What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

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Apollo11
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What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by Apollo11 »

Hi all,

What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use (and why)?


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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by Oberst_Klink »

I am using the following; mind you it's an old PC, 256MB vid, 2.8GHz single CPU and 2.5GB RAM

"C:\Matrix Games\War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition\War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" -fw -px1680 -py1050 -archive -altFont -deepColor -skipVideo –dd_sw

Works flawless, even the campaign game calculation for the AI/combat resolution and so forth.

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pmelheck1
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by pmelheck1 »

I use the following myself

-px1280 -py0800 -cpu3 -deepcolor -altfont -fd

I use a lower resolution as my old eyes sometimes have trouble with the font if it's to small. There is a 2012 readme that explains the switches and it's just a matter of what works best for your system and what you like.
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by Anthropoid »

This is what I have in the "Target" text cell in my "WiTP AE (Beta)" desktop shortcut.

"C:\Matrix Games\War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition\Beta2\War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" -fw -altFont -cpu4 -deepColor -skipVideo -colorBlind -px1024 -py768

-fw = full screen weekly autosaves
-altFont = in game text uses an alternate font, Lucida Sans I think it is. MUCH easier for me to read!
-cpu4 = presumably makes the game make use of all four of my processor cores
-deepColor = didn't experiment too much with this one but presumably makes the colors a bit more rich and bright
-skipVideo = intro video never plays
-colorBlind = similar to the color setting; I noticed it and thought 'better color maybe?' Didn't experiment much but it seems good.
-px1024 = sets the game to display at 1024 pixels along the width dimension
-py768 = 768 along the height dimension. I run my desktop at 1920 x 1080, but the game cannot run that if I recall. Even if it did the fonts and other details would probably need a microscope to be read! I forget if 1024 x 768 is the lowest or highest the game can run but it works so I'm happy with it.

I originally had the switch syntax plugged into the Target cell of the Start Menu (Quick Start) item for the Beta patched game as the directions for installing the beta patch indicated to do it that way. I subsequently found that plugging it into the desktop shortcut also worked
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Yaab
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by Yaab »

-altFont - the default font was really a bad choice by devs
-skipVideo - no explanation needed
-w - Archive folder helps a bit with txt reports
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Apollo11
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by Apollo11 »

Hi all,

Thanks guys!


I am using this (Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme @ 3GHz):

"War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" -cpu4 -multiaudio -dd_sw -f -px1920 –py1200 -deepColor -altFont


BTW, I always had OK experience with "Full Screen" (i.e. "-f") but if I use "Windowed" (i.e. "-w") I can only get default 1024x768... [&:]


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sanderz
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by sanderz »

ORIGINAL: Apollo11

Hi all,

Thanks guys!


I am using this (Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme @ 3GHz):

"War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" -cpu4 -multiaudio -dd_sw -f -px1920 –py1200 -deepColor -altFont


BTW, I always had OK experience with "Full Screen" (i.e. "-f") but if I use "Windowed" (i.e. "-w") I can only get default 1024x768... [&:]


Leo "Apollo11"


i use windowed mode which seems to work ok

-w -cpu4 -multiaudio -dd_sw -px1600 -py900 -altFont
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by witpqs »

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

This is what I have in the "Target" text cell in my "WiTP AE (Beta)" desktop shortcut.

"C:\Matrix Games\War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition\Beta2\War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" -fw -altFont -cpu4 -deepColor -skipVideo -colorBlind -px1024 -py768

-fw = full screen weekly autosaves
-altFont = in game text uses an alternate font, Lucida Sans I think it is. MUCH easier for me to read!
-cpu4 = presumably makes the game make use of all four of my processor cores
Actually you are telling it to use cpu #4 (just the one cpu). IIRC there is some inefficiency in how it switches multitasks among processors than can make it be slower by using more than one. Not sure if that applies in all cases.
-deepColor = didn't experiment too much with this one but presumably makes the colors a bit more rich and bright
-skipVideo = intro video never plays
-colorBlind = similar to the color setting; I noticed it and thought 'better color maybe?' Didn't experiment much but it seems good.
-px1024 = sets the game to display at 1024 pixels along the width dimension
-py768 = 768 along the height dimension. I run my desktop at 1920 x 1080, but the game cannot run that if I recall. Even if it did the fonts and other details would probably need a microscope to be read! I forget if 1024 x 768 is the lowest or highest the game can run but it works so I'm happy with it.

