CyberStorm 1 (shim patch archive) - juanitogan/rbxit GitHub Wiki

MissionForce: CyberStorm icon MissionForce: CyberStorm (CyberStorm 1)

❗️❗️ NEWS FLASH 💥 December 2017 ❗️❗️

☠️ Do not use the patches on this wiki page! ☠️

Find the newest patch on the new Cyberstorm 1 wiki page.

This version of the wiki was kept because it provides information that may be useful to other troubleshooters.

"Using Stem-gland, you can increase your Bioderm's performance in battle, at the risk of making him genetically unstable."

⚠️ This Patch is for Advanced Users

If you do not understand everything in both the Installation and the Troubleshooting sections on this page, please ask a friend who does understand it all to help you. Some systems patch easily -- others do not. I do not have time to write a smart and friendly installer for less-technical users. It has already taken a large amount of personal time to research all this and to write up all the intel I have made available here. Please return the favor by taking the time to read and work through it carefully before asking for help.

Installation

Because Nothing Good Comes Easy

A second solution has been discovered for running CyberStorm (thanks to Hybrid for finding it and pointing me to DxWnd). This both helps and hurts because there is no one solution for all Windows versions and use cases. I shall now attempt to summarize it and bring some clarity.

Which Solutions Work on Which OS

Windows User Type RBXIT Win7 Patch DxWnd Hook RBXIT + DxWnd
Vista probably same as 7
7 all :x: :white_check_mark: :information_source: :white_check_mark:
8.x probably same as 10
10 admin :white_check_mark: :x: :x:
10 standard :x: :warning: :information_source: :warning:
User Type Description
admin Most primary user accounts on personal systems. Administrator accounts on corporate systems.
standard Most employee accounts on corporate systems. May also be friend and family accounts on personal systems if you set them up that way.

:white_check_mark: Works.

:x: Doesn't work.

:information_source: With the right settings, DxWnd can run CyberStorm successfully without the RBXIT patch on Windows 7 (and probably Vi and 8 as well). You will, however, eventually see an error message due to the audio issue but (with DxWnd) the game should continue playing after you dismiss the error. (I have not seen the error return after the first appearance.) Whether or not this has any impact on network gaming has not yet been tested (one thing at a time). My slower system usually shows this error at first menu load. My faster system shows it at some random point later. My patch eliminates this error entirely.

:warning: DxWnd-hooked CyberStorm on Windows 10 is playable but only annoyingly so (as of v2.03.82). Once a game starts, all dialog windows pop up in a bad way that can't be read or answered. Only hitting Esc will get you out of them. Thus, you can load and save games, but to quit and go back to the menus, you will have to Alt+Tab back to DxWnd to kill the game and restart. Hopefully, future versions of DxWnd will bring a fix to this (or someone will find the correct DxWnd settings -- I tried them all but not all combinations).

NOTE: Multi-player network gaming should work on all systems with just the RBXIT patch because you can't save a network game anyway. Just don't accidentally hit save or load to crash the game (and you can use DxWnd to help avoid that). So, start some LAN games at the office already! Why play Die Siedler von Catan or try to teach the massive rule set to BattleTech when you can jack up Cybrids instead?

Did you know? - CyberStorm is the highest-rated game at Home of the Underdogs with a score of 9.23.

Game Install

NOTE: You should not go into the compatibility tab for CSTORM.EXE and change it to "Run this program as an administrator." You mess with the settings in the compatibility tab at your own risk of causing this patch and/or the DxWnd hook to fail. Especially, if you play with "Change settings for all users." If you've already gone down this road, undo the settings before installing the patch and also read the troubleshooting section on this.

