Battlezone 1

Vista x32/x64 Battlezone Setup Tutorial v1.0
Things to note about this guide:
Created using Windows Vista x64 with a DirectX 10 Nvidia graphics card
Other than this fix, render.cfg was the only other setup required using the 1.4O installer
An initial launch in windowed mode is required if your graphics card OR monitor OR both do not support a 640x480 resolution.

This fixes DirectX 10 problems, as this patch LIES to Battlezone, making it think that an older version of DirectX is running on the computer - Thus NO tweaks on the graphics card are required

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Hello,

I was previously on here toting my Windows Vista compatibility update patch. I know it was quite awhile back, but I did lose interest in BZ for quite a bit there. Though my interest was peaked again when I received the 1.4O notification email. Since I have since reformatted my computer I found that I needed to recreate my patch for my own use.

This time around, I did a bit more research, and the patch SHOULD work for all users.. The catch is you have to create it yourself as everyone's files are slightly different. Simply follow the link at the top for the setup guide.

PLEASE give me any and all feedback positive and negative. Also, if anyone can test this on their vista system to ensure that it works for them, please do.

THANKS!!

Hi,

Good idea with the video. Thanks for posting it. Would be nice to have more of those for different Bz-related things like configuring of the render, setting up Win98 compatibility mode, banning GenX, mounting RO iso etc.

Nice to hear that those mass emails had at least some effect in reminding our members that Bz is still alive. I should have sent those when I released M and N too. With an old game like this, Forums keep players together and the game alive.

Yeah, as we agreed back then, patch you created was only good for your PC. When created as you described here it should be good for any PC who creates it. Of course, under the condition that what's in it is the needed fix.

About this patch... I still have WinXP and DX9 so I can't test it, but I have a few questions...

What's your system/OS (32or64) again?
What exact issues you had after installing 1.4O, before this patch was applied?
Can you tell which error was caused by Vista and which by DX10? Nowdays, 10% problems are Vista related and in 90% it's dx10.
Do you have any limitations or experience any errors, now, when you applied the patch?
Why is disabling of themes and menus needed?
"Enable legacy exception handling in rpc" sounds like a reasonable fix. Do you know what exactly that does?
There are lot of options to enable/disable in Compatibility Fixes section, maybe some machines will have to check few extra things... any suggestions?

No problem man, I love helping people out, I just hope some people can benefit from my expertise.

As far as you being on WinXP with DX9.. technically this fix should work for troubleshooting issues on those platforms, but most of the time I only see posts with video card issues and not with Battlezone not working.. as far as I know. My XP install worked pretty well.

What's your system/OS (32or64) again?
I am running 64Bit Vista. Other specs:
NVidia GeForce 8800GTX
4GB Corsair DDR3 Ram
Intel Q6600 2.4ghz Quad-Core

What exact issues you had after installing 1.4O, before this patch was applied?
Unhandled Exception on launch. With compatibility mode (using XP mode built into Vista, not my patch) I would crash when trying to load into a game.

Can you tell which error was caused by Vista and which by DX10? Nowdays, 10% problems are Vista related and in 90% it's dx10.
Well to be honest, I couldn't really tell you which errors were caused by what. I am by no means a debugging expert.. and I discovered what options to select by a large amount of tweaking settings through guesswork and common sense. I can however tell you that this fix is designed to fix the issue all around, it simply tells Battlezone what it wants to be told, then interprets what Battlezone says, into what the operating system wants to hear. Think of it as a translator.

Do you have any limitations or experience any errors, now, when you applied the patch?
The game runs flawless for me. The only limitation I have is alt-tabbing. I can tab out in any part of the multiplayer menus, but I can not tab out during gameplay. This is remedied simply by going to the escape menu when you need to tab. Quite honestly, this issue is perfectly acceptable. lol

Why is disabling of themes and menus needed?
Disabling of the Themes & Menus is needed as it eliminates the chance of a crash when navigating through menus in Battlezone. Basically it complately prevents vista from trying to perform visual effects on the menus and buttons in the game, as Battlezone is not designed to accommodate themes, most especially graphically enhanced themes.

"Enable legacy exception handling in rpc" sounds like a reasonable fix. Do you know what exactly that does?
Not entirely. Though, enabling this does seem to make any UE errors a lot more user friendly without making the computer freak out. Not sure if I'm explaining that right, or if I even fully understand what it does, but it helps when errors happen, and seems to have reduced the chance of errors to zero.

