Talk:UFOextender

Feel free to report any problems or comments you have on the program.

Feedback

Using Extender in Steam (seamlessly)

Hello,

Do you know of any way for me to use your XCOM extender through Steam, without using a separate executable? My games are on Steam precisely for ease of use (double-click on game, game loads), and digging through executables is the thing I'd like to avoid. (Nor is "add the extended executable to Steam" acceptable.) Rampancy 00:01, 17 January 2012 (EST)

Steam now gives you the option to run the CE version as an alternative to the DOSBox version. The easiest way to use TFTD Extender and UFOExtender with the Steam distributions is just to unpack them into the TFD and XCOM folders (respectively) and directly invoke the TFTD Loader or UFO Loader. There is no need to use or run Steam in order to run these games. Steam is only required for installation. You can create normal Windows shortcuts to run the games directly, and/or to run them via their respective Extender Loaders. The installed game folders can usually be found under C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common. Spike 06:33, 5 October 2012 (EDT)

Initial alien bases bug

I have a bit of a problem. I use Steam version of UFO with most recent UFO Extender. Every time I start a new game on superhuman difficulty (I didn't test other difficulties) I get alien base directly on my base (with initial alien bases enabled). So far, I started 5 new games, where first three (1st Europe, 2nd North America, 3rd Island in the middle of Pacific Ocean) all had Alien Base 3 directly on it. 4th game (Madagascar) didn't, while 5th (Europe again) has two alien bases directly on it (I have save from this game for you if you want to check this out). I don't think this was intended?

Music problems

MP3 fails to play or crashes the game

Someone on Steam developed a good method to help isolate and resolve codec conflicts that keep Extender from playing MP3s. See TFTDextender FAQs

The problem is indeed with my machine and NOT with the application, though I believe it might be more stable if the source wasn't using MCI to play MP3's. UFOLoader works fine on two copies of windows I have handy, but not another, bombing out when hitting the main menu when MP3 music is enabled. Yes, you're right, the problem is with some sort of codec setup, as things work fine if I convert the music to wma files. However, this also requires altering the code in music.cpp to change the call to mciSendStringA to omit "type mpegvideo". This works fine on my machine, though it's by no means a sensible solution, just a work around for me. I've only done this because I've no idea where to start debugging MCI codec issues, as this is a really antiquated way of actually playing an MP3 (though easy).---Anyway, for your info, the code bombs out at line 165 in music.cpp, in the method PlayMP3MusicFile. The call to mciSendStringA (with the command to open a given MP3) fails with an MCI 263 error, which translates to MCIERR_INVALID_DEVICE_NAME

Version 1.30 uses BASS to play mp3s. Hopefully this will fix all the decoder related errors and crashes. Tycho 22:59, 22 February 2013 (EST)

Just checked, BASS is working. Now I have another question: are there any bitrate limitations to what MP3s the game can play?--amitakartok 14:49, 13 March 2013 (EDT)

There shouldn't be any limitations. With the mod enabled, the game has nothing to do with mp3 playback except telling the BASS system which file to play. I checked their website[1] and no limitations are mentioned.- Tycho 23:16, 13 March 2013 (EDT)

Video Problems

"XCOM Crashed at 0x45E6A5 with error ..."

Usually this occurs with the split exe that you get after installing XcomUtil. One part that gets altered conflicts with the Extender's option to skip the intro. Disabling this option will stop the error.

Adjusting animation speed

Is it possible to adjust or change the animation speed of other objects such as internal objects and alien numbering marks in bottom-right side of screen?--Xcomplayer

Version 1.30 now includes an option in the INI to allow the player to set the level of delay to adjust all timing and animation function in the battlescape.-Tycho 23:01, 22 February 2013 (EST)

Where is UFOLoader.exe?

I tried downloading the Zip in the link, but it only had a file called Patcher.dll. Where is the rest of it? Thanks, Herbert West.

The minor versions / patches only include an update to the patcher.dll. For the other files you need to download the most recent major version. So right now you would get major version 1.28, and then get patch/minor version 1.28p3. If you look at the page for the zip file, you will see the current version, which (at the time of writing) is 1.28p3, and then beneath that you will see a table that has links to all the previous versions, with the version number listed in the comments field. Spike 14:59, 19 October 2012 (EDT)

No DosBox

The only executable file in the download is an .exe file. .exe files don't work with dosbox and with X-com being a 16-bit program it doesn't work on 64-bit system either. Is there any way of getting this mod running on a 64-bit windows? Is there a workaround or am I just being stupid?

