Help! The Master becomes the student

Want to edit the game, build your own craft and missions? Here you'll find help, tools, guides and people to discuss with.

Help! The Master becomes the student

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Ace Antilles
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Post by Ace Antilles » Mon Apr 06, 2020 3:29 am

Hello there! ;)
Despite playing X-Wing games since the floppy disc days I've kinda got out of touch :?
So I humbly request some help for this old pro turned Noob!
I've loaded up X-Wing Alliance again on Steam, Windows 10, and trying to organise all my old files and editors and see what still works but I need a little help sorting a few bits out.

First: Isn't there a XWA widescreen mod? If so please point me in the right direction.

Second: ShipSet Launcher 2000. Does it work on Windows 10? Doesn't for me.
I copied the vb6runocxs.zip files into System32 and the System folder.

Third: X-Wing Install System XIS. Is there things that use that still? Or was it mostly only for XWAU

Is XWA really playable on a joypad or does it suck? Any tips?
I have a joystick but not much room for it now. I will probably use the Joystick if I get into things.

I will have more questions, especially about Hooks etc but any pointers are appreciated :)
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Post by jmarso » Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:22 am

Hey,

I'm using the GOG version so I'm not sure how much of my advice is 100% 'compatible', but here goes:

1. regarding widescreen: When you install the latest version of the DSUCP, there is an option in there for installing a widescreen version. There is also a separate utility called XWA hacker that does the same thing. While these change the resolution in game, you'll probably need to go into your ddraw.cfg file and edit it to set "PreserveAspectRatio = 1", which will prevent the non-gameplay screens from warping to fill your widescreen monitor.

2. Shipset launcher 2000: I've got nothing on that one.

3. XiS is still around, but I'm not sure who is using it or for what. Honestly, the DSUCP update installs probably just about anything you want or need for the XWA Alliance world, including new backdrops and so on. It also installs a ton of new 'hooks' that allow you to seamlessly edit planetary missions, change hangars, and have greatly upgraded the engine's capabilities. .ini files added to the flight models allow you to seamlessly change soundsets, weapon beam colors, and so on for any given ship type. For example, I've been tinkering with a custom Buck Rogers starfighter, and the OPT is set to use rebel lasers. However, with the .ini file I can make it shoot yellow lasers just like the old TV show. In short, when I came back a week or two ago I was amazed at the advances that have been made with the game. For myself, I prefer to use MXvTED to custom install new ships if it involves more than a simple upgraded opt file.

4. I still use a standard HOTAS rig. I HATE console controllers, but that's just me.

Are you planning on reviving the old Outpost site at all? In any case, welcome back!

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Post by Ace Antilles » Mon Apr 06, 2020 3:55 pm

jmarso wrote:
Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:22 am
Hey,

I'm using the GOG version so I'm not sure how much of my advice is 100% 'compatible', but here goes:

1. regarding widescreen: When you install the latest version of the DSUCP, there is an option in there for installing a widescreen version. There is also a separate utility called XWA hacker that does the same thing. While these change the resolution in game, you'll probably need to go into your ddraw.cfg file and edit it to set "PreserveAspectRatio = 1", which will prevent the non-gameplay screens from warping to fill your widescreen monitor.

2. Shipset launcher 2000: I've got nothing on that one.

3. XiS is still around, but I'm not sure who is using it or for what. Honestly, the DSUCP update installs probably just about anything you want or need for the XWA Alliance world, including new backdrops and so on. It also installs a ton of new 'hooks' that allow you to seamlessly edit planetary missions, change hangars, and have greatly upgraded the engine's capabilities. .ini files added to the flight models allow you to seamlessly change soundsets, weapon beam colors, and so on for any given ship type. For example, I've been tinkering with a custom Buck Rogers starfighter, and the OPT is set to use rebel lasers. However, with the .ini file I can make it shoot yellow lasers just like the old TV show. In short, when I came back a week or two ago I was amazed at the advances that have been made with the game. For myself, I prefer to use MXvTED to custom install new ships if it involves more than a simple upgraded opt file.

4. I still use a standard HOTAS rig. I HATE console controllers, but that's just me.

Are you planning on reviving the old Outpost site at all? In any case, welcome back!
Thanks for your help. Right now I'm just trying to get my folders in order and want to try the game in old style then the XWAU.
I am aware of the DSUCP but I am just going to use the normal XWAU for the moment.
I can't tell if there's the Widescreen option available in the program or not? Also XWA Hacker only seems compatible with GoG and not Steam.

Is everything released from XWAU in the latest download or are there some separate ships that have been updating and need downloading individually?

