- Oct 28, 2005
- 9,840
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In the other thread, someone was asking about getting XCOM running in Windows 7. The short answer is that you can run it just fine using DOSBox. The only changes I do is I edit the dosbox.conf file so that the full screen resolution is my native resolution, the windowed resolution is something reasonably large enough to use, "output" is set to overlay for this to work, "aspect" is set to true since I have a widescreen resolution, and finally "scaler" is set to none because I like the original blocky look. Finally, the default CPU settings are a bit slow when I run it. To get the game running smoothly, I set "cycles" to "auto limit 10000". Normally the limit is set to 8000. But you don't want to set it too high because then the game clock and animations run too fast.
But, in case you didn't know, there is also another way of doing it. For those of you that have purchased XCOM off of Steam, you may have noticed that it includes two versions.
It has the 1.2 patched DOS version and the later released X-COM Gold Collector's version that was meant to be run in Windows 95. So for 95 and XP the Gold version should run but it won't run for later versions of Windows supposedly because of the changes to DirectX. So why bother? Patches and corrections, the biggest offender being that in the DOS version there is a bug that can reset your difficulty level to "Beginner" regardless of how you chose to run the game. The Windows version does not have this problem. So I set about this evening to get the Windows version and here is pretty much how I got it running with a number of bug fixes to the game.
1. First you will need the UFO Extender, which can be found and explained in detail here: http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User:Seb76
Just download the zip file and unzip it in your "XCOM" folder. It simply is a memory resident loader that will apply the fixes and mods that you choose. This is done by editing the "UFOExtender.ini" file.
By default, the UFO Extender is setup to run the Windows version with its original settings. But to get it to work in later versions of Windows, you need to set the "D3D" setting to 1. In addition, go ahead and set all of the bug values to "1". Also set "Scale Mouse" to "1" to prevent the mouse cursor from running off the screen. Some of these fix gameplay bugs but others fix the broken sounds in the intro, the fast scrolling on the tactical map, and the superfast animation cycles (like the arrow indicating the selected character on the tactical map).
Also, you need to set "Screen Ratio" to correct your aspect ratio. I think that when it is set to "1" that is for a 4:3 aspect ratio like 800x600. If you have a widescreen, you need to find the appropriate reduction. For example, I have a 1920x1080 screen. The 4:3 ratio is 1440x1080, so 1920/1440 = 1.333333333. Using this value for Screen Ratio seems to give me the correct aspect ratio. This is the only thing I am muddled upon and I have not found explicit instructions. But the aspect ratio looks correct when I compare it to the DOSBox result.
2. The run time on the Geoscape is still too fast. I used this patched executable to fix that problem: http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=242035086
This still works with UFO Extender.
3. Another set of minor fixes with for the maps were found here: http://www.strategycore.co.uk/files/index.php?dlid=677
4. Finally, the one gameplay adjustment that I did allow myself was to use the Playstation soundtrack. If you want to do this, download all the tracks into a directory called "MP3" that you place in the "XCOM" folder. The 12 tracks can be found here: http://www.xcomufo.com/x1music.html
Then, in the ini file for the UFO Extender, under the "[MUSIC]" heading, set "Apply" to 1.
So after all this I can run the windows version with a number of fixes without any changes to the way the game actually plays. For the short time that I have played it, it runs just as well as the DOSBox version and perhaps a bit smoother. There are no speedups that we have to deal with in terms of the game's run time or animations.
Oh, one more thing. One of the mods in the UFO Extender is the ability to open doors. Suck it Terror From the Deep!
But, in case you didn't know, there is also another way of doing it. For those of you that have purchased XCOM off of Steam, you may have noticed that it includes two versions.
It has the 1.2 patched DOS version and the later released X-COM Gold Collector's version that was meant to be run in Windows 95. So for 95 and XP the Gold version should run but it won't run for later versions of Windows supposedly because of the changes to DirectX. So why bother? Patches and corrections, the biggest offender being that in the DOS version there is a bug that can reset your difficulty level to "Beginner" regardless of how you chose to run the game. The Windows version does not have this problem. So I set about this evening to get the Windows version and here is pretty much how I got it running with a number of bug fixes to the game.
1. First you will need the UFO Extender, which can be found and explained in detail here: http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=User:Seb76
Just download the zip file and unzip it in your "XCOM" folder. It simply is a memory resident loader that will apply the fixes and mods that you choose. This is done by editing the "UFOExtender.ini" file.
By default, the UFO Extender is setup to run the Windows version with its original settings. But to get it to work in later versions of Windows, you need to set the "D3D" setting to 1. In addition, go ahead and set all of the bug values to "1". Also set "Scale Mouse" to "1" to prevent the mouse cursor from running off the screen. Some of these fix gameplay bugs but others fix the broken sounds in the intro, the fast scrolling on the tactical map, and the superfast animation cycles (like the arrow indicating the selected character on the tactical map).
Also, you need to set "Screen Ratio" to correct your aspect ratio. I think that when it is set to "1" that is for a 4:3 aspect ratio like 800x600. If you have a widescreen, you need to find the appropriate reduction. For example, I have a 1920x1080 screen. The 4:3 ratio is 1440x1080, so 1920/1440 = 1.333333333. Using this value for Screen Ratio seems to give me the correct aspect ratio. This is the only thing I am muddled upon and I have not found explicit instructions. But the aspect ratio looks correct when I compare it to the DOSBox result.
2. The run time on the Geoscape is still too fast. I used this patched executable to fix that problem: http://www.xcomufo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=242035086
This still works with UFO Extender.
3. Another set of minor fixes with for the maps were found here: http://www.strategycore.co.uk/files/index.php?dlid=677
4. Finally, the one gameplay adjustment that I did allow myself was to use the Playstation soundtrack. If you want to do this, download all the tracks into a directory called "MP3" that you place in the "XCOM" folder. The 12 tracks can be found here: http://www.xcomufo.com/x1music.html
Then, in the ini file for the UFO Extender, under the "[MUSIC]" heading, set "Apply" to 1.
So after all this I can run the windows version with a number of fixes without any changes to the way the game actually plays. For the short time that I have played it, it runs just as well as the DOSBox version and perhaps a bit smoother. There are no speedups that we have to deal with in terms of the game's run time or animations.
Oh, one more thing. One of the mods in the UFO Extender is the ability to open doors. Suck it Terror From the Deep!
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