Page 2 of 3

Re: MechWarrior 4 Mercs

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 3:22 pm
by CanEh
Scott does not share. I've dealt with him before. The true tragedy has been the bastardizing of the game by the people who were given the source code. A free release should be a free release, not deliberately tying you into yet another systems sole possession.

Re: MechWarrior 4 Mercs

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 12:12 am
by LaocheXe
Then Scott must be using a cmd line to start the game. I am going to test

Re: MechWarrior 4 Mercs

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 5:37 am
by CanEh
I'm not sure it's that simple. GameRanger started as a system just for the Mac games, and the way they run and communicate is totally different. Along the way, he found he could apply the same principle to the Windows games. Considering his system allows for "zero port configuration issues", then he must be intercepting all of the comms and running them through his software. This explains why many say his system is laggy at times.

With that said, it's not impossible for him to create a direct play object, and encapsulate that into a launch system, instead of letting the game create the object and control it. Do note, this is pure speculation on my part, I have no idea of exactly what he does. However if you DO find command line parms that work, I'll be more than happy to translate that into a lobby that will run them.

Good luck. :)

Re: MechWarrior 4 Mercs

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:26 pm
by LaocheXe
IT has to be using a cmd. If gameranger does not locate your game you can go in set where the MWMercs.exe is.

Testing stuff out. Started a game up and my Firewall pops up. Microsoft DirectPlay Helper (C:\Windows\syswow64\dplaysvr.exe) Publisher Microsoft Corporation.

Also I notice that GameRanger sends out a UDP test - router-test.gameranger.com

Well now get this. It does have a guid.....

Command line
(mercs direct path)\MW4Mercs.exe -lobby /dplay_ipc_guid:{dd09d6cd-2a32-421a-a321-f45dfc27291c}
C:\ProgramFiles\mektek.net blah blah\MW4Mercs.exe -lobby /dplay_ipc_guid:{dd09d6cd-2a32-421a-a321-f45dfc27291c}

Do note, People have changed their folder name to either shorten it for GameRanger - And or moved it to the old Microsoft Games folder.
I know of a few old guys who re-named it to "Mechwarrior Mercenaries" and moved it to "Microsoft Games" folder like how it would be like when you install it off the CD.
I how ever just re-named it so it is like this for me "C:\Program Files (x86)\mektek.net\Mechwarrior Mercenaries"
Default should be "C:\Program Files (x86)\mektek.net\Mechwarrior Mercenaries - Mektek Mekpak"

I hope this helps and gives you the needed info.

Re: MechWarrior 4 Mercs

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 11:15 pm
by CanEh
hmm, interesting. So they are creating a direct play object... Now I could use regedit and find the locations where the dplay values are stored in, and create a dplay entry which should allow the program to launch the way it's supposed to, without the command line needed. That would be the prefered method... and then we can post a regedit file that people can run.

Of course, I've nuked the game and installer and everything here on my machine, so I would have to go back to mektek again to grab it.

Sigh...

Re: MechWarrior 4 Mercs

Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 12:24 am
by LaocheXe
keep it installed ;) Never know when you will need it.

Re: MechWarrior 4 Mercs

Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 6:09 pm
by CanEh
pfft. I re-grabbed that installer, grabbed the mech install, but it won't do anything. How people use this crap is beyond me.

Re: MechWarrior 4 Mercs

Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 8:11 pm
by CanEh
Ok, I setup a lobby with that GUID specified. I also installed Mech 3, looked at the registry files it made (1 for sure important, the other who knows) exported those 2 keys and then modifed them to look at the appropriate folders and changed the GUID part to the values you stated.

In 32 bit XP, these are the reg settings:

File 1

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectPlay\Applications\Mechwarrior Mercenaries Mektek]
"Guid"="{DD09D6CD-2A32-421A-A321-F45DFC27291C}"
"File"="MW4Mercs.exe"
"CommandLine"=""
"Path"="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Games\\Mechwarrior Mercenaries Mektek\\"
"CurrentDirectory"="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Games\\Mechwarrior Mercenaries Mektek\\"

File 2

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\MW4Mercs.exe]
"Path"="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Games\\Mechwarrior Mercenaries Mektek\\"
@="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Games\\Mechwarrior Mercenaries Mektek\\MW4Mercs.exe"

I entered the new lobby, went to a table, launched the game... and it launched. However it did not seem to put me into the multi-player side of things.

Testing the lobby using a "command line option" value gets a little tricky in our configuration, because there are usually 2 options that the server will attempt to launch you as. Either as the host, or as a player. And from looking at the samples you provided, I am not sure exactly how that would work...

Just for the fun of it, I modifed my desktop shortcut to...

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Mechwarrior Mercenaries Mektek\MW4Mercs.exe" "-lobby /dplay_ipc_guid:{dd09d6cd-2a32-421a-a321-f45dfc27291c}"

Ran the shortcut, that small opening screen came up... and then it terminated with no errors etc.

Re: MechWarrior 4 Mercs

Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 9:00 pm
by CanEh
Ok, in the above File 1, if you change "CommandLine"="" to "CommandLine"="-lobby" then the game seems to launch into a multi-player screen... I also tried making it the same as above ("-lobby /dplay_ipc_guid:{dd09d6cd-2a32-421a-a321-f45dfc27291c}") and it launched but it closed without errors right away.

Now I have no idea if anyone can connect or play but.... That's the point I am at now.

Do Note.. seems the 64 bit machines "dplay" is in a "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DirectPlay\Applications...." path, and of course the changes to the program files (X86) side as well.

Re: MechWarrior 4 Mercs

Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 12:17 am
by LaocheXe
Let me know if you need any help with test and what not. I used a free program to monitor the programs running. I might not have given you all the info (might have something else - idk) I have so many things running it was hard to keep up.