  • :white_check_mark: Currently, you can download an ISO copy of the game at:
  • :white_check_mark: Copy the CSTORM folder from the CD to your hard drive.
    • With all older games like this, do not copy to a Windows-controlled folder such as Program Files, copy to a simple (DOS-like) path instead such as C:\Games.
  • :large_blue_diamond: Optional. :+1: If you want to play networked games, copy the DirectPlay DLLs to the 32-bit system folder for your system (if there are not ones there already). From your CD's DIRECTX folder copy DPLAY.DLL, DPSERIAL.DLL, DPWSOCK.DLL to:
    • 32-bit Windows: \Windows\System32\
    • 64-bit Windows: \Windows\SysWOW64\ (System32 = 64-bit files, SysWOW64 = 32-bit files)
    • Not yet sure if you also need to turn on Windows Features >> Legacy Components >> DirectPlay (as that seems to install the dp*x.dll files which don't work for this game).
  • :large_blue_diamond: Optional. Download and run Sierra's CSTORM11 update (below) from any folder. (Optional, because some players don't like the single-player strategy balance tweaks in this update. I don't know the game well enough to comment. :scream_cat:)
  • :white_check_mark: Download and run the RBXIT Win7 Patch (below) from your CSTORM folder.
    • Expect to answer "Yes" to the UAC message box asking permission to run part of the patch (this was not seen on the YouTube video because I was running Explorer++ as an admin; oops). Also, expect a UAC message box each time you run the game after this.
  • :white_check_mark: Only if you need or want to use DxWnd to hook the game, download it and unpack it somewhere. (Such as C:\Games\DxWnd.)
    • :bangbang: Before you go any further, be sure to run or click CSTORM-Compatibility-Unset.bat in your CSTORM folder to get those settings out of the way of DxWnd. You missed this step if DxWnd throws this error:
      • :warning: CreateProcess ERROR 740
    • Click dxwnd.exe to start the hook control panel.
    • In the DxWnd interface, select Edit >> Add.
    • In the Target dialog, the minimal changes from default are (I will explain these elsewhere):
      • Main >> Name: CyberStorm (or whatever)
      • Main >> Path: <your path to CSTORM.EXE>
      • Main >> Generic >> uncheck: [_] Run in Window
      • Hook >> Injection mode >> select: (x) Inject suspended process
      • Input >> Cursor handling >> uncheck: [_] Correct mouse position
      • Libs >> GDI >> uncheck: [_] Remap Client Rect
      • Libs >> GDI >> check: [x] Syncronize GDI to ddraw palette
      • Compat. >> Tweaks >> check: [x] Limit available resources
      • Compat. >> Tweaks >> check: [x] Handle Exceptions
    • Most of the other defaults can be unchecked but they don't hurt either, so leave them.
    • Given enough time, I will eventually include tools to help here such as a DXW export file.
  • :small_blue_diamond: Very optional. After making sure the patch is working, set the compatibility mode for CSTORM.EXE to:
    • Run in 640 x 480 screen resolution
      • :warning: Given the note above about problems with setting compatibility settings, approach this with caution. While it does usually work to set some of these settings after successfully installing the patch and making sure Load and Save now work, it may also lead to other trouble later on if you need to install CyberStorm again or make other changes.
  • :information_source: But, why run in 640 x 480 when CyberStorm can take advantage of most larger screen sizes to draw the in-game play field larger? Even full 1080p at 1920 x 1080! :+1: To take advantage of larger screens, set the in-game preferences to one of these two options (requires game restart):
    • Run in full-screen mode (recommended):
      • Game always fills entire screen
        • Use extra screen real-estate for battle terrain
    • Run in windowed mode and maximize the window before launching a mission (risky because only certain window sizes will render correctly):
      • Game always fills entire screen
        • Use extra screen real-estate for battle terrain
  • :warning: NOTE: The game can't handle 1366 x 768 when filling the entire screen (the size of a lower-res wide-screen monitor). :-1: Yet, it can do 1360 x 768... which is a wide-screen alternative supported by many GPUs. (The horizontal resolution must be a multiple of 4.)
    • To automatically work around the 1366x768 caveat, see this. (The latest RBXIT patches include SetRes.ps1 and CSTORM-1360x768.bat for your convenience to use and/or modify.)

Sierra Updates

:large_blue_diamond: v1.0 to v1.1: The Sierra Help Pages - Cyberstorm Series Updates

RBXIT Win7 Patches

:white_check_mark: v1.0 and v1.1 (USA copies): CyberStorm-10-11-Win7fix.r4.exe

:white_check_mark: v1.0 and v1.1 (Europe copies): CyberStorm-10-11-Win7fix.r4.eu.exe

Homebrew Mods

:large_blue_diamond: CyberStorm Single Player v1.2: CyberStorm-12-HomebrewMod.zip

In 2007, Crow! (Richard Worhatch), Seraphim, Borg_Down, and SiopaomanX, of The Junkyard forums, created their own mod of CyberStorm to improve the single-player experience. In their own words, "We plan to create a mod of Cyberstorm, arming the Cybrids both more intelligently and more powerfully, to make the single player game more interesting." Their modded CSTORM.EXE should work fine with the other fixes here. You can read the instructions and original thread at the Internet Archive. You might want to save this for after you've beaten v1.0 or v1.1. (Frustratingly, The Junkyard Forums went down a few months after I created this patch. I had tried to gain access before they went down but got no response.)