I originally had the switch syntax plugged into the Target cell of the Start Menu (Quick Start) item for the Beta patched game as the directions for installing the beta patch indicated to do it that way. I subsequently found that plugging it into the desktop shortcut also worked
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by Anthropoid »

[&:] Really.

Well, I never notice the game taking much time to execute so I guess all is well that runs well! [:)]
The x-ray is her siren song. My ship cannot resist her long. Nearer to my deadly goal. Until the black hole. Gains control...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkIIlkyZ ... playnext=3
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catwhoorg
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by catwhoorg »

-f -px1920 -py1080 -deepColor -skipVideo

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nashvillen
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by nashvillen »

-w -SingleCpuStart -cpu1 -px1680 -py1050 -deepColor -altFont -archive -skipVideo -NoFire

-SingleCpuStart = to start in single CPU then switch over to multi CPU and using -cpu1 doing it on the first core.
-px1680 -py1050 and -w = Windowed on a 1920x1080 screen and gets the most map and still keep windowed mode and see 100% of the map (No bottom row of Japanese industries cut off)
-altFont -archive -skipVideo = This has already been covered.
-NoFire = The animations don't do anything for me, but my opponents like them. So, I don't skip the animations in the game, but don't have to deal with the endless flashes.

This is on one computer, will post the other later when I am in front of it.
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by nashvillen »

Same on the other computer.
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Apollo11
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by Apollo11 »

Hi all,

BTW, I see that most of you still prefer the "Full Screen" (i.e. "-f") to "Windowed" mode (i.e. "-w")!


I recently got 24" Dell LCD @1920x1200 16:10 (after almost 15 years with 19" CRT @1600x1200 4:3) and I am currently using:

-w -px1680 -py1050

so that I get big window and still retain the desktop (the "-w -px1920 -py1080" and "-w -px1920 -py1200" put window edges out of screen and I opted not to use those at the moment)...


Leo "Apollo11"
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by Mundy »

I use the screen format for my widescreen.  Also I've used AltFont since it first came out.  After that, I skip the intro vid.  I've tried the ColorBlind switch, but can't really see a difference.

With my old AMD computer, I had to use the CPU switch to avoid serious slowdowns in the game.  I'm sticking to Intel...
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by wdolson »

Initially we found more slow down with Intel multi-cores than AMD. I had two AMD 2 cores and found one had slow down with its graphics card, but the other didn't have any slow down problems at all. I read that AMD's switcher that determined what went to which core was better designed than Intel's. The graphics card threw another monkey wrench in the works. Most of the higher end graphics cards have drivers that use as many cores as the machine has and some DirectX calls that WitP uses would hang up the driver.

I've had very good luck with AMD. Most of my computers have run them for years. For some things, Intel is better, but AMD is better for some other tasks. My AMDs machines are 6 core processors and when I'm compiling code, it really moves along.

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Anthropoid
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by Anthropoid »

I'm pretty happy with my new rig so far, Xidax X8 I got for Christmas:
MSI MS-7821 mobo, Intel i5-4690K 3.5GHz, 8GB RAM, Win7 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 3.9GB

I'm surprised to hear that having high performance makes that much difference for compiling. Are you referring specifically to compiling AE code? I'm just starting into C++ (just got accepted to my new Technical School today! [:'(], second career after academia) so I don't know what I'm talking about.

