Windows 8 and Red Alert 2 Yuri

[Hopachi]

What does that mean LOOSE:
Do you get 'mission failed' or the program simply crashes?

If the mission does fail after a fixed time, make sure you don't have any game trainers or modifiers running in the background.

If the program crashes... I don't know what to say: I use English 1.001 (even the no-cd) and it runs fine.
Did you tested the game on another OS? But if the same game version and config files worked in XP/Win7 then one of the exe's doesn't like Win8.

 

[GoodAdvice]

"What does that mean LOOSE:
Do you get 'mission failed' or the program simply crashes?"

MISSION FAILED

If the mission does fail after a fixed time, make sure you don't have any game trainers or modifiers running in the background.
No Modifiers no Trainers and anything like that.

If the program crashes... I don't know what to say: I use English 1.001 (even the no-cd) and it runs fine.
Did you tested the game on another OS? But if the same game version and config files worked in XP/Win7 then one of the exe's doesn't like Win8.[/QUOTE]

On Win 7 everything runs fine.

Best regards,

Christian

 

[Hopachi]

MISSION FAILED

Pretty weird.

Does every building explode?
Red Alert 2 - Everything explodes after first few 10sec-1min - Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 - Neoseeker Forums

They mention a modified no-cd to be the cause because Westwood put in some protection code for this.
Try to replace the gamemd.exe with another one (same version) or a backup of the original one.

The compatibility settings you mentioned are correct. Usually is just the first time you need to run as admin.

Regards
Hopachi

 

[Wassouf]

Installed Red Alert 2 & expansion Yuri's Revenge on Windows 8. I use compatibility mode Win 98 running as administrator. All my drivers are up to date, and have back checked all DirectX settings. Game starts and runs normally, but approx. 5 minutes into play game freezes.

I used to play this without problems on Win 7.

Any solutions please?

 

[GoodAdvice]

MISSION FAILED

Pretty weird.

Does every building explode?
Red Alert 2 - Everything explodes after first few 10sec-1min - Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 - Neoseeker Forums

They mention a modified no-cd to be the cause because Westwood put in some protection code for this.
Try to replace the gamemd.exe with another one (same version) or a backup of the original one.

The compatibility settings you mentioned are correct. Usually is just the first time you need to run as admin.

Regards
Hopachi

Thanks that helped.

I just did this:
I started a brand new install on my Win7 Laptop from Disc to 1.000
and then installed 1.001 and ARES. Now it works without any problems.
I think the NoCD I had before from gcw was the problem.

Thanks thanks thanks.

Best regads,


GoodAdvice

 

[Hopachi]

Installed Red Alert 2 & expansion Yuri's Revenge on Windows 8. I use compatibility mode Win 98 running as administrator. All my drivers are up to date, and have back checked all DirectX settings. Game starts and runs normally, but approx. 5 minutes into play game freezes.

I used to play this without problems on Win 7.

Any solutions please?

I've had that too but not on all maps.
I believe this is for 1.001 as well...
You can try Ares expansion dll or Npatch as well to see if they fix the issue.

This can be due to instabilities / bugs in the gamemd but each map or addon or mod can cause this as well.
-some missions fail to load and game crashes.
-some maps crash after a particular time.

Some saved games on Win7 for instance fail to load on Win8 or another pc with Win7:
I've had this too... sometimes with an error message that I modified the game...

Does it fail on each game you start or just particular ones?
Try to start another game from scratch... new random map and see if it works.

 

[Hopachi]

Thanks that helped.

Glad to see that one fixed.

 

[Dastreus]

New issue I don't think I have seen with others. I do not have my YR disc and have been playing a mod called Robot Storm that requires no disc to begin with. So, until I find the disc I can't try a reinstall. I am playing from a copy of the RA2 folder from my win7 laptop on my win 8 desktop, and it launches perfectly fine, but the menu fails.

What I see when I launch game is the splash title screen on the side never "opens u" and nor do the menus. I can click the menu items blindly, and I even got to a start skirmish screen by memory, but when selecting map, again I see nothing. Do I have to install fresh, or am I missing something with win 8? I tried to edit the ini as well.

To clarify: Tried windows 98 compatibility, xp sp3, and with 16 bit on and off.

 

[Hopachi]

New issue I don't think I have seen with others. I do not have my YR disc and have been playing a mod called Robot Storm that requires no disc to begin with. So, until I find the disc I can't try a reinstall. I am playing from a copy of the RA2 folder from my win7 laptop on my win 8 desktop, and it launches perfectly fine, but the menu fails.

