Hello All,

I’ve been encouraged by the recent flurry of activity with EAW 160 “barebones” and “foundation” versions to look again at my collection of Legacy EAW variants; these range from the Spanish Civil War to the Korean War, with multiple WW2 options. I’m delighted to find that they all work happily under Windows 10, without needing any of the workarounds and fudges previously needed for the more recent Windows versions.

However I do still have one issue. Running EAW under D3D, I can get a 16:10 full-screen image, but this gives me a rather choppy framerate, shimmering distant terrain, and no horizon fog. Running under Glide (emulation) I get smooth framerates and terrain, plus horizon fog, but only with a 4:3 screen image.

So, question, looking for the best of both worlds, how can one get a widescreen (16:9 or 16:10) image with EAW running under Glide?

Thanks

Mike

I see this bit of text on Zeus Site, but I don't understand it.


Does nGlide support widescreen monitors?
Yes, nGlide supports 16:9 and 16:10 widescreen resolutions. For these, you can set original 4:3 aspect ratio to avoid image stretching.


Another thing you can try fullscreen support, if that dont work try window mode.

My issue Mark is this. I have a widescreen monitor, and EAW does run OK on thiis under Glide, only it runs as 4:3 aspect so it is not actually full screen. This gives me a narrow FOV, with vertical black bars on either side of the simulation image.

Running EAW under D3D on the other hand, does allow a full screen 16:9 simulation. No black bars, no stretching, but with the sub-optimal display issues as described - choppiness, distant terrain shimmering, no horizon fog.

What i am looking for is full screen Glide implementation, ie not 4:3 but 16:9 or 16:10, with all the advantages of Glide, together with the wider (no black bars) FOV. Is this actually possible?

Thanks

Mike

I understood, and am aware of the black bars. Your best bet is to ask in the Zeus forum as Zeus did the updated glide code in v1.60 of EAW. He should know if you can.

I remember something about force aspect ratio option too with nglide, but its been awhile, I don't remember all the options that can be set with nglide anymore.

Best of luck. If you figure it out, please come back and let use know.

The black bars on your wide screen monitor are filling the portion of the screen that are not drawn in a 4x3 screen ratio. Your monitor is displaying the data as written. The D3D issue is most likely due to the drivers your machine uses. There is a D3D Windower available. http://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4424568/1/d3dwindower-1-88-steps-to-use look at the thread below this one.

Also, 1.6 is available and runs very well. But, you have to use campaigns adapted to it. Things written for earlier versions of EAW 1.2x-30 will not work. Look under Mr.Jelly for links to download EAW 1.6.

I suspect that it cannot be done properly

The advice I received from Zeus when we had made the exe able to use Glide3 (and therefore BMP files) was to set the eaw.ini file to 1024x768 and the glide resolution to whatever I needed to try.
I could get a frame that was almost full screen, but it was stretched horizontally and the gunsight was oval.
I preferred the round gunsight and the black edges

I am away in Lyon with my old 1280x800 laptop.
This gave me full screen, and the second pic is not an EAW screenie but a windows Vista screen dump

Thanks all*,

It looks as though true widescreen isn’t possible when running EAW under Glide. Oh well.

Mike

*and apologies to Mark, I initially misread your first message above as not understanding my first message.

Mike if you need anything else, just ask or review my site, theres help there too.

There's another glide wrapper, I couldnt figure out how to use it, but you might want to uninstall nglide first.
Called dgVoodoo2 I think thats spelled right. I'm not sure how it performs nor do i remember what systems its for.

If you try it, id like to know everything you figure out, so i can add that set of instructions to my help doc.

Thanks Mark,

That helped. I found the dgVoodoo site here: https://www.play-old-pc-games.com/compatibility-tools/dgvoodoo-tutorial/, and simply followed its installation link and instructions. There is no need to uninstall nGlide if one follows these instructions carefully.

Running the dgVoodoo Control Panel (dgVoodooCpl), my selected options were as in the attached screenshots.


The net result is that I again get a less-than-fullscreen sim view, but this time it is somewhat wider than the nGlide version. A whole 7% wider, but strangely that makes a big difference, at least to my eyes. Playing with other options to try to get a fullscreen Glide view runs into the same issue as described by Mr J above, yes I do get a full screen, but everything is stretched laterally, including the infamous oval gunsight.

So anyway I seem to have found an EAW Glide option that works for me, thanks again.