Automation

If you want to automate launching and shutting down DxWnd with CyberStorm, you might put a batch file in your CSTORM folder that looks like this:

SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS
SET parent=%~dp0
CD C:\Games\DxWnd
START dxwnd.exe
REM If you need a quoted command: START "" "some path\here.exe"
TIMEOUT 2 /NOBREAK
CD %parent%
cstorm.exe
TASKKILL /IM dxwnd.exe /T /F

Maybe a future patch release will include this and other helpers for setting up DxWnd.

Music

The game CD has 3 audio tracks on it in addition to the data track. The first two tracks are the background music (BGM) for during game play. The third track is the BGM for the menus. Curiously, the menus have a backup track (same music, lower quality) in the data files so that menus have BGM whether or not the CD is present.

On Windows 10, the game will play one track of BGM in game and then quit playing music. See this guide for ideas on ripping the audio tracks and what to do next:

Network Gaming

CS1 ran well on a LAN between a Windows XP machine and a Windows 10 machine (achieved via the optional install steps noted above). The connection did timeout when left idle for a while, so be sure to test the durability of your idles before committing to a game.

CS1 v1.0 did not support internet gaming (such as Sierra Network/SIGS/WON) but SIGS support was added to v1.1. SIGS later became WON which later became Steam (which does not support CS1) and a splinter group created WON2 (which no one has bothered supporting CS1 on... yet).

Kali.net support was also added to v1.1 (see CSTORM\DOC\KALI.TXT). Kali doesn't currently list CS1 as supported (presumably because Sierra's "CyberStation" server is long gone [so feel free to host one yourself and tell us about it]). Kali is currently all but dead... but not dead yet as far as I can tell.

Otherwise, online gaming is limited to setting up your own VPN (which is beyond the scope of this wiki).

Outstanding Issues

  • The game occasionally freezes for a few seconds once in a while, depending on system. I haven't taken any time to look into this so if you see a pattern (such as freezing on a specific event or animation) or find a solution (such as elevating the execution priority), please let us know.
  • I swung and missed at Windows 7 with the compatibility settings. :sob: The DisableUserCallbackException flag is not effective with this game on Windows 7 like it is on Windows 10 (and should also be effective on Windows 8). The kernel messaging system this flag works with was created for Windows 7 and did not become fully mature until Windows 7 SP1. Then, in Windows 8, they changed the default behavior of this system. Or, something like that. Thus, the miss with Windows 7 even though it supports that flag (even if you can't find it in Compatibility Administrator). I still hope to find a fix for Windows 7, other than DxWnd, but it's not looking good.
  • The help program is 16-bit and will not run on modern Windows. It is Microsoft Multimedia Viewer and the content is in an MVB file (Multimedia Viewer Book). There are several files in the CSTORM\DOC folder and you can try looking online for additional help. There is also a lot of content in-game under Single Player >> Start Career >> Easy/Normal/Hard >> Herc Command Center >> Communications. [I have tested and plan on printing the whole thing out on XP to a PDF but I don't know if such a thing would qualify as a legal patch.] Also, try:

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Carel de Bruin for helping to get the Europe patch built and tested.

Thank you to Hybrid for finding the DxWnd workaround for Windows 7.

Thank you to Khell for reporting my 32-bit mistake and testing the fix.

Thank you to ScarabParamit for preserving and resurrecting the v1.2 homebrew mod for us.

Troubleshooting

:point_right::point_right::point_right: Please use the Issues feature on GitHub (findable at the top of this page) for reporting issues. It should work much better here than trying to converse on my Wordpress blog or YouTube.

Also, please report Windows version and 32 or 64 bit. Copying in any error text from the DOS install window would also be helpful.