What I see when I launch game is the splash title screen on the side never "opens u" and nor do the menus. I can click the menu items blindly, and I even got to a start skirmish screen by memory, but when selecting map, again I see nothing. Do I have to install fresh, or am I missing something with win 8? I tried to edit the ini as well.

To clarify: Tried windows 98 compatibility, xp sp3, and with 16 bit on and off.

Don't force the compatibility, one or two settings should work fine. The first run needs admin rights then it will work fine. You will probably need Win98/Me compatibility or none.

First check the resolution in the ini: begin with 1024x768 and see if you can see anything (actually the menus use 800x600).

I don't know what patch/mod tool the Robot Storm uses to be able to give you extra info.

Good luck

 

[Hopachi]

Extra info

You might try to reapply the mod on the Win8 machine:
Robot Storm 1.99 Beta version download - Mod DB

Actually you have a clean install:

To play this mod, you require a clean install of Red alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge patched up to 1.001. To run it, simply run the EXE, then follow the obvious options on the launcher that appears. No need to uninstall, as it will uninstall itself on closure of Yuri's Revenge.

Re-running the mod on the previously modded game should re-mod it an clean it up on exit.

I did this kind of stuff with Yuri's Revenge Zero Hour but all the mods use the same sort of installer so it seems.

 

[Hopachi]

I do not have my YR disc and have been playing a mod called Robot Storm that requires no disc to begin with. So, until I find the disc I can't try a reinstall.

You might not need a reinstall (check previous post). They don't mention anything about the CD but most likely you are running with a NOCD version (this was an issue in other posts but can be fixed) + the mod will add extra files like the RockPatch, NPatch or Ares expansion in order to run properly. Until I give this a test myself or somebody else mentions it, I don't know what patch this mod uses in order to test compatibility.

 

[Dastreus]

Don't force the compatibility, one or two settings should work fine. The first run needs admin rights then it will work fine. You will probably need Win98/Me compatibility or none.

First check the resolution in the ini: begin with 1024x768 and see if you can see anything (actually the menus use 800x600).

When you say not to force compatibility, should I just be trying the "Troubleshoot compatibility" option on all the EXEs inside the folder (after reinstalling the mod of course)? It's how I worked it in win7 was manually setting all the EXEs to xp sp3. I'll try this after handling my daily matters in the afternoon.

Did wind up trying several resolutions, including my native 1600x900. To my surprise, 1600x900 was able to show menu, but only on the select map screen if I blindly clicked to that screen, and then no more menu once I chose my map. I played some, but when I had to pause, to no surprise the esc menu did not appear. The gameplay also seemed sluggish to handle (slow panning), but that was likely me being a derp and trying such a high resolution on such an aged game.

Currently RA2RS.ini is 1024x768 after my experiment. (Mod ini.) The ra2.ini is 800x600. I'll try with the ra2.ini set to both 1024x768 and 800x600 if the larger, 1024 fails.

Thanks for the replies, and I'll get back to this with either a success story or update.

 

[Hopachi]

When you say not to force compatibility, should I just be trying the "Troubleshoot compatibility" option on all the EXEs inside the folder (after reinstalling the mod of course)? It's how I worked it in win7 was manually setting all the EXEs to xp sp3.

Try that. Here it wasn't necessary. The only files possibly requiring compatibility was the launcher (ra2md.exe) and the main executable (gamemd.exe) the most important one. It even worked without compatibility after running it as admin for the first time but others had less positive results concerning this.

Currently RA2RS.ini is 1024x768 after my experiment. (Mod ini.) The ra2.ini is 800x600. I'll try with the ra2.ini set to both 1024x768 and 800x600 if the larger, 1024 fails.

If it's built on Yuri's Revenge, then you need to set RA2MD.ini to the new res.

Thanks for the replies

You're welcome.

 

[Dastreus]

The contents of my RA2MD.ini file is:

----------------

[Intro]
Play=no
[Video]
AllowHiResModes=yes
AllowVRAMSidebar=no
VideoBackBuffer=no

----------------

But nothing else. As for re-patching the mod onto it, I still got the same result. On the positive side, my screen did that thing where it zooms in on a 1024x768 portion of my screen, before showing the loading screen, just like it did in vista and win7 when opening.

I also tried without compatibility set and yeah, still opens but still no menu.

 

[Hopachi]

Settings for RA2 Yuri's Revenge

There should be something about the resolution included as well.