The first paragraph of the main page of the article does say:

This program only works with the Windows version and will not work through DOSbox. 
Furthermore, a version compatible with DOS will not be created due to difference in memory management used.

Workaround - can you boot under a 32 bit Windows instead? Spike 18:27, 19 October 2012 (EDT)

Suggestions

i hope to be posting in the right section for this.. otherwise excuse me, please.

Here are some features UFOextender currently lacks that I would love to see integrated in a future version:

• 1)editable starting soldiers attributes.
• 2) editable HWP stats of chassis and their weapons.
• 3) editable fire/stun damage of equipment that does this type of damage.
• 4) editable fatal wound system.
• 5) a critical hit chance system.
• 6) option to chose % chance of aliens having a weapon over another.

Thanks for the attention, and the great job done with UFOextender to keep alive a game that, even with the release of a fun 2012 XCOM, still shines as the best of the series IMHO.

Thanks for the suggestions. Most of these suggestion essentially are to incorporate mods that allow players to edit the various databases (like Seb did for OBDATA). This can be done but would require a lot of coding and since OpenXcom is nearly complete and seems to allow this level of control (and more!) over the game, I don't feel it's necessary to reinvent that wheel. -- Tycho

Some ideas, if I may:

• An INI option for modifying how many times can the medkit's various features be used. According to the site, it's not stored in OBDATA but inside the executable.
• Rudimentary IFF recognition in proximity grenades, ie. it checks the unit ownership variable (the same one that gets flipped during mind control and used to cause the Hostile Civilians bug) of everyone who wanders into its sensor range and only explodes if it doesn't match the ownership of the unit that threw it. Naturally, it would be fooled by mind control and would also blow up civilians but it would minimize mine-related friendly fire...
  • ...which makes me wonder: if a proxy kills a friendly unit, does it count as friendly fire caused by the guy who planted the proxy? If not, would you make it so, just for the hell of it?
• Depending on the aliens' intelligence stat, they can deliberately blast away cover with autofire if they saw any of your soldiers taking cover behind it. They already sort-of do this with grenades but not with other weapons.
• Aliens actively using sniper-spotter tactics, taking the high ground whenever possible.
• X-Com bases only being able to be built within the borders of the Funding Nations.
• Invasion Mod
  • If any UFO passes within a certain distance to a base without a Mind Shield, the base is immediately discovered. It doesn't matter what mission it is on, not having a Mind Shield means instant detection. Accordingly, later retaliation missions do NOT send scouts but go for the battleship immediately. The outcome depends on what kind of defenses the base has:
    • No Grav Shield - Battleship gets through defensive fire: Base Defense mission. If the attack is repulsed, the aliens send another battleship next month.
    • No Grav Shield - Battleship shot down by defensive fire: the aliens send another battleship next month.
    • Grav Shield - Battleship gets through defensive fire: the battleship finds itself unable to land so it simply blasts the base into ashes. Entire base and all its contents are lost, no Base Defense mission possible.
    • Grav Shield - Battleship shot down by defensive fire: aliens decide the base is too heavily fortified and back down. Retaliation mission ends (until X-Com provokes another one, that is).
  • Countries with an alien base sitting on their soil for more than a month are automatically infiltrated.
  • Aliens deliberately targeting the country with the lowest X-Com activity with infiltration instead of choosing randomly.
  • More severe consequences for alien infiltration: if a country signs a pact, X-Com is banned from that country.
    • All X-Com assets (bases, craft, personnel, items in storage) within the country's borders are automatically and permanently confiscated at the turn of the month the pact is made.
    • X-Com operations inside that country suffer a massive score penalty as they're technically violating the country's borders and airspace, causing international tension between the country (who feel the Council does not respect the charter that allows countries to withdraw from the project) and the Council (who never agreed to withdrawing X-Com's services from quitter countries in the first place).
  • No matter how well the player actually performs, funding WILL keep dropping in the long-term as the sponsors become dissatisfied with X-Com. In fact, funding from all nations will eventually drop into the negative as the sponsors try to pressure X-Com into disbanding (well, that and ongoing rumors of X-Com self-financing through arms dealing causing them to try and get their share of the profits).

