MechWarrior 2: Titanium Trilogy: 31st Century Combat

The game works in 1920x1080 resolution after applying the fixes (sdb, DxWnd, dgVoodoo 1.51), BUT there are no sounds and music in the game (videos, main menu, simulation).
I reinstalled the game, launched it for verification using DDrawCompat 0.4 without DxWnd, dgVoodoo 1.51- again silence in the intro and main menu. Everything is clear about the music, but there are no sounds.

Ran on Intel Core i7 13700k, Realtek ALC4080 (Realtek USB Audio in device manager), Windows 11 22H2

Minaro wrote on 2023-07-12, 08:56:

MechWarrior 2: Titanium Trilogy: 31st Century Combat […]
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MechWarrior 2: Titanium Trilogy: 31st Century Combat

The game works in 1920x1080 resolution after applying the fixes (sdb, DxWnd, dgVoodoo 1.51), BUT there are no sounds and music in the game (videos, main menu, simulation).
I reinstalled the game, launched it for verification using DDrawCompat 0.4 without DxWnd, dgVoodoo 1.51- again silence in the intro and main menu. Everything is clear about the music, but there are no sounds.

Ran on Intel Core i7 13700k, Realtek ALC4080 (Realtek USB Audio in device manager), Windows 11 22H2

dgVoodoo 1.51, why? The Glide version of the game has heap issues, at least with nGlide and dgVoodoo2.

The only situation where I can emulate a missing sound is if I am running the game on Windows 95/98/ME compatibility mode.

The other case where I can think of no sound is if the game sound is actually too low, and you increase it from setting.

The 3rd reason can be the game is outputting sound from a different hardware, this is a common phenomenon with Microsoft Midtown Madness. Go to Sound devices in Control Panel and try disabling every Sound Playback device other than the one which outputs your sound.

I am assuming you are on the Intel iGPU or a dedicated AMD or Nvidia GPU. For the latter 2, DxWnd alone would be enough, but no scaling. If with the Intel iGPU, try putting dgVoodoo2 there instead.

You may try to enable Main/Force Windowing and using Main/X, Y coordinates in the DxWnd profile to run the game in windowed mode, which generally should keep all the game elements in focus.

The last option I can thing is remove Tweaks/tweak: SlowDownExceptions from your game profile. This will make the game run like a Bugatti, but another problem was reported there too.

I tried the game in 4 different machines and other people tried it successfully, but to fix an issue I have to have it, so I am announcing everything I can image to be problematic.

Any updates on Mercs 1.1?

Deffnator wrote on 2023-07-12, 15:17:

Any updates on Mercs 1.1?

My Mercenaries version says Enhanced Direct3D and Positional Audio. The executable is MERCSWIN. You may try the ones I play with

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-07-12, 15:12:

dgVoodoo 1.51, why? The Glide version of the game has heap issues, at least with nGlide and dgVoodoo2. […]
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Minaro wrote on 2023-07-12, 08:56:

MechWarrior 2: Titanium Trilogy: 31st Century Combat […]
Show full quote

MechWarrior 2: Titanium Trilogy: 31st Century Combat

The game works in 1920x1080 resolution after applying the fixes (sdb, DxWnd, dgVoodoo 1.51), BUT there are no sounds and music in the game (videos, main menu, simulation).
I reinstalled the game, launched it for verification using DDrawCompat 0.4 without DxWnd, dgVoodoo 1.51- again silence in the intro and main menu. Everything is clear about the music, but there are no sounds.

Ran on Intel Core i7 13700k, Realtek ALC4080 (Realtek USB Audio in device manager), Windows 11 22H2

dgVoodoo 1.51, why? The Glide version of the game has heap issues, at least with nGlide and dgVoodoo2.

The only situation where I can emulate a missing sound is if I am running the game on Windows 95/98/ME compatibility mode.

The other case where I can think of no sound is if the game sound is actually too low, and you increase it from setting.

The 3rd reason can be the game is outputting sound from a different hardware, this is a common phenomenon with Microsoft Midtown Madness. Go to Sound devices in Control Panel and try disabling every Sound Playback device other than the one which outputs your sound.

I am assuming you are on the Intel iGPU or a dedicated AMD or Nvidia GPU. For the latter 2, DxWnd alone would be enough, but no scaling. If with the Intel iGPU, try putting dgVoodoo2 there instead.

You may try to enable Main/Force Windowing and using Main/X, Y coordinates in the DxWnd profile to run the game in windowed mode, which generally should keep all the game elements in focus.

The last option I can thing is remove Tweaks/tweak: SlowDownExceptions from your game profile. This will make the game run like a Bugatti, but another problem was reported there too.