Red Alert 2 Windows 8 Fix | ITek Blog
In the blog there he also recommends NPatch (see previous posts about some enhancements), I also recommend it but if your mod doesn't support it don't use it.

RA2MD.ini normally contains this as well:

[Video]
ScreenWidth=1024
ScreenHeight=768
StretchMovies=no
VideoBackBuffer=no

   Information

RA2MD.ini info settings for widescreen monitors:

HD settings:

ScreenWidth=1280
ScreenHeight=720

Full HD settings:

ScreenWidth=1920
ScreenHeight=1080

This will affect the resolution during a mission/match. The main menu pages still use 800x600 mode.
You can also use any resolution supported by the graphics card.

 

[Dastreus]

It's been awhile. Tried those settings and npatch is part of the Robot Storm mod. How did it work for you, if you wound up trying it? I'll be getting the disk for it sometime this week, I think, so I can try a reinstall instead of running off a folder on a USB.

 

[Hopachi]

I never tried Robot Storm, I used pure Npatch for the enhancements (see screenshots in older post). I also use YR Zero Hour Mod that uses Npatch as well. The resolution settings always work.

Npatch is still being used but newer mods switch to Ares.

I'll give Robot Storm a try then, at least if I manage to install it. I see version 1.99 beta being available to use.

 

[Hopachi]

I've tested RS mod. The version I got is 1.99 beta. I don't know if we can get the 2.00 from somewhere...

But, very nice one!

EDIT: It doesn't look exactly to the previews (the buildings, maybe version 2...) I see on their site or youtube, wonder what's missing... but the screensize and units are good. Checking the manual...

EDIT2: It's OK: this is how 1.99 beta looks like.

The settings to my RA2MD.ini were maxing the resolution to my own screen and were applied before the mod:

[Video]VideoBackBuffer=no
ScreenWidth=1366
ScreenHeight=768
StretchMovies=no

Npatch indeed... that's good news then: I tested with Npatch Automn Edition (NPAE) since I find if faster than NPSE and also used in ZH mod without issues. Before Npatch, you need Yuri version 1.001 as usual.



Fix the resolution in INI then look for what Npatch do you have.

IMPORTANT:
Npatch needs to be downloaded separately since the mod installer doesn't provide it.
NPAE is tested and works.

As you can see here, 1366x768 just as in the RA2MD.INI and it works, no other files were modified.



I've seen all sides now, including NEXUS.
1.99 seems pretty stable.

This was tested inside VirtualBox, XP SP3 here on Win8 x64 host.
On the host, the compatibility settings I posted in one of the first posts still apply here and the game runs.
I use exactly the same copy I tested in XP first (zipped -> extracted: old games like this one may pose problems when installing from scratch on W8, long story but it's wise to backup the game's registry settings once installed and you won't need pure re-installs again, just apply the settings and make sure file/folder paths are OK).

I think you should get NPAE and put it in place before starting up the mod. Worked from the first time here.
I have the CD but I'm unable use it: the 15-inch laptop doesn't have a CD drive anymore because I installed a second HDD. Win8 can mount ISO's so making an ISO of the cd should work. I used the Yuri ZH modded version I had, cleaned it up and set it ready for RS, all good.
So: if you are able to run the game without a CD (I do now), then a No-cd is applied to one of the executables (Npatch one for instance) but that patch it's not provided by the mod itself.

Good luck

 

[Dastreus]

Ahhh if NPatch wasn't included, that might be it. I have what used to be 2.0 I think. You said you have 1.99, but I remember seeing that version ages ago. 2.0 alpha, I suppose. I was selected as one of the testers for that. However, yes, I'll see if installing npatch on top of it all works.

Edit: This looks to be the latest one. Going to be installing npatch and the latest version (which may still be mine). Robot Storm 2.0 mod for C&C: Yuri's Revenge - Mod DB

Edit 2: From what I see, that's indeed the older patch. Odd, since 2.0 is mentioned on the page. Oh well. Let me try Npatch and get back to this thread.

 

[Hopachi]

Not much more to add about this,

You're right about the versions. And you're also lucky to 'test' the 2.0 since that's not downloadable yet on the mod site.

The link you provided is one I've checked, yep, 1.99 is in the latest in download section.

Here with 1.99 all works fine with Npatch (recommended for some general game improvements). It also worked without Npatch but just tested the resolutions that were OK. I played 2 nice matches with Npatch version and no crashes seen.

Good luck with the installs/tests.