4 - I may look at ways to make stuff from my website available elsewhere but it would need some work.
When I go back to work again then my time vanishes again but I would like to get the files back online
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Post by jmarso » Mon Apr 06, 2020 5:54 pm

I think on Darksaber's website you can see a list of everything included and excluded from the latest craft pack. Some ships that used to be in there are no longer included, because of the limited number of ship slots. A lot of Clone Wars era ships and Sequel era ships have been added. In fact, it's pretty safe to say that with the latest version of DSUCP installed you could generate just about any CW scenario you felt like with what's included.

If XWA hacker doesn't work on the steam version, your best bet for that might be DSUCP- it gives different installation options based on what version of the game you are using (Steam, GOG, disk, etc). The best thing about the craft pack is all the new hooks and such that are included. I'm not sure if the Steam install gives the widescreen option or not. Alternatively, you could switch teams and pick up the GOG version for probably less than ten bucks.

You can still download all the ships you want individually and and install them; I think some at least are still self-installing XIS files.

What I usually do is install the game (the new Steam and GOG versions come patched to 2.02), and then install DSUCP. Then I keep a 'default' install folder, and copy the entire X-Wing Alliance games folder for every TC or massively modded version of the game I want to do. I just rename the folders based on which one I want to use, and the launcher always looks for the executable in the same place, so that's how I go back and forth.

There are lots of new tools and/or tool upgrades available as well, along with the dynamic cockpits and new fx patches. Those may or may not become standard on the next DSUCP release- I'm not privy to those details. Anyway, lots of fun to be had with the game right now, both in terms of gameplay and tinkering.

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Post by Vince T » Mon Apr 06, 2020 6:06 pm

XWA Hacker should work fine with the Steam version, this is what I use these days and it runs at 3440x1440 ultrawide.
Make sure you have the latest hooks installed, as you'll need some of them to run the game in high resolutions.

If you use Jeremy's XWA Tools Download, you should also get the XWA EXE patcher, through which you can also add a few more patches.

As for XIS, I don't think it's too widely spread these days. Darksaber's installers were the rage and now DTM Jeremy's created a version of his own.
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Post by Ace Antilles » Mon Apr 06, 2020 6:23 pm

jmarso wrote:
Mon Apr 06, 2020 5:54 pm
I think on Darksaber's website you can see a list of everything included and excluded from the latest craft pack. Some ships that used to be in there are no longer included, because of the limited number of ship slots. A lot of Clone Wars era ships and Sequel era ships have been added. In fact, it's pretty safe to say that with the latest version of DSUCP installed you could generate just about any CW scenario you felt like with what's included.

If XWA hacker doesn't work on the steam version, your best bet for that might be DSUCP- it gives different installation options based on what version of the game you are using (Steam, GOG, disk, etc). The best thing about the craft pack is all the new hooks and such that are included. I'm not sure if the Steam install gives the widescreen option or not. Alternatively, you could switch teams and pick up the GOG version for probably less than ten bucks.

You can still download all the ships you want individually and and install them; I think some at least are still self-installing XIS files.

What I usually do is install the game (the new Steam and GOG versions come patched to 2.02), and then install DSUCP. Then I keep a 'default' install folder, and copy the entire X-Wing Alliance games folder for every TC or massively modded version of the game I want to do. I just rename the folders based on which one I want to use, and the launcher always looks for the executable in the same place, so that's how I go back and forth.

There are lots of new tools and/or tool upgrades available as well, along with the dynamic cockpits and new fx patches. Those may or may not become standard on the next DSUCP release- I'm not privy to those details. Anyway, lots of fun to be had with the game right now, both in terms of gameplay and tinkering.
I think there has been some confusion. I am not at this time going to be installing the DSCUP.
I'm going to use the XWAUP only. I appreciate the assistance though :)

General_Trageton wrote:
Mon Apr 06, 2020 6:06 pm
XWA Hacker should work fine with the Steam version, this is what I use these days and it runs at 3440x1440 ultrawide.
Make sure you have the latest hooks installed, as you'll need some of them to run the game in high resolutions.

If you use Jeremy's XWA Tools Download, you should also get the XWA EXE patcher, through which you can also add a few more patches.

As for XIS, I don't think it's too widely spread these days. Darksaber's installers were the rage and now DTM Jeremy's created a version of his own.
Do you have a download link GT? The one I found said only Gog and even the App didn't work.
I swear it will probably be easier for me to go back to the CD version over the Steam one.

Ok I just looked at XWA EXE patcher. I see it can do....stuff. I mentioned elsewhere it would be good if in the readme file it said what the program does!
I haven't quite got there yet but I don't know what these hooks are supposed to do or where
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Post by Vince T » Mon Apr 06, 2020 6:40 pm

You find those programs ont he Download page below the OPTs.

As for the patches in the ExePatcher, the ones lower down you can pretty much ignore. The relevant ones are installed with either of the big craft Pacsk, so, if you don't wanna install the DSUCP I strongly recommend you install XWUCP. At that point, at the latest, XWA Hacker should work regardless of version.

