Stuck. EAW on windows 7

[Jel 37]

They are full installs, but try to get one of the early versions going before you try 160. 160 has replaced 150 and I have a two part installation for it. The first part gives you a full working installation with the ETO theatre and plane-set. Once it is working the second part expands it to give you a number of theatres and planesets.

[sebaspons 0]

Hi, sorry again. First of all, none of your installs work for me, but I found an abandonware site with the game plus a 1.28 patch. On the install instructions it said that to make it work I had to press enter when the pilot light of the computer starts to blink, and press enter again when a black screen starts.... It works!  I don't know how or why but it does.

I don't know yet if it will also work for your installs, but I'm going to try as soon as I lose the fear that it was just a first time luck kind of thing.  I dont know if I feel adventorous enough to try your 150 and 160....

Thank you again for your time

sebastian pons

[MarkEAW 63]

lol. WTH.

I found a trick too. You have to hit the top of the Computer Case hard, then EAW will load without a shortcut or even clicking eaw.exe :)

 

But seriously. Whats going on with your computer?

EDIT:

Anyhow I assumed since your posting here you've read my site for help, since it is a help site. 
If you have not then I can understand now why your having so many problems.

Please continue with questions if you have any.
Sounds like the place you downloaded those files want you to skip the intro movie....

 

Edited June 29, 2019 by MarkEAW
Assumed, I should not have..

[Jel 37]

That description makes me think that it is one of my "no screen" exes for people who have PCs that cannot display the EAW selection screens. I recall writing similar instructions :)

Can you post the link?

[sebaspons 0]

Hi Jel!  I don't have the link and I don't know where I found it. It was a very frustrating week, and I literally tried everything suggested, but  I do remember that it was an  abandonware site. Maybe "my abandonware?"....

I did try again one of your installs, specifically the 1.29 old map 15 may 2016 one. It didn't work till I performed the Enter dance and then it loaded OK.  I found on top of the EAW.exe another Icon named "DSP128-9.exe" with a french flag. Opening it loads a

Dir Set Picker with differents mods, but when I pick one, I can only play a quick mission because clicking on Pilot carreer sends me to the EAW main "vanila" screen. Am I missing something?

And MarkEAW, I did try your links and advice. Nothing worked on my machine. I'm runing windows 7 home premium 32 bit...Thank you for your help.

sebaspons

[MarkEAW 63]

sebaspons, Okay Thank you for replying to my awkward post.

Are you using an older system then if your 32 bit? and older video card?

[Jel 37]

On 7/1/2019 at 7:58 AM, sebaspons said:

I can only play a quick mission because clicking on Pilot carreer sends me to the EAW main "vanila" screen

Can't you select a single mission?

With the DirSet Picker you can select an exe and a theatre. Most of the theatres have plane-sets so you need to select a plane-set too.
There is the opportunity to select no theatre or plane-set and fly default, but you should always able to select "Single Mission" from the main screen.

It is wise to make sure things are working before you try a career. In the history of EAW a number of theatres were released without appropriate career files.

[Jel 37]

My "enter dance" theory

 

Up to 1.28c the selection screens were 640 x 480 pixels.

EAW has an intro video, and some others that run in 640 x480.

The intro video does not work in 1.28D or later because we made the screens 1024x768 as people were using larger monitors.
It needs the intro video option turned off

I just ran a 1.29 setup similar to yours and it was fine. Then I edited the "eaw.ini" file to turn play intro on

============================
[EAW]
ExtraSquads=0
KeyboardLanguage=0
FlakAccuracy=2
FlakRof=2
HudFontSize=1
GunSightSize=1024
OldStyle=1
GroundBattle=1
OldDamage=0
ComputedGunsight=1
EnemyEncounter=0
FriendlyEncounter=0
ColourAxis=3
ColourAllied=3
BirdSeed=0
QuickVersion=0
PlayIntro=1
PlayerPlane=22
PlayerNation=0

This time I heard the intro video sound, but with a black screen, and the game only kicked in when I hit "Enter".

You need to set PlayIntro=0 in order to turn it off

[MarkEAW 63]

ha. That's what I noted to him  in my previous posts above. However I did not mention he may need the empty MOVIES.CDF to get the default eaw.ini created though first.

Anyhow ESC works to bypass the black screen when EAW first loads, that's if the game stays open long enough for it to work, that is where the 1kb CDF is good for.

 

More Advance:
Some Wrappers allow the old 32 bit smacker dll to playback the videos normally, such as DXWND if set up properly. (but i never did try it, so you'll have to figure out the settings)
Also Win10 is supposedly working to get the old smacker videos to play correctly as well,On my system, I seen the intro globe play but it was too slow to consider keeping.

[sebaspons 0]

Hi. Too much information at once!

First of all, I think the "enter" procedure is finished. I went into the eaw.ini file and changed "playintro" to 0, and now the game starts without a hiccup. Thank you Jel. Now fot the DirSet picker ,you  lost me. The reason I'm intrigued is because I had the impresion that I just had to select the mod I wanted to play, and the program would select lanscape, planes and missions...