Hope this sounds interesting.--amitakartok 14:50, 16 March 2013 (EDT)

Tarvis' Suggestions

12/24/12

I have to say, the UFO Extender is a great leg up from the DOS version! The stats on loadout screen is my favorite feature. I only have a couple minor gripes/observations, and some of them don't necessarily apply to UFO Extender:

• XCOM CE's Sound effect volume is excruciatingly high (about 5x) compared to DOS version. This means that, at least for me, music is relatively quiet. At least it is so on Windows 7. I'm using modified SAMPLE/SAMPLE2.CAT files to compensate for it, but it would be great if there was an option to adjust this. Maybe this isn't an issue on Windows XP.

There problem here is that there is nothing in the program to manage aspects of sounds/music. The game selects the music entry or SFX and then dumps the data string directly into the OS's sound mixer. - Tycho

• • After some investigating, the DOS version's 1.4 SAMPLE/SAMPLE2.CAT audio is the same volume as the CE .CATs, yet is played in-game at a much lower volume than the CE version. Perhaps there is some sort of volume adjustment going on in-game, which isn't being performed in the CE version, or not on Windows 7 at least. The fact that the audio data in the DOS 1.0/1.2 SOUND1/SOUND2.CAT files is a lower volume than the 1.4 sounds (yet still played at the same volume in-game) seems to suggest this.
  • This is also another minor gripe, but it seems some weapons (namely the Heavy Cannon) use the wrong sounds (for example the Heavy Cannon HE rounds firing and hit sounds both use the explosion sound ,and it definitely isn't this way in DOS. Is this a SAMPLE2.CAT problem or is this defined elsewhere in the game files?

The music is playing as a MIDI channel (usually via the OS's built-in SW Synth), whereas the SFX is all handled as standard wave channel. In anything earlier then Vista, Windows let you change the volume on those two channels separately (along with whatever other output channels your system had). From Vista on, you can now adjust volume on a per-program level (which is good), but you lose the ability to do so on a per-output-device level (which is bad). I'm not aware of any workarounds. -Bomb Bloke

The Windows version did change the sound. Check out my user page for a lot of information on how sound EFX play in the game.-Tycho

• Geoscape dialog animation speed (window opening animation) is very slow compared to the rest of the game. If I lock the game to 30FPS then the Geoscape and Battlescape animations are perfect, but windows in Geoscape take about a second each to open. Perhaps an option could be added to change the window animation speed?

This is a direct result of having the FPS too low.

• It would be great if a fullscreen resolution option was added instead of forcing the desktop resolution. This would be useful because I think XCOM looks best when scaled partly by nearest neighbor, and partly bilinearly. If I could set the game resolution to 640x400, I could get the exact same effect I want, but right now the only way to do that is to disable D3D which does not sit well with Win7.
  • Another alternative is to add more scaling methods: nearest (current), bilinear, Half n' Half (First pixel-doubled to 640x400 and then scaled from there with bilinear), HQ4X and more

Unless someone with experience in this were to help, I don't have the experience to do this presently.-Tycho

Version 1.3 incorporates Tarvis' scaler option.-Tycho

• On Windows 7 it seems that the D3D Window Position width and height options correspond to the entire window with borders and not the actual game screen area. Is this an oversight or is this the intended behavior?

Seb's code only applied the size to the overall window and applied the clip cursor feature to it. His code didn't take into account that windows border could be different thicknesses. I was able to improve the application of the clip cursor function to resolved the border thickness issues but it requires a deeper understanding of Windows to make the Extender create a window that has the outside dimensions necessary to allow the playable area to be that specified by the player. - Tycho

• It seems that you can click during soldier moving or shooting, and then the soldier will execute that command as soon as the action is completed. Has it always been this way? I remember that if you did this in the DOS version then nothing happens. This has resulted in a lot of mis-commanding and I'm not too keen on using double-click (too used to single-clicking!)

I'm not sure of the specifics but I think Windows is buffering the input and allowing it to be executed it at the next opportunity. I think DOSbox eliminates this in some way directly or indirectly. The only solution is to use the double-click mod.

• The mouse can leave the screen in full-screen mode in dual-monitor setups, but only if D3D is enabled. Also, turning off mouse scaling (providing the best mouse speed) means the mouse can also go lower and to the right of the game. Perhaps the mouse-clipping modes used in the windowed mode could be applied to fix this?

Scale mouse was created to fix the issue that mouse-clipping can't be used in full-screen mode.

