It has now been confirmed that the SPWAW artillery screen fix works only for dual core cpu's. The old (dual core only) fix is still available for download here http://www.spwaw.com/phpBB2/download.php?id=25708:
Users of Intel Quad core cpu's may try to edit the CMD file and use AFFINITY 8 instead of AFFINITY 2. This may or may not work. In general however if the computer has more than two cpu cores then the fix will not work.
Note: If you downloaded the now removed version 2 or 2.1 of the artillery fix it should still work fine for dual core cpu's.
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[center]UPDATE 9/25/2015:
There have been reports that the fix does not work for people using a quad core Intel i5 cpu. Previously there were reports that the fix does not work for Intel i7 cpu either. Due to this I have decided to remove the download link for the fix until I can test the fix again on an Intel i5 or Intel i7 cpu and see what is wrong.
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UPDATED to version 2.1 on 9/18/2015
IMPORTANT! Read this first:
It seems that if you have set any compatibility modes for mech.exe the artillery screen fix does not work. So if you are having problems first make sure that when you right click on mech.exe and go to the compatibility tab there are no options set. You actualy can't even have the option "Run this program as administrator" set or windows will refuse the artillery fix .cmd file to change the cpu AFFINITY. [X(]
KNOWN ISSUE: The fix does not work for computers that have an Intel i7 processor. This may be related to Hyper-Threading that is used by that CPU. Similary Intel i3 may also have issues since it too uses Hyper-Threading.
I thought I'd post this fix in a separate thread for more visibility. This is my latest fix for the unresponsive arttillery screen. What this version does is it checks how many physical cpu cores the users computer has and then starts SPWAW with the correct AFFINITY value automaticaly.
The first version of the fix just worked for owners of dual core processors but if the user had for example a quad core processor he had to manualy edit the command line script to make the fix work. Now this one fix should work for all multi core cpu's up to an 8 core machine.
So far I have tested this to work on three different multi core processor computers. A single core with hyper-threading, a dual core and a quad core.
DL link to GameFront:
-REMOVED
from the readme file:
SPWAW Artillery screen fix version 2.1 (automatic)
--------------------------------------------------
What's new in version 2.1:
-Fixed a typo that would cause the game to restart when closing it on a quad core cpu.
-Added in some commands to check for presence of Hyper-Threaded Logical cpu cores to detect
Intel i3 and Intel i7 processors. Using command "wmic cpu get NumberOfLogicalProcessors".
This does not mean that the fix will work on Intel i3 or i7 processors yet. I will continue
to study on how to make the fix compatible with Intel processors that use HT.
Note for Windows 7 (and Vista) users:
-Steel Panthers World at War suffers from corrupted colors on Win7 and Vista systems.
There are several methods to fix the corrupted colors for old games on Windows 7 but
I would recomend using a program called "DxWnd".
This is a version of the Artillery screen fix that should work automaticaly without the need to
manualy edit the AFFINITY numbers. The command line script runs a series of checks to see how many
cpu cores the users computer has and then launches SPWAW with the appropriate cpu AFFINITY value
fixing the artillery screen unresponsiveness.
Usage:
- First extract the file "SPWAW_Arty_FIX_v2.cmd" to your \Steel Panthers World at War\ -foler
(where mech.exe resides.)
- To use the fix start the game from the file "SPWAW_Arty_FIX_v2.cmd".
.
.
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Technical information for those who are interested in how the fix works in depth:
What causes the artillery screen unresponsiveness in SPWAW is an incompatibility of the game when
run on modern multi core processors. For some reason SPWAW needs to run on the last physical cpu
core of a multi core processor.
The correct AFFINITY value depends on the number of physical cpu cores the users computer has.
So for example a standard dual core cpu needs a value of "2", a quad core cpu needs a value of "8",
a six core cpu needs a value of "20" and so on... The AFFINITY values are derived from binary code that
is then converted to a hexadecimal value. e.g. Fourth (4) core is 1000 in binary and 8 when converted
into a hexadecimal.
Rather than having the user figure out how many cpu cores his/her computer has and then finding out the
correct AFFINITY value this script handles it automaticaly. The command 'wmic cpu get NumberOfCores' is
used to find out the number of physical cpu cores.
It is worth noting that hyper threaded cores do not count when determining the correct AFFINITY value
for SPWAW. For example a single core intel CPU with Hyper-Threading should be run on AFFINITY value of "1"
since the last physical core is core #1 and the second core (#2) is just a Hyper-Threaded logical core.
The script currently supports CPU's that have up to 8 physical cores.
Additional note for Windows 7 (and Vista) users regarding the corrupted color issue:
Windows 7 has an issue with SPWAW where the color palette is messed up. To fix the colors I recommend using the DxWnd program. See here for instructions on how to set it up for SPWAW:
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