I really would like to play SEW because my father fought on that one (he was "drafted" for the wrong side) , and I had this romantic idea of puting things right as it were... You know, old people sh**. So, if you could help me out I'd be very grateful.

I'm runing windos 7 home premium 32 bit, Mark, with Nvidia  GeForce GT 730 card  and directX 11.

S. all

[Jel 37]

A tutorial

My 129 folder:

Run the Dirset Picker:

Select Spanish Air War:

Click "Fly"

Opening screen:

Click "Single Mission"

Select your plane:

Hangar screen for the Set-up menu:

Note the Set-up menu with the mouse at the bottom  middle

Mission parameters:

Set up the mission and click "OK"

Hangar screen again to select "Fly":

Note the Fly menu with the mouse at the bottom left

In the air

I made these screenies for this tutorial post, so I did not complete the mission:

 

Jel

 

Edited July 3, 2019 by Jel

[MarkEAW 63]

Oh Wow, the 'Select your plane graphical menu screen' is a delight!

Its actually showing you the plane, one view, but that's better than nothing. :)

 

[Jel 37]

That's the point
It is up to the modders to produce the screens such as these. The 1.28 series of exes have always been able to display them.

The trouble with 1.2 and related exes is that although there are pictures of the planes on the three "picpln" selection screens they only allow you to select the fighters.
The 1.28 series of exes display all planes that are flyable for selection.

In the case of SAW the minipic file was not the best, and its limitation shows up on the parameters screen.

With the multitude of planesets in 160 I cannot see any way of producing selection screens with pictures like this one, but to me that's a trivial disadvantage compared to the benefits of the "dir.set" and plane-set systems.

[sebaspons 0]

Thank you for the tutorial, and now I understand why it didn't work for me. Looking at the screens you posted, I'm missing the   -ETO with planesets for 1.29- in the lower box. It is either my install missing something, or my machine

acting up again.... Can you help?  I realize you may have better things to do with your spare time, so I'll understand if you give me up as a lost cause. Either way , I'm very grateful for your time and patience

S.

[MarkEAW 63]

2 hours ago, Jel said:

With the multitude of planesets in 160 I cannot see any way of producing selection screens with pictures like this one, but to me that's a trivial disadvantage compared to the benefits of the "dir.set" and plane-set systems.

Well without the Visual cue of the planes, it takes something away from the game. Its just nice to see the planes to select, and the one you choose. Its a very important visual aid, at minimum the shape of the planes need to be present.

But I understand you can't devote a whole new set of images to display under the names on the 160 selection screens. Or reprogram the picpln screens and the mission selection screens as well.
 

I think the original stock game had the better results of selection screens, but not the best method from a modder's stand point.
If the picpln could be re coded to except .png pictures of the planes / photos or 3d models, even .gif that would make it much easier.

eh, I'm wishfull thinking and rambling. :)

 

[Jel 37]

The "picpln" screens are also linked to "picpln" menu files containing the names of the planes, and editing them is a PITA.
They only ever offered six US planes, six US planes and eight German planes for selection. Out of the 30 plane slots 10 were not selectable, even if they were flyable such as the Mosquito.

In the 1.28 series the aircraft name comes directly from "pnames.str". The corresponding flight files are checked and if the plane is flyable it is shown for selection on either the allied or axis screens, neither of which are linked to a menu.

Edited July 3, 2019 by Jel

[sebaspons 0]

He Jel. I found the link for the download of EAW with the "enter" instructions. I don't think is your work. Anyway maybe you can link it so people who have the same problem I did can maybe play the game again.

https://abandonwaregames.net/game/european-air-war

S.

[Jel 37]

Back to your problem.

When you choose a theatre the name is saved in a file named "CurrentLongDirSet".

Next time you run the DSP it reads this file and displays its name as the "Current Dir.set file:" so you know which theatre is currently loaded.
When you ran yours it read "ETO with planesets for 1.29 ".
Note in the tutorial how this changed after I had selected "Spanish Air War".

So you need to select a theatre before you fly.
Just do what I did in the tutorial

BTW where are you located- I am in Southern France?

Edited July 4, 2019 by Jel

[Jel 37]

I just checked out the abandonware download.

It gives you an "iso" file to install V1.0 from a CD.
That is the very first version of EAW.

It also has a zip file which gives you the original 1.28 patcher. This was the very first version released by the code group, so I had a nostalgic visit

We already had gun convergence, Allied and Axis selection screens showing flyable aircraft, on-screen frame-rate display and improved multiplayer selection with host only launch. There were other improvements too, but less obvious than these

 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Jel

[sebaspons 0]

Hi Jel, I'll give yout tutorial another try.

I see we are almost from the same country, some would say. Yoiu being from southern France, and me from Catalonia.... But I'm located in Israel this  last 30 years or so.

S.