Topic: Starfleet Command 2: Empires At War -- Patch 2.037!

[TarMinyatur]

Test it at Width=800 and Height=600.

What does the introductory splash screen show? It should display Empires At War 2.037 in plain font. I suspect your sprites.q3 file was not overwritten. Make sure the batch file and extracted files are not blocked by Windows.

[cbrown119]

Hi
Brand new here.

Just loaded my old EAW, patched to 2.037 but I have the same problem with the UI not scaling to 1920 x 1080.  I did test at 800 x 600 and the UI matched - everything was just too small.

I am on windows 10, compatibility set to XP SP3, colors to 16, and run as admin.

I read about the SFC launcher solving the problems but I am unable to actually find the link.  OP works great...SFC3 works great with a mod installed.  Just EAW is giving me problems.  Plus when I try a HET, the screen locks up, but thegame is still playing in the background. 

This is a fresh install off the original discs, patched to 2.036 then to 2.037 from here.

any suggestions?

Thank you

btw, those verification questions leave a little too much open for different answers. 

[TarMinyatur]

Try

Width=1366
Height=768

I never tested 2.037 at 1920x1080, the sprites.q3 may be a little buggy for that resolution. My monitor maxes out at 1366 pixels.

Does the HET freeze in 800x600 resolution?

[d4v1ks]

never tested 2.037 at 1920x1080, the sprites.q3 may be a little buggy for that resolution.

Don't loose your faith so quickly Tar.
The sprites.q3 are perfectly fine, as it has been since its creation.

[d4v1ks]

Just loaded my old EAW, patched to 2.037 but I have the same problem with the UI not scaling to 1920 x 1080
Plus when I try a HET, the screen locks up, but thegame is still playing in the background

I'm sorry to hear that you are having those problems.
But they are not related to the patch 2037.

After you unzip the files into the game folder, and overwritte them, did you installed the patch itself?
There is a batch file there to install the files.
And probably, as you are going to replace some files, it is a good idea to remove the read-only attribute from the originals...

[cbrown119]

Just loaded my old EAW, patched to 2.037 but I have the same problem with the UI not scaling to 1920 x 1080
Plus when I try a HET, the screen locks up, but thegame is still playing in the background

I'm sorry to hear that you are having those problems.
But they are not related to the patch 2037.

After you unzip the files into the game folder, and overwrite them, did you installed the patch itself?
There is a batch file there to install the files.
And probably, as you are going to replace some files, it is a good idea to remove the read-only attribute from the originals...

Hi,

I unzipped the files, overwrote the two files that were duplicates and ran the patch itself (install 2037 batch file).  It said that the files were already moved and to delete this batch file.

I had already tried that before I asked for assistance.

OP runs perfectly, but it doesn't have the "meat" of EAW.

Also, with the lower display setting 1366 x 768, the HET does crash the game.

Any other suggestions?

[d4v1ks]

I had already tried that before I asked for assistance.
(...)
Any other suggestions?

Not really.
It is a shame that it doesn't work for you.
It works perfectly fine for me on my windows 10 machine at 1920x1080, my laptop at 1366x768, my windows 7 machine at 1920x1080, my tablet at 1536x2048 and all my virtual machines.

[d4v1ks]

Hum... after you installed EAW from the CD, did you installed the "SFC2Patch2002-2036.exe" before the 2037 patch?

1. Install from CD
2. Install 2036
3. Install 2037

[TarMinyatur]

Let's eliminate some variables. Can you play 2.036 without problems?

I have a feeling that your Windows OS isn't responding well to the 2.037 batch file. What splash screen do you see? It should be the SFC1 space graphic with Empires At War in plain font.

[cbrown119]

I am uninstalling now and will try with 2036.

Some questions while I'm doing this.

How do you start EAW?  I go into the actual folder and click the application.  I don't see the opening video, just the splash screen.  then I looked on my start screen and saw the start icon there, too.  When I click on that one - I get the opening video.

Which one do you use?  does it matter?

Also, compatibility I have set to 16 colors, run as admin and compatibility with XP (SP3).  Anything else?