I tried the game in 4 different machines and other people tried it successfully, but to fix an issue I have to have it, so I am announcing everything I can image to be problematic.

After your post, I reinstalled the game in the following order:
1. Installed MechWarrior 2: Titanium Trilogy: 31st Century Combat from iso image. During the installation process, I heard the sound of background music and the click sounds of the installer buttons.
2. Created a copy of Mw2win.exe and renamed it to Mw2tit.exe
3. Applied sdbinst.exe -q "%CD%\mw2tit.sdb"
4. Copied files from DxWnd v2.05.96 (dxwnd.exe, dxwnd.dll, dxwplay.dll, disasm.dll, libogg.dll, libvorbis.dll, libvorbisfile.dll, winmm.dll) to the game folder.
5. Launched dxwnd.exe, imported MechWarrior 2 31st Century Combat Titanium Edition.dxw from mw2titpatchingV2.rar (following the link from the topic header), indicated the path to the game.
6. Created MW2_31stCC.bat with the line dxwnd.exe /Q /R:1
7. Copied the dgVoodoo2 files (dgVoodooCpl.exe, dgVoodoo.conf, glide.dll, glide2.dll, glide3.dll) to the game folder, launched gVoodooCpl.exe, set the resolution for Glide to 2560x1440, for DirectX "Disable and passthru to real DirectX "
8. Run MW2_31stCC.bat and... I HEARD INTRO SOUNDS!!! I set 3dfx in the settings and could not tear myself away from the game for about 20 minutes.

My guess is that I may have previously applied mech2startupfix.sdb to MechWarrior 2: Pentium Edition by mistake. Sequential reinstallation and your recommendations helped me with this. Thank you!

Minaro wrote on 2023-07-13, 07:25:

After your post, I reinstalled the game in the following order: 1. Installed MechWarrior 2: Titanium Trilogy: 31st Century Comba […]
Show full quote

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-07-12, 15:12:

dgVoodoo 1.51, why? The Glide version of the game has heap issues, at least with nGlide and dgVoodoo2. […]
Show full quote

Minaro wrote on 2023-07-12, 08:56:

MechWarrior 2: Titanium Trilogy: 31st Century Combat […]
Show full quote

MechWarrior 2: Titanium Trilogy: 31st Century Combat

The game works in 1920x1080 resolution after applying the fixes (sdb, DxWnd, dgVoodoo 1.51), BUT there are no sounds and music in the game (videos, main menu, simulation).
I reinstalled the game, launched it for verification using DDrawCompat 0.4 without DxWnd, dgVoodoo 1.51- again silence in the intro and main menu. Everything is clear about the music, but there are no sounds.

Ran on Intel Core i7 13700k, Realtek ALC4080 (Realtek USB Audio in device manager), Windows 11 22H2

dgVoodoo 1.51, why? The Glide version of the game has heap issues, at least with nGlide and dgVoodoo2.

The only situation where I can emulate a missing sound is if I am running the game on Windows 95/98/ME compatibility mode.

The other case where I can think of no sound is if the game sound is actually too low, and you increase it from setting.

The 3rd reason can be the game is outputting sound from a different hardware, this is a common phenomenon with Microsoft Midtown Madness. Go to Sound devices in Control Panel and try disabling every Sound Playback device other than the one which outputs your sound.

I am assuming you are on the Intel iGPU or a dedicated AMD or Nvidia GPU. For the latter 2, DxWnd alone would be enough, but no scaling. If with the Intel iGPU, try putting dgVoodoo2 there instead.

You may try to enable Main/Force Windowing and using Main/X, Y coordinates in the DxWnd profile to run the game in windowed mode, which generally should keep all the game elements in focus.

The last option I can thing is remove Tweaks/tweak: SlowDownExceptions from your game profile. This will make the game run like a Bugatti, but another problem was reported there too.

I tried the game in 4 different machines and other people tried it successfully, but to fix an issue I have to have it, so I am announcing everything I can image to be problematic.

