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Post by Marscaleb on Jun 17, 2019 18:05:58 GMT -5
Hello people, I know this isn't a help forum, but I'm hoping someone here might know how to handle this.
I'm setting up a bunch of computers to run a LAN game of Shadow Warrior. I've got the Shadow Warrior Classic version from GOG (easier to set up than my old CD) and it come packaged with a relatively easy-to-use network game launcher. But it's annoying to have to type in an IP address manually, so I'd like to use YANG instead, so it can save the IP addresses for me, plus automatically adjust the number of players.
But the problem is that I can't figure out how to get YANG to run the game as well as the network launcher that GOG provides. I tell YANG that I have DOS Box and direct it to the DOSBox that is in my SW directory, and of course point it to the SW exe. But when I run it, there are three main issues.
One, there is no CD music playing. Two, the game launches in a window instead of fullscreen. Three, I have no way to select one of the expansions if I want to use one of those.
Does anyone know how to fix any of these issues?
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Post by Ninjakitty on Jun 17, 2019 20:10:29 GMT -5
I'm not sure I would really suggest using YANG. I've tried a wireless lan game before between 3 good computers, and the game got way too laggy to do anything. (whereas a simple peer to peer wireless lan game worked perfectly fine, but only allowed 2 players at most)
Meltdown works pretty well most of the time.
As for trying to use YANG, I couldn't get it to launch fullscreen, but you can get Dosbox to run fullscreen by pressing Alt and Enter (although this looks a little ugly imo)
You can use TCs by going to settings, TCs and Mods, and then creating a TC profile for whatever expansion you want to use.
No idea how to get it to use CD audio, but I'm not sure you'd want it playing during a match anyway. You might be able to get midi audio to work.
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Post by Marscaleb on Jun 20, 2019 10:11:19 GMT -5
I'm not sure I would really suggest using YANG. I've tried a wireless lan game before between 3 good computers, and the game got way too laggy to do anything. (whereas a simple peer to peer wireless lan game worked perfectly fine, but only allowed 2 players at most) I was just testing YANG with Duke3D and had no slowdown issues between three computers. When I tried to use it with Shadow Warrior I didn't notice any lag but I was a bit distracted by the other issues I was trying to resolve. I have never heard of this program before. (Figures I shouldn't find it until after I've installed YANG onto twelve different computers. Uhg.) Just taking a cursory glance at it though, it seems to focus on internet play. How well does it work with a LAN? I've tried to use the discord launcher for a LAN game with eDuke32-OldMP, and the system wouldn't work without some kind of internet connection, and it ran a bit laggy; I was playing on my LAN but it ran like I was in an online match. It's worth mentioning that I'm setting these computers up for a LAN party at a local gaming con; it's just going to be 16 computers (of various ages, from XP to Win10) networked together; there's no connection to the internet, so I can't run anything that won't work without one. I did not know this; I will look into that. I believe this is an issue with DOS Box, and getting DOS Box set up properly. (Likewise with the fullscreen-by-default issue.) But I'm not familiar enough with it to get that done. |
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Post by Ninjakitty on Jun 20, 2019 14:32:41 GMT -5
Yeah, the lag I experienced was probably because I had all the computers connected wirelessly rather than actually connected by LAN. I only own 2 portable computers, and one of them really hates using my network for LAN. Dunno if Meltdown allows Lan games. I THINK it does, but I've never done it without an internet connection. There's an option in advanced settings that says "As Host, Send LAN Game IPs To LAN Players", but I can't find any option to join a room purely based on LAN. I'm assuming the way you have the LAN game set up is all of the computers are wired up to a single router, right? If you can get your router onto an internet network to use, then you can connect them all on LAN and not need to use the internet again. Then again... Yang seems a LOT easier than all of that, and it's already working for you. As for the music, there's a way to mount a folder as your CD drive to get it to use CD music, but it's really complicated and I don't know how. Another thing you can try is making the MUSIC folder in your Shadow Warrior directory and just dropping all the midi tracks in there. You can probably find them somewhere on the internet. Not entirely sure why you want music on a multiplayer game, tho. Wish I could make such a big LAN game  Don't have anywhere near that many old portable pcs laying around |
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Post by Marscaleb on Jun 21, 2019 0:08:01 GMT -5
I'm assuming the way you have the LAN game set up is all of the computers are wired up to a single router, right? No, no router. Just some switches. Don't need a router unless you're connected to the internet. Well, it's working with Duke. But if Meltdown could be used to to launch Shadow Warrior matches, then it would be worth the effort to switch. A little bit of extra time setting things up before the con is totally worth it if I can just launch one app to easily launch both games properly. So to that end, I guess my real question should be: could I use Meltdown to launch Shadow Warrior and not have the same problems I'm having with YANG? Salt Lake Gaming Con. How much would a plane ticket to the Rockies cost you? I've done this every year since they started. Mostly I have classic Doom and Unreal Tournament set up, since I do tournaments for those. But my tables are always packed. Last year I bumped up the number of computers to 16. So excited that this year I'm gonna have Duke available. Hopefully I'll get in some SW games too, but I'm not sure how much SW time I'm gonna have without an easy way to launch games. |