This does fix the mouse going too far down & right in-game, but even with mouse-clipping on it still leaves the game and still goes to the other monitor. -Tarvis

Oops! My mistake (I've been working with TFTD for so long I just defaulted to that program). Try this string: 68 CC F2 02 10 6A 00 68 04 F3 02 10 68 14 F3 02 10 FF 15 10 F0 02 10 85 C0 0F 84 90 00 00 00. Use a hex editor. Search the Patcher.dll file for the string and change all the bytes to 90. - Tycho

Works great, in battlescape and geoscape! Thanks a bunch. Just for the record, it doesn't work in Geoscape with mouse scaling off, but that should be turned on when the game is fullscreen anyhow.

Great! That tells me enough that I know what to change to resolve that problem. Thanks for your feedback!-Tycho

I tested it in the new patch, and just realize it can still leave the window in the main menu.

That is intentional. Last chance to resize the window or access the sound mixer to adjust volume before starting a game.- Tycho

I see. I've finished the scaler/resolution features and I want to add them to the most recent version.

I guess you could zip up the new cpp files, upload them to the site, and then add a link to it on your user page. I'll then be able to put them into an offical release. Does that sound OK?- Tycho

The following is definitely wishful thinking, but would be wonderful if it could be done:

• Replace MCI MP3 handling with DirectX calls. This would make codec issues that cause crashes much less unpredictable.

Not sure if you saw this or not, but someone on the forums made a patch to use BASS.dll for music instead of MCI. - Tarvis

Thanks for the information. I played around with it and it works. Niklata, the creator, did a great job. I've already incorporated the changes into the music.cpp file -Tycho 23:25, 29 December 2012 (EST)

• • I would like this mainly because MP3 playing works fine on my Windows 7 64 bit machine but not at all on my Windows 7 32 bit machine, and I can't figure out why. Both are configured to use the Windows default MPEG splitter and MP3 DMO Decoder, yet using MP3s crashes on the 32 bit machine every time.

Check out the reference on the TFTD Extender page about problem with playing MP3s.

I've tried all that and couldn't get it to work, but I'm able to use AbraM's FMOD patch for UFO Defense.exe with UFO Extender just fine so that'll work. I wonder though, if I wanted the game to play GMMARS instead of GMSTORY during debriefings, what should I change? CE by default seems to use GMSTORY instead, and Abram's Fmod patch uses the game's default music mapping instead of letting you define one.

check my user page. At the bottom, I've listed the addresses for all the events that call a sound. You'll need a disassembler like IDA. The list will help you locate the hex address that you'll need to change to call a different sound entry.-Tycho

UFOLoader ver. 1.29 Geoscape Speed Mod causes problems with UFO missions

I tried to compare the game played with this speed settings on and off and I have noticed that there are less detections of UFOs with the settings on then with off.

version 1.3 fixes the problem with alien missions and the Geoscape Clock mod. I've also added a second option to emulate Mok's method for those that prefer it. Mok's method will produce a 'step' effect to the animations on the Geoscape at higher time rates. -Tycho

UFOLoader ver. 1.29 Hot Grenades and Aliens Bleeding bugs

If you have Hot Grenades enabled, prime a grenade and end turn without throwing it, the item to explode won't necessarily be the primed grenade. I had my equipment in Skyranger explode while priming grenades in the field.

Seb's mod was just a quick omitting of the check to see if the grenade was being held to check if the timer limit had been reached. The problem here is that the location of the item is not updated until thrown or dropped, so the location where to center the explosion was usually where the grenade was picked up (in the craft). I have altered the idea of hot grenades to be like most grenades which have a short fuse that is lit when the grenade's safety is sprung and the grenade tossed. Hot Grenades mod now means that only the High Explosive will prompt a timer. All other grenades will just armed and will explode on impact at their destination. They will not explode as long as the soldier holds them to reflect that the safety mechanism is still in place. - Tycho

If you have Aliens Bleeding enabled, your soldiers might randomly receive same injuries as aliens. Noticed that when I critically wounded a floater. He went down unconscious, and so did one of my soldiers (without being shot at). When the floater died, my soldier died, too.

The alien bleeding mod doesn't affect how units receive fatal wounds only which units with fatal wounds are damaged at the end of a turn. Originally, wounds only affected the Xcom faction. The mod changes this check to the type of creature and skips the apply- wound-damage routine only for a select few unit types (tanks, cyberdisks, etc). -Tycho

Random crashes on W7 64bit (but possibly all systems)

I have random crashes of the game in the base deffense mission. The addresses I have noticed are: 00422483 mov cl,[eax] (same problem - it looks that eax maybe 0) and (I am not sure) (00402CDE) lea ecx,[eax][eax]*4[004]

These are related to the 'game crashes when an alien tries to attack a base feature'. - Tycho

I was trying to find the reason for the crash, as I was playing the mission with Etherals again and it has crashed again but at address 0x4A2CBE with error 0xC0000005 trying to access 0x00000000.