First, The Obvious

The patch must run from the same folder as CSTORM.EXE. If you aren't technical enough to understand this then please find someone near you to help you.

Second, Did the patch finish successfully?

Many people ignore the messages in the DOS patch window and simply complain that the game isn't working without any further detail. Don't be one of these people.

This is what patch failure looks like:

Patch error screenshot

This is what patch success looks like:

Patch success screenshot

If you read the bottom few lines of the DOS window, it's usually not hard to tell if it completed successfully or not. Note, however, that I did not take time to build too much smarts into the installer, so if you run it successfully once, it will fail each time after that unless you have recopied the RBX files from the CD. This is normal.

Below are the three exit error messages created by the patch's script. What needs to be reported, however, are the messages before these -- that is, report the messages output by the tools that triggered the error.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!! Error during audio file patching                      !!!
!!! Maybe already patched, wrong region, or unknown print !!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Regarding the above message, see the Random Crashing After Start section below for more details on file specs and why or why not you may be getting this message. It could be any of the reasons the message indicates. The most common is that you have run the patch a second time when you didn't need to and the files are already patched. This message is typically preceded with a message like this:

xdelta3: source C:\Games\Sierra\CSTORM\CYBDATA2.RBX source size 20.1 MiB [21107994] blksize 64.0 MiB window 64.0 MiB
xdelta3: 0: in 941 B: out 8.00 MiB: total in 941 B: out 8.00 MiB: 347 ms
xdelta3: target window checksum mismatch: XD3_INVALID_INPUT
xdelta3: normally this indicates that the source file is incorrect
xdelta3: please verify the source file with sha1sum or equivalent

Other causes are not choosing the right patcher (USA vs Europe) or, possibly, you have another unknown print. If other prints are indeed found, I will hopefully work up a universal patcher.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!! Error during file copying !!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Regarding the above message, it is doubtful anyone will ever see this one. If you do, check permissions on the CSTORM folder and such things. This means at least one of the 5 files the patch adds to CSTORM (listed in Random Crashing After Start below) failed to copy into the CSTORM folder from the temp SFX location.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!! Error during compatibility database install   !!!
!!! Please report any message seen above          !!!
!!! Perhaps sdbinst.exe does not exist on this OS !!!
!!!   or it was blocked from executing            !!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Regarding the above message, I don't have much to say yet on what may cause such an error other than what it already says. Unlikely it will be seen.

Save/Load Still Crashing After Patching

v1.0

:no_entry: The instruction at 10019546 referenced memory at 00000000
The memory could not be read from

Click on OK to terminate the application

v1.1

:no_entry: The instruction at 10019586 referenced memory at 00000000
The memory could not be read from

Click on OK to terminate the application

The most common [and understandable] situation here relates to one of the notes at the top of the Game Install instructions. If you have messed with the compatibility settings for CSTORM.EXE before applying this patch, you may be in for a world of hurt. In the ideal world, this should not be a problem, just turn them back off and you should be good to go. I have, however, experienced inexplicable behavior on occasion where turning these settings back off does not return CSTORM.EXE to default behavior. I have also heard reports of this from others. Yet, if you persist with undoing the compat settings and rebooting, as outlined below, you might recover. If you also toyed with the "Change settings for all users" button, undo those settings as well -- which can be quite the challenge without editing the Windows Registry manually (which is dangerous and not advised if you don't know what you are doing). Some have given up and are never heard from again (one person decided his machine was "too powerful" to run CyberStorm :no_mouth: ... whatever). Those who persist have succeeded (unless you're on Windows 7, then that's another story as noted above under both Game Install and Outstanding Issues).

To be clear, this is what my Compatibility tab looks like for CSTORM.EXE and running the game on 64-bit Windows 10 with the patch (not a thing set):

CSTORM.EXE Properties Compatibility tab

If you want to poke at things your own way, running this will undo what the patch does to fix save and load:

CSTORM-Compatibility-Unset.bat

Conversely, running this will redo this part of the patch (without needing to redo the audio patch on the RBX files):

CSTORM-Compatibility-Set.bat

These batch files can be rerun as needed without harm. (Expect to answer "Yes" to a UAC message box asking permission to run the change.)

