VOGONS


Reply 560 of 563, by myne

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The density was so you could open it in Excel and contrast the versions more easily.
It's just my preference for the glorious layout of tables.

Surprised it didn't work. Didn't it work by itself?
Do you have a github?
I now have one, so I think it might be getting complex enough to collaborate there.

I built:
Convert old ASUS ASC boardviews to KICAD PCB!
Re: A comprehensive guide to install and play MechWarrior 2 on new versions on Windows.
Dos+Windows 3.11+tcp+vbe_svga auto-install iso template
Script to backup Win9x\ME drivers from a working install
Re: The thing no one asked for: KICAD 440bx reference schematic

Reply 561 of 563, by GryBsh

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Well, let me *, it didn't work when I tried to pull the GUI out of it to put another one in it. It was just going to be more time consuming than to just keep going where I was.

I do have a github, I have a github repo for this even 🤣. And yes since I just had to add more xaml files to it., I'd say we're at repo levels of complexity.

See when I was reading your script, there were icons on the discs when you select them, and we're already parsing ini files; I figured I'd just bang that out real easy like. 🤣 Ya right. I'd largely been spared any serious side effects from WPF and PowerShell both trying to coerce types to convert at every possible opportunity. That was until I started converting the icon's to bitmaps because WPF doesn't just support icons as images like Forms does. When you convert the icon, it will bring in System.Drawing, and thats where it goes wrong.

I was binding the window to a pscustomobject with the theme colors, and that worked well before. But after a conversion from string to System.Drawing.Color becomes available, and its before System.Windows.Media.Color, all color strings become the wrong kind of Color. Which breaks all that binding. You can get around most of it by hand converting the types, but that didn't work on every control in all states. So I had to make my nice theme ini file into 4 XAML resource dictionary files. It had the benefit that I can style the buttons properly now, but I didn't wanna use XAML styles 🤣. Its touchy when there is no WPF Application running, you have to deal with it a certain way or it tries to merge nonexistent app resources and crashes. There is probably a way short of full XAML themes, but I didn't try all that hard. But now, there are icons. 😁

I'll push up what I did earlier and post a link in a bit, I'm in the middle of some other things.
In the meantime, I did add this grid view of the INI 🙂

Reply 562 of 563, by Sergeek

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GryBsh wrote on 2025-09-01, 19:40:
I couldn't get that code to do anything for me, so I went back to the script I already had that worked. But I get the gist of wh […]
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I couldn't get that code to do anything for me, so I went back to the script I already had that worked. But I get the gist of what you were going for.
The attached is working at least with the Titanium trilogy, can select between multiple mounted/inserted editions, is driven by an INI file, and provides visual feedback of progress.
It also switches colors based on which game you install.

The INI structure isn't as dense, but its easier to read and parse.

[Editions]
"MECH2-MW2W-MechWarrior 2"=MW2W
"MECH2-MW2A-MechWarrior 2"=MW2A
"MECH2-MW2W95-MechWarrior 2"=MW2W
"TIT-MW2W95-MW2 Titanium Edition"=TITMW2W95
"TITAN_MW2-TITMW2W95-Titanium Trilogy"=TITMW2W95
"GBLWIN95-GBW-Ghost Bear's Legacy"=GBW
"GBL-GBLW95DOS-Ghost Bear's Legacy"=GBLW95DOS
"TITAN_GBL-TITW95-Titanium Trilogy"=TITGBLW95
"MERCS3DFX-MERCS3DFX-Mercenaries 3DFX"=mercs3dfx
"MERCENARIES-MercsW95-Mercenaries"=MercsW95
"Mercenaries-Mercs3DSW95-Mercenaries D3D"=Mercs3DSW95
"TITAN_MERCS-TITMERW95-Mercenaries Titanium Edition"=TITMERW95
"TITAN_MERCS-TITMERW95-Mercenaries"=TITMERW95
"TITAN_MERCS-TITW95-Titanium Trilogy"=TITW95
"BATL_GBL-BtpkW95-BattlePack"=BPGBL
"BATL_MW2-BtpkW95-BattlePack"=BP31CC
"TITAN_MW2-TITMW2W95-MW2 Titanium Edition"=TITMW2W95
"TITAN_MW2-TITW95-Titanium Trilogy"=TITMW2W95

; MechWarrior 2 - 31st Century Combat 3Dfx Edition
[MW2A]
cdexe=mech2.ex_
origexe=mech2.exe
renameexename=mech2.exe
dxwicon=dxwmw2icon
compatpatch=mech2startupfix.sdb
shortcuticon=mech2.exe
movehelp=false
copycommonfiles=true
copydirectplay=true
copytitfixes=true
copyfolders=Keating|smk|mek|giddi
copyotherfolders=mech2
copyfiles=skygnd.par|mw2shell.dll|*.txt|*.bwd|*w*32.dll|*w.dll|*.hlp|*.cfg|*.mw2|*.map|*.fts|*.gid|*.out|*.bak|mw2.*
copy11mw2patch=false
copy11gblpatch=false
copy11merpatch=false
copy3dfxpatch=true
install=true
delfiles=
title=MechWarrior 2 - 31st Century Combat 3Dfx Edition
id="{edb77b07-a4f5-44b1-95e3-dcfabeaf7ba5}" ; for the uninstaller

...

I'm using the installer from this post on Win10 Home 22H2 and with two different versions of the game:

1. The original MechWarrior 2 Mercenaries USA DOS/WIN95 release. Installation process works fine, I can startup the game afterwards too. But it's always windowed no matter how I tweak dgVoodoo and I can't play missions. The M2.EXE doesn't start at all, I automatically lose every engagement.

2. Mercenaries 3Dfx Interactive Edition. Installation, again, works as intended, I can startup the game and play missions. But no matter how I tweak dgVoodoo, I always have black bars to the left and up above. The sound is also broken - can't hear footsteps and only some weapon sounds are present.

It seems that no matter the version, dgVoodoo doesn't work at all, I even tried to enable watermarks to see if it works, and none were present. I also can't delete both versions normally - uninstaller blinks once with PowerShell window and nothing happens. Had to clean registry manually.