To get all the hooks up to date, delete the Hooks Folder and then run XWAHookSetup.

Don't worry mate, I only got back into playing XWA sometime last year. It was all a lot to process especially with our two programming geniusses turning the game inside out(:D) but you'll get the hang of it.
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Post by Ace Antilles » Mon Apr 06, 2020 7:03 pm

I meant do you have a current Windows 10 Steam link to download XWA Hacker?
I can't seem to find that one. Cheers
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Post by Vince T » Mon Apr 06, 2020 7:20 pm

uhm.... crap I could've sworn the link was on the Downloads page ...
Hmmm try this: XWA Hacker

Also, see this thread (last post) for details
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Post by JeremyaFr » Mon Apr 06, 2020 7:55 pm

Hello,

Steam DRM stuff around the game EXE is not compatible with the MODs.

To bypass that, you have to replace the exe with the one present in the 2.02 patch.
And re-appply the no-cd with XwaHacker.

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Post by Vince T » Mon Apr 06, 2020 8:02 pm

Hm? Weird, it worked straight away for me. Weird!
Am I guessing right that the craft packs install the patched exe?
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Post by JeremyaFr » Mon Apr 06, 2020 8:03 pm

You're right.
The craft packs replace the exe.

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Post by keiranhalcyon7 » Mon Apr 06, 2020 8:19 pm

XWAHacker is only incompatible with the vanilla Steam version. For consistency between Steam/GOG/CD installations, DSUCP overwrites the exe with a compatible version. My understanding is that XWAUCP does the same. So install the craft pack first, then run XWAHacker to set the resolution and other options.

Also note that, since the exe is modified, Steam's file consistency checking will break your modded installation if it ever sees it. For this reason I do not recommend jmarso's process of renaming the folder you want to play to the default name. Also, in my experience, the launcher generally takes > 1 minute to actually launch (I think it's doing some sort of web pinging, only bringing up the menu once that times out). What I do instead is run xwingalliance.exe directly from the copied installation folder, which runs instantly. Then I alt-tab out, right-click on XWA's entry in the task bar, and select "Pin this program to task bar". When you exit, an icon for the program will remain on the task bar, which you can use to launch in the future. (I then edit this taskbar entry to set the icon to that of Alliance.exe (the xwing flight helmet), and also change its name so I can distinguish between them by the mouseover text.) (NOTE: I'm on Windows 7. YMMV on Win10.)

Also, some people have reported problems with folder permissions (IIRC older editing tools such as AlliED may be susceptible to this). I believe this can be mitigated by putting your copies of the installation folder outside of the program files hierarchy. (I stumbled upon this when I moved my Steam default library folder to my expansion hard drive.)

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Post by Vince T » Mon Apr 06, 2020 8:29 pm

Note the craft packs also install a number of their own launchers, which skip the intro and run the xwingalliance.exe directly, this is how I usually started my game.

So, at the end of the day it all comes down to installing one of the craft packs XD
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Post by Ace Antilles » Mon Apr 06, 2020 8:37 pm

That's good info thanks. It all sounds like Steam is a pain in the ass really.
It might be easier just to see if I can make my old CD version work. I have a copy of the entire folder saved.
Not sure if I need to try and install it first for registry entries to work or not.
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Post by Ace Antilles » Mon Apr 06, 2020 8:42 pm

General_Trageton wrote:
Mon Apr 06, 2020 8:29 pm
Note the craft packs also install a number of their own launchers, which skip the intro and run the xwingalliance.exe directly, this is how I usually started my game.

So, at the end of the day it all comes down to installing one of the craft packs XD
Lol Well the silly thing is I wanted to play it to see how crap it was first, then put on the XWAUP. So I'll try it as I can see it.
I swear with this lockdown I don't know where time goes to.

Going back though does anyone know if Shipset Launcher works or not?

Also DATech says it needs XwingAlliance 2.02
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Post by Vince T » Mon Apr 06, 2020 9:06 pm

Can't help you with SSL2k, don't think I ever used it O.o
As for DATech, boy haven't used that one in ages, I think we mostly use XWA DAT Customizer most of the time. You can probably best ask DTM or DS about that.
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Post by Ace Antilles » Mon Apr 06, 2020 9:12 pm

Yeah I've seen XWA DAT Customizer. I'm just going old school lol Learning new stuff is hard. ;)
I'm going through my expanse of old files and editors I've hoarded to see which ones actually still work and are needed!
So I'm gradually dumping the old ones which is making things easier.