:boom: Here is my latest best advice for correcting from compatibility issues after a successful patch install (this approximate method appears to have worked for me and others before but it is not a sure solution either -- and with so much fuzzy testing going on around this rare issue, it is hard to nail it down):

  1. Run CSTORM-Compatibility-Unset.bat
  2. Unset everything in the compatibility tab for CSTORM.EXE
  3. Reboot (should not be necessary but appears to help sometimes)
  4. Make sure the compatibility tab settings are still unset (don't run the exe yet); otherwise, goto step 2
  5. Run CSTORM-Compatibility-Set.bat
  6. Run CSTORM.EXE and good luck!

If still having trouble, try removing that troublesome copy of CSTORM after reverting your compatibility settings and try fresh in a new path. There is some logic to this with how the Windows Registry works, but it's also a long shot. If you also tried other paths earlier with compatibility settings, you may need to recreate those paths and then undo them as well.

If really ambitious, you can also check (at your own risk) these keys in the Windows Registry for some intel on what you might need to undo and where (don't edit, just check):

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
HKU\ ... \Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers

I have investigated automated registry cleaners a bit but, so far, they don't appear to target what needs to be corrected/adjusted in this situation.

Explorer++, Other Program Launchers, and General Mojo

Curiously, when I launch a patched CSTORM.EXE with Explorer++ it will work with Save/Load on first launch but not with any later launches until I also shut down and restart Explorer++. If, however, I launch CSTORM.EXE from File Explorer, or any other built-in Windows way such as from the Start menu or the taskbar, it runs fine no matter how many times I launch it. Thus, it is apparent programs like Explorer++ can affect the programs they launch (as also evidenced by CSTORM.EXE adopting whatever High DPI compatibility setting I set for Explorer++). Even more curiously, this only happens on my newest machine with the latest Windows 10 version. On an older test machine with both an older version of Windows 10 (v1607) and an older version of Explorer++ (that I also run in admin mode due to bugs), CSTORM.EXE runs fine no matter how many times I launch it from Explorer++.

So, um, beware of any :ghost::ghost: in the machine.

Save/Load Still Crashing on Windows 7

As mentioned earlier, Windows 7 is still an outstanding case to fix. In theory, the patch contains settings that are valid back to Windows 7 and, possibly, Windows Vista. Yet, in practice, this theory seems to have failed. I am working on acquiring a Windows 7 test machine to explore this issue. In the meantime, 64-bit Windows 7 has the DxWnd workaround described in Game Install. 32-bit Windows 7 is still out of luck. (Audio crashing should be fixed on all Windows versions.) [Note to self: double check this info as it may be out of date -- I thought 32-bit Win 7 was working fine with DxWnd.]

Random Crashing After Start

All crashing after game start that I have seen -- either right away after the intro AVI, or later in the menus or in a game -- are due to an audio-decoder bug. This was the first fix I made and this is why some of the RBX files are patched. I simply re-encoded the audio to the more stable (but bulkier) format. The error related to this bug says something like:

:no_entry: The instruction at 00467e46 referenced memory at 83354cf6
The memory could not be read from

Click on OK to terminate the application

Please be aware that some machines are much more prone to this crash than others. Yet, even on a seemingly stable machine, without this patch, I can get it to crash on this bug if I poke it long enough. Thus, always use this audio fix -- even if you think you don't need it. In the grand scheme of things, this is an extremely stable mod.

Before the patch runs, these are the relevant file specs (file size and not "size on disk"):

USA copies
------------------------------------------------------
CYBDATA2.RBX,  15,306,390 bytes, 6/12/1996 12:05:46 PM
CYBDATA3.RBX,  16,805,969 bytes, 6/12/1996 12:07:12 PM
CYBDATA4.RBX, 165,223,668 bytes, 6/12/1996 12:32:16 PM

Europe copies (same content, packed in a different order)
------------------------------------------------------
CYBDATA2.RBX,  15,306,390 bytes, 8/28/1996 ‏‎8:38:52 AM
CYBDATA3.RBX,  16,805,969 bytes, 8/28/1996 ‏‎8:40:12 AM
CYBDATA4.RBX, 165,223,668 bytes, 8/28/1996 ‏‎8:55:06 AM

(Times are in EST [UTC-5:00], adjust for your time zone.)

