Tiberian Sun Singleplayer Menu Issues

[ArchMikem]

First off I wanted to say, thank you for the work you guys have done bringing these classics into the modern age. Trying to get my copy of The First Decade to work, even using the Unofficial patches, was completely hopeless, but the versions downloaded straight from this site at least worked. More or less.

Anyway, I'd just like to report my issues with a few of the games, such as Tiberian Dawn and Tiberian Sun.

Tiberian Dawn was the most difficult to get running, and even when I finally had all the settings the right way for it to launch, it crashed in the middle of like, mission 2 as well as had a few interface issues, so I pretty much gave up on it. My real intention was to replay Red Alert and Tiberian Sun. Red Alert by the way, almost flawless. It did crash once but that was after hours of uninterrupted gameplay.

Tiberian Sun though is giving me trouble. The Launcher menu itself is glitchy. The background image is tiled, and the menu options are only half, "responsive", as in some become highlighted when the cursor is over them, others not. I'm still capable of starting the Singleplayer. That said the only method of rendering that works is TSddraw. All other options lead to a "Can't set video mode" error, refusing to launch.

Once the game has launched, it all seems just dandy at first glance. No visual errors of any kind. But then I noticed there's a serious case of lag whenever a new menu is trying to open or close, with at least a five second delay between menus, such as trying to open Options. Getting into a game is fine, actually playing the game is fine. But then it seems like the game has a huge stroke after creating a Save Game. The Menus vanish and the game is frozen, audio still playing. Alt+Tab-ing out just carries whatever the problem is over to the Desktop and the entire computer starts to lag. Alt+Tab-ing back into TS and it doesn't even display any visuals anymore.

What info do you need from me?

Edited August 12, 2017 by ArchMikem

[FunkyFr3sh]

On 8/14/2017 at 7:46 AM, ArchMikem said:

game.exe looks like it has reduced color enabled at 16 bit, but it's been grayed out. Compatibility Mode isn't enabled. I excluded the patch in Windows Defender, ran the patch again, and am still getting the video mode error.

 

I can actually play the game just fine using ddwrapper in Windowed mode. But that just leaves one more issue. Is there any way I can choose to run the game in Windows mode at 1280x720, but then stretch the window to 1920x1080? (a Fullscreen Window at a lower Resolution) And I just discovered I can do this by changing the resolution of my Desktop itself to the same so the window fits the whole screen, but I'm still wondering if there's a work around, cause I thought I remember this kind of option being in the Red Alert Config.

You may have a rare/unique bug there, haven't heard about something similar yet

 

Stretching is currently not supported with tiberian sun, maybe one day... 

[Plokite_Wolf]

Try setting the compatibility mode for Windows XP SP3, and run the game as administrator. You can also try running the game windowed.

Also, The First Decade can be patched up by FunkyFr3sh's setup that's pinned in this very subforum.

Edited August 12, 2017 by Plokite_Wolf

[ArchMikem]

27 minutes ago, Plokite_Wolf said:

Try setting the compatibility mode for Windows XP SP3, and run the game as administrator. You can also try running the game windowed.

Also, The First Decade can be patched up by FunkyFr3sh's setup that's pinned in this very subforum.

Set the Compatibility and ran as admin, no change in Menus opening and closing with a several second delay, though the Westwood logo did play more quickly. The Windowed setting in the Config can't be selected, it's grayed out.

Also here's an image of what the Launcher looks like.

http://i.imgur.com/jXWxJnn.png

 

Edit: Okay, sorry. I noticed I could select Windowed Mode by changing the Rendering settings off of TS-DDraw, so I went through them while Windows was selected. Default, IE-ddraw, and ddwrapper all made the game launch perfectly, and all the Menus opened and closed immediately. However with every one, after getting into a game moving the cursor caused the game to freeze, then continue when holding still. Trying to scroll in any direction caused a Crash.

