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First post, by vedmysh

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Hello.

My experiments with dgVoodoo in conjunction with DxWnd lead me to some results I decided to share. Its a compatibility package to run Jane's Longbow and Jane's Longbow 2 (from Jane's Anthology), Jane's F-15 and Jane's F/A-18. Now also Digital Integration: Hind, Apache and iF-16 also available.

Tested (and intended to use) on Windows 10 (In my case it was build 1903 x64).

Before you start you need:
- Jane's Longbow Anthology (4 cd or cd images)
- Jane's F-15 and 1.17 patch
- Jane's F-18 and 1.01 patch
- Digital Integration Hind (Windows version, Software rendering) and patches (if not integrated into your installation)
- Digital Integration Apache (Windows version, Software rendering) and patches (if not integrated into your installation)
- Digital Integration iF-16 and Afghanistan campaign addon (Windows version, Software rendering)

In case of Digital Integration titles game installers are 16-bit applications and not run on Windows 10. As workaround use otvdmw.exe from mydxwnd archive. Run it and then select appropriate installer executable.
Be aware that Digital Integration titles require original CD(or image) inserted(mounted) in drive to run, if not, then you will be able to run ONLY network game.

Software used:
- dxWnd 2.5.28 (I made some custom patches to dxwnd.dll and rebuild it from sources, they are not significant, but without them the whole pack will be non functional)
- dgVoodoo 2.62.1 (WIP67)
- nGlide 2.10
- WineVdm 0.7 (for running 16-bit installers of Digital Integration titles)
No additional OS compatibility modes (Windows shims) required. Currently dxWnd are powerful enough to do all compatibility stuff alone (and its great).

Everything works fine (at least i able to test, any help with testing will be appreciated) including training (and historical missions), sound (no sound distortion), etc.
Longbow 2 can be run in Direct3D or Glide mode. Glide mode recommended because of the better result picture.

Known issues:
- Longbow/Longbow2 sometimes CTD at mission end
- Alt+Tab in game can lead to process hang or ctd
- small offset when click on virtual cockpit in F/A-18
- some installation scripts not intended to be used in Windows below Windows 10

Original post with detailed installation instructions (and screenshots) available here:https://vedmysh.livejournal.com/15502.html
News about F/A-18 update here: https://vedmysh.livejournal.com/15855.html.
News about Digital Integration titles here: https://vedmysh.livejournal.com/16179.html
You can use google translate - it produce more or less adequate translation:https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru& … om%2F15502.html

Brief installation guide:
1. Download and extract (preserve folder structure) mydxwnd.7z (http://www.mediafire.com/file/mfg2gfdw6kxv7u6 … mydxwnd.7z/file) to some folder.
Please, don't extract it to the path contains regional characters - some installation scripts not tested in case of regional encodings in path.

2a. Install Longbow Anthology to some folder. Do not install goldfxa patch.
Copy content from installed Longbow folder to (path from 1st item)\mydxwnd\lba\longbow
Copy content from installed Longbow 2 folder to (path from 1st item)\mydxwnd\lba\longbow2
Copy content from installed Longbow 2 folder to (path from 1st item)\mydxwnd\lba\longbow2glide
Download and extract (overwrite the existing files) Longbow.goldfxa.7z (http://www.mediafire.com/file/mt6rm2azs9zoyby … goldfxa.7z/file) to (path from 1st item)\mydxwnd\lba\longbow. Thats the original extracted goldfxa patch.
Now, you need to copy all 4 disks.
Copy content of disk1 to (path from 1st item)\mydxwnd\lba\cd\cd1
Copy content of disk2 to (path from 1st item)\mydxwnd\lba\cd\cd2
Copy content of disk3 to (path from 1st item)\mydxwnd\lba\cd\cd3
Copy content of disk4 to (path from 1st item)\mydxwnd\lba\cd\cd4
We done with LBA at this moment.

2b. Make full install of Jane's F15 to (path from 1st item)\mydxwnd\f15
Apply original 1.17 patch
This time its much easier.

2c. Make full install of Jane's F18 to (path from 1st item)\mydxwnd\f18
Apply original 1.01f patch

2d. Install Windows/Software version of Digital Integraion Apache to (path from 1st item)\mydxwnd\apache
You can also apply patches if they not included into your distribution.
In case installer wont run use WineVdm as workaround as noted before.To play the full version of the game CD/image should be present/mounted in drive/virtual drive!

2e. Install Windows/Software version of Digital Integraion Hind to (path from 1st item)\mydxwnd\hind
You can also apply patches if they not included into your distribution.
In case installer wont run use WineVdm as workaround as noted before. To play the full version of the game CD/image should be present/mounted in drive/virtual drive!

