I tried really everything, it wont run, applying all the patches from wcnews.com didnt help

GOG uses nglide wrapper to run in on modern windows system

i asked them via ticket, the claim it should work, they tested on win 11 bla bla

used also other wrapper like dgvodoo2, but it crashes anyways

the best result is with the GOG orginal installation with nglide and no tweaking. then the game starts,
the game intro video clips run normally, but when getting to the point where to enter your callname on the terminal on midway it freezes.

does anybody has another idea ? or can someone confirm it still runs 2024 on windows 11 ?

thanks

I installled it to test (on Win11) and it worked immediately. Passed the callsign and even to the 1st mission is all good. Only thing is that the videos are interlaced so I'd need to solve that when I get to the game.

I do have k-lite full installed for the WC4 HD videos though. Might make a difference here. If its not this, then its an install or computer specific issue that you have. I installed from Galaxy client to default path and made no adjustments.

As you did things, you may have to make sure to fully clear everything. Uninstall, delete any leftover files at least.

Can't really help you any further as I don't have this problem to fix.

Might it be possible that you think its frozen but its not? Try ALT+TAB back to the game in the event focus was lost and click the mouse or hit a key after doing that. Its a guess. Might as well make sure.

hi, thanks for your help !
did u mean u installed and tested it acutally ?
because i think it worked fine on win 11 a few months ago, but now users seem to have the same issue. maybe a windows update caused this problem ?

and did u use any of the suggested patches and fixes after installing the game to make it run ?
or just the plain GOG installation
thanks

Yes, installed and tested actually. Works fine even to the 1st in-game mission where it continues to work. This is on a latest fully updated Win11 install. Only thing I don't have yet is 24h2 (that 99% or so of people currently don't have).

Nothing was used. Pure clean 1st time running from GOG download. Last time I played this was on disc :)

Windows 11 23h2 OS build 22631.4112 https://prod.support.services.microsoft.com/en-au/topic/august-27-2024-kb5041587-os-builds-22621-4112-and-22631-4112-preview-9706ea0e-6f72-430e-b08a-878963dafe08

You could maybe try a clean install from another Windows user. In the event there's some registry issue or installed software conflict. It will not test against every possible issue though. There would still be possibility for OS corruption, OS configuration differences affecting compatibility, hardware issues, or hardware compatibility.

I just tested without k-lite so that's not a reason. Removing it did nothing to affect the game.

However, could very well be a problem from one of those fixes, enhancements, or whatever you did. That should definitely be ruled out first as I didn't apply any.

Thanks again for your informations. guess you a right, there is something special with my windows, like incompatible driver, hardware (intel ARC 750 ?) etc.
but re- install a working system again for one game, nah, i will try to run it on a VM machine next. maybe this will help

2025 update: I played through the entire game recently with a variation of what I typed in the following. Works great. So, HD videos cannot be used, but its good without. I looked into the HD video a bit more, but as the ones who worked on the patch DIDN'T helpfully specifiy what they did, and its originally from many OS's earlier with a newer change also too many years ago now, I don't expect much without a another patch to it. OS software for video playback has changed over the years. So far, I DON'T see anyone anywhere mention anything that actually gets them working without needing further changes to the HD video patch.

...

TLDR: So, I looked into this. Can play without the HD videos. But the HD video support of the patches leads to only problems.

You should be able to dirty install the patches into this order and be fine. If the HD videos are in the movie dir then delete the movie dir. If you see any issue then you may need to fully uninstall and then reinstall clean.

Done on Windows 11 GOG version and working but no HD videos. It does seem to improve the in-game models and stuff. I didn't check with the older? opengl + model pack. It might be that these two already do that.

Sadly, the game patches as they are, if you use a higher res than 640x480, it will make the in-game parts go all odd with 4:3 black bars and then even larger black bars during transitions. I don't see anything anywhere that can fix that but to use a lower resolution such as 640x480. To me, its better at 640x480 which defeats more of the purpose of the patches.

- Do in this order:

1. browse wcpep_release and copy all but prophecy.exe. Unknown as to why the exe errors with disc 1 error. I tried the disc and it still has this problem. Something wrong with their custom exe. Just need to use the GOG provided exe instead. https://www.wcnews.com/wcpedia/Enhancement_Pack

2. OpenGL-WCP_setup.exe + run setup and set to your resolution or a lower resolution that enlarge the in-game parts https://www.wcnews.com/wcpedia/OpenGL_Patch

3. (Optional) You can do other things like run the enhancement's install.exe in the game dir (first *copy* in the 4 files listed in the patch dir readme). I did do this so am listing it in the event it did something but I tested it initially to nothing noticed.

4. (Optional) Install the most recent upgraded model pack. Select to include models during install. https://www.wcnews.com/news/2019/08/26/mup-project-now-beta-testing

Nothing else is necessary.

The HD videos and patches for it are just broken. I've tried many things and the result is always a no play situation. The patches themselves need work here. I *REALLY* do not recommend even trying that at this time. Its just *that* broken on Win11.

This is not tested at this point beyond simply going into mission 1 and looking around. I intend to play the game with this and see how it goes. Don't know when I will play it.

hi. thanks for your efford and explanations.
believe me, i tried all of this in any kind of variations.
even tried to use different wrappers (nglide, dgvoodoo, open GL), i played with the settings for days.
but i cannot manage to solve the crash issues...

GOG support responded me with a few other tips but no success.

my solutiion was to set up a virtual machine with windows XP, here the game runs perfectly

i mean i can play it now thats counts, but its kind of annoying to use a VM only for one game, and the other thing is that the game is not connected to GOG, so the saves are not synchronised..
but it works at least

thank u again

I could only get the game to work in a VM with Windows 10.

For some reason, I could not get the HD videos to work in the VM.

The game works fine with HD videos on my other Win10 PC.

They really need to fix up the HD patches for this game. Whick VM software are you using? I could not get the HD videos to work.