Also got a XWA All-resolution Font Set and High Res Fonts zip files?
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Post by Vince T » Mon Apr 06, 2020 10:17 pm

From the DSUCP Readme wrote: I’ve included a new Fonts.dat by Behelith made original for Nvidia Cards but works very well with AMD cards
He adds
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
If you're playing X-Wing Alliance with XWA Upgrade and XWAhacker you'll probably notice some cut fonts. to solve the problem reduce the HUD scale to lower than 1.50 (e.g. 1.49 or lower) in XWA hacker.
For more info please visit https://www.xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3008/vi ... 82#p151611
I'd say the XWAUCP should include that, too.

Sorry mate, but I think in 95% of all cases the answer will be Craft Packs XD
Note that AFAIK the point with lowering the HUD scale is no longer necessary thanks to Jeremy's efforts.
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Post by Trevor » Mon Apr 06, 2020 10:38 pm

If you have the folder on your HDD you can use this registry to "install" vanilla xwa without installing again.
Change drive letters and path to suit

Code: Select all

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC\X-Wing Alliance]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC\X-Wing Alliance\v1.0]
"Executable"="D:\\Games\\Star Wars\\X-Wing Alliance\\XWingAlliance.EXE"
"Install Path"="D:\\Games\\Star Wars\\X-Wing Alliance"
"Source Path"="E:"
"CD Path"="E:"
"Analyze Path"="E:\\INSTALL\\SysCheck.exe"
"Source Dir"="E:\\"
"InstallType"=dword:00000009
"SoundCard"="TRUE"
Trev

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Post by keiranhalcyon7 » Mon Apr 06, 2020 11:17 pm

General_Trageton wrote:
Mon Apr 06, 2020 10:17 pm
Note that AFAIK the point with lowering the HUD scale is no longer necessary thanks to Jeremy's efforts.
Unless I missed a significant development, it's still an issue. I've done some research into HUD font handling, but I haven't really come close to cracking the font clipping issue. And even if someone determined how to fix the clipping, a side effect of using a HUD scale >= 1.5 would be that all HUD fonts would be rendered at the same size; there would be no differentiation. That, too, could perhaps be adjusted based on what I've discovered, but it would take significant effort.
Last edited by keiranhalcyon7 on Tue Apr 07, 2020 6:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by Driftwood » Tue Apr 07, 2020 5:36 pm

Also bear in mind going above the recommended resolution of 1200x900 or something listed in either dsucp or rebcp wil break atmospheric opts rendering properly. Just fyi

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Post by Vince T » Tue Apr 07, 2020 7:08 pm

Ah is that the reason why the SSD once again disappears when I face away from the center? I now recall the issue had something to do with the resolution and the OPT size ... and with 3440x1440 I'm running way beyond recommended parameters XD
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Post by Ace Antilles » Tue Apr 07, 2020 11:54 pm

Thanks for all the advice guys.
FYI: I've got XIS and Shipset Launcher to run now. Not sure if they will install stuff but they run.
Xmods are still used on many of Darksabers old files, hangars and stuff so it is needed.

I tell you I feel like a right noob lol I can't believe how much amazing new stuff you've guys have done now.
A massive congratulations to Jeremy and anyone else involved in rebuilding all the old Opt tools into new better ones.
All the new stuff you guys have found and implemented is outstanding.
Still you guys need an old nag looking over your shoulder sometimes to help us noobs :P

I've spent time organising my old folders and archiving really old files. I've got files from Datamasters website! I had forgotten about that place.
Got a lot of stuff sorted which will help my PC space. Not gone through the Opts yet. Remember I have maybe 20 years of releases stored lol
Not even started to look at all the custom sound files that I had added also.

Also I've been messing with my icons I created in the past for use with XWA. The old pic is below.
xwicon.jpg
I've remade a lot cos I have fun with new Windows 10 larger better versions. A lot using XWAU craft.
I may volunteer my services to XWAU to update the icons used in the EXE files.
Hopefully sometime I can get my old stuff online with someone so that it can be used by everyone again :)

I'm not sure how much time in the future I will have to "play" as normally working hard.
Still it's been fun going back to this amazing project and seeing all the great stuff again. I member....
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Post by JeremyaFr » Fri Apr 10, 2020 12:44 pm

General_Trageton wrote:
Mon Apr 06, 2020 10:17 pm
From the DSUCP Readme wrote: I’ve included a new Fonts.dat by Behelith made original for Nvidia Cards but works very well with AMD cards
He adds
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
If you're playing X-Wing Alliance with XWA Upgrade and XWAhacker you'll probably notice some cut fonts. to solve the problem reduce the HUD scale to lower than 1.50 (e.g. 1.49 or lower) in XWA hacker.
For more info please visit https://www.xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3008/vi ... 82#p151611
I'd say the XWAUCP should include that, too.

Sorry mate, but I think in 95% of all cases the answer will be Craft Packs XD
Note that AFAIK the point with lowering the HUD scale is no longer necessary thanks to Jeremy's efforts.
Hello,
I'm working on improving the fonts.
See New Text Renderer WIP

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