Edited August 12, 2017 by ArchMikem
did more testing

[FunkyFr3sh]

Launcher doesn't seem to support high DPI settings, but Tore should be able to fix that quickly.

 

Try to use your first decade installation and patch it with this: https://forums.cncnet.org/topic/2606-tiberian-sun-patches-fix-for-the-windows-8-10-menu-problems-and-more/

The patch is using different settings than the single player installer from Tore so it might work for you.

 

 

Other patches for the first decade versions can be found here:

Red Alert: https://downloads.cncnet.org/RA1installer.exe

Tiberian Dawn: http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cnc95upd/cc95p106

[ArchMikem]

1 hour ago, FunkyFr3sh said:

Launcher doesn't seem to support high DPI settings, but Tore should be able to fix that quickly.

 

Try to use your first decade installation and patch it with this: https://forums.cncnet.org/topic/2606-tiberian-sun-patches-fix-for-the-windows-8-10-menu-problems-and-more/

The patch is using different settings than the single player installer from Tore so it might work for you.

 

 

Other patches for the first decade versions can be found here:

Red Alert: https://downloads.cncnet.org/RA1installer.exe

Tiberian Dawn: http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cnc95upd/cc95p106

Funny thing is after using the Unofficial 1.03 patch for TFD and it didn't help at all, I felt that was the end of the line, uninstalled, and chucked my physical copy a couple days ago. Soooo, I guess that's it? I just tried to order a digital copy of TUC on Amazon but for some reason the order is pending for a while so I can't even test that atm. I leave a note tomorrow. I have those patches you linked on standby though.

[FunkyFr3sh]

1 hour ago, ArchMikem said:

Funny thing is after using the Unofficial 1.03 patch for TFD and it didn't help at all, I felt that was the end of the line, uninstalled, and chucked my physical copy a couple days ago. Soooo, I guess that's it? I just tried to order a digital copy of TUC on Amazon but for some reason the order is pending for a while so I can't even test that atm. I leave a note tomorrow. I have those patches you linked on standby though.

the Unofficial 1.03 patch for TFD will not help, that's true. The patch I linked works though.

No reason to order TUC, it's the same as TFD

[ArchMikem]

44 minutes ago, FunkyFr3sh said:

the Unofficial 1.03 patch for TFD will not help, that's true. The patch I linked works though.

No reason to order TUC, it's the same as TFD

So, I got a new copy of TS through Origin, and applied the patch you linked to it. Running the game with TS-ddraw as the Rendering selected seems to make the game work as normal, except for two things.

One, while in-game the Menu disappears after creating a Save. I can use the arrow keys up and down to make the menu options buttons reappear and then click resume to get back in and all is normal again.

Two, the game seems to only like it with the Resolution set to 800x600. Any higher and the issue with the lagging menus returns.

*Update:* Okay! I think I found a sweetspot. It seems the game doesn't like certain Resolutions, not all of them above 800x600. I've tried 1280x720 and 1600x900 and those two didn't have freezing Menu problems, maybe it has to do with a specific aspect ratio? Don't quote me I'm no techie. But putting the Resolution to 1280x720 got the game to look JUST right for me, the Menus weren't lagging/freezing and there were no immediately noticeable issues. That one little problem I mentioned above concerning making a Save Game still persists but it's not game breaking. Also on a hunch I went to see if my Video Drivers needed updating. Turns out they did. Couldn't tell if that made a difference or not.

Edited August 12, 2017 by ArchMikem

[FunkyFr3sh]

ts-ddraw can cause such issues, you can just keep your rendering on default. The patch should make the game working without the need to change any settings.

Any resolution should work fine with default settings. Do not add any compatibility modes, those can break the game (e.g. using the wrong compat mode can break high resolutions)

 

Again, DO NOT change any setting. Install game, apply TSpatch.exe - That's it.

