Re: Generals Zero Hour 2
Cinty Bolner
Thank You for your reply.
yes, I'm asking for a better configuration please. My experiment with using the same settings as that bf2 configuration (failed) worked only on one of three of my computers. the premade c&c generals.dxw config only works with the original c&c generals, but not c&c generals zero hour.
Thanks again,
noddynod443
I have done some extra experimenting with the c&c generals.dxw from the dxwnd exports folder and I would venture to say that that config never worked. Starting c&c generals zero hour with the config just bypasses any video setting in the config.
I finally retrieved my licenced copy from the "Command & Conquer the First Decade" 2DVD box, but I got a quite frustrating result: the game is easily installed, but the securom protection doesn't let the game start in Win10 and the few cracks I could find seem either viral or not working.
How did you manage to make the game running in first place?
Well, I'm running C&C Generals by using c&c The First Decade on a windows 7 Ultimate 64bit OS. I also had a windows 10 laptop that had no problem running the First Decade on it. I believe this patch should fix your problems:
I use the patch. It fixes bugs from all the first decades collection of games, it fixes Lan and internet functions, and it removes the need for having the dvd/cd to start or play any of the first decade games.
The situation here is a little frustrating.
I installed the game from original DVD, ok the game is safedisk protected and therefore needs a crack, after a few unlucky experiments here is what happened:
Yes, sounds like a frustrating situation.
I think the problem might be cause by your Install DVD; because you shouldn't need any cracks, there should not be any problem installing the unoffical patch 1.03 rev 4, and you should not need the DVD after installing the patch.
I can hardly believe it's my DVD fault since it is a physical DVD (when I say "physical" I mean that I spent my money to purchease something, including private printed activation keys) and the install procedure completed successfully, so all stuff was transferred on HD.
As I said, the game was copy protected with some safedisk release, so it needs a crack and (since I own the DVD & leaflet with activation keys) I'm legally entitled to use a crack, that BTW I believe it was distributed by EA itself, since the 1.03 patch removes the copy protection.
In addition, it doesn't seem that this game bundle has some sort of localization so that I could blame something like a "bad italian version" (or not? I have to check...).
In any case, it's not a good point in favor of EA: such an old game should work flawlessly.
Anyway we can try your release, though I'm skeptical, I fear it could be something about the game that doesn't like my pc...
How about doing a "remote testing"? You can setup a experimental .dxw config, post it here for a group of folks to checkout, then they can test it and post back their results, and so on
What do think of that idea? Certainly all us "players" could give ya a hand in that way?
It was all useless. Your files have the same effect here: I used them to uninstall & reinstall C&C Generals (I decided to leave ZH for later) then I patched the game with the included Unoffical Patch 1.03 rev4. Both install & patch process were ok, no problems of any sort, but when I run the game I see a splash screen for about a minute, then the game suddently terminates with no messages or logs. Nothing changed compared with my DVD install.
I wonder what could have happened. The game stops logging more or less afer this log line
Now a value 0xffffffff (that is, (DWORD)-1) is a strange value, but setting the "Block process priority class" flag the operation is fully bypassed and the result is no different at all.
I'm puzzled ...
So, it seems that the game is bugged and while initializing its structures it calls a free() procedure probably with a wrong address.
Uhm ....
I tried an experimental patch placing the free() call in a try/except statement: sadly it didn't prevent the crash, but it intercepted it. Look at the line beginning with "free:"
A bad finding: even bypassing completely the offending free() call the game keeps stopping.
There can be only one explaination: the game finds another error (but I can't say which one!) and decides to terminate, so it starts free-ing all resources and, while doing that, it stumbles into a bug of freeing the wrong address. But fixing that problem is useless, because the program was already trying to gracefully die!
Incredible but true: among a lot of promising hacks & patches, the most unbeliveable one worked! I placed this Options.ini file here in attach into the $MyDocuments\Command and Conquer Generals Data folder and the game started.
So far, the game seems to work pretty well with DxWnd, apart from a sistematic crash when you alt-tab outside the game window.
Now I'm going to try also the Zero Hours expansion.
Well my problem that I've had since the begining of this discussion with either generals or zero hour is that if I start either game with Dxwnd default settings, both "appear" to startup just fine in Dxwnd; however, both games bypass the dxwnd windowed mode setting. Therefore Starting directly into fullscreen mode instead of dxwnd windowed mode.
If you want windowed mode you should set "Hook / Inject suspended process". Here the two exported configurations. But to me something isn't working properly yet: while Generals starts now both in native mode and with DxWnd, the Zero Hour expansion starts and works when alone and starts windowed but crashes when controlled by DxWnd!
Both configurations are an improvement. I have the same problem with Zero Hour. It starts up with the zero hour splash screen and then crashs with the famous "program name has encountered an error" message.
Ehi, I don't know what happened exactly, if it was my last fixes (I would like, but I doubt) or some latest Win10 silent upgrade, but I've just tried C&C Generals Zero Hous right now and .... it works perfectly! Default options + "Do not notify on task switch" to avoid crash when minimizing + cursor clipper ON to have a good side scrolling and it's it!
@Nod Jimmy: anything changed for the best for you as well, or should I send you some leaked beta?
Sure, a leaked beta can't be denied. But I have to tell that I tried the same game with some older DxWnd release that gave me a hard time, but C&CZH works gracefully now, a clear sign that it's not my excellent work that fixed the problem but something else that happened to my sys while I wasn't aware. You can try to confirm any MS update up to when the game will start working also for you?
If you're going to spread the word to all, better mention the just uploaded v2.05.10 release, better than an unidentified leaked beta. BTW it has a never-so-almost-fully-up-to-date manual that I could remember of, and both C&C Generals base/ZH exports too ....
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