Playing DC Again; New Finds
 

Hello All!

After a long hiatus I re-installed Destroyer Command on two of my computers, an older Dell Inspiron 530 running Windows XP Pro, and a newer HP P7-1017c running Windows 7. Surprisingly enough it plays just OK on both machines. What fun to play this classic sim after several years!
I downloaded and installed the 1.1 patch and Projekt Messerwertzer on both machines (Thank You Subsim for continuing to host these upgrades). The Dell behaves as expected, but the HP's mouse is hyper-sensitive. I have found I need to adjust its speed in Windows Control Panel to the minimum allowable. This makes it usuable in the DC environment, but slow as molasses through a snowstorm outside the DC environment. Does anyone know of a setting within the DC environment that will de-sensitize the mouse yet not affect its sensitivity outside the DC environment?
While trying to troubleshoot the HP mouse problem I made another discovery, which several of you may already know about. The Shell.ini file (in the Shell folder) has the following entries:
************************************************** *********
; Shell.ini
;
; Initialization file for DD Command Editor
;
[GUI]
CdRequired = Ultimation
Active = xTRUE
WaypointEditor = xTRUE
SoundLoop = TRUE
ScrollRate = 170
ScrollDelay = 7000
[SHELL]
Module = IntroVideo ;; ShellMenu
Accel = TRUE
Scenario = Test1
Debug = xTRUE
PerspectiveD = 1.5
[DEBUG]
Printf = TRUE
DebugWin = TRUE
[INTRO]
Movie = xTRUE
[MULTI]
Active = xTRUE
Name = Fred Fubar
Scenario = Multi1
Alignment = AXIS
************************************************** *********
I tried adjusting the ScrollRate and ScrollDelay entries, which had no effect whatsoever. However, when I replaced "CdRequired = Ultimation" with "CdRequired = xFALSE", I found that both machines no longer required the CD to be able to run! This is a good thing as the CD/DVD on the Dell is currently OOC.
I also read recently that the Projekt Messerwertzer team was granted access to the DC source code after paying a sum of money. If so, is there any chance of releasing the source code for further devopement?

Mouse
 

Hi,

Have you tried on the Win 7 machine in DC properties changing Compatiblity to Run in mode Windows XP?

I'm new to DC, just got into Navy sims last year. I've been playing and modding DC for the last few months and having a great time. It was cool to discover that a lot of SH II mods work for DC, like the graphic/ environment mods.

Tim

Sadly probably not, as the modification to the source was I believe only allowed by Ubi to replace the game's unsupported RTime multiplayer code (dropped by Sony) with Direct Play. I don't think money changed hands with Ubisoft for the source but rather with the programmer who Subsim.com hired to do the job.

TMMcCarthy,

Many thanks for the Windows XP compatabiity mode setting - it tamed the wild mouse in DC!

Sincerely,

Don

Don,

Good to hear that it worked.

Tim

Actually, if I remember correctly, and I'm sure that I do, the deal was that Ubisoft would only release the source code to Subsim for Project Messerwetzer as long as Subsim didn't charge for it.
Duane Doutel of Doutel Software did the programming work, and as far as I know never charged, nor was never paid anything for the project.

While the changeover to DirectPLay was a success, and the multiplayer aspect improved greatly, the original game just had so many holes in it that it never was quite what everyone expected.
That, and the fact that the game was a few years old by the time the project was completed, people just lost interest and had moved on to other games and sims.

I was an Alpha tester during this project, and to the best of my knowledge that's pretty much how the whole thing went down.
Onkel Neal was the negotiator with Ubisoft and at one time, had access to the source code I don't know if that's still the case, but well, there it is..

Also, if you want to run DC in Windows Vista without dosbox or anything else, just make sure you change the install path to it's own directory. In other words, don't install to Program Files, it won't run from there.
Just create a new directory C:/Games/DC and it installed fine and runs as well as it used to.