Don't switch rendering, don't add compat modes

 

Of course, you can change your resolution if you like

 

[ArchMikem]

13 hours ago, FunkyFr3sh said:

ts-ddraw can cause such issues, you can just keep your rendering on default. The patch should make the game working without the need to change any settings.

Any resolution should work fine with default settings. Do not add any compatibility modes, those can break the game (e.g. using the wrong compat mode can break high resolutions)

Again, DO NOT change any setting. Install game, apply TSpatch.exe - That's it.

Don't switch rendering, don't add compat modes

Of course, you can change your resolution if you like

 

I did what you said, reinstalled the game, installed the patch. But in the config it set itself to ddwrapper instead of default. Trying to launch the game like that gave an "Unable to set video mode" error. Changing it to default gave the same error.

TS-ddraw seems to be the only Rendering option that makes the game "work" and I can't find a solution for the Video Mode error that happens with the others. When using TS-ddraw, the Menus don't have freezing issues only when the Resolution is set to 800x600. I managed to fix that by disabling Single Core Affinity which made the menus more responsive in a higher resolution but the game crashes instead mid-mission. And like I said, just leaving the Config with the settings it chooses for itself gives me Video Mode errors.

 

And, actually Default Rendering does work, but only in Windowed mode. But I want to play at a resolution lower than my screen's native and there doesn't seem to be an option to stretch the window to fullscreen.

Edited August 13, 2017 by ArchMikem

[ArchMikem]

I really wish I understood how all this worked.

TS-ddraw is the only Rendering option that makes the game work in Fullscreen, but if the Resolution is set any higher than 800x600, there's a freezing problem with the Menus. That problem however can be fixed by disabling Single Processor Affinity, and then the game runs perfectly. For one mission. Then it crashes. I remember reading that enabling Single Core Affinity is the fix for that crashing, but then the Menu freezing happens.

[FunkyFr3sh]

If ddwrapper was enabled then you have done it correctly.

 

The only way I could explain your bug is that the compatibility modes set by TSpatch are not working or were disabled.

 

Can you go into your game folder and look for game.exe, check if the compat mode "reduced color: 16bit" is enabled?

 

Try to apply TSpatch again, if origin tells you theres an update then click No (otherwise it will revert all changes). Also make sure your security programs are not blocking the patcher

[ArchMikem]

On 8/13/2017 at 4:28 AM, FunkyFr3sh said:

If ddwrapper was enabled then you have done it correctly.

 

The only way I could explain your bug is that the compatibility modes set by TSpatch are not working or were disabled.

 

Can you go into your game folder and look for game.exe, check if the compat mode "reduced color: 16bit" is enabled?

 

Try to apply TSpatch again, if origin tells you theres an update then click No (otherwise it will revert all changes). Also make sure your security programs are not blocking the patcher

game.exe looks like it has reduced color enabled at 16 bit, but it's been grayed out. Compatibility Mode isn't enabled. I excluded the patch in Windows Defender, ran the patch again, and am still getting the video mode error.

 

I can actually play the game just fine using ddwrapper in Windowed mode. But that just leaves one more issue. Is there any way I can choose to run the game in Windows mode at 1280x720, but then stretch the window to 1920x1080? (a Fullscreen Window at a lower Resolution) And I just discovered I can do this by changing the resolution of my Desktop itself to the same so the window fits the whole screen, but I'm still wondering if there's a work around, cause I thought I remember this kind of option being in the Red Alert Config.

Edited August 15, 2017 by ArchMikem

[ArchMikem]

18 hours ago, FunkyFr3sh said:

You may have a rare/unique bug there, haven't heard about something similar yet

 

Stretching is currently not supported with tiberian sun, maybe one day... 

I guess I can just play the game using TS-ddraw at fullscreen 800x600 and deal with the minor Menu issues then. If it's playable then I can deal with the resolution giving me black bars on the sides. But hey, these patches giving me the ability to play at all is a gift, so thanks regardless. I'll keep this place bookmarked in case there are any new patches or revelations on my problem.