BFME2 & RotWK Widescreen and Triplehead Mods--Released

Post by **GeneralAdmission** » 10 Sep 2008, 00:52

Map updates for TH2Go are finally complete. *sigh*

Changes to fog, audio, and shadow settings are next and should go quickly. Then comes recompiling all the files, a complete readme/wiki update, final installer design, demo video, etc. Can't predict a release date yet, but I'll say relatively soon. Or, in Blizzard vernacular, "When it's done." :mrgreen:

CB143 · Post by **CB143** » 21 Sep 2008, 18:58

Newbie here! Great work on this mod, having had to suffer with EA's stupidity just to be able to play this I'm glad you guys have taken the time to do something for the gamers that EA wouldn't! :D Anywho you said that this patch was still very much alive and open to suggestions so here goes (apologies if they've already been brought up!):

Single Player Blue Mountains map - no new FOV/Camera integration yet.
Skirmish maps that were only available to Collectors Edition owners such as Argonath, Weathertop etc... - same problem.

Any ideas on when the next version of the patch is due btw?

Post by **GeneralAdmission** » 21 Sep 2008, 20:14

Greetings, CB143!

Glad to hear you like my work. Yes, the mod is back at the top of my list as of today...I got sidetracked for a week or so working on my game recording guide.

Blue Mountains map has been fixed and will be included in the next release.

I have Argonath and Weathertop fixed in the expansion...didn't realize those were available in the original since I don't have the CE. That presents a couple of questions:

-If those maps were included with the mod, would they actually function for non-CE BFME2 players? I'm guessing if they don't work then those 2 maps simply won't be recognized by the game, but then again I don't want it to cause bugs.
-Which .big files in the game directory contain those 2 maps? They are probably not in the maps.big file.

I'm sure there is some way I can integrate fixes for these CE maps into the mod--just need to figure out how.

Now that things are back on track, I'm planning to have the next version out within a couple weeks, but I can't pin down a certain date (too much real life chaos at the moment). I will add progress notes to the first post as things progress.

also... :welcome

CB143 · Post by **CB143** » 21 Sep 2008, 21:05

Thanks, glad to be here!

With regards to those questions, considering EA's track record with "Collector's Edition" versions of their releases, they don't appear to radically alter a great deal, more they simply stick something onto the end after they're done with the vanilla release :P For example I had the CE of Black and White 2 somewhere and the only alteration to that the addition of a small .exe file "tigerunlocker", that made a minor alteration to a registry entry to unlock the new creature.

Therefore I think it would be safe to assume that adding the two maps from the expansion for use in the non-CE of the original shouldn't cause any problems, they're practically the same game but for the minor alterations in the game mechanics. (If attempting this were to cause a bug, then most of this community seem to be aware and understanding enough that they shouldn't bombard you with angry messages, and simply revert back to the appropriate data files which they should've backed up 8) ) So it wouldn't hurt to give it a go surely?

Failing that, there's the issue as to where these extra maps are amongst the files. You're obviously right in saying that they aren't in maps.big, otherwise I wouldn't still have these maps having replaced my original file with the widescreen fix version.

I'm assuming its definitely another .big file right? Perhaps a comparison between editions is in order. If you don't have a CE copy to hand or don't know anybody else with the CE I'd be happy to help as much as I can, even if its as only as much as listing all the .big files in my directory here and trying to pinpoint the difference.

Anyway, good luck! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with, what's more, people lacking a copy of the expansion will have some new maps to play with if you succeed!

Post by **scavvenjahh** » 21 Sep 2008, 21:50

You're right General, the CE maps are in a separate data2.big file.

Post by **GeneralAdmission** » 22 Sep 2008, 02:05

I'd be happy to help as much as I can, even if its as only as much as listing all the .big files in my directory here and trying to pinpoint the difference.

Thanks for the offer. I think I have the files I need.

What I will probably do is mod those CE maps and post just that file so you can test it for me. Also, a few pages back in the thread should be a link for the modded Blue Mountain map that you can try. Of course everything will be packaged together in the final release.

scav...you da man! :wink:

CB143 · Post by **CB143** » 22 Sep 2008, 12:40

Sorry to go off-topic a sec, I noticed a couple of pages back you were discussing the framerate and any possible bottlenecks. I play at 1680x1050 (Ultra High Q) and hit a bit of a wall FPS-wise on the Erebor mission of the single player campaign.