But I had the impression that even an older low end machine was fine for running IDEs in many contexts. I would've guessed that if the infrastructure made much difference it would only come into play for a context like, an extreme graphically sophisticated game like Skyrim or some other gargantuan application world, say some astronomy or astrophysics application.
The x-ray is her siren song. My ship cannot resist her long. Nearer to my deadly goal. Until the black hole. Gains control...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkIIlkyZ ... playnext=3
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by witpqs »

http://talks.golang.org/2012/splash.article

While this article is about the Go language, I think you will find the parts about C++ compilation very interesting. This passage is mind-blowing:
The construction of a single C++ binary at Google can open and read hundreds of individual header files tens of thousands of times. In 2007, build engineers at Google instrumented the compilation of a major Google binary. The file contained about two thousand files that, if simply concatenated together, totaled 4.2 megabytes. By the time the #includes had been expanded, over 8 gigabytes were being delivered to the input of the compiler, a blow-up of 2000 bytes for every C++ source byte.
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Anthropoid
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by Anthropoid »

So basically C++ is, by design, a "Chatty Kathy" when it comes time to compile! [:D]

Programming is really so fascinating, I cannot believe it has taken me this long to decide it was the direction I should go. Got a lot more learning to do before I can read an article like that and have 95% comprehension of every single clause and phrase; right now I'm more like 45%. But its exciting to consider that new world to explore!
The x-ray is her siren song. My ship cannot resist her long. Nearer to my deadly goal. Until the black hole. Gains control...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkIIlkyZ ... playnext=3
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Mundy
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by Mundy »

ORIGINAL: wdolson

Initially we found more slow down with Intel multi-cores than AMD. I had two AMD 2 cores and found one had slow down with its graphics card, but the other didn't have any slow down problems at all. I read that AMD's switcher that determined what went to which core was better designed than Intel's. The graphics card threw another monkey wrench in the works. Most of the higher end graphics cards have drivers that use as many cores as the machine has and some DirectX calls that WitP uses would hang up the driver.

I've had very good luck with AMD. Most of my computers have run them for years. For some things, Intel is better, but AMD is better for some other tasks. My AMDs machines are 6 core processors and when I'm compiling code, it really moves along.

Bill

My last was a Phenom quad core. I didn't really like it as it ran hot with the processor fan screaming all the time.

I've got an Intel i7 with about 18 gigs of Ram. It runs this stuff just fine. I have a nice big Cooler Master fan on the chip, too, which I think helps. Why the processor companies use the lowest bidder on their fans...?


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wdolson
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RE: What command line switches for the EXE do you guys use and why?

Post by wdolson »

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

I'm pretty happy with my new rig so far, Xidax X8 I got for Christmas:
MSI MS-7821 mobo, Intel i5-4690K 3.5GHz, 8GB RAM, Win7 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 3.9GB

I'm surprised to hear that having high performance makes that much difference for compiling. Are you referring specifically to compiling AE code? I'm just starting into C++ (just got accepted to my new Technical School today! [:'(], second career after academia) so I don't know what I'm talking about.

But I had the impression that even an older low end machine was fine for running IDEs in many contexts. I would've guessed that if the infrastructure made much difference it would only come into play for a context like, an extreme graphically sophisticated game like Skyrim or some other gargantuan application world, say some astronomy or astrophysics application.

Compiling any code. Writing the code in the IDE is basically putting text into a fancy text editor. That doesn't take much processor power. Compiling can require a fair number of calculations and some compilers are designed to take advantage of every processor core available.

An older machine will allow you to edit and compile a large range of programs. Even a fairly large project can be compiled on an older machine. You'll just be sitting for a while waiting for it to finish.

Back in the day I was working on a project at Boeing that had a pretty complex build process. I used to take a book to the lab because each step took about 1/2 an hour (and there were about 5 steps). That was for an embedded system with ancient development tools on ancient computers. One of the computers involved had a pair of 8 inch floppy drives.

Bill
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