Widescreen Gaming Forum

I noticed the sound fading issue as well, especially at 900. I'm fairly certain that can be fixed through tweaks to .ini files. I'll investigate.

Sound has been fixed and will be included with the mod's next release.

Shadow draw distance has been fixed.

Before:


After:

I changed the DL links on the Wiki page to link back into your directory on WSGF Media. That way you can keep updates and point releases (like the sound update) visible on the Wiki. I can move the end product on the main WSGF domain when it's all finalized.

Mod is still coming along (check first post for current status).

Thanks for the continued support, Ibrin. Sadly I've yet to add much to the wiki page, but it will happen (too many irons in the fire atm). My basic roadmap is 1) finish the mods 2) update the wiki 3) finish and publish the demo video. At that point I think we can properly launch the mod. I also plan to post an announcement on a couple of the larger BFME forums once the work is complete.

Congrats for fixing the sounds and shadows ! Looks like nothing in this game can resist The General. :bowdown
I have a feeling my 'CE dragon problem' will be like a walk in the park too :mrgreen: but... we'll see that later...

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:

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?

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

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!

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

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:

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.

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?

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!

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)

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?

...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.

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.

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