General, you mentioned that at some point beyond the graphics card capability the CPU becomes a bottleneck, and this brings about my observation. My 8800GTX OC2 and 4GB DDR2-1066 are ample enough to enjoy a good framerate but I've encountered a strange bug with my Q6600 CPU. I don't know if anybody else has encountered this problem (or hopefully found a workaround) but the game gives a Direct3D (E_OUTOFMEMORY) crash unless I set the CPU affinity of the game.dat/lotrbfme2.exe processes to just 1 out of 4 cores, and hence, a bottleneck is created :x

Any ideas what the hell is going on or was this game simply not optimised to utilise multiple cores, its a shame to see all that processing power go to waste! :cry:

I'm using Vista HP 64 btw.

Post by **GeneralAdmission** » 22 Sep 2008, 19:04

Not sure what is causing your CPU problems, but I'm also short on experience on a few points. I use an AMD CPU on windows XP 32bit, so I can't speak with much authority on Intel, Vista, or the 64bit variables. It's possible the game has an issue with multiple cores, but it runs fine with my X2 so I've never gone looking for data. Based on the age of the game, and the fact that it is the same SAGE engine that started with CNC:Generals, I'd say it has minimal to no optimization for dual-core cpus.

The game engine itself ties game speed directly to fps, and is designed to work at exactly 30fps, until the rendering demands stress your hardware to the point of dropping fps below 30.

Have you tried running the game on multiple cores with the graphics options turned down? Try Medium settings. Have you tried different combinations of cores? Also, what video card do you have?

CB143 · Post by **CB143** » 22 Sep 2008, 22:56

Thanks for replying seeing as this has nothing to do with widescreen mods! :roll:

Its strange, I doubt the XP/Vista factor has anything to do with it, though its difficult for me to tell seeing as I pretty much upgraded my hardware and OS all at the same time. I've got the BFG Geforce 8800GTX OC2 running on the latest applicable Forceware, v175.19.

The 64bit OS is still able to run 32 bit processes and game.dat is executed as such, so its not that.

Maybe the SAGE engine's rendering technique isn't simulataneous threads of each core to execute properly, effectively causing the processor to trip over itself as it allocates different tasks to each core, thus causing the memory leak that eventually leads to the E_OUTOFMEMORY error in game.dat. I'll attempt to try lower graphics quality settings though that sort of eliminates the whole point of this endeavour lol. I might experiment with two cores and thus attempt to imitate an AMD X2 processor as closely as possible, but it might just be the backwards predicament of having a PC that's just too advanced for its own good (when it comes to playing this game anyway!)

Oh well, if anybody else has any suggestions or perhaps a little more concrete reasoning for this error than mine, then I'm all ears, but I won't keep you from the great work you're doing on the widescreen mod, so thanks anyway!

Post by **GeneralAdmission** » 23 Sep 2008, 00:37

CB143,

Your postulations are entirely logical, and I really don't have any other suggestions. We do have a Tech Support section in our forum, if you open a ticket there you will probably get more feedback. Folks just check this thread for my mod.

Speaking of which, I forgot to upload the fixed CE maps for you to test, but here it is: Files available from https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files (search there)

First be sure that you BACK UP the data2.big file in the game directory, then replace it with the one in the archive. The CE maps should now have the modified camera in-game.

scavvenjahh, here are the CE maps with Triplehead modifications: Files available from https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files (search there)

nekkron · Post by **nekkron** » 24 Sep 2008, 13:12

So, you posted the widescreen fix but I see no mention of the current WIP triplehead fix, so even though it's not finished we can't download the WIP one, or are they both in the same ZIP?

Mergatroid · Post by **Mergatroid** » 24 Sep 2008, 15:59

...set the CPU affinity of the game.dat/lotrbfme2.exe processes to just 1 out of 4 cores...simply not optimised to utilise multiple cores...Vista HP 64.

