WC3 on WINXP SP2, 100% working solution

This solution works great on my machine. I haven't been able to play this in close to 10 years, but the old flying reflexes and strategies are coming back. Very nice. Only downside was that I had to retire my old Wingman Extreme Digital because the gameport never worked, but the new USB stick flies well.

Just a small problem that probably has an obvious solution that I am missing. I had a really bad joystick calibration when I first installed and calibrated. Now whenever I start the game I have to meticulously maneuver the cursor around until I hit the calibration set up.

Is there some way to set up the way the stick is calibrated when the game starts up? If not, no huge deal, still one of the best games I've ever played.
 
I had WC3 (Dos version) running on my pc just fine with only the sound being very tinty or grainy. I had no idea how to fix this so i gave up. I also have a wingman digital extreme 3d that i DID get to work with wc3 on the usb options. I believe i used a patch to do so. I will try to reinstall wc3 and do a complete list of setup instructions for VDMSound as soon as possible.
 
The VDMS "Standard Configuration" for WC3

This is basicly a simple guideline to just get VDMS working with Wc3. It does NOT include joystick support which i had working outside of VDMS thru a usb connection.

First things is that you have to create a program .exe SHORTCUT with vdms. Once the shortcut is create go into the shorcut properties...

Enable all three options for compatibility (EMS, VESA, and MSCDEX) all are needed.

Enable midi emulation with general midi(gm) or gs enabled.

then go into advanced properties...

Under Program tab...

Program: D:\wc3.exe "It should be setup for the game execute file on the cd."

Arguments: "None"

Run in: D:\ "your cd-rom drive"

"the rest of the options are your preference."

Under compatibility tab...

Enable ems support "set to" total:4096 kb

enable XMS support "set to" total: 16384kb

enable dpmi support

DISable cli/"..." support

enable VESA support

enable mscdex support

DISable network support

Under Dos Environment tab...

"make sure all boxes are checked"
under additional options check/add line: files=40

Under Performance tab...

Enable cap dos timer

DISable reduce cpu"..."

DMA servicing pooling should be set to 5/15 ms ratio.

Under Midi tab...

enable midi emulation
Base port:0x330 irq:2

enable sysex indicator to scroll lock

enable DEV to microsoft midi mapper

file should be set to VDMSound main directory

DISable input Dev

Under AdLib tab...

enable adlib emulation
base port:0x388
chip setup: automatic
synthesis:44100 Hz

output
enable Dev "standard audio device" (direct sound)
set buffer to 75 ms
DISable file:"..."

Under Soundblaster tab...

enable soundblaster emulation
base port: 0x220
irq:7
8-bit DMA: 1
DSP ver: 4.05 (SB16)
16-bit DMA: 5

output
enable Dev "standard sound device" (direct sound)
buffer: 75 ms
DISable file:"..."

"no input settings avaliable"

Under joystick tab...
DISable joystick emulation
(all other options grayed out)

Under Troubleshooting...
DISable ALL settings


Setup on Athalon XP 2200+
Realtek AC97 audio
640mb ram
visontek radeon 9600xt video card
XP home edition
 
I see that there are some satisfied pilots :] I told You it works :]

But why someone started talking about dosbox problems here?? There should be some sticked message saying that dosbox requires damn hellcat-speed machine to run properly. There are many post about it where everything is sad, so why people keeps asking about it?? ;p My PC is to slow (longbow-like) to run 3D games on dosbox, so I don't use it. Alright.... Nevermind that, I'm just tired of trying to speed up dosbox :] VDMS rock!!

Cheers...
 
Angelli said:
But why someone started talking about dosbox problems here?? There should be some sticked message saying that dosbox requires damn hellcat-speed machine to run properly. There are many post about it where everything is sad, so why people keeps asking about it??
Click to expand...

Everyone's already using DOSBox for the rest of their Wing Commander games, so trying WC3 in it is the next logical step. And DOSBox 0.65 runs WC3 better than ever. You really don't need too extreme of a computer to run it anymore. If it's not the case already, it won't be long before standardized retail PCs have enough power to run WC3 in DOSBox.
 
I managed to get DOS versions of WC3 and WC4 to run well with VDMSound. The trick is to disable all emulations that were not necessary.

Compatibility tab
Enable 16MB of XMS memory
Enable DPMI support
Enable low-level CDROM support (MSCDEX)

DOS environment
Defaults are okay

Performance
Defaults are okay

MIDI (if playing WC4 disable everything therein)
Enable MIDI (MPU-401) emulation
Enabled Output DEV to whatever will give you sound within the game (only Microsoft GS Wavetable synth worked with me though)

Adlib
Disable everything therein

Soundblaster
Enable soundblaster emulation, use defaults

Joystick
Enable joystick (Gameport) emulation
Leave defaults but play with the poll period to trade off from joystick precision to audio quality

Troubleshooting
Disable everything therein

Note that basic VESA support is not enabled. It seems like my video card driver provides some form of VESA support within console mode already. I think that's a major contributor to getting it running smoothly. The tempo with the MIDI music is now pretty much normal with my lowly Athlon XP.
 
