Why not simply migrate the old drive? It has use still in the old machine.
 
Whistler said:
The DRM issue I have is mostly a hardware technicality, I have no optical disc drive in my new machine currently. My old one still has a DVD rewriter so I networked the CD drive for installation purposes but I don't want to leave the other system on just to make a CD check everytime I run the game.

Why not simply migrate the old drive? It has use still in the old machine.
Click to expand...
Well, appearantly the NOCD patch also negates the DRM issue, and is needed because Windows10 else will not be able to run the game?
 
Mace said:
Well, appearantly the NOCD patch also negates the DRM issue, and is needed because Windows10 else will not be able to run the game?
Click to expand...
I have not directly tested this myself. Disabling the CD check was for bypassing my lack of a CD drive in the machine. I can't imagine the safedisc DRM not interfering due to the apparent lack of support for it on 10 however.

To that I say... try it yourself? :D
 
The game installed and ran through ISO files I kept on my home server for all my games from the CD-scratching days... It ran unmodified, but from reading up it should not because of the Safedisc DRM. It did though... welll "I'd buy that for a dollar"...
There are more inconsistencies with the pcgamingwiki fixes though, why manually patch the exe, and two lines beyond just download an alternate replacing it?

I was motivated to do this because I had te rebuild my monitor setup after AMD's current driver setup took away some settings from my radeon control settings and reverted them all to factory settings, even after reverting I had to rebuild the multi-monitor setup completely, and had to find an alternate way to get rid of Starlancer's "black bars", I do want something of a futureproof solution now, since it'll probably be November 2017 before we get Squadron 42...
 
Finished the co-op campaign within a week my old gaming buddie, ran the patches on vanilla windows 10 installations with opposite hardware(AMD(270X in crossfire) on AMD 8-core in 1440p vs Nvidia(970) on Intel 6-core in 4K), ran the game on medium difficulty, had to replay 4 missions multiple times.
We connected using with my server as a host.
- He(my buddy) had 1 crash(The VPN server was on my side), in the entire campaign, likely due to to connection loss.
- While voice commchannels were functional(A first time for me to ever have it in action on the PC), we abondened it as it was unstable(audio quality, I also found the game to halt while playing on LAN, whereas on playing and hosting on internet within the game resulted in the game not pausing anymore, and the gameplay being more robust). and used discord to talk to eachother.

Things I still want to fix:
- The positional audio for A3D/EAX on non-creative labs hardware(I have both functional on Creative labs hardware in my second rig on Windows 7!). I am using RSX positional audio now.

Things that need attention, and I can not fix on my own, My profession is sysadmin, I make things stable and working, I'm not one to look up a products boundaries and pimp the hell out of them.:
- I managed to force the drawing routines of DirectX5 to work on modern cards, and AFAIK the game's light drawing look as good or better then ever imagened back in the day, and it holds up in 4K now. But the manual starfield, especially the "vomit"-one could be fixed if the texture had been replaced with something in a higher resolution. It's probably a matter of replacing something(or placing something in the extracted directories the game has!)
- The textures on the capships, don't know the limit, do know SLedit is gone.
- I'm aware that the source movies still exist, and how they'll look in hi-res:
. If there was some way to get these running in the game(and getting my hands on the rest of them).

If someone here had any ideas of enhancing it further, or just wants to join me on my wing, feel free to contact me. If someone has info on what would be the limitations and the do's and don't of writing an automated patch for alle the issues with the game, please advise me. I'd be more then willing to give all my findings and stuff to Good Old Games, so they can handle the legal stuff and there would be more people to fly with.

Since Squadron 42 is still not out, and will not feature a full co-op campaign AFAIK.. This game DID. While the game does offer some different mision settings in MP(example, being drawn through the wormhole).

Ofcourse CR could just give permission to remaster and upgrade the game to current standard, not likely unfortunately :D

I'll put up some unedited gameplay footage in 1080p soon.
 
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I'm up for some co-op. Been rushing up the mission chain in the hopes of hosting my own matches. Hesitant to go past mission 14 as I'm all too aware of what comes next.

Playing at 1080p and loving the look. Set the internal rez at 1024x768 for a more comfortable HUD. dgvoodoo2 seems to work wonders for getting most of the original look back.