And there you have it.

1 and 2 definitely, I'm sure 3 doesn't help.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 24 Sep 2008, 16:38

I know that this thread is to do with something else (ie: widescreen mod) but that Out of Memory error... how fast does it manifest? Because I was playing BfME2 for a few hours the other day on my Q6600/4GB/8800GT, and it was fine. No problems at all. This is, however, with XP32.

Post by **GeneralAdmission** » 24 Sep 2008, 18:39

So, you posted the widescreen fix but I see no mention of the current WIP triplehead fix, so even though it's not finished we can't download the WIP one, or are they both in the same ZIP?

The Widescreen mod has already had a first version/release. The Triplehead mod is approaching completion (first release), so there is no WIP available. The two mods will be separate, and in total there will be 4 releases as shown in the first post of the thread:

BFME2- Widescreen
BFME2- Triplehead
RotWK- Widescreen
RotWK- Triplehead

CB143 · Post by **CB143** » 24 Sep 2008, 19:23

Apologies for the delay in testing those CE maps General, was away for a few days. I'm happy to report however that the maps appear to have taken to the modifications made with no noticeable glitches :D Just to clarify however, was it just Argonath and Weathertop or were there others?

I also tested my CPU glitch. The game appears to run fine with a maximum of two processor cores enabled. I'll need more time to stress-test this, but in response to Paradigm Shifter's question, the OUTOFMEMORY bug normally appears within 15-30mins of play, though it depends on how much stress is being put on the system. For example, it'll last around an hour if I just sit there and do nothing, but in the basic tutorial map, the second I get to destroying the spider lairs and building the fortress it crashes at this point.

It would certainly seem that the developers did not have multi-core processors on their check list when it came to testing given that it was relatively new technology at the time of this game's release. And the added dimensions with regards to my system of 64 bit processing and Vista probably didn't help things either. Quad core processors tend to handle data a little differently in 64 bit compared to 32, hence as I alluded to in a previous post, maybe the system was doing a little too much than what the game was comfortable with.

Just to reiterate, as General has mentioned his AMD X2 CPU has no problems and my Q6600 at this point utilising any combination of 2 of its 4 cores appears to be stable also, so x4 looks to be out of the question, I'll keep anyone else who's interested posted if I come across anything.

And kudos to General once more for working those CE maps! :)

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 24 Sep 2008, 21:28

If I (ever) get my act together, I'll see what BfME2 does on XP64. Certainly seems like it's a 32-bit/64-bit issue, as it doesn't error for me. :?:

Post by **scavvenjahh** » 25 Sep 2008, 10:17

For CE owners, the 5 exclusive maps are :
Argonath
Forochel
Tournament Snow
Umbar
Weathertop

Quickly tested'em all @5040x1050, and the cam mod works ok ! (Except the old 'occasional upscreen shadow glitch'...)

Great job :)

nekkron · Post by **nekkron** » 25 Sep 2008, 12:13

Ok thanks, I saw that there was a download for the widescreen and tried to look on all the pages and it mentioned little tweaks here and there from people using it but nothing there was no download links.

I really appreciate the effort gone into these tweaks, i'm absolutely loving my RTS in triplescreen as it adds alot more depth and environment to the game, it's just a shame that big companies don't neccesarily cater for the more 'above average' gamer and make it so hard for us.

Post by **scavvenjahh** » 25 Sep 2008, 16:07

The first post has the link to the latest ws cam mod, what are you looking for exactly ? :?

Post by **GeneralAdmission** » 25 Sep 2008, 17:37

(Except the old 'occasional upscreen shadow glitch'...)
Great job :)

Yeah, that has to be fixed in an .ini file and added to the distribution. Thanks for putting up the CE map list, scav.

i'm absolutely loving my RTS in triplescreen as it adds alot more depth and environment to the game

Glad you like it. You probably noticed this, but the fully expanded camera view only takes effect after the first time you zoom in/out. That activates the script I added and the camera will 'pop' out to max view distance for Triplehead.

It would be nice if more devs would support triplehead resolutions. BFME2's native support is basically good for counting roof shingles. :)

Widescreen Gaming Forum