It thus depends on the video card installed. My Visiontek 9600XT did not have basic VESA or it did not interfer. Other users will just have to findout for themselves.
 
Since the Alt+X thing isn't working, you can just use the built in DosBox function to kill the program: Ctrl+F9. Works like a charm...
 
WC3 and XP Help

I tried Angeli's work around for WC3, and no joy. I also followed the threads for DosBox and D-fend, and I can get it to work, but movies are skippy and the joystick goes nuts (as in pulling away, acting oddly, etc).

My setup is:

Dell Dimension 2400
Pentium 4, 2.66 GHZ
256 MB RAM
Windows XP, SP 2.0
Logitech Wingman Attack 2 joystick (USB)
SoundMax Integrated Digital Audio sound card (will emulate SB)
Legacy Video Card (standard Dell video card)

D: is my CD-ROM
WC3 installed on C:\WC3

Also note my printer is also a USB.

I copied all the discs to one WC folder (C:\WC3) and like I said it starts up, but movies are choppy, and the joystick is wildly ineffectual.
My WC3 game is the 4 disc, DOS package and I have ran it on my old Compaq Presario.

Any thoughts, suggestions would be most welcome. You guys have helped me, just by your suggestions, and I appreciate all the input.

Rob
 
You need to adjust the cycles/frameskip in DOSBox and try enabling the dynamic core option in your .conf file to adjust the speed of the game until it is not choppy.

Apply the alternate joystick routines patch in our Files section to see if that fixes your joystick.
 
Chris,

Thanks for the reply.....I saw by your previous posts that your not a big fan of d-fend. Can I ask why? Here's what I have so far:

Cycles: 12000
CPU Core: Full

And under the autoexec tab

[autoexec]
mount D D:\ -t cdrom
mount C C:\wc3
C:
loadfix -128 wc3


I downloaded the alternate joy stick routine, but how do I actually install it? I used the -I option, and it went to the same joystick calibration process.

Thanks again Chris!
 
Chris......I went back and tried the joystick routine again....now it "dead sticks" in the upper left corner. I have a printer that is a USB and I'll disconnect it, and see if that helps. But the movies are more fluid, the sound isn't bad....just need my stick to function.
 
Basically d-fend just automates adjustments to your dosbox.conf and entering commands into the DOSBox prompt. It does that fine, but when trying to trouble-shoot people's problems in the past, I've found that people think they have certain d-fend settings set but actually do not or don't understand what's going on. Being able to tell people exactly what to change in dosbox.conf or exactly what to enter into the DOSBox prompt has made tech support go more smoothly.

Definitely try dynamic core. It will allow you to go up much higher than 12,000 cycles. I would try WC3 without loadfix as well.

You run the wc3joy.exe file in the WC3 directory, then restart the game and recalibrate your joystick. Make sure Joystick is still selected and saved in the ALT+O menu in flight.
 
Chris,
I went to DosBox and tweaked things as you suggested. VAST improvement. I can not thank you enough! Joystick is working MUCH better. Here's my DosBox set up so maybe someone else can benefit.

Rob

[sdl]
fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullfixed=false
fullresolution=640x480
output=overlay
hwscale=1.00
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=highest,normal
mapperfile=mapper.txt

[dosbox]
language=
machine=vga
captures=capture
memsize=64

[render]
frameskip=0
aspect=false
scaler=normal2x

[cpu]
core=dynamic
cycles=20000
cycleup=500
cycledown=500

[mixer]
nosound=false
rate=11025
blocksize=1024
prebuffer=100

[midi]
mpu401=true
intelligent=true
device=default
config=

[sblaster]
type=sb16
base=220
irq=5
dma=1
hdma=5
mixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplrate=11025

[gus]
gus=true
rate=11025
base=220
irq1=5
irq2=5
dma1=3
dma2=3
ultradir=C:\ULTRASND

[speaker]
pcspeaker=false
pcrate=22050
tandyrate=22050
disney=false

[dos]
xms=true
ems=false

[modem]
modem=false
comport=1
listenport=23

[directserial]
directserial=false
comport=1
realport=COM1
defaultbps=1200
parity=N
bytesize=8
stopbit=1

[ipx]
ipx=false

[autoexec]
mount D D:\ -t cdrom
mount C C:\wc3
C:
wc3.exe
 
adcap said:
Chris,
I went to DosBox and tweaked things as you suggested. VAST improvement. I can not thank you enough! Joystick is working MUCH better. Here's my DosBox set up so maybe someone else can benefit.
Click to expand...

Great, glad you got everything working.
 
I just tried the VDMS Trick and it ends up with:

Make sure that the following line appears in your CONFIG.SYS file:
FILES=25

In the VDMS setup it is set to FILES=40

and i have no clue how to get further. Any help?
 