2f. Install Windows/Software version of Digital Integraion iF-16 to (path from 1st item)\mydxwnd\f16
Install Afghanistan campaign if it not integrated into your distribution.
In case installer wont run use WineVdm as workaround as noted before. To play the full version of the game CD/image should be present/mounted in drive/virtual drive!

3. Final steps.
Download and extract (preserve folder structure, overwrite existing files) mydxwnd.fix.7z (http://www.mediafire.com/file/y9gfmfgwybm7r07 … wnd.fix.7z/file) to path from 1st item.
Open the folder from 1st item and proceed to mydxwnd folder.
If you installed Longbow Anthology run gencd.cmd. It will generate ini files for built in game "cd emulator".
If you installed F-15 run f15.video.fix.cmd. This will rename offending *.UV2 gui video and allow to render text correctly (To roll back this procedure run f15.video.restore.cmd).
Run genini.cmd. It will generate config ini file for DxWnd with correct paths to the game(s).
Run verify.cmd. This script will check files and hashes to ensure everything installed correctly in previous steps. Everything should be "green".
Run nglide_setup.exe and setup glide wrapper. Enable VSync and Aspect correction. Other settings is up to you.
Jump to dxwnd folder or just run dxwnd.cmd. Now you should be able to run installed games from DxWnd.
In case of Jane's F-15 make sure 3dfx glide is selected in graphics settings.
Happy gaming.

Last edited by vedmysh on 2019-11-20, 14:48. Edited 13 times in total.

Reply 1 of 102, by vedmysh

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Changelog

2019-11-07
Janes F/A-18 support

2019-11-13
Fixed inflight cursor problem in Janes F/A-18
Added scripts to workaround text rendering problems in Janes F-15

2019-11-20
Digital Integraion: Apache, Hind and iF-16 support

Last edited by vedmysh on 2019-11-20, 14:41. Edited 3 times in total.

Reply 3 of 102, by damson

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Hey vedmysh, is your fix "self contained"? What I mean is if I use it will it overwrite my other installs (settings) of nGlide and dxwnd? I'm currently using dxwnd 2_05_04 build for Jane's F-15 (which works only sometimes it will crash when tryiung to enter the campaign) and nGlide for many other games. I would like to try your fix, but I want to be sure it won't screw up with something I got running currently.

Anyway it's great that those golden oldies are getting some love!

They are real pain to run on modern Windows.

My youtube channel - flight sims new and old

Reply 4 of 102, by vedmysh

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Hello

damson wrote:

Hey vedmysh, is your fix "self contained"? What I mean is if I use it will it overwrite my other installs (settings) of nGlide and dxwnd? I'm currently using dxwnd 2_05_04 build for Jane's F-15 (which works only sometimes it will crash when tryiung to enter the campaign) and nGlide for many other games. I would like to try your fix, but I want to be sure it won't screw up with something I got running currently.

If we talk about compatibility in general every copy of DxWnd uses its own configuration file (But be warned i used custom/modified build of dxWnd).
In case of graphics part and nGlide it uses registry to store configuration. So all settings is "global" for all applications. Atm nGlide is used for Longbow, F-15, Longbow 2 (glide variant).
But I cant call nGlide settings "advanced" so i guess you can easily change them without broking other games compatibility.

BTW, will be appreciate if you give a try for F-15 campaign from this pack and give me a feedback.

Anyway it's great that those golden oldies are getting some love!
They are real pain to run on modern Windows.

Agree. I spent a decent time to figure out how to run F/A-18, but its worth it 😀

Reply 5 of 102, by damson

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Thanks for the quick reply. Yeah there is not much to set in nGlide I know... I was more concerned about dxwnd.

Can I somehow use my existing F-15 install with your pack and revert back easily when something not working correctly? I got F-15 setup real nicely at the moment (vanilla + patch + nGlide + dxwnd) and don't want to break it 😉

I will surely check out the F/A-18 fix as this I was unable to run on Win10.

My youtube channel - flight sims new and old

Reply 6 of 102, by vedmysh

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damson wrote:

Thanks for the quick reply.

Welcome. We are old-hardcore-simulator fans - an endangered species. And should help each other 😀

damson wrote:

Can I somehow use my existing F-15 install with your pack and revert back easily when something not working correctly? I got F-15 setup real nicely at the moment (vanilla + patch + nGlide + dxwnd) and don't want to break it 😉

Yes, its possible, but this require some accuracy and caution.

Also its even possible to share all game resources for two or more game copies, but I suggest to duplicate all data instead. So as a second step from installation guide you should copy (instead of install) the existing (I assume you have full installation) files from game folder to mydxwnd\f15 folder. Then apply fix from 3rd item from installation guide.

