Windowed Mode

Post by **christn** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 12:59 pm

I've been a long time (although sporadic) player of BOTF and this site has been great help. I remember seeing players asking about windowed-mode but do not recall if a solution was ever found.

I have since found a program that works, without the cursor issue (another program to force windowed mode puts the cursor out of sync). The program is D3DWindower which you can either google up or get from the links on http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=603613.

The program is only partially translated so here's a quick process to get it working.

1.) Press the blue + symbol
2.) Browse to the BOTF folder and open trek.exe
3.) Press the 'Settings' button (6th icon from the left, 2nd from the right)
4.) On the 'Common' tab check 'Use Windowed Mode'
5.) On the 'Direct Input' tab check 'GetCursorPos'
6.) Press OK.
7.) Highlight 'trek' on the main application screen by left-clicking it.
8.) Press the 'Run program' button (5th from the left, 3rd from the right)
9.) Switch to the BOTF window and move it to where you want it.
10.) And you're done.

Post by **trekker-** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 1:17 am

Thank you so much. Finally someone got it, but does it help stop the game from crashing? =)

Post by **christn** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 10:16 am

I'm not sure what crashing you're referring to. I don't have many crashes, at least none that I can't blame on trek.exe. That being said, I don't play for extended periods so that might be why.

P.S. My apologies for the image being so large.

Post by **TurboC** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 12:24 am

I doubt it affects crashing, but I bet it might reduce or eliminate the crashes where your only way out is to reset the machine?

Post by **Flocke** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:48 am

D3DWindower nor DxWnd works correctly on my vista machine (administrative rights, winxp compatibility,...).

D3DWindower tries to start botf in windowed mode, causes an reduced size of 800x600 with still using my laptop resolution of 1440x900 rendering in top left edge but has clour issues AND still aquires full screen without the window frame around. So I can't access other programs. Additionally it crashes on input.

DxWnd works but I can't move the cursor.

Would really love to have a solution so I can debug botf for code analysis. (beside running linux and using wine or installing xp)

Post by **KrazeeXXL** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 3:56 pm

Flocke, you're using Linux and wine to emulate vista? Then you use compatibility mode to run BotF?

(sorry)

Try to set up a virtual xp machine under your emulated vista. then your uberlaced matroska would be perfect

Post by **Flocke** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 4:35 pm

Haha, vf, btw I've tested all the programs mentioned here: http://pomax.nihongoresources.com/
None worked for me but maybe someone else has more luck.

Post by **captaindusk** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:20 am

I followed the Instructions step by step and it seemed to work fine.
But then I noticed that the cursor moves to the upper left automatically when trying to change the course of ships.
It does that when the game window isn't in the upper left corner.

I also noticed that the game lags a bit while setting up "GetCursorPos" in D3dWindower.

So I switched it off, restarted the game,
dragged the window to the upper left corner again and this time it ran smooth as in fullscreen, apart from the cursor "calibration" problem.

Post by **KrazeeXXL** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 11:20 am

tried a new ver of Dxwnd yesterday w/o success. it has some mouse correction option available but it wasn't even able to run BOP in windowed mode...

I go try D3Dwindower then.

edit: same game with d3dw

Post by **captaindusk** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 1:04 pm

Yeah New Version of Dxwnd doesn't work for some reason for me too.

I'll stick with D3DWindower then as it works. I'm currently playing BOP windowed. Hope I'll be getting used to the lag on galaxy screen.

I'd like to see your new signature link.

Post by **KrazeeXXL** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 11:37 pm

captaindusk wrote: I'd like to see your new signature link.

it isn't the same w/o sound

Post by **captaindusk** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 10:57 am

As I said yesterday I did some further testing of BotF in windowed mode. I was very happy when I accidently realized that Multiplayer over Warzone works in windowed mode.

Unfortunately when it comes to tactical combat there's a very annoying issue. While trying to mark the opponent task force for attack,
the mouse cursor immediately switches away from task force when you try to point at it.

I tried to move the window to different positions on the screen,
hoping this would solve the problem but it didn't work.
I switched off "GetCursorPos" in DirectXWindowers options menu, started the game again, dragged the window to the upper left corner
and tested another battle. This time selecting the opponent worked.

I guess I will have to get used to the cursor issue then
as it's not as annoying as the fact that you can't select the opponent when "GetCursorPos" is activated.
As I mentioned before this option also causes trouble
if you try to change course on galaxy screen while the window isn't in the upper left corner.

If you want to play multiplayer windowed,
simply open up the windower, set it up the same way as for SP,
minimize to tray, start Warzone game and have fun.

Post by **arndi** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 10:10 am

I have just completed some test rounds with the DirectX Windower v1.88 (can be found here: http://www.fileplanet.com/198137/190000 ... h-version/ first link on google).
I have already tried this a while back and it didn't work, but after reading christn's post I got intrigued and tried again and I wasn't quite satisfied at the beginning (same issues like captain dusk: issues with the mouse when setting course for ships, also the screen was flickering/mouse was flickering etc.), so I kept on changing the settings and now it works perfect for me (I tested it was Hades and the mod "Large All the Ages" under Win7 64bit). Not a single crash in 60 rounds (never had this with the original

), fights work perfectly as well. I am satisfied.

Here are the settings that I used:
(I'll only mention options that are checked or use characters - everything I don't mention is unchecked/empty)
Common
Height: 800
Width: 600
[x] Use Windowed Mode

Window Mode
[x] DirectX1-7(DDraw...)
-DirectX1-7
[x] Use DDraw Flip
[x] DDraw Colour Emul..
[x] DDraw Colour Conve...
[x] DDraw Blt Wait
[x] DDraw Primary BLT
[x] DDraw Emulate
[x] DDraw Primary Lost
[x] DDraw Auto BLT
(you can fiddle around a little bit here and see what you like most)

Foreground Control

Direct Input
[x] SetCursorPos
[x] GetCursorPos
(it'll get messed up if you only use one of them)

There might be more ideal settings. Those are the one's that worked for me.
I don't even need to switch my screen resolution to 16bit. When you start the game, it will get switched automatically and it switches back to 32bit when you close it again.

Birth of the Federation

Windowed Mode

Windowed Mode

Re: Windowed Mode

Re: Windowed Mode