After the patch, they should now be:

USA and Europe copies
------------------------------------------------------
CYBDATA2.rbx,  21,107,994 bytes, <patch run date>
CYBDATA3.rbx,  35,168,363 bytes, <patch run date>
CYBDATA4.rbx, 171,410,526 bytes, <patch run date>

Report any differences (there are rumors of something beside these known USA and Europe copies). Report also, if you see any CYBDATA*.WIN7FIX files left behind.

If the above RBX files appear to be correctly patched and you are still experiencing crashing, report it.

The patch also adds these files to the CSTORM folder:

CSTORM-1360x768.bat
CSTORM-Compatibility-Set.bat
CSTORM-Compatibility-Unset.bat
CyberStorm1AppCompatibilityDB.sdb
SetRes.ps1

If they are missing then the patch didn't finish for some reason. Try again and copy and report any errors you see in the DOS window.

Maximizing the Game Screen

Unless you need 640x480 for personal reasons, if you aren't filling the screen like this...

CyberStorm 1924x1084 screenshot

... you are missing out.

Read the Installation instructions again.

DxWnd Settings Explained

As of: DxWnd v2.03.82

Strangely (every good piece of tl;dr should start off with "strangely"), DxWnd doesn't even have to "hook" CSTORM.EXE to fix the save/load issue with it. Simply loading DxWnd, without defining any target programs to hook, is enough to fix the save/load issue on Windows 7. But, since we're loading it already, we might as well also use DxWnd to fix the Cinepak AVI playback on Windows 7... and maybe everything else wrong with CS if we can... which we can (pretty much).

That weirdness does not quite extend to Windows 10. Simply loading DxWnd without hooking anything in Windows 10 does change the behavior of the save/load issue: the error message does not appear... but the game still crashes. Thus, you must hook CSTORM.EXE in Windows 10 to fix the save/load issue... but then you have another message-window issue that DxWnd creates in Windows 10 that you don't see in Windows 7. Ugh. :disappointed: That new errant behavior is already described at the top of this page.

NOTE: DxWnd is still rapidly evolving, so no guarantees on how long these settings and descriptions will make sense. I also cover what defaults are not needed here and suggest unsetting them to simply things for future testers.

Main tab

  • Run in Window
    • You could leave this checked and everything seems cool (if you leave Injection Mode at the default of SetWindowsHook). But that was a red :fish: that took me a while to get past. This setting should run the game in a window by default. It did not.
    • Running games in windows instead of full screen is the primary feature of DxWnd and the window position and size settings are children to this. CyberStorm, however, does not need to be in a window to run on modern Windows. Thus, if you always run CS full screen, you might as well turn this off to avoid possible complication with future versions (although, I reserve the right to have guessed the future completely backwards).
    • If you do want to run CS in a window, you are in for a bit of a headache if it is anything other than CS's own 640x480 window mode. To use DxWnd to run CS in a window, keep in mind that you are really setting CS to run full screen and using DxWnd's features to force it into a window (pretending that your full screen is smaller than what it really is). My experience here, however, is that mouse autoscroll of the playfield no longer works correctly and I could not find a DxWnd setting to fix it (CS seems to detect the forced window and thinks it is 640x480). Thus, you will probably want to turn the autoscroll feature off in the game. Also, be aware that the window width setting must be a multiple of 4 for this game. Thus, in theory, you can use this to get around the 1366x768 caveat by setting the window to ~1364x768 (minus whatever adjustments you have to make for the thickness of the window border).
      • For windowing to work with CS, leave this setting checked and then also set (discussed later):
        • Hook >> Injection mode >> check: (x) Inject suspended process
        • Libs >> GDI >> uncheck: [_] Remap Client Rect
      • To turn off mouse autoscroll in the game:
        • Game >> Prefs >> Terrain >> uncheck: [_] Automatic view scroll active
      • Good luck. :four_leaf_clover:

Hook tab

  • Hook enabled
    • This and many of the other tabs are children to this setting. It is possible to run the game without this hook and by using compatibility workarounds -- but we're using DxWnd already so we might as well leave this checked and use DxWnd to the max. Mostly, we're using this to wrap GDI with DirectX to avoid having to set CSTORM.EXE to run in 8-bit color mode.
  • Injection mode
    • (x) Inject suspended process
      • The default of SetWindowsHook works fine. This mode, however, is required for DxWnd's "Run in Window" mode to work as intended (otherwise, you just see full screen). Thus, perhaps it should be the default for both modes since it appears to work fine either way. Still unsure of this.
  • Hook flags
    • Hook all DLLs
      • This default has no effect with CS as far as I can tell, so you can uncheck it.

