Widescreen Gaming Forum

I couldn't find anything on this game. Does it have WS support?

I don't think so. If I remember correctly resolution is limited to 800x600 anyway - a regression from Commandos 2.

That's a pity. I thought C3 moved over to an entirely new engine.

I've had Commandos 2 for quite a while (got it in a combo pack with Deus Ex) but I never really did anything with it. I noticed this thread and figured I'd install it and try to add widescreen support, and I was actually able to do so with a few minutes of futzing around in a hex editor.

You do need a No-CD patch (wasn't one at GCW; look at MG), and you have to change quite a few strings (11 to be exact), but from what I can tell (I have virtually no experience with the game) it seems to work fine. When I first loaded a level the play area seemed to be a bit small, but then when I went to Alt-F4 out of the game, I discovered that the function keys allow you to change viewport configurations, and they mostly seem to scale properly. Fancy that.

Really, I think it's just that the game gives you a fixed viewable area so while the main one was designed to fit 4:3, adding viewports lets you fill the screen and lets you take advantage of the extra real estate (the viewports are Hor+, as you'll see).

Well, any Commandos fans wanna give it a go and tell me what you think?

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/10510

I don't have Commandos 3 so I can't help you out there. I'll see if I can get a demo later and try to cook something up.

Great job :shock:
Would be great to have confirmation that it works inside buildings, too (full-3D view).

I've had Commandos 2 for quite a while (got it in a combo pack with Deus Ex) but I never really did anything with it. I noticed this thread and figured I'd install it and try to add widescreen support, and I was actually able to do so with a few minutes of futzing around in a hex editor.

You do need a No-CD patch (wasn't one at GCW; look at MG), and you have to change quite a few strings (11 to be exact), but from what I can tell (I have virtually no experience with the game) it seems to work fine. When I first loaded a level the play area seemed to be a bit small, but then when I went to Alt-F4 out of the game, I discovered that the function keys allow you to change viewport configurations, and they mostly seem to scale properly. Fancy that.

Really, I think it's just that the game gives you a fixed viewable area so while the main one was designed to fit 4:3, adding viewports lets you fill the screen and lets you take advantage of the extra real estate (the viewports are Hor+, as you'll see).

Well, any Commandos fans wanna give it a go and tell me what you think?

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/10510

I don't have Commandos 3 so I can't help you out there. I'll see if I can get a demo later and try to cook something up.

Post your Steam ID here, maybe somebody can gift it for you for great justice.. $10 on Steam.

That's not necessary; I don't use Steam anyway on account of my terrible connection. I have a couple other ideas though. Check your PM.

Hi, any chance to have that kind of hack for the first Commandos? It probably uses the same engine, but those strings don't exist in this game.

And could you please post the values for 1O24x600 for Commandos 2? its the resolution of many netbooks (like Asus Eee and Samsung NC10). Thank you.

1024x600 - Replace 20 03 with 00 04 and replace 58 02 with 58 02

I'll look into Commandos 1.

Not having much luck with Commandos 3 at the moment, by the way. I can get the menu to start up in 1280x720 but the gameplay is still defaulting to 800x600.

Hi BooTx

Thank you for the info regarding C2.

I gave it a shot on my laptop using a 1280x800 resolution but i cant see anything in full screen. the game is running and all, but just a black screen.

When i press esc , the game sets itself in window mode with the hacked resolution, but its missing half the screen from middle to bottom.

I'll give it a shot on my gaming pc.

And before i forget, i couldn't find these 2 strings. any idea why?
c2 04 00 b8 58 02 (000eb8b0)
00 00 c3 b8 58 02 (000eb940)



ty
Sath

What version are you using? Are you making sure to use a No-CD patched exe? Are you starting your search from the beginning of the file? Those two missing strings are probably causing your problems.

I played through C2 a little more (read: I cheated and skipped levels) and the rest of the levels (at least the ones I saw) look good. The screen scales to the full width right off the bat and I didn't see any glitching or anything.

Oh and I hit a snag with Commandos 1 in that I can't get the demo to run on XP. It crashes after the intro logos and before the menu. Probably a codec issue of some sort.

I was able to get Commandos 3 working in widescreen but not acceptably. Most of the menus don't scale properly, some of the hud elements are misaligned, and there's even a small texture loading glitch (at least on the moving train demo level I've been playing).

So it's not looking good, unfortunately. Here's a screenshot of how it looks now. I'll try some other stuff with it but don't get your hopes up because I don't see any more easy fixes.

Hey BootX,

I came across this site by Google and your stuff was of great help for me with Commandos II. I completed it already tho so i got my hands on Commandos 3, but it really looks like crap. You already got any luck on C3 so far?

Thnx in advance (A).

I'm afraid not; what you see above is what I've got. I've isolated one string that controls the gameplay screen resolution, one that controls the gameplay area dimensions, and one that controls the menu resolution. Unfortunately, changing the first two also screws up the HUD and I haven't found a way of fixing it. I did find half a dozen other strings but I haven't been able to discern what they actually alter.

