X-Wing Collectors Series Color Issues

[dragon875]

I just installed the X-Wing Collectors Series on Windows 7 x64 (it works with the 3d accelerator patch!). It looks fine in-game but I keep getting weird color issues on the concourse or during a cutscene. This is happening on Vista too so it cannot be a Windows 7 issue. Does anyone have a solution for this?

Thanks

[Wildstar]

First I've heard of it. :|

[dragon875]

Originally Posted by Wildstar

First I've heard of it. :|

If it helps I have a Nvidia card with the latest drivers. Not sure what is going on here. My friend who installed it a while ago is also having these issues.

EDIT: Here is a picture I took here

[asuviolinist]

I had the same problem. Try to reduce your display settings to lowest possible. Mine was 800x600 before you start playing. Also try to set the colors to lowest possible. I did 16-bit instead of 32-bit.

See if that helps

[ambivert1970]

I have this issue too. No solution at this point. Reducing Display and Color settings didn't work, nor did setting my monitor to the 4:3 aspect ratio.

[Black_Knight]

I also have this issue. In addition to the weird concourse colors, I am getting weird blocks of blackness that forms in my game, in-flight. The more stuff that blows up on screen, the worse the blackness gets. I can see the cockpit I am in perfectly fine, the background (starfields) are fine, and my lasers show up nicely. However, anything outside those items will start to get obscured. Even my yellow targeting bracket starts to become hard to see. I am able to pause the game, go to the menu and it clears up the screen, but then the process starts all over again.

I am running an ATI 4850, latest drivers. Windows 7 64 bit.
I have a dual boot to WinXP 32bit, and the game does not have this issue. Maybe a hint that its Windows 7 64 bit and not the video card itself...

PS - my concourse looks just like that screenshot btw. Parts of the concourse and menu areas are fine, while others are wild with color...

EDIT - just tried Tie Fighter CD - getting the same color saturation on the menu, but much less pronounced. Also am getting the same black block patches in-game. But again, its much less pronounced there as well. And it kind of clears itself when I target something and move the targeting reticule over it...

EDIT2 - same issue with black square patches in XWA. Menu interface is fine. Crap, can't play any of them in Win7.

[randygland2]

I have the same colour issues ad Dragon. Please help! I love this game.

[ShadowAdler]

Calm down chaps, I just fixed this on my machine:

Navigate to the installation directory of the game. (In my case crogram files(x86)\lucasarts\xwing95\)

Right click on the xwing95.exe and call up the properties.

Go to the compatibility tab.

Run in compatibility mode for XP(SP3) and then check: 256 colours, 640x480 resolution and "disable visual themes". That should do it.

[ShadowAdler]

...or at least it does until you play a game... argh...

[Wildstar]

A workaround has been posted elsewhere: Start Task Manager, kill the explorer process, then do a File>Run and enter the path of the game's executable. When you're done and want your desktop back, go back to Task Manager and do a File>Run>explorer

The workaround works because the old games do not know how to make the new Win7 API call to hide the Taskbar, which appears to be the cause of the color problem.

[dragon875]

Originally Posted by Wildstar

A workaround has been posted elsewhere: Start Task Manager, kill the explorer process, then do a File>Run and enter the path of the game's executable. When you're done and want your desktop back, go back to Task Manager and do a File>Run>explorer

The workaround works because the old games do not know how to make the new Win7 API call to hide the Taskbar, which appears to be the cause of the color problem.

Wow. I did not think anyone would revive this thread! I just randomly decided to check this too.

Anyways, I will try this out and see if it works! Thanks for the possible solution!

EDIT: It works! Thanks!

[tscharlii]

Originally Posted by Wildstar

A workaround has been posted elsewhere: Start Task Manager, kill the explorer process, then do a File>Run and enter the path of the game's executable. When you're done and want your desktop back, go back to Task Manager and do a File>Run>explorer

The workaround works because the old games do not know how to make the new Win7 API call to hide the Taskbar, which appears to be the cause of the color problem.

I'm running the old dos version of xwing within dosbox on win7 x64 and got strange colors in fullscreen mode throughout the whole game (e.g. on the independence, during briefing, during cutscenes, on missions and so on). Killing explorer.exe and running dosbox/xwing from the taskmanager fixed the issue for me, too. Thanks for the hint.

[rmart]

Windows 7 Pro 64 bit edition
RADEON 4870 (x2 not in crossfire)

Killing the explorer.exe process and running xwingtie.exe from the task manager fixed the horrible video and coloration in the registration desk view and the briefing room view but when 3D hardware is enabled I still get that black blockiness when in space.

Anything I missed?