F-15 reads file system paths to game resources from the registry (Maybe later i will try to use DxWnd virtual registry ability). Currently in the mydxwnd.fix.7z in the F15 folder you can find f15.reg file. After you apply item 3 from installation guide its now in your F15 folder also. You can open it with your favorite text editor. Pay attention to parameters with the filesystem paths. Use this file as template and create two reg files - one with the paths to your current installation. Another one with the paths to mydxwnd installation. Now, when you need to run your copy of F15 double click on first file and integrate configuration in the registry. If you need to run mydxwnd copy - double click on the second one.

More things to note.

The game should be patched to 1.17.

F15.reg is from the x64 OS version.
For x86 OS the registry path sould be

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Jane's Combat Simulations\F15

You can create your own reg-file (because you already have installed game and all settings are already there) by running regedit, finding the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Jane's Combat Simulations\F15

(in case of x64 version)
and exporting it as 95/NT4 type. Also this is a good idea because you can create "backup" of your current settings and later restore it if something is going wrong.

damson wrote:

I will surely check out the F/A-18 fix as this I was unable to run on Win10.

Yup, afaik currently its some kind of exclusive 😀

Last edited by vedmysh on 2019-11-11, 13:38. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 7 of 102, by damson

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Thanks for the tips.

Tried F18 - it works but the mouse cursor in game (during flight) is invisible making interactions with cockpit instruments impossible. Any fix for that?

My youtube channel - flight sims new and old

Reply 8 of 102, by vedmysh

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damson wrote:

Thanks for the tips.

Tried F18 - it works but the mouse cursor in game (during flight) is invisible making interactions with cockpit instruments impossible. Any fix for that?

There was a problem with double cursor in gui/menu. It is possible when i fixed that issue i also suppress the inflight cursor.
I will check it out, thanks for the report!

Reply 9 of 102, by damson

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OK, I decided to scrap my F-15 install completely and try your fix with the fresh install as I still got some random crashes on my install (even with your fixed exe that you provided several years ago at SimHQ).

First thing to note - when you enter Campaign most texts will be invisible (i.e. when you select your squadron you won't be able to see their names). To fix that you will have to delete all the *.UV2 files from Movies folder - these are all those clips that are playing on the bottom of the menus. The *.WVE files may remain as those are all the full screen videos like game intro, campaigns intros/outros etc.

I flew one mission in the Iran campaign and had no crashes so far, but the game will need thorough testing to confirm the fix is bug free. The random crashes were very rare.

Edit: Tried another mission from Iran campaign that I had crashes on my install (note that despite the missions being canned in the camapaign there are several "paths" and random first missions so each time you start the campaign you will have one of five(?) possible initial missions) - it was the one with the OSA-2 boats harrasing some oil rigs, the one during the day, there's similar one during night. Had no issues with it with your fix, so far so good! The only issue is the parts of the debriefing text being not visible, but if you switch the page between debriefing and your kills few times it will eventually show up.

My youtube channel - flight sims new and old

Reply 10 of 102, by vedmysh

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damson wrote:

OK, I decided to scrap my F-15 install completely and try your fix with the fresh install as I still got some random crashes on my install (even with your fixed exe that you provided several years ago at SimHQ).

Well, with that fix (or better call it workaround) I just suppressed only one issue with localized messages. Anyway I also included that old "workaround" into the pack. Just in case.
Hope with dxwnd we can emulate relativly close native environment and reduce the problems to zero. Or at least have several non meaningful of them.

damson wrote:

First thing to note - when you enter Campaign most texts will be invisible (i.e. when you select your squadron you won't be able to see their names). To fix that you will have to delete all the *.UV2 files from Movies folder - these are all those clips that are playing on the bottom of the menus. The *.WVE files may remain as those are all the full screen videos like game intro, campaigns intros/outros etc.

Ok, ill add it to my "check-list".

damson wrote:

I flew one mission in the Iran campaign and had no crashes so far, but the game will need thorough testing to confirm the fix is bug free. The random crashes were very rare.

Agree.

damson wrote:

Edit: Tried another mission from Iran campaign that I had crashes on my install (note that despite the missions being canned in the camapaign there are several "paths" and random first missions so each time you start the campaign you will have one of five(?) possible initial missions) - it was the one with the OSA-2 boats harrasing some oil rigs, the one during the day, there's similar one during night. Had no issues with it with your fix, so far so good! The only issue is the parts of the debriefing text being not visible, but if you switch the page between debriefing and your kills few times it will eventually show up.

