INFO: Common graphic problems with XWA

[etoh76]

Hi all. After a bit of testing I was able to successfully sort out the graphics problem on XWA using Reimar's superb bat files. However, is anyone else having trouble with Darksaber's UCP now after running the fixes?

Specifically, even though the newer UCP models are selectable in the simulator, they dont appear at all during gameplay (the game treats them as non-existant). Also the hud display is a bit messed up, with everything somewhat squashed towards the centre of screen.

[Oldcode]

Hey Everybody,

It's been a long time since I've posted here. When I upgraded my old video card to an Nvidia about 6 years ago, I ran first into the missing target box problem, then when I upgraded that card about two years later, the disappearing model problem in hardware mode. Try as I might, I could not find a solution. Now, I just bought myself a nice new system. AMD Phenom II 3.2ghz with 6 cores and it's amazing, but XWA would not work on that either.

Well, just on a whim, I check this thread that has been going on for so long and finally started reading the whole thing. Thanks to the new installer and the wonderful XWAHacker utility, I'm up and running. It took a lot of reading, a lot of searching for the newest version of XWAHacker, a lot of full re-installs, then a lot of trail and error trying to find the right batch files to solve my particular problem. Every time I picked the wrong batch file I'd have to copy the original XWINGALLIANCE.EXE from the CD and try again. I lot of hassle, but well worth it.

I want to thank both Reimar and Markus Egger, and everybody else who helped out, for letting my play my favorite game once again!

Cheers!

Oldcode

[WildstarBlue9]

Someone on one of my other forums solved the black squares in 3D acceleration problem (and it may solve other problems as well) by downloading ddraw.dll (the DirectDraw support file from earlier versions of DirectX) and placing it in the same folder as the game's executable (it should work for every Windows game in the series). http://www.jkhub.net/project/get.php?id=1804 should take you to the download.

[Reimar]

Someone on one of my other forums solved the black squares in 3D acceleration problem (and it may solve other problems as well) by downloading ddraw.dll (the DirectDraw support file from earlier versions of DirectX) and placing it in the same folder as the game's executable (it should work for every Windows game in the series). http://www.jkhub.net/project/get.php?id=1804 should take you to the download.

For what I can tell this basically does the same thing, it just does it inside the libraries.
In principle this is indeed a better solution, I just did not chose it since I don't like the idea of having to redistribute a modified copyrighted file, and there are too many ddraw.dll versions around to write a reliable patcher like xwahacker for it.
I still have some hopes that _somewhen_ the WINE project will do some fixes so these games will run without extra hacks on Linux, using a Open-Source DirectX implementation which might make it possible to add support for things like higher resolutions, antialiasing etc. without the need for application-specific hacks.

[ffaaway]

Greetings Pilots,

I wanted to post my gratitude to Reimar for creating this amazing fix and to share my findings on possible motherboard differences being a culprit for the disappearing textures issue.

I have been copying and modding the same install of XWA for many years. When I get a new computer or new HDD ect I install the game from the discs, then copy my modded folder in.

Oddly enough I did not have to use this patch on my current vista 64 install and I only get missing textures when I try to enable anti-aliasing.

Other than that everything is perfect exept for the occasional crash to desktop that I am still fighting with. (and yes I am using launch n set to run XWA on CPU0)

A friend of mine wanted to try XWA so I used an extra copy I found at a local thrift store to install and since I knew his machine specs were nearly identicle to mine, my assumption was that I could simply copy my modded folder to his box and all would be ready for some all night LAN skirmishes.

Everything went fine except for my friends machine had the missing cockpit / ship textures problem.

I was baffled.

We have very similar hardware and both using Vista 64 home prem. Our graphics cards are GTX285 and GTX250 and both using the latest nVidia drivers. (258.96 at the time of writing)

I narrowed down the problem by testing the 3D Hardware toggle.

We enjoyed a fun friday night of XWA in retro-software rendering mode and that was a fun time of its own, (especially playing copilot on the keyboard, I havn't done that in many years!!)

But I refused to be beaten and spent the next day trying to fix the 3D hardware problem.

Wracking my brain, I remembered that my friends computer had a built on ATI video output, and his motherboard was set up for crossfire.

This got me thinking...I wondered if even though he was using his GTX250 if there was something in the motherboard architecture that was making XWA think he was using an ATI card.

His onboard video is completely disabled in BIOS so I would have never thought that there would be any kind of conflict whatsoever, but there was, and a dose of Reimars AMAZING "fixedclear.bat" was all it took to get him up and running with XWA in 3D Hardware mode.

I apologize for my long rambling, but I wanted to share this info because I thought it may spark more insight to the issue and help some other peoples troubleshooting process.

My conclusion is that even though our two machines are nearly identicle in every respect, my friends box was hit with the dissappearing texture bug because of differences in motherboards. His being crossfire / ATI chipset and mine being SLI / nVidia chipset.

This is only conjecture on my part, but also the only differences I can think of between our two machines and something too look for when troubleshooting XWA issues.

Thank you everyone who keeps this sim alive!

Ra'Kaan - ZOINK'S Squadron

[LysanderHawk]

Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum and this website, which I found while looking for a way to get XWA to run. I had the same problem everyone else did with the disappearing objects problem. But thanks to Reimar's XWAhacker and .bat file, I was able to get it to work just fine.

However, now I'm having a problem with TIE95. I applied the compatibility fix and entered the combat simulator. Everything worked fine until I targeted something, and then the graphics became corrupted. This doesn't seem to happen with XWING95, probably because targets there aren't rendered in the MFD.

I've checked out Reimar's XWAhacker zip file, which contains fixes for the other games in the series. But when I applied the tie95fixedclear.bat, it only made to corruption much worse, to the point where I got a BSOD and had to reboot. I tried to find the hex values that he specified in his text file that I needed to change, but I couldn't find them in the TIE95.EXE file.

I have an Nvidia 8800 GTS and am using the 258.96 drivers under Win XP. If it also helps, my CPU is an Intel QX6600.

If anyone, especially Reimar, can offer some help, please do! I'd greatly appreciate it.