[markie_mark]

Originally Posted by rmart

Windows 7 Pro 64 bit edition
RADEON 4870 (x2 not in crossfire)

Killing the explorer.exe process and running xwingtie.exe from the task manager fixed the horrible video and coloration in the registration desk view and the briefing room view but when 3D hardware is enabled I still get that black blockiness when in space.

Anything I missed?

Hi rmart,

I've had success with getting rid of the black squares with 3d accelaration with x-wing95 by downloading ddraw.dll from http://www.jkhub.net/ and putting it in the same directory as the game executable.

The direct link to the file is
http://www.jkhub.net/project/get.php?id=1804

I haven't tested with Tie95, Xwing vs Tie or Balance of Power yet.

I'm running Win7 64bit with an ati 5770.

Hope this helps. I was very disappointed to discover these series of games didn't work with Win7 and my new video card.

Mark

[Wildstar]

Thank you for that, markie...it might even fix some problems X-Wing Alliance has been having, so I re-posted this fix in the XWA Upgrade "Graphics Problems" thread.

[CorporalRutland]

Hi all,

I've funnily enough had this problem with Galactic Battlegrounds too.

A simple .bat file which can be created in a moment can fix having to delve in and out of the Task Manager.

Open up Notepad and type in the following (with line feeds):

taskkill /F /IM Explorer.exe
TIE95.exe
Start explorer.exe

Save that to the Desktop but instead of Saving As Text Document, click the dropdown and select All Files. Then call the file TIE.bat

Cut and paste from your Desktop to the TIE Fighter installation folder (by default C:\Program Files\LucasArts\TIE95. You may get told you need Administration Privileges, just go right on ahead and hit Continue.

You can modify this batch file for ANY game that throws up bizarre colour issues. Simply change the second line each time to the relevant .exe for the game you're trying to play (e.g. in the case of Battlegrounds it read Battlegrounds_x1.exe instead of TIE95.exe.

You can even, if you're feeling very clever, replace any shortcuts you have in your Start Menu or on the Desktop to the .BAT file itself, meaning you don't have to go hunting for it each time you want to play.

The good news is when you click it, it'll stop Explorer fully in its tracks and run the game as uninterrupted as possible. The .BAT then waits for TIE95.exe to finish (i.e. for you to close it when you're done playing.) The next line will then cause explorer.exe to re-run for you so you come back to your full desktop.

Hope that helps!

[Wildstar]

Nice...I thought batch files died w/ DOS

[livefree75]

Originally Posted by CorporalRutland

Hi all,

I've funnily enough had this problem with Galactic Battlegrounds too.

A simple .bat file which can be created in a moment can fix having to delve in and out of the Task Manager.

Open up Notepad and type in the following (with line feeds):

taskkill /F /IM Explorer.exe
TIE95.exe
Start explorer.exe

Save that to the Desktop but instead of Saving As Text Document, click the dropdown and select All Files. Then call the file TIE.bat

Cut and paste from your Desktop to the TIE Fighter installation folder (by default C:\Program Files\LucasArts\TIE95. You may get told you need Administration Privileges, just go right on ahead and hit Continue.

You can modify this batch file for ANY game that throws up bizarre colour issues. Simply change the second line each time to the relevant .exe for the game you're trying to play (e.g. in the case of Battlegrounds it read Battlegrounds_x1.exe instead of TIE95.exe.

You can even, if you're feeling very clever, replace any shortcuts you have in your Start Menu or on the Desktop to the .BAT file itself, meaning you don't have to go hunting for it each time you want to play.

The good news is when you click it, it'll stop Explorer fully in its tracks and run the game as uninterrupted as possible. The .BAT then waits for TIE95.exe to finish (i.e. for you to close it when you're done playing.) The next line will then cause explorer.exe to re-run for you so you come back to your full desktop.

Hope that helps!

Great advice, thanks. I knew the trick of killing Explorer.exe, but wasn't sure how to put it into a batch file.

I'm setting this up for X-Wing for my kid. Everything's working except for the 640x480x3D Hardware. I can get it to work with 640x480x16bit though.

I did try downloading the ddraw.dll from the JK Hub site, but it didn't seem to have any effect.

[Khalain]

Originally Posted by Wildstar

A workaround has been posted elsewhere: Start Task Manager, kill the explorer process, then do a File>Run and enter the path of the game's executable. When you're done and want your desktop back, go back to Task Manager and do a File>Run>explorer

The workaround works because the old games do not know how to make the new Win7 API call to hide the Taskbar, which appears to be the cause of the color problem.

This sorted the colour problem for me in windows 7 but the game crashes everytime i try to do the tutorial missions, anybody know how to fix this?

[Khalain]

A link to my explanation on how i got x-wing working on windows 7 http://www.lucasforums.com/showthrea...75#post2801575