New cnc-ddraw release (Red Alert 1 & C&C95)

[FunkyFr3sh]

1 hour ago, Lightning Hunter said:

How do I take a screenshot in C&C?  I never was able to... I read Nyergud's tutorial once, but all I ever get is a completely black image when I use print screen (no image data at all).  Also, his palettes cannot be imported by photoshop.

I tried turning on integer scaling with 960x540, but there are just black bars on top, bottom, and the sides now (the game is centered and looks tiny).  Is there a certain combination I need with maintas and fullscreen?

Edit: So I just figured out that pressing print screen while in-game creates a screenshot in the C&C folder, but all the screenshots look the same no matter what shader I'm using (so I guess it does not capture shaders in the shot).  Even xbrz-freescale.glsl looks the same in the screenshot.

 

Probably the most simple and fail-safe way is to set the display mode to "borderless" and then press Alt+PrintScreen

 

I just made a video of all shaders btw:

http://cnc.cloudns.pro/Test/index.php?video=RedAlert_Shader_Comparison.mp4

[Lightning Hunter]

5 hours ago, FunkyFr3sh said:

 

Probably the most simple and fail-safe way is to set the display mode to "borderless" and then press Alt+PrintScreen

 

I just made a video of all shaders btw:

http://cnc.cloudns.pro/Test/index.php?video=RedAlert_Shader_Comparison.mp4

Nice comparison video!  I wonder why the shader I posted above doesn't work for you?  It is now actually my favorite, and I found one in the same "series" I like even better:

https://github.com/libretro/glsl-shaders/blob/master/windowed/shaders/lanczos2-sharp.glsl

I think this shader and the other one I posted is related to all the "jinc2" shaders, although some of them make the game washed out.  The one I just put has a very sharp, clear look without being too gritty or washed out.  It makes the game look more war-like in my opinion, which suits C&C more than even the original appearance!

I also tried Alt + Print screen, but it had no effect.  Screenshots only appear as PNG in the main C&C folder when I hit print screen alone, and they seem to remove all shaders for the shot.

Edited May 12, 2019 by Lightning Hunter

[FunkyFr3sh]

Oh yeah, I know that one. It's similar to cubic, maybe a bit sharper.

 

For screenshots you have to press Alt+PrintScreen and then make a new forum post here and press Ctrl+V (There will be no file)

[Lightning Hunter]

Hmm, the image appears as black when I paste it.  I can't get anything to show up.

Anyway, I think the shader is quite a bit different from Cubic (at least on my version).  Cubic is a bit too blurry for my taste.  lanczos2-sharp.glsl does a good job keeping the sharp look while also offering more of a war-like photographic feel.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Lightning Hunter

[Skybee]

Thanks so much for the continuing efforts here! I lost hope that I could get C&C95 Gold to work again, but now it's amazing. I donated to CnCnet so thanks so much for bringing back the memories!

I am slowly figuring out how to tweak things so works better for me. Is there a readme file that explains the ddraw.ini parameters?

I am having a wierd issue where, after playing for a while, I can no longer use the menu because my cursor disappears when the "esc" menu opens.

I've set maxfps to below my refresh rate, singlecpu to false, and set vhack to true. Windowed and Maintas and boxing is false. fullscreen is true+windowed=false.

Any idea why, after I play for a while, I lose cursor function when the menu is open?

In previous posts, there are images of a different configuration program. All I see if the CCConifg.exe, it is like the old one. Is there a different config program for me to use?

Thanks for your effort and time! Very much appreciate it.

[FunkyFr3sh]

13 minutes ago, Skybee said:

Thanks so much for the continuing efforts here! I lost hope that I could get C&C95 Gold to work again, but now it's amazing. I donated to CnCnet so thanks so much for bringing back the memories!

I am slowly figuring out how to tweak things so works better for me. Is there a readme file that explains the ddraw.ini parameters?

I am having a wierd issue where, after playing for a while, I can no longer use the menu because my cursor disappears when the "esc" menu opens.

I've set maxfps to below my refresh rate, singlecpu to false, and set vhack to true. Windowed and Maintas and boxing is false. fullscreen is true+windowed=false.

Any idea why, after I play for a while, I lose cursor function when the menu is open?

In previous posts, there are images of a different configuration program. All I see if the CCConifg.exe, it is like the old one. Is there a different config program for me to use?

Thanks for your effort and time! Very much appreciate it.

 

Thanks!

 

Nope, there isn't a readme file currently but the latest config program should have all the important settings, you can find it here: https://forums.cncnet.org/topic/8821-cc-1-tiberian-dawn-installation-on-windows-10/ 

Usually you just keep it all on default settings (unless you might want to have some fancy opengl upscaling...)

 

The cursor issue is related to multi core cpu's, make sure you have singlecpu=true set and then it shouldn't happen anymore.

 

[Skybee]

On 10/17/2019 at 6:55 PM, FunkyFr3sh said:

 

Thanks!

 

Nope, there isn't a readme file currently but the latest config program should have all the important settings, you can find it here: https://forums.cncnet.org/topic/8821-cc-1-tiberian-dawn-installation-on-windows-10/ 

Usually you just keep it all on default settings (unless you might want to have some fancy opengl upscaling...)

