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    Maelstrom New Horizons


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Solved Widescreen settings

No stretching involved, just cropping of the top and bottom parts of the picture. Alas.
 
Well, I guess that's better than short, fat characters and ships, right? xD
At least the interfaces adapt properly, though.
 
Setting full_screen = to 1 gives full screen. Setting it to 0 gives windowed mode.
 
Do you have a program that shows framerate? For me fullscreen limits the fps to 60 while windowed mode lets the fps go as high as it can.
 
Also, windowed mode allows you to Alt+Tab in and out of the game, which is eeeexcellent. :cheeky
 
Hylie Pistof said:
The differences are more stability and less CTDs. The easiest way to tell is to look at your inventory when at a merchant. Do you see red and blue arrows under every item box? The European version has those arrows.
Click to expand...
Less CTDs? I want to get the European version!:aar
 
With the PotC Build Mod installed, it should make little difference which version you've got. Right?
If it does, what files would we need to include to finally sort that out once and for all?
 
I've only ever run from the European version and never had excessive problems from that.

Does anyone have AND the US AND the European version? How about you install the latest Build mod on top, then perform a WinMerge?
Supposedly, the results should basically be exactly the same. If they're not, we should be able to figure out which files to include to DO get them the same.
 
I'm not sure, but I think with the Build Mod installed it makes little difference which version you've got.

That sounds like a good idea, Pieter. I have them all (including X-Box), so I will check that and see how it goes.
 
I have run beta 2.1 with both versions and will not use the USA version again. There is a difference.
 
Interesting. We should find that difference and eradicate it once and for all. Baste, your help with that would be much appreciated! :bow
 
I have now checked both versions with the latest Build Mod, and almost everything is exactly the same. The DLL files are the same, and the extra "DrvMgt" DLL file and the "SECDRV.SYS" file in the European version's root folder are used by the Safe Disc copy protection that is used by the game.

A somewhat funny thing I found is that the American version's ending movie doesn't have narration while the European version's ending movie does have narration. xD

More information about it here: http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/information-about-the-game.19509/

The install information and uninstall information are different, naturally.

What is of more interest seems to be the "engine.ini" file. I found that the European version uses more memory than the American version, which does indeed indicate that the European version's engine.ini file caches things. That would explain why the European version runs better than the American version. It might be that the "memory.mp" file and the caching by the engine.ini file are two different ways of caching files, and the engine.ini file way might be better. This could possibly explain why the memory.mp file isn't in the European version.

So, someone who uses the American version could try to replace the engine.ini file with the one from the European version and see if it makes the American version run as good as the European version. I know you now use the European version, but maybe you could try, Hylie?

Also, that ending movie from the European version should be added to the Build Mod.

If those two files are added and this works, it should mean that both versions should run equally well.
 
So the only thing possibly influencing the performance is engine.ini, then?
We do have the RunMe.bat removing that memory.mp file which helps with performance.
Maybe we should include the European engine.ini as part of the modpack download?
I always avoided doing that to prevent overriding players' resolution settings, etc.

If we ARE going to include engine.ini, should we also by default set the game to windowed and 1024x768 resolution or something?
Any thoughts on the defaults we should use?
 
Why not use 1366x768 as the new default? According to this article, it's now the most popular resolution on the web, surpassing 1024x768 earlier this year.
 
Baste: I will do it, but it will have to be a very quick and dirty test. I will probably be taking off to roof a building next month. Nothing will be done by me in that time.
Is there any way to increase the size of the cache? More memory = more performance.
 
Pieter: As I've understood it, engine.ini is the only thing affecting performance in this case, yes.
If Hylie gets good results while testing, the engine.ini from the European version should be included in the Build Mod. It should be included in its stock configuration, just the way it is after a fresh install, 800 x 600 and fullscreen and everything. This to avoid any compatibility problems. We should then inform players in the installation instructions to change back their settings.

Armada: True, 1366 x 768 is the widescreen version of 1024 x 768 and is more common now, and it's logical to think that it should be included as the default, but unfortunately it wouldn't be good. Stupidly enough, many monitors do not support 1366 x 768 or 1360 x 768, so it would probably be more problem than good to include it. It is better to leave the file at its default settings, and just tell people to change it to their preferred settings.

Hylie: That's fine, I think some quick testing should be enough to determine if it's better or not. An improvement should be noticeable rather quickly if one normally experiences slowdowns.
There doesn't seem to be a way to increase the cache size. I tried adding everything under "[makedir]" to "[cache]" but it didn't use more memory.
 
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