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General discussion (archive)System Shock 2 Vista Edition Preview Patch(9 posts)(9 posts)
(9 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted May 09, 2011
high rated
Hello everyone. As i can see, there are many System Shock 2 fans here on GOG as this game is the very first on the "Wanted" list. And i am one of the greatest fans of this game as well. So to accelerate things a bit i've started my own project for existing System Shock 2 owners. A patch that is simple to use and that enables you to play this game on modern systems.
However there are still few issues to be addressed, that's why it's still carrying a "PREVIEW" tag.

DOWNLOAD:
https://cid-94a12102e5094675.office.live.com/self.aspx/eXcessive%20Software/SS2VISTA.zip

The patch addresses 2 main compatibility problems:
- Installation on modern operating systems* (ignores broken Windows NT detection)
- Playing on modern multi-core CPU systems (fixes random game freezing)

* modern operating systems are:
Windows XP 32bit, Windows Vista 32bit/64bit and Windows 7 32bit/64bit

Problems that still have to be addressed:
- Testing of installation on Windows 7 64bit systems (i only have Vista 64bit)
- Getting video cutscenes to work on modern operating systems (still not able to get them working in-game)

If you know a solution to make the cutscenes work properly in game, please contact me on:
rejzor@gmail.com

Or post the info here. I'll try to test and add the solution as soon as possible.
I would also like to ask all WIndows 7 64bit users to test if the game can even be installed. I'm not 100%, but the last time i had Windows 7 64bit available for testing, the game refused to install with dreaded "16bit application" error.

SPECIAL NOTE:
This is in no way a crack or a pirated game. It's just a patch that tries to make the game more compatible. Original System Shock 2 CD (english retail version from 1999) is still required! I cannot guarantee anything with any other SS2 version.

HOW TO USE:
- Insert SS2 CD in your drive
- Run my patch and use STEP 1
- Install official patch 2.03 from here [url=]http://dlh.net/cgi-bin/dlp.cgi?lang=eng&sys=pc&file=ss2patch.zip&ref=ps[/url]
- Run my patch again and use STEP 2
- Run the game using newly created desktop shortcut

That's all you have to do. Enjoy and please give me feedback on how it works for now. I will update it as we make progress.

Regards
Post edited May 09, 2011 by rejzor
Posted May 09, 2011
Doesn't the existing "ddfix" make the game play just fine on modern systems?
Posted May 09, 2011
avatar
StingingVelvet: Doesn't the existing "ddfix" make the game play just fine on modern systems?
This was my first thought as well... runs well on my Win7 with the good old "ddfix". Using an ATI Graphics Card.

Everything on highest resolution of course.
Posted May 09, 2011
Thanks for the hard work and effort.......now if i can only find the game.

It's been end-user programmers and Pirates that have saved a couple of games for me now.
Posted May 09, 2011
avatar
rejzor: snippy
Awesome... I would suggest you edit your email to a "me AT whatever DOT com, just incase of spambots or whatever.
Post edited May 09, 2011 by reaver894
Posted May 09, 2011
Cutscenes only refuse to work if you install SS2 into a directory with a lengthy path. The path to movie files cannot exceed a certain number of characters as SS2 only recognizes a very short path to its files. For example installing into
C:\Documents and Settings\beliar\Desktop\Games\System Shock 2 prevents the game from reading movie files. On the other hand, C:\SS2 will work just fine.
I tested this a long time ago and don't really remember the maximum allowable number of characters.
That is unless you refer to some other cutscene problem that I'm not aware of.
Posted May 09, 2011
avatar
beliar: Cutscenes only refuse to work if you install SS2 into a directory with a lengthy path. The path to movie files cannot exceed a certain number of characters as SS2 only recognizes a very short path to its files. For example installing into
C:\Documents and Settings\beliar\Desktop\Games\System Shock 2 prevents the game from reading movie files. On the other hand, C:\SS2 will work just fine.
I tested this a long time ago and don't really remember the maximum allowable number of characters.
That is unless you refer to some other cutscene problem that I'm not aware of.
Good point. if it is based on the old data system, it can't handle more than 8 characters for the directory names.

might have not been an issue with me, as I have all my games in the folder "games" and not "program files"
Posted May 09, 2011
avatar
beliar: Cutscenes only refuse to work if you install SS2 into a directory with a lengthy path. The path to movie files cannot exceed a certain number of characters as SS2 only recognizes a very short path to its files. For example installing into
C:\Documents and Settings\beliar\Desktop\Games\System Shock 2 prevents the game from reading movie files. On the other hand, C:\SS2 will work just fine.
I tested this a long time ago and don't really remember the maximum allowable number of characters.
That is unless you refer to some other cutscene problem that I'm not aware of.
That actually makes a lot of sense. I know in the past when I've installed it to even c:\games\SS2 it won't read the movies. Whenever I do get around to installing it on my current laptop I'll give this a shot and see if it cooperates.

Thanks for the heads up. :)
Posted May 09, 2011
Thx for the folder path lenght info. I'll check it out. Usually it was probem with Indeo video codec and LGVID.ax component. Will see how all this works.

As far as ddfix goes, i'm not aware of it, but considering how my patch works, it shouldn't interfer with any other patch (in any way) because my patch doesn't modify anything, it just adds stuff.
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussion (archive)System Shock 2 Vista Edition Preview Patch(9 posts)(9 posts)
(9 posts)