EAW garbled briefing screen fix for Nvidia

[ux-3]

I remember that there was a fix for Nvidia cards. I also found some references for a registry change that will cure the garbled briefing screens. Unfortunately, the links are all dead.

Apparently, it is a short file that changes the registry.

Does someone know, where this fix can still be downloaded?

I am currently trying to fix up a win98 machine with an Athlon XP and a Geforce 6800, so I have no troubles with those 8-bit error messages, up to and including the last Win98 driver 81.98 or so. But the garbled screens spoil the fun somewhat.

Thanks for any help!

ux-3

[Knegel]

Hello,

1) Open Regedit

2) Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\VIDEO

3) Look for the name:
\Device\Video0

4) Look at the cooresponding Data value. It will look something like this:
\Registry\Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Control \Video\{52BE6E44-53E9-4A0B-AF3C-70A73F8AD1CE}\0000

5) Make note of the value in the brackets and the instance at the end of the line. You may want to print
out this branch (cntrl-p) to easily reference these values later. In this example it is:
{52BE6E44-53E9-4A0B-AF3C-70A73F8AD1CE}\0000

6) Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Video

7) There may be several sub-categories. Select the one that matches the value in the brackets you noted
in step 5. In this example it is:
49F044B4-22F9-4360-BB43-5F0E5C602E2A}\0000}

8 ) Select the instance you noted in step 5. In this example it is:
\0000

9) Right-click this same instance (\0000) and select New/DWORD Value. This will create a value called
"New Value #1".

10) Right click the "New Value #1" and rename it to NoAdjustedPitch.

11) Double-click the new NoAdjustedPitch and assign it a Hexadecimal value of 1.

13) Exit regedit and reboot.

14) The Briefing screens and maps should now be working properly.


A additional comment from a user:
"Be aware that the "NoAdjustPitch" fix works but it's not always in the section of teh registry that the article says it is.

I ended up searching the registry for all references to "Nv" ( NOT GeForce ) and placing the new entry in ALL of them. I think I had to put it in 7 or 8 different places before it took effect."

Greetings,

Knegel

[ux-3]

Thanks for trying to help.

I have two problems with your instructions: Both locations do not exist in the registry. (Win98SE)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\VIDEO

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Video

I am relatively sure to have followed those or similar instructions years ago with Win2k. However, my current rig runs on XP and is not able to display any static screens decently. At least I can fly.

So I have grabbed an old AthlonXP along with a GF6800 and win98. Win98 seems to have never been touched with the 8 bit error issues. Even the latest driver runs the game. All I have to do is get rid of the garbled screens.

I have installed a second graphics card in it, a Voodoo3 2000 PCI on which I can play without errors but with a somewhat lower frame rate. I have tested EAW with several cards and reached the conlusion that CPU power does the most for frame rate. I found, that a V3 3000 AGP at 200Mhz on a P3 1000 is outperformed by a V3 2000 PCI at 166MHz on an AthlonXP at 2000MHz. In fact, the GF6800 doesn't perform much better either. (All at 1024x786).

[Knegel]

Ops, sorry, i missread your infos, i just saw "XP", but not the "Win98".

I should read more carefully.

After a tip from a friend i found the fix here(1st link on the top):
EAW - Tally Ho

Greetings,

Knegel

[ux-3]

Thanks a lot! Found it and downloaded it. I need to break out the win98 legacy machine for testing tonight.

[ux-3]

So, here are the results: With the latest Win98 Nvidia Drivers ( 81.98 ) , the reg-fix worsens the problem for the GF6800. Now all screens have the problem. Other cards fared better. I was sort of between a rock and a hard place: a GF6 doesn't run on too many win98 drivers. I tried all their still available GF6 compatible drivers and found that only 71.84 works without problems with my GF6800. No garbled screens, no errors or freezes.

Note: When using a GF2 MX, things went much smoother and not much slower (Cpu @2000MHz seems to be far more important)

Thanks for the help!

[Knegel]

Hello again,

we found that EAW(no matter what version) on newer systems(specialy newer graphiccards) suffer by bad FPS slowdowns in 3d mode.

A solution often is to use a glidewrapper and play EAW in glide more.

I have a Altlon 2 x 2400Mhz, 2 gig RAM and a ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro.

With this system i get a max fps in 3d mode of just 60 and when i get close to a big 4 mot pulk the fps smelt down to 5-15(slideshow).

When i use zeckenzacks glide wrapper ( zeckensack's Glide wrapper ) and glide, i get a max fps of 130 and never slower then 25(inside a big bomber pulk, many bombers smoking, many fighters attacking, flak and bullets everywhere etc).

Before i had a Atlon 1800MHz, 1 gig RAM and a Radeon 9800 pro, with this system there was not much different between glide and 3d, 3d was a little faster. The all over performence was not much better than on my K7 700 382MB RAM and a GF MX460.

The problem is that EAW is programmed for an old DirectX version, where the glide wrapper provide a better "link" to the modern systems.

Greetings,

Knegel