What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (Full Version)

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MrsWargamer -> What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/4/2020 9:06:26 PM)

I'm embarrassed to even need to ask this (I should know every permutation under the sun by now).

But, ok, I don't know everything (that was hard to actually type :) ).

The assumption is you own The Generals Edition and the 4 Mega Campaigns and wish to play them.

Option B is you are a fan of Enhanced.

I'm running either Windows 8 with a bland computer (no separate video card), OR Windows 10, and again, a bland computer no separate video card. The rigs are both fairly recent, just not 'gamer rigs'.

I'm not nearly as tech savvy as I used to think I was.

The Depot is my usual source of great stuff, but I don't pretend to live on their site :)

I'd just like a walk through on current wisdom.



RangerJoe -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/4/2020 9:44:30 PM)

Don't be embarrassed by asking a question. The only dumb question is the one that has not been asked and the only stupid question is the one that has been asked twice. Clarification is not a stupid question.

That said, I have not played the game since the old DOS version. I don't think that I can help with the install if it is more modern than that.



Aurelian -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/4/2020 10:30:52 PM)

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/spwawdepot/enhanced-fr-full-installation-file-aka-sp-waw-2016-t67.html

Where I found it..https://www.wargamer.com/articles/wargame-compatibility-guide-windows-10-vol-3/



Major_Mess -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/5/2020 2:24:49 AM)

Yo!!!

MrsWargamer.

In spite of you ignoring my previews failed attempts at courting you, I am here to help you in your time of need.

IMHO, you need two installs
The GE with the Megas,
and Enhanced from the link provide above this response (or below in my sig).

Two different flavours, two succulent varieties of the same delicious fruit. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.



I say this cuz I don't know how seamlessly the old MC's would work with the enhanced mech.exe and OOB's. It would all depend on your level of acceptance of some, lets call them "anomalies".
If ..... you are as I think you are, an adventurous sort well then go for it and dump them files in the MegaCampaign folder of Enhanced. Y'all won't break anything.

I got the MC package for a huge deal last year, and as I've played through them I've pondered the thought of adapting them to Enhanced. That'd be a hella lotta work.
F it I say, play them with 8.403 and be happy.





You might want another install for a Mod I'm close to finishing. Based on a re-vamped interpretation of small arms effectiveness applied throughout all OOB's (backed up by impressive studies that prompted this whole exercise in the first place), I hope to provide a more "realistic" model. Lotsa tidying up of the OOB's on top of that, too much to list. Planes / trucks / boats / rifles / smg's / lmg's / mmgs / hmg's / atr's / rockets - YES!!, rockets too!!! / and bunch of other things I can't recall right now. All looked at with a critical eye, and then adjusted accordingly. Along with movement rates adjusted to keep trucks and whatnot on the roads where they belong, and as a further bonus they're not smashing into buildings anymore!!!. Along with a drastic - but necessary - adjustment in preferences, I think you will discover the SPWaW as it should always have been.
Anyways, that's what I've been doing for the last little while.

cheers

MM

edit: Win 8 or 10, it don't matter.
make sure you D/L the appropriate mech.exe from the Depot to fix the Artillery bug, that's Job #1.

wanna run SPWaW in a window?, lets' talk.

MM






Lobster -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/5/2020 4:15:18 AM)

Maybe a picture of a Panther would be more appropriate instead of a Tiger. [:D]



RangerJoe -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/5/2020 2:18:36 PM)

Isn't a Tiger just a big, striped panthera?



Lobster -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/5/2020 2:21:11 PM)

Ah, that one would be a more modern tank, a Leopard. [:D]

Sorry for the diversion of the topic. [sm=00000030.gif]



MrsWargamer -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/5/2020 2:40:26 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Major_Mess

Yo!!!

MrsWargamer.

In spite of you ignoring my previews failed attempts at courting you, I am here to help you in your time of need.


Smiling here :)

Ahh, if only I could snare a wargaming husband.

Hey, I might have even already gotten these (I think age is getting to me).
But I'm going to give er a fresh go.

Thanks for the input guys.



RangerJoe -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/5/2020 3:20:14 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Lobster

Ah, that one would be a more modern tank, a Leopard. [:D]

Sorry for the diversion of the topic. [sm=00000030.gif]


The Tiger is a panthera.

quote:

Panthera is a genus within the family Felidae that was named and described by Lorenz Oken in 1816 who placed all the spotted cats in this group.[3][2] Reginald Innes Pocock revised the classification of this genus in 1916 as comprising the species tiger (P. tigris), lion (P. leo), jaguar (P. onca), and leopard (P. pardus) on the basis of common cranial features.[4] Results of genetic analysis indicate that the snow leopard (formerly Uncia uncia) also belongs to the Panthera (P. uncia), a classification that was accepted by IUCN Red List assessors in 2008


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panthera



Major_Mess -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/5/2020 5:32:18 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Lobster

Maybe a picture of a Panther would be more appropriate instead of a Tiger. [:D]


Hmmmmmm. So True.

Maybe I'll do that for my Mod, like I need another tangent to complete. Thanks .... I think????

MM



truch1984 -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/7/2020 10:30:48 AM)

Thanks a lot for this wonderful information. It was really helpful.



Zovs -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/7/2020 11:35:34 AM)

Please kill the spammer...its annoying...

I am still having issues with running SPWAW:Mega on my Windows 10 (although I am running my Windows 10 on a VM).

Is there a document or link on how to run it in a Window or make it full screen? I think there is a program that allows you to play old DOS or Window XP games on Windows 10, but can't recall off the top of my head.



