Topic: The great Windows 10 compatibility thread (Read 69173 times)

JanB · « **on:** August 15, 2015, 05:27:56 am »

So I recently upgraded to Windows 10 (clean install) from Windows 7 and now Starfleet Command 3 doesn't run anymore. Of course I didn't expect it to since the game didn't run on Windows 8.1 either, the game has the same "black screen but mouse visible and audio on" issue as it did under Windows 8.1. No, what's worse is that my compatibility fix for Windows 8.1 (attached to this post) resulted in a crash directly on launch of the SFC3exe, just like it would on Windows 7 (but luckily the game didn't need a compatibility fix under Windows 7 anyway).

Right now there is no way to play SFC3 on Windows 10 because the small changes between Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 apparently made my fix not work anymore. I'm playing around with dll files to see if I can find a new fix but no luck so far and I may not find anything. Of course there is the hope that at some point in the future (perhaps by 2025) we might get Win XP emulators that are just as light (compared to the main OS of the day) and easy to use as Dosbox is today. There is also a tiny chance that future updates for Windows 10 will bring back whatever it was that made my compatibility fix work on Windows 8.1, but I don't think we should be holding our breath...

If you read this thread, could you tell me if the game worked for you on Windows 10, or, if you have the necessary know-how help me find a compatibility fix for Windows 10?

Javora · « **Reply #1 on:** August 15, 2015, 07:20:59 am »

I have read that some people have had luck with running SFC in Win7 compatibility mode. Have you tried that yet? If there is more than one then I would try them all and see which one works the best or if any of them work at all. Hope this helps.

JanB · « **Reply #2 on:** August 15, 2015, 07:56:24 am »

Of course I tried that, btw on my old Windows 7 installation I didn't need compatibility settings to run the game. Windows 10 for some reason has different DX9 files than Windows 8.1 so my fix for Windows 8.1 doesn't work either, quite annoying.

JanB · « **Reply #3 on:** August 15, 2015, 11:23:24 am »

I think I figured it out! I've gotten it to run under Windows 10 with a different version of d3d8.dll in the game's directory. The fix is attached. Just as under Windows 8.1 the game will only run in windowed mode, but at least it runs.

TAnimaL · « **Reply #4 on:** August 15, 2015, 01:37:37 pm »

thanks Jan. Not on Win10 yet but will be on one pc soon, and I've been meaning to try SFC3 install on 8.1 anyways

JanB · « **Reply #5 on:** August 16, 2015, 11:42:36 am »

You're welcome, I expected Windows 10 to put up much more of a fight than it did. I'm just glad I an still play the game on my new PC.

Btw, if you use these compatibility fixes without my mod then you might want to set "BlueLight=1" to BlueLight=0" in the SFC.ini file, otherwise you will have blue phasers instead of yellow phasers.

FPF-DieHard · « **Reply #6 on:** August 17, 2015, 10:25:23 am »

Anyone have any luck getting OP to work in 10?

JanB · « **Reply #7 on:** August 17, 2015, 01:43:34 pm »

If the problem you encounter with SFC:OP is a black screen with music playing in the background then there's a fair chance my fix will work for it too. Put the d3d8.dll file in the game's directory and run the game in windowed mode (in SFC3 you do this by setting "windowed=1" in SFC.ini).

FPF-DieHard · « **Reply #8 on:** August 17, 2015, 02:26:24 pm »

Quote from: JanB on August 17, 2015, 01:43:34 pm

If the problem you encounter with SFC:OP is a black screen with music playing in the background then there's a fair chance my fix will work for it too. Put the d3d8.dll file in the game's directory and run the game in windowed mode (in SFC3 you do this by setting "windowed=1" in SFC.ini).

Will that work at 32 bit color? I don't seem to be able to drop to 16 bit on my Surface.

JanB · « **Reply #9 on:** August 17, 2015, 02:52:15 pm »

Quote from: FPF-DieHard on August 17, 2015, 02:26:24 pm

Will that work at 32 bit color? I don't seem to be able to drop to 16 bit on my Surface.

Only one way to find out I guess... You can set the game to run in 16bit color mode using compatibility settings, but I didn't have to do that to get SFC3 to work.

gilderan · « **Reply #10 on:** December 05, 2015, 02:16:50 am »

Hi all, has anyone had problems even getting the setup.exe to run. On my win 10 system, I have executed it with Win XP SP 2 compatibility on but nothing seems to happen. I can see it running as a background process on task manager though.
[Edit] I purchased SFC CE and installs sweetly (once I RTFM and used MagicISO to extract the iso:) )

d4v1ks · « **Reply #11 on:** December 05, 2015, 07:15:38 am »

Atm i can comfirm that sfc2eaw, sfc2ce and sfcop run perfectly in windows 10, without any trick or compability mode. You just need to install in a "safe" folder and make a small tweak on sfc.ini

It works!