Maybe changing the HUD itself is the answer. The graphics for it probably reside in the Data.pck file which I was able to open using a program called 'Dragon UnPACKer 5'. Unfortunately, the contents are in spanish, and even more unfortunately, the files are in some kind of proprietary format which I have no means of opening.

I honestly don't think that would solve the problem, though. Some elements scale properly, others tile, and still others stay in their original location. The correct strings are in the executable somewhere, I'm sure, but it would take a hell of a lot of time and patience to track them all down since they're so scattered and seemingly not grouped in any kind of sensical manner.

Sorry I couldn't help you out with this one.

I'll leave the three pertinent strings here in case somebody wants to pick it up and figure it out some day in the future. Pretty sure a No-CD patched exe is required.

Controls gameplay screen resolution.

20 03 00 00 c3 b8 00 04 00 00 c3 b8 00 05 00 00 c3 c4 4b 56 00 ca 4b 56 00 d0 4b 56 00 d6 4b 56 00 90 90 90 90 8b 49 48 b8 e0 01 00 00 83 f9 03 77 1e ff 24 8d lc 4c 56 00 b8 e0 01 00 00 c3 b8 58 02

Controls gameplay area dimensions.

20 03 00 00 eb 0c ba 00 04 00 00 eb 05 ba 00 05 00 00 83 f8 03 b9 e0 01 00 00 77 3f ff 24 85 e4 4c 56 00 8b 44 24 04 b9 e0 01 00 00 89 10 89 48 04 c2 04 00 8b 44 24 04 b9 58 02

Controls menu resolution (this one should probably be left unchanged since it's just a mess).

20 03 00 00 c3 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 b8 58 02

And the six strings that seemingly have no effect.

20 03 00 00 b9 58 02

20 03 00 00 c7 44 24 2c 58 02

20 03 00 00 c7 46 4c 58 02

20 03 00 00 c7 44 24 1c 58 02

20 03 00 00 c2 04 00 b8 00 04 00 00 c2 04 00 b8 00 05 00 00 c2 04 00 8d 49 00 25 4b 56 00 2d 4b 56 00 35 4b 56 00 3d 4b 56 00 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 8b 4c 24 04 b8 e0 01 00 00 83 f9 03 77 24 ff 24 8d 98 4b 56 00 b8 e0 01 00 00 c2 04 00 b8 58 02

58 02 00 00 8b 94 24 48 01 00 00 89 84 24 44 01 00 00 c7 84 24 4c 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 8b 84 24 4c 01 00 00 d8 3d 80 87 b4 00 89 94 24 20 03

I've progressed a bit with the Commandos 3 fix with some help from the Commandos community, so I figure I might as well cross-post this here in case anyone is interested. It's not perfect, but it's certainly an improvement. Now the basic interface is fully functional and everything seems to be where it should be apart from a couple non-critical elements.

I should note that this will not work with the Steam version because it's encrypted with copy protection. You'll need the retail version. You may be able to use the retail executable with Steam, however.

To use UniWS to fix Commandos 3, download UniWS and extract it anywhere you'd like. Open the included "patches.ini" file with any text editor (such as notepad) and add this near the top after the a16 line:



And then add all of this at the end of the file:

After you've done that, save the file and exit. Now run UniWS and select Commandos 3 from the drop down menu and locate the Commandos 3 executable in the box below.

Choose the resolution you'd like to try, and then click the Patch button. You can skip the next section of this post and scroll down to the part that deals with fixing the interface.

-------

To fix the executable manually you will need a hex editor such as Be.HexEditor. Open your Commandos 3 executable with it (these strings are based on the 1.42 No-CD executable and may not match other versions exactly) and search for the following strings (you don't have to search for the entire thing, just the first few bytes to make sure you're at the right location).

20 03 00 00 c3 b8 00 04 00 00 c3 b8 00 05 00 00 c3 c4 5c 56 00 ca 5c 56 00 d0 5c 56 00 d6 5c 56 00 90 90 90 90 8b 49 48 b8 e0 01 00 00 83 f9 03 77 le ff 24 8d lc 5d 56 00 b8 e0 01 00 00 c3 b8 58 02

and...

20 03 00 00 eb 0c ba 00 04 00 00 eb 05 ba 00 05 00 00 83 f8 03 b9 e0 01 00 00 77 3f ff 24 85 e4 5d 56 00 8b 44 24 04 b9 e0 01 00 00 89 10 89 48 04 c2 04 00 8b 44 24 04 b9 58 02

20 03 and 58 02 represent the resolution 800x600. Change those numbers to the following:

1024x600 - Replace 20 03 with 00 04 and replace 58 02 with 58 02
1280x720 - Replace 20 03 with 00 05 and replace 58 02 with D0 02
1280x800 - Replace 20 03 with 00 05 and replace 58 02 with 20 03
1366x768 - Replace 20 03 with 56 05 and replace 58 02 with 00 03
1440x900 - Replace 20 03 with A0 05 and replace 58 02 with 84 03
1680x1050 - Replace 20 03 with 90 06 and replace 58 02 with 1A 04
1920x1080 - Replace 20 03 with 80 07 and replace 58 02 with 38 04
1920x1200 - Replace 20 03 with 80 07 and replace 58 02 with B0 04

At the moment I've only tested 1280x720 and 1440x900 and apart from a somewhat minor graphical glitch on the exterior of the moving train level (though it may not be so minor at really high resolutions--you'll see what I'm talking about), they seem to work fine. Other 5:4 and 4:3 resolutions work as well. I have no idea how well this fix works on other levels in the full game. It definitely needs more testing.