Nice to hear.
Thank you very much for your testing. I will pay attention to the problems you noted.

ps As a bonus - Hind (Glide version) will be avaialable in the pack soon. Well. I hope so 😊 Spare time usually main problem 😢

Reply 11 of 102, by vedmysh

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damson wrote:

Tried F18 - it works but the mouse cursor in game (during flight) is invisible making interactions with cockpit instruments impossible. Any fix for that?

Back to F/A-18. I investigated the problem with cursor. The problem is dgVoodoo related. I already contacted Dege. Lets wait for his answer.

Reply 12 of 102, by vedmysh

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Update.

Fixed inflight cursor problem in Janes F/A-18
Added scripts to workaround text rendering problems in Janes F-15

Links updated.

Thanks goes to:

damson for testing and reporting problems
Dege for rapid response and fix to wrapper

Reply 13 of 102, by damson

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Nice, but I have new report for you 😉

Jane's F/A-18 - cursor visible but you have to aim it slighlty to the up/left of the intended "click place" - to press a DDI button for example you have to aim for the upper-left corner of that button. If you aim for the middle of the button it will not work. Not a big issue but can be distracting in a heat of battle 😉

Thanks for your work so far!

Edit:

Here you can clearly see what I mean by hovering the cursor over central touch display. Notice when it gets highlighted. Looks like the active point of that cursor is not its centre but more to lower-right.

https://youtu.be/eFxZM0x7ifg

My youtube channel - flight sims new and old

Reply 14 of 102, by vedmysh

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damson wrote:

Nice, but I have new report for you 😉

Report is good thing.This means the spent time wasnt in vain and someone interested in my work 😎

damson wrote:
Jane's F/A-18 - cursor visible but you have to aim it slighlty to the up/left of the intended "click place" - to press a DDI but […]
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Jane's F/A-18 - cursor visible but you have to aim it slighlty to the up/left of the intended "click place" - to press a DDI button for example you have to aim for the upper-left corner of that button. If you aim for the middle of the button it will not work. Not a big issue but can be distracting in a heat of battle 😉

Thanks for your work so far!

Here you can clearly see what I mean by hovering the cursor over central touch display. Notice when it gets highlighted. Looks like the active point of that cursor is not its centre but more to lower-right.

https://youtu.be/eFxZM0x7ifg

The video is really helpfull and clearly identify the problem. Thanks!
Small error and stable offset suggest that the problem related to wrapper "emulated" cursor. Also I did not put any cursor position recalculation from "my side" for F/A-18 (in dxwnd/patches).
Guess its time to forward report to Dege.

Reply 16 of 102, by cambeiu

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I cannot thank you enough for this work. I think these games are critical to the history of flight simulators and gaming in general and their preservation as working/functional pieces of software is priceless.
Do you think this emulation pack could also work with Jane's USAF and Jane's IAF?
At any rate, I hope you continue to feel motivated to continue on this project.
Thanks again for everything.

Reply 17 of 102, by vedmysh

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cambeiu wrote:
I cannot thank you enough for this work. I think these games are critical to the history of flight simulators and gaming in gene […]
Show full quote

I cannot thank you enough for this work. I think these games are critical to the history of flight simulators and gaming in general and their preservation as working/functional pieces of software is priceless.
Do you think this emulation pack could also work with Jane's USAF and Jane's IAF?
At any rate, I hope you continue to feel motivated to continue on this project.
Thanks again for everything.

Thank you!

Talking about USAF and IAF... Well, I already made some changes to dxwnd core. For example now it able to handle *.bmp loading without replacing original files in case of IAF/USAF.
But the main problem with this titles is close interaction with GDI in ingame GUI rendering. At this moment my favorite DgVoodoo has minimal support of such kind of interaction. I already talk about this with Dege but currently guess he is lack of spare time.

Right now you can try to use some compatibility patches floating around the internet. But in my case i unable to run the game properly with them on my Windows 10.

Reply 18 of 102, by Staniol

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Just wanted to say thank you, I lost all hope on Jane's F/A-18 years ago, now it runs flawlessly... Thank you.
Any experience with the TSH patches, especially the custom resolutions?
If not, I will give it a try to see how it goes.

Freedom of speech is our birth right, but the privilege of being heard needs to be gained.

Reply 19 of 102, by vedmysh

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Staniol wrote:

Just wanted to say thank you, I lost all hope on Jane's F/A-18 years ago, now it runs flawlessly... Thank you.
Any experience with the TSH patches, especially the custom resolutions?
If not, I will give it a try to see how it goes.

Welcome. Its worth to note the authors of dgVoodoo and dxWnd. Without their great tools this would never have been possible. Thanks guys!

Honestly speaking I prefer vanilla games with official patches applied. Another problem is a spare time.
Anyway I guess it is possible to use this pack as a starting point and use it as a base for running custom-patched games.