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windows 8 quick tips


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#1 rumblesom

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Posted 09 February 2015 - 10:54 AM

Here is a way to play red alert 2 on windows 8. Using this method will not allow you to use the XWIS red alert 2 with new maps and auto SS, however the game should run properly.

Install using this file https://xwis.net/temp/Red_Alert-2-0.0.0.exe

add this to your ra2.ini file:

[video]
AllowHiResModes=yes
VideoBackBuffer=no
AllowVRAMSidebar=no
ScreenWidth=x (change this to fit your monitor)
ScreenHeight=y (change this to fit your monitor)
StretchMovies=no

#2 rumblesom

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Posted 09 February 2015 - 11:09 AM

so far i cannot close the game properly, and alt-tab results in the game screen being all black when restored- any way to fix this?



#3 Olaf

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Posted 09 February 2015 - 11:14 AM

Install http://xwis.net/downloads/Red-Alert-2-Multiplayer.exe, copy Red Alert 2.exe to both game.exe and ra2.exe. You still can't alt-tab.
You can also run in windowed mode which does allow alt-tab.

#4 rumblesom

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Posted 09 February 2015 - 11:26 AM

Does the xwis multiplayer with ss taker work on win 8? I thought it was pretty buggy?

Can you explain how to enable windowed mode please?

#5 Olaf

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Posted 09 February 2015 - 11:29 AM

Does the xwis multiplayer with ss taker work on win 8? I thought it was pretty buggy?

That's for you to test. How did you get stuck with W8 though? :p

Create a shortcut to Red Alert 2.exe. Then append -win to the target such that it's "C:\Program Files (x86)\Red Alert 2\Red Alert 2.exe" -win

#6 FReQuEnZy

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Posted 09 February 2015 - 12:48 PM

AllowVRAMSidebar=yes


Why yes?

#7 rumblesom

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Posted 09 February 2015 - 12:57 PM

I have normally used =no but I read two recent instances of ppl reporting success with =yes and upon testing both found no difference for myself.

If there is a good reason to set as =no please explain, perhaps I should edit my original post

#8 FReQuEnZy

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Posted 11 February 2015 - 10:11 PM

First of all "VideoBackBuffer=no" means that the game's graphical surfaces are not loaded into Video Ram (VRAM) that is on your graphics card, but instead the system RAM is used.

Which in turn is faster due to the age of the graphics coding the game uses to manage it's graphical surfaces.

It also avoids problems caused by modern DirectX / lack of ddraw (which was a part of directx) by simplifying the process.

 

Which is why settings this tag in the game's configuration solves the problem for Windows 8, as that operating system comes with no DirectDraw support (and also uses a weird window compositing method, which causes the alt tab bug). In Windows 7 it was possible to disable compositing through turning off desktop window manager for RA2, but on Windows 8 it is impossible to disable this functionality (even per program).

 

 

"AllowVRAMSidebar=yes" does what it says, it allows the game to store the graphical data for the in game sidebar in your Video Ram (VRAM), if setting the above to no it's best to set this to no as well.
In rare cases the sidebar can get graphical glitches if this is set to yes while the above is set to no. If you have read the reasons described in the above paragraphs you should understand why it's preferrable to set this to no as well.
 
There was an excellent guide posted on FaceBook, for the Windows 8 issues. I can copy and paste that into here if you'd like.

Edited by FReQuEnZy, 11 February 2015 - 10:13 PM.


#9 hardman

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Posted 11 February 2015 - 10:28 PM

Yes please.

 

All the windows 8 issues and solutions posted in the trial and error topic and others need to be collated which i can do eventually as well.


Edited by hardman, 11 February 2015 - 10:28 PM.


#10 FReQuEnZy

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Posted 12 February 2015 - 12:35 AM

What the OP of this thread posted. That guide he used is what a lot of Brazilian and Game ranger players are using.

However due to different system configurations the results are mixed across all help guides for Windows 8.

 

The main issues are the lack of DirectDraw and Desktop Window Manager.

In theory it should be possible to remedy the functionality of the game by installing DirectX redistributables, to fix the DirectDraw problem.



#11 hardman

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Posted 12 February 2015 - 12:40 AM

What the OP of this thread posted. That guide he used is what a lot of Brazilian and Game ranger players are using.

However due to different system configurations the results are mixed across all help guides for Windows 8.

 

 

OK, thanks. Is that the excellent guide you speak of? I understand there are a multitude of different issues across different windows 8 systems.



#12 FReQuEnZy

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Posted 12 February 2015 - 02:20 PM

OK, thanks. Is that the excellent guide you speak of? I understand there are a multitude of different issues across different windows 8 systems.

 

Yes it is. It's true there are multiple isses, but usually the cause of the problem is the same, such as internal graphics chips as opposed to add in graphics cards, lack of DirectX updates (redistributables) and the poorly implemented / optimized application compatibility settings that microsoft applies. Due to the fact that Olaf renamed game.exe into Red Alert 2.exe the compatibility settings don't apply to the game when launched. The premade settings apply only to the original game executables (ra2.exe, game.exe). I did some researching and it is possible to create custom application fixes in a similar manner to microsoft using the application compatibility toolkit that they provide.

I've already made a custom application compatibility fix for Windows 7 which makes the game smooth as butter.

At the moment it's only for testing purposes though, you can try it out for the game or see which fixes I've enabled by opening the .sdb in Microsoft Compatibility Toolkit.




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