Windows 7 *GUARANTEED* fix

[Riitaoja]

FIX FOR THE ARTILLERY SCREEN (For Dual Core CPU's only!)
(and Win7 colors)

Please note: If you have set any compatibility modes for mech.exe disable them. Compatibility modes do nothing good for SPWAW and infact disable the setting of cpu core AFFINITY and thus the artillery fix wont work.

summary:
To fix the Artillery screen unresponsiveness SPWAW must be set to run on the second core of a dual core cpu. This can be done with the start /AFFINITY -command.

Here is a download link for the Win7 color and artillery fix:
http://www.spwaw.com/phpBB2/download.php?id=25708

Note it also fixes the artillery screen for Windows 8 users (read the readme file in the zip).

-> UPDATE!

Please note that the fix is set up to work on computers that have a dual core processor. However today many computers already have 4 or more cores.

So if you have a quad core processor you will need to edit the file "_Run_SPWaW_Win7.CMD" as follows:

start /REALTIME /AFFINITY 8 mech.exe

So you change the AFFINITY 2 into AFFINITY 8.

[Erkki]

Wow, his one worked! Steel Panthers roll once again! [;)]


( 64 bit Windows 7 here, I had broken graphics and invisible mouse pointer...)

[Riitaoja]

RUNNING SPWAW THROUGH DXWND

EDIT:
IMPORTANT! If you have already enabled the build in Windows Compatibility options for mech.exe disable them all before using DXWnd. Otherwise DXWnd will not work properly.

EDIT 2: DxWnd is updated quite often and sometimes a version of Dxwnd might contain a bug. For example versions 2_03_29, 2_03_30 and 2_03_31 contain a bug where the Add option in the Edit menu is not available. This was fixed in 2_03_32. So if you have problems with DxWnd you might want to try another version.


Running SPWAW through the DXWnd program seems to work quite well for me. I am not getting any random crashes now as I used to before.
DxWnd is a sort of DirectX emulator (or wrapper) that helps in running old Windows games on modern systems.

You can get DXWnd from this link:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/


You can see a list and download older versions of Dxwnd from here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/f ... t%20build/
I currently use version 2_03_19 and it runs SPWAW fine on my Windows 7 computer.


Here is how to use it for Steel Panthers World at War:
0. Download the latest version of Dxwnd (it is a .rar pack so you may need WinRAR to unpack it)
1. Unpack all the files to a new folder like "C:\DXWnd\" for example.
2. Start dxwnd and in the main window choose Edit and Add.
3. Now in the Path: field click on the "..." and browse to your SPWAW "mech.exe" and click open.
4 (optional). In the Launch: field click on the "..." and browse to your SPWAW "_Run_SPWaW_Win7.CMD" to fix the artillery screen bug.
5. Deselect the option Run in Window and Enable the option Fullscreen only
6. Now click OK and a new entry (mech.exe) should appear in the main window. Double click on it and the game should launch using the DxWnd emulation.

Note for step 4: You do need the artillery screen fix command line file even with DxWnd since unfortunately there is no build in option in Dxwnd to select which cpu core to use (at least yet). So if you do not have it there is a link for the fix in my Post #: 61 abowe.

You can ofcourse try to experiment with the different options to get the game working the way you want but these option worked for me.

Screenshots on how to setup DXWnd for SPWAW:

[Major_Mess]

^^^^^ This post above ^^^^^^^ needs way more love. I bet that it could solve the problems of using any OS newer than Win 95. There is a compatability tab that might just help.


MM

[Riitaoja]

ORIGINAL: Major Mess

^^^^^ This post above ^^^^^^^ needs way more love. I bet that it could solve the problems of using any OS newer than Win 95. There is a compatability tab that might just help.


MM

The DXWnd program has many options in it including the compatibility tab. However the options "Hook enabled" and "Hook all DLLs" in the Main tab are the most important ones. When an old DirectX game is run trough DXWnd it translates the old DirectX calls to a format that is compatible with the modern DirectX 10 and 11 layers.

I have used DXWnd with several old Windows DirectX(or DirectDraw) games and had good results. Some games run with the default options and others might need a setting or two enabled to run properly. DXWnd also comes with a collection of premade settings for some games in the "exports" folder.

From my experience it is best to leave all the options to default and see how the game runs. If the game refuses to run properly then different options can be enabled to see if they make a difference. Don't just enable options without a reason or you might do more harm than good.

For SPWAW I have just done the modifications shown in the screenshot. Before I started to use DXWnd the game would randomly crash to desktop in the battlescape or in the game menus. Now the game has run very stable and I have not had a single crash yet.