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Post by Ninjakitty on Jun 21, 2019 15:11:48 GMT -5
Just switches? I've been taught that for pretty much all computer to computer communication, you still need a router to organize the data sent. Where might I be able to buy one of these switches? Meltdown works perfectly with Shadow Warrior (at least with my current configuration), but again, no music. I also see no way to join a room without internet access; there's no way to manually join a room, so I don't know if you'll be able to do this with no internet access. (I've tried everything I could think of, even chat commands, but couldn't find a way to join a room based on ip address, it still needs to connect to the internet to even see the room to join) Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it there Or really anywhere that involves a bit of travel Maybe you could try YANG with SWP with the 8bit renderer...? (I've heard it only supports 4 players maximum, though) |
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Post by Ninjakitty on Jun 21, 2019 18:23:29 GMT -5
Ok, I've made some progress with YANG. To get automatic fullscreen, you need to go to Settings>Source ports>DOSBox and check "Use the following configuration file as a base" and direct it to the file inside your GOG Shadow Warrior directory called "dosbox_swarrior.conf"  Still working on music |
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Post by Ninjakitty on Jun 21, 2019 18:55:09 GMT -5
Ok I got it working 100%  You gotta do what I said in my last post, but ALSO, open "dosbox_swarrior.conf" (which is inside your GOG Shadow Warrior directory) in a text editor and paste the following right after DOSBox settings [autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
@echo off
mount C ".."
imgmount d "..\GAME.DAT" -t iso |
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Post by Ninjakitty on Jun 22, 2019 0:27:32 GMT -5
I've found something interesting: when running GOG SW this way through YANG, the art tiles will be pulled from whatever expansion was chosen the last time you played SW from GOG's shortcut (However the list of levels selectable in YANG seems unaffected by this)
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Post by Marscaleb on Jun 22, 2019 11:18:55 GMT -5
Wow, thank you! You really went above and beyond here! Now I can launch Shadow Warrior easily from YANG! I get what you're saying about not wanting music in multiplayer, but honestly that's an easy option to just switch off for anyone who doesn't want it. That way, everyone gets the experience they want. Plus, most of the people who will be at the con never played the game before, and I think it would be worth it to give them a more "authentic" experience for their first time. I've found something interesting: when running GOG SW this way through YANG, the art tiles will be pulled from whatever expansion was chosen the last time you played SW from GOG's shortcut (However the list of levels selectable in YANG seems unaffected by this) Huh, neat. I can actually use this to (somewhat)-easily switch between expansions! Except that it didn't work with Twin Dragon for whatever reason. But at least its an easy way to switch between regular and Wanton Destruction. Just switches? I've been taught that for pretty much all computer to computer communication, you still need a router to organize the data sent. Where might I be able to buy one of these switches? I don't really know a lot about networking and how it all works, but yeah, just a regular network switch lets you connect computers together. I don't know if there are problems or limitations, but I've been using switches to connect LANs for ages. Maybe we're getting confused on what we call a "router" and a "switch," but the device I'm using says "switch" on it. I was under the impression that a router is what we need if we connect to the internet; the router is what connects to the cable modem (or is built in to the modem, as is the standard these days.) I guess without a router windows computers will just act like a router themselves? Or maybe a router is only needed to connect multiple networks together, ie when you add a wifi network or connect to an outside network? ...I don't know; I'm just guessing. I didn't really expect it, but I just thought I'd mention it, just in case.  Thanks again for your help! |
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Post by Ninjakitty on Jun 22, 2019 14:36:30 GMT -5
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Post by Marscaleb on Jun 22, 2019 19:00:26 GMT -5
Yup, that's a switch! I'm told that a switch is different from a hub because a hub can occasionally cause some data to be lost if two of the lines happen to send identical signals, or something like that. Rare, but possible. And a switch is supposed to have some design that prevents that. So when I need some extra plugs on my network, I look to buy a switch instead of a hub.
But like I said, I'm not really a network expert.
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If you're a fan... you're niche enough and withholding content is very poor taste.