After your post, I reinstalled the game in the following order:
1. Installed MechWarrior 2: Titanium Trilogy: 31st Century Combat from iso image. During the installation process, I heard the sound of background music and the click sounds of the installer buttons.
2. Created a copy of Mw2win.exe and renamed it to Mw2tit.exe
3. Applied sdbinst.exe -q "%CD%\mw2tit.sdb"
4. Copied files from DxWnd v2.05.96 (dxwnd.exe, dxwnd.dll, dxwplay.dll, disasm.dll, libogg.dll, libvorbis.dll, libvorbisfile.dll, winmm.dll) to the game folder.
5. Launched dxwnd.exe, imported MechWarrior 2 31st Century Combat Titanium Edition.dxw from mw2titpatchingV2.rar (following the link from the topic header), indicated the path to the game.
6. Created MW2_31stCC.bat with the line dxwnd.exe /Q /R:1
7. Copied the dgVoodoo2 files (dgVoodooCpl.exe, dgVoodoo.conf, glide.dll, glide2.dll, glide3.dll) to the game folder, launched gVoodooCpl.exe, set the resolution for Glide to 2560x1440, for DirectX "Disable and passthru to real DirectX "
8. Run MW2_31stCC.bat and... I HEARD INTRO SOUNDS!!! I set 3dfx in the settings and could not tear myself away from the game for about 20 minutes.

My guess is that I may have previously applied mech2startupfix.sdb to MechWarrior 2: Pentium Edition by mistake. Sequential reinstallation and your recommendations helped me with this. Thank you!

Glad that helped. Usually, running the game without the proxy (that is, by not copying files from DxWnd, but directly double clicking the DxWnd entry) will result in better stability in my testing, since the heap fixes required by the game aren't processed in proxy DxWnd.

Minaro wrote on 2023-07-13, 07:25:

7. Copied the dgVoodoo2 files (dgVoodooCpl.exe, dgVoodoo.conf, glide.dll, glide2.dll, glide3.dll) to the game folder, launched gVoodooCpl.exe, set the resolution for Glide to 2560x1440, for DirectX "Disable and passthru to real DirectX "

Curious what happened with this. I tried it and it didn't show 3dfx in video options. Nor did it offer anything but 648x480 (mercs)

Figured it out.
Copied the x86 DLLs

Alexshvd wrote on 2023-06-29, 14:44:

I wish one day someone could make a perfect portable version for Windows 10/11 where you can select different graphic emulation options and play native, without dxwnd and other software.

Wish kinda granted.

I made an installer that bundles the Dxwnd, and dgvoodoo and the compatibility patches.

What you need:
1) The zip attached
2) Your Titanium discs/isos

What to do:
1) Download and extract the zip to a folder
2) Run TitaniumInstaller.ps1 (admin might be required)
3) Decide on the path you want it to install
Optional: Change the dgvoodoo resolution from 2560x1440 to what you want with dgvoodoocpl.exe

What it does:
1) Finds the CD
2) Figures out the version
3) Copies the files from the CD
4) Copies in the fixes/additions
5) Modifies the config for dxwnd
6) Creates a desktop shortcut

On my SSD with isos it takes around 30 seconds to be in the game in glorious high res

(deleted attachment. newer version)

myne wrote on 2023-11-11, 07:09:

Wish kinda granted. […]
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Alexshvd wrote on 2023-06-29, 14:44:

I wish one day someone could make a perfect portable version for Windows 10/11 where you can select different graphic emulation options and play native, without dxwnd and other software.

Wish kinda granted.

I made an installer that bundles the Dxwnd, and dgvoodoo and the compatibility patches.

What you need:
1) The zip attached
2) Your Titanium discs/isos

What to do:
1) Download and extract the zip to a folder
2) Run TitaniumInstaller.ps1 (admin might be required)
3) Decide on the path you want it to install
Optional: Change the dgvoodoo resolution from 2560x1440 to what you want with dgvoodoocpl.exe

What it does:
1) Finds the CD
2) Figures out the version
3) Copies the files from the CD
4) Copies in the fixes/additions
5) Modifies the config for dxwnd
6) Creates a desktop shortcut

On my SSD with isos it takes around 30 seconds to be in the game in glorious high res

I haven't tried it, but I will append this to the original post

Cheers.
Undoubtedly it'll fail to work on someone else's machine 🤣

Annoying. Mercenaries freezes every time on the first mission (patrol the waypoints with deadeye) between the second and 3rd waypoint. I'm unsure what the issue is. It seems to be a scripted event.

It's way beyond my skillset to figure out.

Played through all of Jade Falcon with no issues.
Well, one issue. The framerate cap in the dxwnd fixes didn't work, so the jumpjets wouldn't recharge.
Nvidia control panel's did.
45fps is the number from memory.
Set that and it worked.

myne wrote on 2023-11-12, 06:52:

Played through all of Jade Falcon with no issues. Well, one issue. The framerate cap in the dxwnd fixes didn't work, so the jump […]
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Played through all of Jade Falcon with no issues.
Well, one issue. The framerate cap in the dxwnd fixes didn't work, so the jumpjets wouldn't recharge.
Nvidia control panel's did.
45fps is the number from memory.
Set that and it worked.