Mike

Your welcome. All I did is point you to something I wasn't even sure of.

You sure the nGlide dll isn't being used instead of the dgvoodoo since you didnt uninstall nGlide?

Do you get a splash screen for dgVoodoo in the game before the flight screen opens up?
(I think its a dgVoodoo titled splash screen)

Good question: nGlide is sort of sneaky.

I'm reviewing dgvoodoo2 now, and writing down the steps i take. I do not have nGlide installed.

I guess to get a dgVoodoo2 splash screen and watermark you have to download separate dlls-splash dlls.

However I'm highly interested in the up convert from DX1-7 to DX11 that may allow more ATI or NVIDIA Video Control Panel settings to work.
There also a DLL that non-win10 systems need for extended shader use. (but win10 already includes that built in).

I have to "install"/add dgVoodoo to the EAW game folder yet. (this consists of adding the exe and all DLLs to the game folder)
From what I am thinking for Mike, is nGlide dll is being used since its more of a system wide update rather than a local game update like dgVoodoo.

All right I have the dgVoodo steps to add and use it on my install help document.

I didn't test the DirectX update support for it, cause you have to change (rather delete some registry entrys) for anyone using Win8/10.
This means that by doing so you get Windows to recognize the DX.dlls you get from dgVoodoo first, so Windows will use those instead of the built-in Microsoft versions. It sounds complicated but dgVoodoo ensures you in its directx documentation that its not.
I just haven't gone that far to test it out.

dgVoodoo is an alternative to nGlide for 3Dfx Glide Mode use in EAW (of course other games as well). Its more local to the game than a system wide change like nGlide is.

Good to hear, Mark.

I’m away from home just now, back in a few days, so I can’t compare settings until then. In the meantime can I ask please, how effective did you find dgVoodoo for true widescreen (16:9, 16:10), does it work without the lateral stretching (= ovalised gunsight)?

Thanks

Mike

I'm not sure I have the right monitor for this widescreen test, since my maximum res seems to be 1680x1050.????



EDIT:
Anything thats not 4:3 ratio is going to have an oval gun sight to some degree.

Someone PM'd me saying

eaw.ini is set at
1024 by 768,

nGlide is set at
1920 by 1080 with no stretching on a 27inch monitor.

If that helps.

I should re mention.

That at 1024x768 on version 1.2 of EAW your POV will be close and upto the front cockpit dash.

For versions 1.28 and above they tweaked the 1024x768 res to have a better POV, you sit back further.

On the FXEXE modification, you have the option to zoom back a step or too, which actually improves the POV siting you further back in the cockpit.



So 800x600 is widest view and further-est pilot seat back on v1.2. You can try higher than 1024x768 (there example resolution settings on my web site)

Its all crazy tweaks done differently by everyone, MPS EAWTeam, Knegel, and VBH. Untill a proper widescreen can be coded this is what we have.
Which is great, I love the wide 1024x768 in v1.28+ and the moving the pilot seat back in FXEXE.

Are the instructions there?

This thread is a little tricky to follow because some parts appear to relate to nGlide.
I have not been able to set dgVoodoo up to fly EAW on my PC.

Also, I do not think you got an answer to this question



Jel

Heres a link as close to dgVoodoo 2 instructions/steps as I could get. Mind you only the Glide part I got working on Win10, the DirectX part that I wanted to get working is not.
I don't have nGlide installed.

https://eaw.neocities.org/eaw-manually-install.html#wrap



I think Mike is running nGlide when he launchs eaw.exe, but then again since dgVoodo inserts the dlls into the games root folder, maybe they take priority.
The only way to know is to see if the watermark and splash screen from dgVoodoo show up, or if nGlide 3dfx splash shows up.
They may have the same text "3Dfx" but they look different in color and design.


EDIT: I think you need a directx 10 supported video card, or 10.1 to use dgVoodoo. Not sure, it has extensive readme notes with the archives you download.

Ive tested something called OpenGLide (the last version released in 2004 and It consists of a dll and config file). (There is an OpenGLide version from 2002 tweaked by Glidos, i didnt bother with it)
.