RangerJoe -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/7/2020 11:38:30 AM)

Dosbox for old Dos games. You can even set up a batch file for the parameters to be loaded.



Zovs -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/7/2020 11:51:19 AM)

Thanks RangerJoe, I think I tried DosBox once but it did not work for SPWAW, I think it came out when Windows XP was new, so there must be some old Windows app thing, but I can't recall it's name.



RangerJoe -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/7/2020 12:34:33 PM)

I use Dosbox to run old DOS games on windows 10.



RangerJoe -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/7/2020 12:37:16 PM)

How to Set up a Windows XP Emulator for Windows 10
Enjoy XP's classic looks all over again

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-set-up-windows-xp-emulator-for-windows-10-4772549



MrsWargamer -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/7/2020 2:39:07 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

How to Set up a Windows XP Emulator for Windows 10
Enjoy XP's classic looks all over again

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-set-up-windows-xp-emulator-for-windows-10-4772549


Thanks, that seems like a good option.



MrsWargamer -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/7/2020 2:40:27 PM)

I appear to have succeeded with my install of both General Edition and Enhanced on my 10 rig and an 8 rig.

Many thanks to all.



Zovs -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/7/2020 2:43:18 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

How to Set up a Windows XP Emulator for Windows 10
Enjoy XP's classic looks all over again

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-set-up-windows-xp-emulator-for-windows-10-4772549


Thanks RangerJoe!



RangerJoe -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/7/2020 3:43:12 PM)

You two are most welcome.



Kuokkanen -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/7/2020 3:43:57 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Dosbox for old Dos games. You can even set up a batch file for the parameters to be loaded.


I use it too, but I have a problem with The Settlers (American name is Serf City: Life is Feudal). In SVGA resolution mouse cursor flicker when it moves. For that reason I keep it at lower VGA resolution. Do you know a way to fix it?



RangerJoe -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/7/2020 3:57:45 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Kuokkanen

quote:

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Dosbox for old Dos games. You can even set up a batch file for the parameters to be loaded.


I use it too, but I have a problem with The Settlers (American name is Serf City: Life is Feudal). In SVGA resolution mouse cursor flicker when it moves. For that reason I keep it at lower VGA resolution. Do you know a way to fix it?


That sounds like the frame rate. Your computer speed is too fast:

Troubleshooting Framerate and Display Issues in DOSBox

https://www.techjunkie.com/troubleshooting-framerate-and-display-issues-in-dosbox/

I play the old Colonization fine although in the latter dates it tends to bog down but it did so with the old computer as well. The Masters Of Orion II that I have, I found a program to load it without me having to launch DOSBOX.

To go to full screen, press and hold ALT then Enter.



Red_L.E.D. -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/8/2020 3:47:54 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kuokkanen
I use it too, but I have a problem with The Settlers (American name is Serf City: Life is Feudal). In SVGA resolution mouse cursor flicker when it moves. For that reason I keep it at lower VGA resolution. Do you know a way to fix it?


It's been like that from 1994. It's an issue with the game not DOSBox. The game was originally programmed for Commodore Amiga in 1993 and then ported to the PC and this is when the SVGA mode was added. My guess is that it was a hurried job.



Red_L.E.D. -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/8/2020 3:55:18 PM)

As for "Steel Panthers: Wold at War" there should be no need for emulators since the game should run fine on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 systems. The SPWAW Depot has an unnoffical patch for the stock game that should fix most of the issues.



Zovs -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/8/2020 5:53:46 PM)

The game does not run fine on Windows 10 at all. It's awful, it runs in a small 480 x 600 window and you can't even read any of the screens.



Red_L.E.D. -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/8/2020 6:01:47 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Zovs

The game does not run fine on Windows 10 at all. It's awful, it runs in a small 480 x 600 window and you can't even read any of the screens.


Resolution for SPWaW is 800x600. Do you mean that it is a small image in the center surrounded by black borders? In this case your monitor is not scaling the image.

For example if you have a 1920x1080 screen and the display settings are not set up to stretch the lower resolution images you end up with that small window in the middle. With bigger resolution monitors the issue becomes even worse.



RangerJoe -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/8/2020 6:10:00 PM)

Check the properties and see how that is set up.

If it is running the game but not with the black borders but just a smaller window, try holding the "ALT" button and press enter.



Red_L.E.D. -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/8/2020 6:35:44 PM)

Also very common today is to run old games like this using a ddraw wrapper. It's usually a ddraw.dll file that you place into the game folder and once the game loads it's graphics routines are redirected to a more modern renderer. I have used the cnc-ddraw project from GitHub with SPWaW and had good results.

Link to cnc-ddraw:
https://github.com/CnCNet/cnc-ddraw/releases

Usage:
Extract the files from cnc-ddraw.zip to the SPWaW main game folder.
Open ddraw.ini with notepad and enable the following options:
fullscreen=true
windowed=true
maintas=true

For better looking graphics you could try the following extra options:
shader=Shaders\cubic.glsl
renderer=opengl



Major_Mess -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/9/2020 2:10:04 AM)

I use DxWnd, y'all can make the window any size you want. As a bonus, it offers an OpenGL renderer in concert with bi-linear filtering. It does provide a better visual IMO with no downside that I have witnessed.


If you'd like, I could crank out a quick and dirty tutorial on this fantastic piece of software.

cheers

MM




matt3916 -> RE: What is the best way to install Steel Panthers? (10/9/2020 9:01:21 PM)

Re DxWnd tutorial. Yes, please.



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