 

The cursor issue is related to multi core cpu's, make sure you have singlecpu=true set and then it shouldn't happen anymore.

 

Thanks!

Unfortunately, the new video stuttering, which I didn't have before, began once i set the singlecpu=true

The cursor freeze on menu display rarely happens, mainly when I play for a long time. So, I guess some sort of wierd "traffic jam with memory allocation".

This was on my older laptop, used a Intel Core2 or something with win7 64bit, can't remember much else off hand.

I got my new windows10 laptop today with the i7 and not had a single problem. Seems odd to me this game runs much smoother on this i7 win10 64-bit machine.

Guess might just be a problem with my older machine since i have been using it for over 15 years.

Thanks again for all your efforts! I look forward to them.

Edited October 24, 2019 by Skybee
spelling

[Lightning Hunter]

I decided to play a bit of oldschool C&C again and was messing with the settings of ddraw.ini.  The only settings that seem to look right is having fullscreen set to true and maintas set to true.  However, the units are so tiny for me at this resolution, so I tried setting the resolution to smaller amounts like 800x600, but then I get the bug in the screenshot.  Anytime I scroll the screen up and back down, the "smearing" effect happens as shown.  It goes away if I enter the menu and go back to the game (until I scroll the screen up and down again).

Any idea what is causing this?  Here are my current settings, although I have tried just about every setting possible.  This is ddraw from 2019, although I've also tried the newest version from 12/18/2021 with the same results.  The new version also seems less stable for me (shuting down the game has like a 10-second delay, for example).

ddraw.ini:

Quote

 

; cnc-ddraw - https://github.com/CnCNet/cnc-ddraw - https://cncnet.org

[ddraw]
; ### Optional settings ###
; Use the following settings to adjust the look and feel to your liking

; Stretch to custom resolution, 0 = defaults to the size game requests
width=0
height=0

; Override the width/height settings shown above and always stretch to fullscreen
; Note: Can be combined with 'windowed=true' to get windowed-fullscreen aka borderless mode
fullscreen=false

; Run in windowed mode rather than going fullscreen
windowed=False

; Maintain aspect ratio - (Requires 'handlemouse=true')
maintas=false

; Windowboxing / Integer Scaling - (Requires 'handlemouse=true')
boxing=false

; Real rendering rate, -1 = screen rate, 0 = unlimited, n = cap
; Note: Does not have an impact on the game speed, to limit your game speed use 'maxgameticks='
maxfps=120

; Vertical synchronization, enable if you get tearing - (Requires 'renderer=auto/opengl/direct3d9')
vsync=false

; Automatic mouse sensitivity scaling  - (Requires 'handlemouse=true')
; Note: Only works if stretching is enabled. Sensitivity will be adjusted according to the size of the window
adjmouse=False

; Preliminary libretro shader support - (Requires 'renderer=opengl') https://github.com/libretro/glsl-shaders
; Example: shader=Shaders\xbrz-freescale.glsl
; shader=Shaders\lanczos2-sharp.glsl
;shader=Shaders\cubic.glsl

; Window position, -32000 = center to screen
posX=-32000
posY=-32000

; Renderer, possible values: auto, opengl, gdi, direct3d9 (auto = try direct3d9/opengl, fallback = gdi)
renderer=opengl

; Developer mode (don't lock the cursor)
devmode=false

; Show window borders in windowed mode
border=false

; Bits per pixel, possible values: 16, 24 and 32, 0 = auto
bpp=0

; Enable C&C video resize hack - Stretches C&C cutscenes to fullscreen
vhack=True

 

; ### Compatibility settings ###
; Use the following settings in case there are any issues with the game

; Hide WM_ACTIVATEAPP messages to prevent problems on alt+tab
noactivateapp=false

; Max game ticks per second, possible values: 0-1000
; Note: Can be used to slow down a too fast running game, fix flickering or too fast animations
maxgameticks=180

; Gives cnc-ddraw full control over the mouse cursor (required for adjmouse/boxing/maintas)
; Note: This option only works for games that draw their own cursor and it must be disabled for all other games
handlemouse=true

; Use Waitable Timer Objects rather than timeGetTime+Sleep to limit FPS/Ticks/Flip
; Note: To workaround tearing/stuttering problems, set maxfps 1 lower than screen refresh rate (59 for flip games)
accuratetimers=false

; Force CPU0 affinity, avoids crashes/freezing, *might* have a performance impact
singlecpu=false
mhack=False
filter=nearest
shader=

[C&C95]
width=0
height=0

[cnc95]
width=0
height=0

 

 

And Conquer.ini:
 

Quote

 

[Options]
HardwareFills=0
VideoBackBuffer=1
FreeScrolling=1
AutoScroll=1
SlowPalette=1
ScoreVolume=81
Volume=66
ScrollRate=5
GameSpeed=0
Compatibility=0
DeathAnnounce=No
Socket=0
DestNet=
SafeScrolling=No

[Video]
Width=800
Height=600
Brightness=129
Contrast=129
Tint=128
Color=147
VerticalVideoStretch=i  ; [S]canlines, [D]uplicate, [I]nterpolate
StretchAttract=Yes      ; Make the game stretch the "Coming Attraction" screen

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by Lightning Hunter