Wing Commander III Enhancement Patch

I just want to say that I just did a complete playthrough of Wing Commander III. I used the GOG version, with WingLoader using the WC3 Enhancement Pack and the HD videos. WingLoader patched WC3 for me automatically after installing your patch, and it worked perfectly. I also installed the HD videos and they worked perfectly as well.

What I really want to know is if there are any plans to patch Wing Commander IV to get HD play in space? It is strange that, now I'm playing Wing Commander 4 after beating WC3 and WC3 looks so much better in HD. I really hope that's something that can be done!
 
Kel9509 said:
What I really want to know is if there are any plans to patch Wing Commander IV to get HD play in space? It is strange that, now I'm playing Wing Commander 4 after beating WC3 and WC3 looks so much better in HD. I really hope that's something that can be done!
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The WC4 fan remake is about the closest thing to that at the moment: https://wcrespace.com/
 
Why go through the trouble of a remake when perhaps a DLL hack for widescreen, like the WC3 Enhancement Patch, might work with the existing game? I get that remakes can be popular and possibly use more recent technology, but I don't want to replace WC4, I'd like to play the game with just the same enhancements that WC3 received.
 
Hi all,
Been real busy lately with work and life in general, still plugging away with the patch when I get the chance.
@Kel9509: Really glad to hear that you made it through the game without any problems. I still intend to do the same with wc4 at some point. Probably not until the new year, work gets real busy in the lead up to Christmas.

I'm also looking forward to the wc4 remake when it comes out. Looks fantastic!
 
Thanks for the hard work with this, what is the best version of WC3 to use? It seems to run fine, but the controller and mouse issues are killing me on the GOG version.
 
You'll want to patch WC3 GOG to the Kilrathi Saga version, you can find Destro's patch here (I had to look it up myself, I found it via this news article). Alternatively you can get Wing Loader to do it automatically (there's instructions under the Wing Commander III section of the release post).
 
WCPSENTMEMAD said:
Thanks for the hard work with this, what is the best version of WC3 to use? It seems to run fine, but the controller and mouse issues are killing me on the GOG version.
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If you don't mind losing the ground missions I still think the 3DO version is the best way to play, it supports the joystick and the flight mechanics feel so much more like WC1/WCP.
I've not done much experimentation yet with emulation but there is a 2x resolution option and I actually needed to overclock it to 4x to get the video working which makes the spaceflight super smooth. On Android the colors are a bit too dark in spaceflight though.

I think the issue with the windows version are the controls getting worse at higher framerates and the complete absence of momentum. Also for me the patch makes rotation *far* faster than GoG, 3DO or the values in the manual or data. I assume no one else is getting that last one though as I've not seen anyone mention that here but me, but I can't land any shots as a result of it.
One of the reasons I've never been that fussed about remaking WC3 is how good the flight mechanics are in WC3 3DO so I don't feel like it's in as desperate need of an update as WC4.
 
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Thanks for the reply Pedro, I have the same issue with not being able to place hits like I did on the DOS version. Real shame, will have to look at the 3DO version, never gave it a thought really.
 
WCPSENTMEMAD said:
Thanks for the reply Pedro, I have the same issue with not being able to place hits like I did on the DOS version. Real shame, will have to look at the 3DO version, never gave it a thought really.
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I took some time with the emulators and the one thing I couldn't find was flightstick support, which really helps make the 3DO version the ideal way to play (unlike SWC it has true analogue input). It's probably too much of an investment for most but I can not overstate how much I love that version. If you can find the original system and stick it's the way to play. If anyone knows of an emulator that can do it though I'd love to hear - the improved framerate and resolution of an emulator are appealing.
Still, it's been balanced for gamepad controls, it's not a bad way to play on an emulator even without stick support.
 
Hello, Mash!

Thanks for an outstanding job on this! I hope real life will give you a break so that you can return to this amazing project.

Cheers!
 
Mash said:
You can use the "ALT"+"o" key combo when in flight mode to change various settings, including difficulty.
Also I made a note on the patches GitHub page to reduce confusion around DirectDraw_Hack. I have the Kilrathi Saga version and I haven't tested the "GOG"dos to win patch route yet. You should also check out the Wing Loader project, if you haven't already.
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Does the -mitchell code still work in this version? Which by the way is incredible...WC3 is back in a big way, with the enhanced videos as well...I feel like I did when I first started playing 30 years ago and was blown away....
 
@Hannibal_Barca Yep, -mitchell still works, I just gave it a test to be sure. Glad your enjoying the patch.

Just a quick update:
I should have a new version out in the next couple of weeks. The main additions will be joystick\controller mapping options and a UAC option so you can play the game from the "Program Files" directory. As well as a bunch of minor fixes.
Also a WC4 patch with similar features is well under way. HD space\movies are mostly working, still a lot of bugs to work through though. Probably still several weeks out from a release there.
 
Mash said:
@Hannibal_Barca Yep, -mitchell still works, I just gave it a test to be sure. Glad your enjoying the patch.

Just a quick update:
I should have a new version out in the next couple of weeks. The main additions will be joystick\controller mapping options and a UAC option so you can play the game from the "Program Files" directory. As well as a bunch of minor fixes.
Also a WC4 patch with similar features is well under way. HD space\movies are mostly working, still a lot of bugs to work through though. Probably still several weeks out from a release there.
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That's amazing. I was messing around getting WC4 and Linux to play nicely, specifically the HD videos. I look forward to your next update and the eventual WC4 patch!
 
Hi All, A new version is finally out wc3w_en_v0.3.0. You will also need to grab libvlc_min_pack_3.0.21 as I've updated the version of VLC media player the patch uses. You should be able to unpack these over a previous install without issue.

The main new feature is a controller setup utility which you can access in-game by pressing Alt+J on the Victory, via the Main Terminal under controls\joystick calibration or during space flight using the Alt+O menu\calibrate. This is the visual part of a general controller overhaul replacing the old Multimedia Joystick API with the newer Windows Gaming Input. It looks a little complicated but I hope it's fairly intuitive to use. You should be able to setup multiple controllers, peddles and such. You can also save your configurations as presets which can be shared with others, I'd be happy to include some of these in future releases of the patch for common joysticks\controllers.

Anyway let me know what you think.
 
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