WC IV DVD version only runs in VGA

[Unregistered]

I have a problem, a big one. I've just found my old DVD WC4 game and I've gotten it to start in Windows XP. But, when it comes to gameplay graphics all I get is VGA which looks awful. Is there any way of fixing this? It doesn't matter how many times I press ALT+O or change the graphic settings on the main terminal. It still only shows VGA.

 

[Dran]

Download the patch, and use the following as the shortcut target = D:\wc\WC4\WC4W.EXE -true_color

Also you may want to try reinstall through dosbox, and do the settings, then patch, then update shortcut, then run.

 

[AD]

Download the patch, and use the following as the shortcut target = D:\wc\WC4\WC4W.EXE -true_color

Also you may want to try reinstall through dosbox, and do the settings, then patch, then update shortcut, then run.

I'm not really sure what he's getting at here though. The -true_color modifier only really affects the CD versions FMV. It is an older game after all though and it was designed to run without hardware acceleration. The only thing you might try is when in spaceflight, hit alt-o to enter the options screen and make sure the SVGA button is pressed, then make sure you hit save before returning to the game. It won't look perfect, but I think it looks perfectly adequate. However it still won't be more that 640x480 which will be somewhat pixelated on really large monitors.

 

[Unregistered]

As you have noted, the DVD version does not require a SVGA patch. And I've tried enabling SVGA through ALT+O - without success though. Thanks for trying to help me though... I guess I'll have to play through the game with bad graphics.

 

[ChrisReid]

Are you sure you hit save after you adjusted the settings? Are any files in the WC4 directory marked read-only? Do any other setting changes take effect?

 

[Unregistered]

Difficulty settings work, so do input settings. But not the graphics settings. They are (in ALT+O) not selected at all. But if I use the main terminal in game SVGA 16 Bit is selected. It's just that it doesn't show...

 

[ChrisReid]

Are you sure what you're looking at isn't already the SVGA mode? Can you take a screenshot?

 

[Unregistered]

I press Print Screen, alt-tab to photoshop, but when I paste it in its just a blank screen. How do I take screen shots?

 

[KrisV]

This is an SVGA shot:

I can't find a VGA shot anywhere, but it would look closer to Armada:

 

[AD]

I press Print Screen, alt-tab to photoshop, but when I paste it in its just a blank screen. How do I take screen shots?

You could try FRAPS, the free version should let you capture BMP files that are easily converted into JPG.

 

[Unregistered]

This is an SVGA shot:

I can't find a VGA shot anywhere, but it would look closer to Armada:

It's not as good looking as the first pic, but then again, not as bad looking as the second one. Could it be that my desktop settings (1280*1024) somehow interfer with the svga settings?

 

[KrisV]

Not the desktop settings, but the actual size of your screen will have an effect. 640x480 stretched out over a 19" screen won't look so great. LCD screens are even more affected than CRTs because they have a native resolution.