Did setting 45fps work? I calculated a frametime delta on Windows 98 and it was close to 20msec so I put 50 instead. If 45fps works correctly, I will change it.

myne wrote on 2023-11-11, 20:57:

Annoying. Mercenaries freezes every time on the first mission (patrol the waypoints with deadeye) between the second and 3rd waypoint. I'm unsure what the issue is. It seems to be a scripted event.

It's way beyond my skillset to figure out.

Which Mercenaries edition? Titanium, Pentium, battlezone, 3D positional, ...

I'm only talking about titanium.

I'm not sure the FPS limiter in dxwnd even works. I tried a few settings but it didn't seem to make a difference.
Nvidia cpl at 50FPS worked.

Now finished both clans of MW2 31cc.
Not going to say it wasn't a bit buggy. There are a few, but there always were even on real hardware.
The weirdest was toggling satellite view removing the HUD entirely.
Jetpacks seemed a bit over the place. Sometimes they wouldn't gain altitude, sometimes they would.
Top speed of the mech seemed a bit whacky too. Jenners shouldn't really be running 170 when their engine says it can do 140.
Recharge worked when capped to 50 by NVcpl.
Only a couple of crashes/unplayable loads. Not that unusual on the real hardware.
AI seemed pretty useless most of the time, and then sometimes seemed to wake up (medium).

But hey, not bad for a nearly 30yo game with duct tape holding it together.

myne wrote on 2023-11-12, 10:25:

I'm only talking about titanium. […]
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I'm only talking about titanium.

I'm not sure the FPS limiter in dxwnd even works. I tried a few settings but it didn't seem to make a difference.
Nvidia cpl at 50FPS worked.

Now finished both clans of MW2 31cc.
Not going to say it wasn't a bit buggy. There are a few, but there always were even on real hardware.
The weirdest was toggling satellite view removing the HUD entirely.
Jetpacks seemed a bit over the place. Sometimes they wouldn't gain altitude, sometimes they would.
Top speed of the mech seemed a bit whacky too. Jenners shouldn't really be running 170 when their engine says it can do 140.
Recharge worked when capped to 50 by NVcpl.
Only a couple of crashes/unplayable loads. Not that unusual on the real hardware.
AI seemed pretty useless most of the time, and then sometimes seemed to wake up (medium).

But hey, not bad for a nearly 30yo game with duct tape holding it together.

Nvidia cpl worked because you used the Glide version and Glide frame rate can't be controlled from DxWnd (i reread your old message now). dgVoodoo2 Glide runs at 60fps. You might also try the Direct3D version instead to see if the recharge issue occurs (the last time I check the framerate there it was correctly 50, and you might change it to 45 now)

I don't remember if I had single core process affinity. If it was disabled, could you check with that enabled?
The AI, speed issue should also be related to it.

I don't remember the satellite view issue: but I recall the Win9x heap behaves differently on WinNT. An example is text displayed on top of screen with the Win9x heap, in Win98 this didn't happen, was it missing in Win9x because of a bug, I have no idea...

The game was duct taped accidentally actually...the DxWnd exception handler was intelligent enough to handle whatever crashed the game...in fact the MechVM version works with DxWnd too with a few changes. It could also be possible the MechVM version is better with more fixes, let me know and I will try to arrange it for you.

Ah. That makes sense, I guess.
I figured the FPS limiter would work on the cpu end, but I guess working on the DX end is usually the same thing.
It didn't have single core by default. I'll have a crack at GBL with that set.

If you could take a quick look at mercs that'd be appreciated. It's literally the first mission of the first contract in the list.
It'd be nice to know why it's freezing there.

myne wrote on 2023-11-13, 08:44:

If you could take a quick look at mercs that'd be appreciated. It's literally the first mission of the first contract in the list.
It'd be nice to know why it's freezing there.

Assuming that you used the patch at Re: A comprehensive guide to install and play MechWarrior 2 on new versions on Windows.

Launched the game -> Changed video to 3Dfx -> Mercenary commander -> Callsign created -> Office -> Computer -> Contract accepted -> Board drop ship -> Mission command -> launch mission -> launch, I get to this working mission:

Update: I saw a few times the game hangs at certain menu items, mainly in Contracts. I will try to look into this one.

It freezes between the 2nd and 3rd waypoint of that mission.
And I used my installer, so yes I did the patch.

myne wrote on 2023-11-13, 11:07:

It freezes between the 2nd and 3rd waypoint of that mission

Checking in an hour. I am currently analysing the game's stability on WIn98. I replaced the custom heap with the Win9x one but the Contacts menu still freezes sometimes as earlier...thus I am trying to verify