The wrapper is just for v2.xx Glide, so i tested it with v1.26 (because its still uses the old glide version and has a nocd fix)
Anyway, this particular wrapper is unique in that instead of going from Glide to DirectX it goes Glide to OpenGL.
It works properly with default settings (that I can change if i want), the only problem I discovered is it doesn't Transistion back to the menu screens properly from the flight screen.
EAW exits and an EAW error is shown: something like Your video card doesnt support that res, change your eaw.ini setting.
So that ended the tests for me for now. There doesn't seem to be a fix for it using that wrapper. I'll look at it one more time but the dll is from 2004 (expecting winxp or lower) .....



EDIT:
Okay, got it to work properly, the only thing is the full screen flight screen must be turned off, not neccarly making a window, just initfullscreen is off. Then it will switch back to the menu screens properly.
Remember this dll seems to indicate only usefull for Glide API v2.xx not 3.0 found in the CodeGroups exe's.
This wrapper is pretty light wait and works well, the EnableMipMap to true(ON) seems to be the setting that gets rid of the terrain shimmering, the terain looks so nice at the far distance, its alittle blured out and darker in color, but its not shimmering anymore.

Heres the few changes i made to my config file for the wrapper.
http://openglide.sourceforge.net/



Configuration File for OpenGLide

Info:
Priority goes from 0(HIGH) to 5(IDLE)
Texture Memory goes from 2 to 32
Frame Buffer Memory goes from 2 to 16
All other fields are boolean with 1(TRUE) and 0(FALSE)

Version=0.09rc7

[Options]
WrapperPriority=0
CreateWindow=0
InitFullScreen=0
EnableMipMaps=1
IgnorePaletteChange=0
Wrap565to5551=1
EnablePrecisionFix=1
EnableMultiTextureEXT=1
EnablePaletteEXT=1
EnableVertexArrayEXT=0
TextureMemorySize=32
FrameBufferMemorySize=16

I just checked some of the widescreen possibilities in 160


The forward view with the POV hat looks good, and I was considering getting it to be the default:



However, with the normal forward view there is no difference in the terrain width, so the forward view with the POV hat is not a better wide view:



Allowing additional levels of zoom out gives a wider view of the terrain, but with rendering problems:


I get similar problems with the additional zoom in the FXExe at my normal screen resolution

About the rendering issues; I think in FXEXE only one notch back on the zoom suffices at 1024x768 res, otherwise you get those blank areas along the sides. Or like the issues what your showing for the 160.

Its too bad it all doesn't work that simple.


EDIT:
Just remember that in the Code Group versions of the eaw.exe, the 1024x768 res was modified to sit back further than stock or FXEXE versions of EAW.
So maybe setting 160 to zoom back once at that res may have rendering issues right away, with just one step.
I'm just thinking about that.

Tony,
What you are seeing is the edge of the view frustum. If EAW stores the view calculations, then you need to delete the stored ones and let the game engine recalculate it. You will also need to change the multiplier used the calculate the view width.
These are the original view frustums from PE. View size is distance in 10 meter units.

and now the current view frustum that changes with the weather conditions.

you need to find where the code sets the clipping range of the view cone.

Thanks Allen

I will have a look when we return from Switzerland in mid July

I believe the D3D Windower program can have screen size adjusted, using the (Gear Icon) Configuration settings within the D3D program. I did some tinkering with EAW.INI screen settings, and the wrapper settings, and got full-screen on my (native resolution) 1920x1080 monitor. Important to note that one should begin the process at 1900X1000 limits (within D3D program), and expand the D3D window program settings from there, as 1920X1080 will chop off her edges of what appears in the window.

So, experiment with D3D Windower program, with EAW.INI and D3D Windower settings being adjusted separately to give you what you want.

It may be that the D3D Windower program is not the optimal program for EAW. Such testing is above my knowledge/experience level, and I plan to experiment with different wrapper programs, as it seems I need them due to my Nvidea game card. The above is posted as anecdotal experience.

Perhaps I should send this as a PM to the code group. But, I told Moogy to never add me unless I was serious. I do not know if I am serious.

Tony,
I did make several, half hearted attempts to find this setting. I think it is going to be a pain and I suspect it is in the d3d dll side of the source.

I have not modded any games much in a year. to be honest, it is nice to not have a commitment. And, I am starting to realize how bad my addictions are. They are worse, but Ray's wisdom deflected me away from EAW.
How much I work at addictions is still in doubt.

I am not interested in "making" something, but I am interested in helping. I can not guarantee the amount of time I gave with 24bit and the help must be focused. ie one project at a time.

Thanks Allen. I had missed your post when I was away in Switzerland.