So far, I've felt like I have been flying my best run yet. My only non-100 success was losing just one, "life boat," during the Ramses attack where I typically lose everyone but Makin. Haven't even let a torp through soloing the Krasnya counterattack.

Turning 36 hasn't cramped my styling. :cool:
 
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Whistler said:
Turning 36 hasn't cramped my styling. :cool:
Click to expand...

About to turn 41 here, purchased the damn thing on discs 16 years ago when it came out. Did not finish the campaign without cheating until today, with a wingman to handle the second bomber wing on mission 21.

You did use the settings like I advised a page back? Those should restore ALL the effects to DirectX5 times on the most expensive hardware features around from way back when. And now it runs smooth as silk, while we have at LEAST 20 tot 1000 times the capacities the game was designed to run on.

Are you using extra stuff like force feedback or posiional audio? What graphics card are you using?

We are in different timezones, but I'm up for a team-up the second day of christmas, still then there are now 5 more slots to be filled, I do have 2 candidates in mind though, but unsure if they'll come and stay.. So I prefer enthousiasts..
 
I used a pre-hacked exe so that allowed me to skip steps 1 - 8. dgvoodoo2 is setup exactly the same except for the 2K setting as well as installation of the medals' case fix. Modifying the rez in game only makes the HUD larger or smaller based on choice.

Cheats in Starlancer? Didn't know they existed. Have yet to die or eject this playthrough (knock on wood) but sure I've died/ejected before in previous runs. I must say I've never died to an enemy fighter but a capship blast or accidentally rammed torpedo has managed to catch me sometimes.

As for the other stuff, no force feedback or ALchemy as I lack the hardware for both. Rocking a Zotac 980ti AEE so gameplay is smooth as a baby's ass. Mission load times are nonexistent on an SSD. Have yet to test multiplayer. Funny thing with my router; it's so old it has preprogrammed port forwarding routines for the game! Of course these were assuming the code used MSN Gaming Zone to some degree.

Can't wait till I can shoot solomons at torpedoes again.

Time zones rarely concern me as I'm up at weird hours here in EST. Steam is probably the fastest way to find out whether I'm actively at the PC or not.

OT:
dgvoodoo2 2.53 has been a Godsend with all the older DirectX titles I have. The only disks I've ever thrown away are driver install CDs (since they are always newer ones online these days.) From fixing voodoo style games like Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight to correcting Splinter Cell's broken shaders I'm in retro heaven!
 
You can set other limits on rendering using software rendering agreed, but that makes the game look like it was done in the Duke Nukem 3D engine...

Yes, there is a mission select cheat in SL, and also one to make to make all ships available. However I prefer the thrill of the game actually limiting my options on what I have to fly with, something Standoff had, but I had not seen used in Secret Ops or Prophecy.

The hardware render option is not just the hud, but the base renders entirely, you have to manually set it to 1280x1024 since the game does not have that option in the menu, but Directx5 can handle that(you'll see the diference as DGvoodoo stretches it. And I'm flying on a 27" screen, no need for an oversized HUD.

You can't eject on mission 21, and everything over easy requires 2 persons to hit the torps. Unless you wait it out on the carries while everybody else gets it, it's not my style of flying. (You were aware the game actually has a difficulty settings and "learns" on hard?

As for multiplayer, we have to fly together, die together, if you eject you'll find you will be instantly picked off by an enemy pilot. If you want, I'll playtest the game again with you.. I assume EST is European Standard Time? PM for a login and IP adress.. I generally play from 9 to 11 PM(Netherlands time, with adjusted winter clocks).
 
Also please install Discord then for an open-wing comm... I'll try to refrain my gaming buddy from speaking dutch on the comms.
 
Hey does anyone have a functioning copy of SLEXTRACT? The versions on the zombie Lancers reactor and SWAT portal are both corrupt. I know this is a bit of a longshot but I really wanted to extract the pilot speech for a side thing.
 
DefianceIndustries said:
Hey does anyone have a functioning copy of SLEXTRACT? The versions on the zombie Lancers reactor and SWAT portal are both corrupt. I know this is a bit of a longshot but I really wanted to extract the pilot speech for a side thing.
Click to expand...
Been looking for it myself, but just about every link, or resouce is dead when it comes to the old starlancer community...
Anyway, I never uploaded what the game looks like with the enhancements.. so I put this one up on Vimeo:
 
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