There are lot of options to enable/disable in Compatibility Fixes section, maybe some machines will have to check few extra things... any suggestions?
To be honest, additional settings shouldn't be needed, regardless of operating system, graphics card, DirectX version or whether you have an x64 or x32 based system. The setup covers about everything that needs to be emulated to make Battlezone run perfectly.

The way the toolkit works, is it's pretty much (as I mentioned earlier) a translator. You tell it what languages the program speaks, and it communicates information to and from your OS, allowing you to use the application. I'm sure I've managed to get all of the communication requirements for Battlezone taken care of, so this in theory should be a fix-all solution for anyone who has problems running Battlezone, but unfortunately I need people to test it in order to confirm that it works on other peoples machines as well.


Hope this post hasn't been too scatterbrained lol.

Here's a way to get BZ1.4O working under Windows XP-64 Pro, on systems with 4+ GB of RAM.

Step 1) Follow DarkOddity's excellent video tutorial above, and get the Compatibility Administrator up and running. Once you've begin editing the application fix, there are a few differences for settings you'll have to select.

Under Operating System Modes, Windows XP SP2 is probably greyed out. That's fine - Select None. In the box to the right (Additional Compatibility Modes) scroll down and choose Windows XP.

On the next page - Compatibility Fixes, choose these options:
DisableThemes
EmulateHeap
ForceAVIWindow
GlobalMemoryStatusTrim <----- This is the big one!
LoadLibraryCWD
RestoreSystemCursors
VirtualRegistry
WinXPVersionLie <------ another important one

Now just complete everything as laid out in the video tutorial. Remember to start BZ in windowed mode for your first launch. Good Luck!

When i was about to save changes it said " you do not have admin rights on your computer " errrm?

I do becuase im the only user of my computer and i have even checked via the user accounts

Anybody know whats up?

*******EDIT********

Ive just tryed it again, same problem, i dont understand im the only user on this computer

Can any1 send me the modified bzone.exe file over msn? if possible?

oh and if anybody can send me a copy of their bzone.exe file my msn is - fomastinch@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks,

With ACT you are not changing exe in any way, you are just fooling your OS.

What version of BZ you have? What are your system specifications? And what exactly is your BZ problem?

What this sounds like to me is Vista's User Account Control security is getting in your way. If you go to User Accounts in your Control Panel, you can enable or disable this, I'd disable it for atleast the install of your fix. For some reason, Vista and UAC seems to restrict some admin permissions even though you are in an administrator account for some folders like Program Files. I ran into the same thing trying to edit my render.cfg file, I had to move it to the desktop to edit it.

Once you install your fixes and get BZ working with UAC off, I'd recommend giving a try to run BZ with UAC enabled. While it can be
excessive with it's security at times, it's a really good way to keep malicious files from doing harm to your PC.

Nevermind guys, but thanks for showing some consideration.

The problem is fixed, i just tried it again and it worked.

Having slight problem with your fix. When I get to the very last part to open up bzone.exe after autogenerate the file is not among the ones I am able to open. A search comes up empty any suggestions?

Dark Oddity made his video while on Bz1.4O (previous installer), which he installed in folder Games.

Where you installed your BZ? Look for bzone.exe there.

You will also have to check slightly different things in ACT if you have different system.

Got this to work! 3D card works fine in 1024x 768 ish, only problem I have is the compass points are white squares, I remember seeing that on here somewhere, but can't find it, anyone know how to fix that?

You have to post your system specs, explain what problems you had before ACT patch and what exactly you checked in it. A SS of your current problem would be nice too.

There's also a topic concerning BZ graphics and everybody on this forum should make a post there, whether having a graphic issue or not. With more info we will be able to help more people and maybe even make universal patch for the next installer.

Did you managed to find some fix for the white squares in the compass? Thanks in advanced

Seems that DO lost his site...

DO, any chance of uploading that video on YouTube or some place like that?

In meantime, what he did in his video was using (not working) BZ fix already present in ACT, then he edited it with these checks/fixes:

Microsoft Windows XP (SP2) compatibility

RunAsAdmin

Disable ThemeMenus
Disable Themes
EnableLegacyExceptionHandlingRPC

Be aware that usnavyfish had to do something else, cause what you are doing here is making own PC system patch. In the end, don't forget to save it and install it. If it doesn't work, uninstall it, then try again with some other checks/fixes.

Yes, please post that video somewhere! I'm arriving late to this party and would love to have BZ running on my Vista 64 rig!