Armada on Windows 7

[evilnomis]

The game Armada 1 & 2 both work on win7 64bit sp1 useing nvidia 560ti will try with nvidia 570.

[MrVulcan]

evilnomis,

Does the game run without graphical glitches on those cards? By glitches I mean polygon tearing such as this (link to STA2011 forum).

GTX580 runs the game, but with severe graphics glitches. I am a bit surprised that you can run it just fine on 560ti (which is newer), and 580 gives errors. This was in 2011 btw, so maybe a driver update fixed the problem since then.

[yochenhsieh]

I have the polygon tearing problem with gtx750 and driver 344.11:(

I used Ati/AMD for nearly ten years and decided to make a switch last month. Almost happy with the new card until I found nvidia has problem with Armada I. I can even get Dominion Wars working, but not Armada.

[MrVulcan]

I have the polygon tearing problem with gtx750 and driver 344.11:(

I used Ati/AMD for nearly ten years and decided to make a switch last month. Almost happy with the new card until I found nvidia has problem with Armada I. I can even get Dominion Wars working, but not Armada.

As reported by you, yochenhsieh, on STA2011 forums, the game appears to run properly with the latest NVIDIA driver, 350.12. If anyone is wishing, please give it a try and report back. We can surely infuse some life into Armada again if it will run on these new NVIDIA cards.

[galac]

i have that latest driver installed, however, my laptop is win8x64.... i installed game and patches 1.2 and 1.3 i get that little orange window and it advances like it's gonna make it to the "in game movie", but crashes...i tried compatibility but no success...

[thunderchero]

Hi everyone,

I asked gho for some support for armada I for you guys.
here is support topic if you want to join in.
armada support topic

Note; he is still working to improve support

could someone give this a try on win 7 (my win 8 does not work)
I think he used 1.2 patch and no cd patch but not sure.

dxwnd.rar

(1.5 MiB) Downloaded 104 times

just un-zip and run "dxwnd.exe"

Double click "Star Trek Armada (fullscreen)" in dxwnd window to run game

let me know how it goes

thunderchero

[MrVulcan]

Thanks thunderchero,

I will give this a look, looks interesting. Armada I runs fine on Win7 by the way. Running on Win 8 is currently unsolved, as far as I know. I will pitch in a bit of info on that forum.

Mr. V

[thunderchero]

I thought it had some driver issues. but my hope if he gets it hooked properly it will also work on win 8.

I worked for birth of the federation....

thunderchero

[MrVulcan]

Ah, I see. Yeah, would be awesome to have it running on Win 8. My understanding is that the game needs 16bit program support to run properly, which is discontinued in Win 8.

Main issues with Armada on Win 7 have been:

- memory error overflow when more than 4GB of ram is installed (game says not enough ram)
- graphics glitches with some graphics cards
- user directory string is too long
- user does not have admin access to directory where armada was installed

All of these problems are more or less addressed with the unofficial 1.3 patch from the fleetops dev team. It is also possible to address the problems via compatibility mode and manually restricting the computer to use less than 4 GB ram. The graphics problems have been recently resolved with an update from NVIDIA.

[thunderchero]

gho has made some good progress already, using dxwnd I can load game on win 8 now, but same problem selecting buttons he is experiencing using game on win 7 using dxwnd.

My understanding is that the game needs 16bit program support to run properly,

Dxwnd enumerates what game requires.

as for other issues listed, Dxwnd already has options for most of them.

I was wondering did armada work will in windowed mode originally?

EDIT: btw I was playing armada on a win 8 system with a slightly edited dxw in full screen using dxwnd. granted it still has some graphic errors though, but it is a start.

thunderchero

[thunderchero]

Hi Everyone,

I am no expert on Armada, but I have been able to run game on my win 8 system.
note; some text is still misplaced but selectable, gho is still working on problems.

here is dxwnd I used with default install path (if you change install location you will need to edit path see below image)

dxwnd.rar

(1.13 MiB) Downloaded 90 times

unzip to any where.
set dxwnd.exe to "run as administrator"
double click "Star Trek Armada (win emulated)" or right click and select run

you can run full screen by unchecking "Run in Window" blue box below
right click "Star Trek Armada (win emulated)" select "modify" for menu below

modify_maina.jpg (88.77 KiB) Viewed 3701 times

thunderchero

[MrVulcan]

That's good news! Thanks to you, thunderchero, and gho with dxwnd.

I've been meaning to collect some relevant info and post on their forum, but have had no time. Will try this weekend.

One key point I wanted to deliver is that a lot of config settings are in armada.prf (game settings, graphics adaptor, etc). I suspect that most of these can be set externally. At the moment, have you been able to start an instant action game?

Thanks again

Mr. V

[thunderchero]

First keep in mind gho is doing his testing/setup using 1.1 version (maybe 1.2 since I sent this patch originally) but he has not installed 1.3 by fleetops

I'm doing good progresses with GDI handling, so I'm not applying the patch right now. I'll apply it at the end, to ensure DxWnd compatibility with all releases.

have you been able to start an instant action game?

Like I said, I had no idea it even had "instant action" or how to start it. that is why we need help from the forum here for testing.
the furthest I have gone into game was to start fed campaign, build dilth, and get into a couple fights. btw saving game is still not working right yet.

lot of config settings are in armada.prf (game settings, graphics adaptor, etc).

Not sure how much this will help, but since he has already stated this is a "Interesting game" (code wise) it might help. From what I understand dxwnd is the graphic adapter.

thunderchero

[Je_mezu24]

All I can say is that Armada I works perfectly fine on Windows 7 Home Premium x64-Bit Edition with all patches (official and unofficial) and this is on an HP Pavilion g7-1310us Notebook PC. The same is the case for Armada II but that's also with all its patches (official and unofficial), but now I play Armada II through the FleetOps 3.2.7 Mods Directory.

Both Armada I & II also work just fine after a few graphic drivers settings tweaking on Windows 8 PCs for me as well, of this includes all the patches (official and unofficial) installed as well.