Hello all, I have not been visitng much for some tmie, had some health issues, and several ops, but am back.

I am trying to get my mint copy of WC3 to run, it is the 4 Disc set from 1994 with the black background CD lables with the Colonel on each one in brown tones.

It runs fine on my older Win 98 SE, and very well on my XP AMD 3300, with a GeForce 6600 vid card, Audigy ZS2 Snd Card, and 400 GB of HD, 1.6 GB RAM, 2.6~ghz system, but no sound.

I tried, DOXBOX with Defend, same, ran great, no sound
I tried both Angelli's and Ace Starfighter's plans to get it to run, and still no sound.
I installed VDSnd, made the shortcut, made all the adjustments to the shortcut's prperties in VDM Snd. and still no sound, I even changed the sound settings from Standard Sound Device to my own card, the Audigy, etc. but still no sound.

I love the looks of this game, I havent had a chance to play it yet, and have a growing colleciton of WC, so far,
WC1, WC2, Academy, Privateer 2 Deluxe, Secret Ops and all the missions, but really want to try WC III and still hope to get WC IV before it disappears totally.

Can anyone offer a suggestion? I have looked thru the threads here and elsewhere, and have been trying to solve this over the past six months or so on my own and finally decided to try asking here, Chris and others have been very kind to me in the past and I hope I may be able to finally get this licked. Others seem to have no problem, or to have found solutions.

Is there a way to use just DOX Box?

Any help much appreciated.

I looked for a sound set up file in the WC directlry on Disk 1 and could not find any, as in some older games there is a sound set up file that lets you pick one sound driver or another, and that sometimes helps.

These are the files that I copied to my Hard Drive to WC3 directory as the install file would not work on my system:

UNIVBE
WC3
WC3.CON
WC3GPATS
WC3GRAV
BOOTDISK
BOOTDISK.FRE
BOOTDISK.GER
CD1MISS.TRE
CD1MOVIE.TRE
GAMEFLOW.TRE
GLOBALS.IFF
HMIDET.386
HMIDRIVE.386
HMIMDRIV.386
INSTALL.TRE (THIS FILE WOULD NOT DO ANYTHING TO INSTALL)
JEMM.DVL
MCGA.DLL
MISSIONS.TRE
MOVIES.TRE
OBJECTS.TRE
README
README.FRE
README.GER
SWAPFILE.$$$
UNIVBE
VESA480.DLL
WC3 (MICROSOFT FILE WITH FOUR COLORS OF LITTLE SQUARES)
WC3
WC3.CON
WC3GPATS
WC3GRAV
WC3GRAV
WING3.ADV
WING3.B50
WING3.M50
WING3.PHK
WSG_NDXWSG

I read that we can copy all the disks to the Hard Drive, do we have to put them in different folders? I saw that there were similar files on all of them and was afraid that if I copied them all over the movie files would just be erased as i went along with the next one with the same title?

Thanks agian for any suggesitons.
 
Christopherger said:
It runs fine on my older Win 98 SE, and very well on my XP AMD 3300, with a GeForce 6600 vid card, Audigy ZS2 Snd Card, and 400 GB of HD, 1.6 GB RAM, 2.6~ghz system, but no sound.

I tried, DOXBOX with Defend, same, ran great, no sound
I tried both Angelli's and Ace Starfighter's plans to get it to run, and still no sound.
I installed VDSnd, made the shortcut, made all the adjustments to the shortcut's prperties in VDM Snd. and still no sound, I even changed the sound settings from Standard Sound Device to my own card, the Audigy, etc. but still no sound.
Click to expand...

Don't forget that Dosbox defaults to IRQ 7 (not 5 like the installer assumes because that was the standard) Try going back to the installer (type wc3 -i ) and set up the sound accordingly. Alternately you can change it in the dosbox.conf file to whatever you already set up the game to. THe main thing is that the install has to match the dosbox settings rather than the windows ones.

Try that first. If you still have problems we can work from there.
 
i did change the Dox Box setting for the irq to 5, as Ace suggested in his detailed suggestions, but still no sound.....i will try again everything tonight,

i am working with the DOS 1994 version of WCIII not the Kilranthi Saga one btw, in case that makes a difference in anyone's suggestions.

I am more than willing to keep researching and dont mean to pester you all, who already help so many, i can see that from the forum. I just am anxious after some five months or so of trying various things to try to get WC III working with sound, i would love it. thanks again.

Oh, and AD, i never did get the installer to do anyting by clicking on it, so I had to copy the files by hand to my hard drive and then opened it up with Defend, or by clicking on the exe. so i am not sure how to so what you suggest,

-type wc-i and set up the sound accordingly"

i tried and tried to find a sound set up file, as this has helped in other old games in the past that i have used with dos box and defend, but i cant get the install file in WC III to do anything nor can i find a sound set up file. i will keep trying. thanks
 
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