The game would crash as described above whenever a unit would drop an item from Panic and the clip weight mod attempted to locate the clip in the weapon dropped. Tycho

All fixed in v1.30

Clip cursor behavior

I know that there are two different settings of clipping the cursor on screen, but the game Intro sequence and the menu is not clipping yet. Can be possible to force the cursor to clip surely for the whole game at all e.g. as option three?

In my upcoming changes patch I've forced mouse clipping at all times in fullscreen mode. It should probably be ready by the next UFO Extender release. -Tarvis

'v1.30 implements the clip cursor on all screens in Full Screen mode. For Windowed mode, cursor clipping is implemented once a game starts, at the earliest, or whenever the battlescape starts, depending on the option selected, by design. It is still possible to break the cursor clipping, if one intentionally tries. -Tycho 00:25, 23 February 2013 (EST)

I observed that the battlescape can completely lose mouse clipping for that session if the game window loses focus due to things like an overzealous ESET firewall's always-on-top window asking every fucking hour whether Adobe Flash Player's updater is allowed internet access. The game automatically regains clipping at the start of the next battlescape session but it's still very annoying.--amitakartok 17:18, 16 March 2013 (EDT)

Graphical small distortion

Load of the saved game to geoscape or load geoscape after mission end causing small graphical distortion of the first screenline of the Terror message and other e.g. Build facility window choose. Can you fix it? It is not caused of the extender, it does the UFO Collectors Edition all versions to me even without extender. I also tried older extended UFO CE ET version and it also happenings in CE ET version even as it uses DirectDraw instead of D3D. I will make you screenshot if you will need them. ElfKaa

This sounds like a problem with your graphics card driver. You might try upgrading the drivers or adjusting the hardware acceleration of your card. - Tycho

Hidden Movement speed

Hi Tycho, could you please slow down the battlescape Hidden Movement speed as well? It looses the magic of the hidden movement. Nowadays computers compute very fast and the inteligence of the game is now very fast too and you could not see or hear what is happenning e.g. if somewhere in the battlescape - in the dark where you couldn´t see - aliens kill two civilians, you will hear two screams together, not one after one. It is very fast and not readable yet and loosing the main meaning of the hidden movement part. ElfKaa

This is a direct result of the game running fast on modern computers. Unfortunately I don't think there's anything that can be done about this without overhauling how the framerate limiter works, since the FPS limiting method only adds delays to calls to update the screen, which only some of the game timers wait on, and isn't called during the HIDDEN MOVEMENT screen. You could try lowering the game's processor priority, because that will have the most impact on overall game speed.-Tarvis

I believe that if Tycho is able to slow down all the animations correctly he will be able to call that slows also for the logic in hidden movement then :) Or - yes - limit frame rate when in hidden movement will maybe solve that problem.. Now to me the screen is only flashing if something is happening, so you can not recognize what was happened and where.. ElfKaa

This is a lot more difficult than you would imagine and would require a lot more time than I'm able to invest right now: The alien turn routine doesn't follow an easy to understand path and the code has no capacity for time management as the Geoscape and the human tactical routines do. Tycho 10:24, 15 February 2013 (EST)

Tycho's right, the problem is that there are no animations at all during Hidden Movement, so there isn't really a good or consistent place to inject delays into. It's not something as simple as 'turning on the FPS limiter,' since all that really does is add a delay every time the screen updates.-Tarvis

If it's just the time for units dying is too fast, I could write a time delay to occur after a unit's death scream on the alien turn. This wouldn't affect the alien turn code but rather the code that handles a unit taking damage and being killed. - Tycho

Berserk tank crashes the game

While using the loader, I intermittently had problems regarding berserk HWPs. Most of the time, it behaves like a normal unit (randomly fires off everything and loses all TUs); just after switching to 1.30 however, I had a floater chuck a grenade into the middle of a four-man fireteam without armor, killing them all. My turn starts, I receive "Tank/Laser Cannon has gone berserk" and BANG! XCOM crashed at 0x41F7D8 with error 0xC0000005 trying to access 0x00000000 AKA an access violation error. My guess is, the loader broke something regarding HWPs being immune to morale and 1.30 made the problem even worse: older versions never crashed on me.--amitakartok 16:31, 16 March 2013 (EDT)