Video tab

  • Initial virtual color setting
    • (x) Current
      • You may be tempted to play with these settings because we all know CS was made for 256-color mode. Don't. I'll explain later.
  • Color management
    • Set 16BPP RGB565 encoding
      • This default doesn't remotely apply to CS, so you can uncheck it.

Input tab

  • Cursor handling
    • Correct mouse position
      • This causes problems in DxWnd's "Run in Window" mode only. Uncheck this so that the mouse hits its target. Even when not running in window mode, you can still leave it unchecked because it doesn't matter either way.
  • Keyboard handling
    • Enable hot keys
    • Intercept Alt-F4 key
      • These settings are entirely up to you. Read the DxWnd docs. Or, uncheck them just for clarity.

DirectX tab

  • DirectX Version Hook
    • (x) None
      • This doesn't apply to CS so you can switch it from Automatic to None.
  • Emulation
    • (x) GDI mode
      • The default of Primary Surface works fine. So does GDI mode -- which I prefer for some reason I can't explain (or forgot).
  • DirectDraw Surface handling
    • Flip emulation
      • This default has no effect with CS as far as I can tell, so you can uncheck it.
  • AERO handling
    • Set AERO compatible mode
      • This default has no effect with CS as far as I can tell, so you can uncheck it.
    • Optimize for AERO mode
      • This default has no effect with CS as far as I can tell, so you can uncheck it.

DirectX(2) tab

  • Ddraw tweaks
    • Fix ddraw refcount
      • This default has no effect with CS as far as I can tell, so you can uncheck it.

Libs tab

  • GDI
    • Remap Client Rect
      • This causes problems in DxWnd's "Run in Window" mode only. The FMVs don't center and stretch correctly and neither does the Prefs window. Even when not running in window mode, you can still leave it unchecked because it doesn't matter either way.
    • Syncronize GDI to ddraw palette
      • This is the major event for Windows 7 users after fixing the save/load issue and audio issue. The FMVs (Cinepak AVIs) were not rendering correctly (split video and 4-bit-ish color) on Windows 7. Switching around the Cinepak codecs help somewhat but color was still 4-bit... except on rare occasion when game startup was slowed down enough for 8-bit color to pop in. Yet, on Windows 10, the FMVs play in 24-bit color, regardless of the game's 8-bit setting. This feature here makes FMV playback on Windows 7 look as good as it does on Windows 10. You'll see maybe 10,000 colors instead of 256. The intro FMV and training vids are not a huge part of the game, but if they're there they might as well look good. Eh?
      • This doesn't improve the looks on Windows 10 (it doesn't need to) but it also avoids having to set 8-bit (256) color as a compatibility mode for CSTORM.EXE on any of the Windows version. :+1:
        • CSTORM-Compatibility-Set.bat takes care of this when not using DxWnd.
  • MM (multimedia)
    • Remap MCI coordinates
      • This default has no effect with CS as far as I can tell, so you can uncheck it.

Compat. tab

  • Tweaks
    • Limit available resources
      • Depending on how the math works on with your hard disk space, you may or may not get a message from CS that you don't have enough hard disk space. This was not a destructive message but this gets rid of that message anyway.
        • CSTORM-Compatibility-Set.bat takes care of this when not using DxWnd.
    • Handle Exceptions
      • This allows the game to continue after the error message related to the audio issue pops up. Install the RBXIT patch if you want to fix the issue that generates this message so that you never see it again. No telling when it might actually hurt something or when DxWnd might fail to recover from it.
        • The RBXIT patch takes care of this when not using DxWnd.
      • This also allows the game to continue after saving or loading on Windows 10. But it also comes at the cost of corrupting the game's message windows on Windows 10 after loading or saving -- making the game very difficult to use, as described at the top of this page. I suspect DxWnd will eventually fix this. I can't say I have time to poke them on it.
        • CSTORM-Compatibility-Set.bat takes care of this when not using DxWnd... on Windows 8 and 10.

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