[Riitaoja]

One important piece of information I forgot to mention is that you should NOT use the build in Windows Compatibility options for mech.exe. I mean the options you access by right clicking on mech.exe and selecting "Properties" and compatibility tab.

So If you have compatibility options "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" or Any other Setting enabled disable all those chekboxes. Otherwise those options will conflict with DXWnd!

[Major_Mess]

I'd like to know if that (I'm going from memory now) "fix win 7 colors" box fixes that crazy color issue.
I'm thinking good thoughts and have great hopes that this might just be "A THING".

FWIW I've been disappointed before.



Cheers
MM

[Riitaoja]

I'd like to know if that (I'm going from memory now) "fix win 7 colors" box fixes that crazy color issue.
I'm thinking good thoughts and have great hopes that this might just be "A THING".

If you have the crazy colors while running SPWAW trough DXWnd make sure you have disabled the compatibility options for mech.exe as pointed out in the post abowe.

As for the "Win7 color fix" checkbox in DxWnd I have no idea if that even does anything. From my understanding it is a redundant option since DXWnd should fix the colors anyway even if it's not enabled...

[8Bloodnut8]

hi Riitaoja
in the DXWnd program the Add line is faint where everything else is in bold writing
and under the mech compatibility there is nothing checked
so I don't understand why the add button dosnt work
also where do you find this win7spwaw.cmd I don't have that line in my spwaw folder
because all I get when I try to start the game all I get is a black screen then a direct draw error message
any help you give would be most appreciated

[Riitaoja]

ORIGINAL: 8Bloodnut8
in the DXWnd program the Add line is faint where everything else is in bold writing
and under the mech compatibility there is nothing checked
so I don't understand why the add button dosnt work

Unfortunately I have no idea why the Add button is greyed out for you in DXWnd. I have not heard of this issue before. I doubt it makes any difference but you should also be able to right click on the DXWnd window and this should bring up the same menu as left clicking on the Edit tab. Perhaps the Add button would work that way. Dxwnd is not mandatory to run SPWAW though.

Update:

From DXWnd v2.03.32 release notes:
fix: recovered the menu Edit->Add command that went disabled

So it would appear that there was an issue with DXWnd v.2.03.31 where the add button was missing from the edit menu. I had not noticed this since I was still using an older version (2.03.19) that worked fine.

ORIGINAL: 8Bloodnut8
also where do you find this win7spwaw.cmd I don't have that line in my spwaw folder

The win7spwaw.cmd file is the original fix posted by NCrawler in 2010. It is available for download here:
http://www.spwaw.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=23047

ORIGINAL: 8Bloodnut8
because all I get when I try to start the game all I get is a black screen then a direct draw error message

This one seems a bit worrying. Normaly the game should start even with no fixes just with messed up colors. Does the game run if you start it directly from mech.exe?

Finaly you could also try this one:
http://www.spwaw.com/phpBB2/download.php?id=25708

Unzip the files to your steel panthers world at war folder and start the game from the _Run_SPWAW_Win7 cmd file.

[Rudedog]

I had the color and artillery bugs. I could fix the Artillery or the color but not both at the same time. I put Rosollia's: start /B /WAIT /AFFINITY 2 mech.exe in Ncrawler's win7spwaw.cmd in place of mech.exe and now both work seamlessly. Thanks.

[Riitaoja2]

Important note about the use of the /REALTIME switch:

Reading my old posts and cheking the .CMD script in my first version of the Artillery fix I noticed a glaring ERROR.
I have no recollection how and why I included the /REALTIME switch in the script but that is a really bad idea since it will disable the /AFFINITY switch.
Thus making the whole artillery fix useless...

So for example if you are running the game from a .cmd script like this:
start /REALTIME /AFFINITY 2 mech.exe

You should edit it to look like this:
start /AFFINITY 2 mech.exe

EDIT:
For the latest version of the artillery screen fix I recommend the all-in-one fix I posted here:
tm.asp?m=4060116

[demyansk]

I just started a windows 7 laptop and installed the spwaw game onto it. All worked well until the color palette. I had the win7spwaw windows command script file of 1kb available. I am looking through this forum to see what I need to do to get it to work? I was thinking of buying the General Edition just for this laptop? What do you think is the best thread to start with?

I also can't find the artillery fix file?

I can't find the spwaw.cmd?

I got it to work, guess what I didn't have winrar on the computer, I moved the file into the spwaw folder, clicked on it and the pallette worked. Now I will need the artillery fix. Thanks guys

I will use that machine for the game, what about if you have the Generals edition, same thing?