Bernard Guignard · « **Reply #12 on:** December 05, 2015, 08:33:15 am »

Can I load from set up on the cd or do I need to take the program off the cd and then do the set up in the Safe folder ?

d4v1ks · « **Reply #13 on:** December 05, 2015, 08:35:45 am »

I installed all from iso files i have on my backup hard-drive. All setup run without problems in my case.

zerosnark · « **Reply #14 on:** December 17, 2015, 08:21:26 pm »

Quote from: d4v1ks on December 05, 2015, 07:15:38 am

Atm i can comfirm that sfc2eaw, sfc2ce and sfcop run perfectly in windows 10, without any trick or compability mode. You just need to install in a "safe" folder and make a small tweak on sfc.ini

It works!

Any hint on what that small tweak is?

BTW: Thanks to the folks here, I am ALOT closer to making this run.

I had a HD crash, so I was "forced" to upgrade to Win10. And upgrade the graphics card. And get a new box.. . but I digress... .

Installation from the original CD was a disaster, but I brute copied all the files from my old drive/box to the "Documents" folder on the new rig.
I have the game fired up with the proper aspect ratio.
BUT.. . it seems like the game pukes at some point during battle.
I think it doesn't like the high res model files I used to run. . .
I suspect I need top do something with the NVidia control panel (that is how I got the aspect ratio to work)

. . . any clues appreciated.

d4v1ks · « **Reply #15 on:** December 17, 2015, 08:29:14 pm »

[Mouse]
async=0
hwblit=0

remove the gameplay spikes.

zerosnark · « **Reply #16 on:** December 17, 2015, 08:36:57 pm »

Hey! Thanks so much. . . I just found that in another thread.

The spikes seemed to actually bomb the whole program.....most annoying; as I couldn't bring up task manager to terminate the program.

It seemed to be working in the one game I tried... . .until I tapped the windows key. . . . more experimentation to follow.

Edit:
Yes, I definitely have it working now.

I cannot tell you guys how happy this makes me

Frankly, I was sort of dreading Windows10 because I was afraid it would break this game -> so when my hard drive crashed, I was most irritated.
(win 7 re-install in 2015 to a fresh drive seemed like a questionable way to go for non-SFC:OP reasons)

I was rather dismayed that I could not install from the original disk; but FORTUNATELY, I learned from someone that I could simply copy all the files from the old drive. . . put in the CD key. . .and go.
OK -> now have added the entire game folder to my "clean install archive".
Which helps. . . .I have a LARGE number of models from back in the day that I like to use

Thanks again!

AScout1 · « **Reply #17 on:** January 08, 2016, 08:54:59 am »

I am not certain if this is Windows 10 issue or a bug. I have now had SFC: CE crash on me several times and it seems to be fairly consistent around the use of plasmas at range 0-1. I have set the .ini files as recommended and have the game in a "safe" location. This one problem, though, seems to persist. Any thoughts or recommendations?

d4v1ks · « **Reply #18 on:** January 08, 2016, 09:25:44 am »

You say that you can start the game, play without any problems, and when you fire plasma at range 0-1 the game crashes?
If you don't play with a ship with plasma everything is ok?

TarMinyatur · « **Reply #19 on:** January 08, 2016, 10:56:16 am »

Quote from: Captain Adam on January 08, 2016, 09:58:54 am

We may have found our first bug related to all the alterations made to the CE. Tar, did you implement the Plasma changes/or point defense changes in the latest patch?

A) it could be Plasmas or b) it could be a result of the other ship attempting to PD the plasma.

Idk. Just throwing ideas out there, I recommend you play a non plasma race and see if it happens. Then recreate the circumstances of the first incident. Need more info.

I didn't change a single byte in the plasma point defense function. I allowed the player, via the SFC_Editor, to redirect the flow within that function, jumping to the "do nothing" decision that already exists.

Unofficial patch 2.675 is vanilla. It doesn't touch the PD function.

AScout1, what version of CE are you playing? Does it crash in a skirmish? Does it crash in the Dynaverse campaign? If you are playing a 2.670 campaign, then you may be encountering the bug that always crashes the game when you are about to destroy an Orion Pirate ship (with your point-blank Plasmas, for example) in a specific Patrol mission. 2.675 removes this bugged mission.

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Topic: The great Windows 10 compatibility thread (Read 69173 times) var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};

Topic: The great Windows 10 compatibility thread (Read 69173 times)