Here are some images of my problems:

1st pic Splash screen 1920 x 1080

2nd pic is Splash screen 1366 x 768

in game skirmish 1366 x 768 - the UI is not in alignment


I tested 2036 - no compatibility settings and everything works normal.  Its just a small screen.   I attached that one, too at the bottom

[cbrown119]

Just looking at the INI file in 2036.

lowres=0

But in 2037, there is height and width.  In OP, lowres=6.  should I try to change EAW's INI file to mirror the SFC OP?  All I'm really looking to do is to increase my resolution to a larger image.

Thanks again!

[TarMinyatur]

Just looking at the INI file in 2036.

lowres=0

But in 2037, there is height and width.  In OP, lowres=6.  should I try to change EAW's INI file to mirror the SFC OP?  All I'm really looking to do is to increase my resolution to a larger image.

Thanks again!

That is how the .exe loads the height and width variables for 2.037. "Lowres" is meaningless in 2.037 and 2.564.

The sprites.q3 has several common resolutions already configured. If the sfc.ini's resolution variables don't match an existing resolution, say 2000x1500, the UI won't work properly. But the Q3_Editor can edit one of the common resolutions to accommodate an atypical resolution (within certain limits). I think the max resolution tested successfully has been 1920x1080, and that setting is already present in the tactical UI application data, aka sprites.

[d4v1ks]

Here are some images of my problems:

1st pic Splash screen 1920 x 1080
2nd pic is Splash screen 1366 x 768
in game skirmish 1366 x 768 - the UI is not in alignment

If those screen captures were taken after you "install 2037" then it is obvious that it wasn't installed with success.
The splash screen is different:

[d4v1ks]

I am uninstalling now and will try with 2036.
(...)
I tested 2036 - no compatibility settings and everything works normal.  Its just a small screen.   I attached that one, too at the bottom

Maybe this is the problem...
In order to install 2037 with success you have to install 2036 first.
The first step is to install the game from CD, then you install the 2036 patch, then you install 2037.
The 2037 modification depends on the 2036 patch.

[TarMinyatur]

cbrown,

It's the batch file. Your computer did not move the 2.037 sprites.q3 to the proper folder. Perhaps it attempted to overwrite but was silently denied.

I see from your splash screen's lower right corner that you have overwritten the 2.036 Starfleet2.exe with the 2.037 version. That's good. You can manually copy and paste the new sprites.q3 to ..\assets\sprites.

The string files go in ..\assets\strings.

[cbrown119]

It works Perfect!

You nailed the problem, the sprites and the strings were not in the proper files, just in the game directory.

Now, I'm using 1920 x 1080, HET's works fine.

Thank you for the help!  It's great being able to play these older games again!

[TarMinyatur]

You're welcome.

Batch files can be seen as a threat by anti-malware programs or by an OS. All the batch file does is copy some text files from your Starfleet root to the appropriate asset folders. I added some location verification to the batch file, take a look at it with a text editor if you're curious.

[d4v1ks]

It works Perfect!
Thank you for the help!  It's great being able to play these older games again!

You are welcome.
I'm happy that you finally fixed the problem.

[TarMinyatur]

It works Perfect!

You nailed the problem, the sprites and the strings were not in the proper files, just in the game directory.

Now, I'm using 1920 x 1080, HET's works fine.

Thank you for the help!  It's great being able to play these older games again!

I forgot to add a tiny file to the 2.037 patch more than a year ago. The batch file can't move any assets because a file, 2037.ready.txt, was absent. Oops. I also fixed the text associated with hotkeys that don't exist in EAW. I thought I had enabled the new hotkeys in EAW as I did in Community Edition and Orion Pirates, but they don't respond. Better fixed late than never.

The download link at the beginning of the thread will connect you to the updated zip file.

[TarMinyatur]

I repackaged the 2.037 patch into a simple "drag-and-drop" file and folder structure today -- the same approach used by our updates to Orion Pirates 2.564.

The batch file that "installs" the patch has been troublesome to some players, and it has therefore been removed!

The first post in this thread has been edited to account for this change. Or you can download the 19July2020 package here.