-------

After you're done, save the file. Now we have to fix the interface, which will require an extracted and decrypted INTERFAZ.MSB file.

I've created and zipped up INTERFAZ files for 1280x720, 1280x800, 1366x768, 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, and 1920x1200. Download, extract the one you want, and rename it INTERFAZ.MSB. Then place it in the DataINTERFAZ directory (you'll probably need to create it).

This is the final result:



Unfortunately, there are still a couple issues:





The objectives box should be aligned to the right side of the screen but I have yet to figure out how to make it do so. The tips box itself appears to align correctly by default, but its other elements are a mess, and again, the solution eludes me.

I tried to resize the red title background but was unable to do so due to file size restrictions (it was always too large, regardless of how simple I made it). I was able to black it out entirely, however. If you'd like to try it out, download this file, extract it, and place it in the DataINTENDENCIA directory.

The result will look like this:



Not as pretty as the original, and it still does not align itself to the center vertically, but I guess it's better than the eyesore that only filled up half the screen.

That's all I have for now.

Here are the instructions on how to fix the INTERFAZ file in case the link ever dies or just if you want to use another resolution. Open the file with a text editor and then...

The default for both of the y coordinates in this section are 544. Change it to -56.0 and it should align properly with every resolution.


Change both the x and y coordinates in this section to what I have below.


The .Y resolution here should be whatever vertical resolution you chose minus 73. So for instance, I chose 1280x720, so 720 minus 73 is 647.


Do the same for this one.


Change this section to read like this.


And finally, change the y resolution to whatever your vertical resolution is minus 150. 720 minus 150 = 570.


And that should do it.

HELP NEEDED! :doh

Great thread by the way! Nothing beats a bit of reverse engineering...which ironically I think was the name of the demo mission from the original Commando game!!!

BooTx> I've read your posts thoroughly and understand everything, except my lack of programming/code/compiling lets me down...

I've downloaded a hex editor and was assuming a straight forward CTRL-F to locate the two entries listed in your post above to edit them and I'd be away!!

HOWEVER...I cannot locate these strings?!!?!

I can find 00164bc0 and 00164c60 but the lines do not contain the strings listed above so I basically do not know what to edit!

I've got a UK retail copy of C3DB and I've checked both the content of the Commandos 3 EXE and the EXE I use as a NO-CD Patch from gamecopyworld and nothing...

I HAVE TO BE MISSING SOMETHING!

Help appreciated!

Ta!

Ryan

I'm using the demo executable so it wouldn't surprise me if the retail is different but one of the people at the tafn forum said the fix worked fine for them, so I'm sure it's doable on whatever version you have.

You can zip and upload your exe and PM me the URL and I can take a look at it if you'd like.

What hex editor are you using, by the way? With Be.HexEditor when you Ctrl+f you need to click the "Hex" bubble and search using that instead of the default "Text" section.

Hi, can you help me with this .exe http://gbw.naxpnetworks.com/files/Commandos3DestinationBerlinv1.42FixedexeEng.rar i cant find that strings for change resolution to 1920×1080 :( Thx

Darn, it crashes on higher resolution.
In fact, i cant run and play the campaign on anything higher than 1280x1024.

On 1680x1050, 1600x1200, 1920x1200 i am only able to start the Tutorial, and that is because the mission starts in a full 3D (inside buildings) environment.
But, for some reason fter i get out of the building, i am still able to play in/on exteriors.
Though it still crashes sometimes. (Especially after you complete the mission)

If i try to start the campaign in one of those higher resolutions, the game crashes and kicks you out to Windows.

I was able to play this game (still with crashes from time to time) on 1280x1024, 1280x960, 1024x768).
Only on these lower res i am able to start the campaign in 2D.

In the last level form the Stalingrad campaign (you start in a full 3D environment) i was able to play the interiors part at 1920x1200, but if i try to go outside (2D environment) it crashes even at 1280x1024. So i tested 1280x960 and it worked

Too bad this game is still mostly 2D with some 3D extras.

One more thing,
(i have a polish version)
i noticed, the first string from my copy is not exact to yours.
I don't know whether its because my game is patched to ver 1.42, or because its final game (not demo), and/or because my retail copy doesn't require a dvd in drive.


Here are some screenshots from random resolutions.












The First 3 screenshots are from Tutorial.
The last 9 screenshots are from the last mission from the Stalingrad Campaign.

The ability to run this game on anything higher than 800x600 is just awesome.
THX BooTx!
..................................
Forgive me my english, its not my native language

Thanks for the informative post. It's a shame it doesn't work at the higher resolutions, but I suppose it's better than nothing.