User talk:Plok

A few hours ago, you made a couple of edits on Saints Row series games replacing URLs of Saints Row Mods forum with archived ones and removing links to the website. However, checking the site right now, it's up. No cache, no "CloudFlare Always Online", it's just online.

Is it safe to revert these?

It's still very much down. It alternates between a XenForo message showing the forum is no longer accessible and a proper 404.

Are you absolutely sure it's not a DNS-related issue on your end, or something? I can access the website and log in as of writing this message.

I stand corrected, it seems like the DNS I am using still has the record in cache. Wayback Machine cannot resolve the host. Their record appears to be absent for some reason, but the website itself is still operational.

That could actually be the case. Just went to check, and it seems that I'm not the only one with the problem, judging by the replies to this thread. I suppose the edits can be reverted.

According to the staff, everything should be operational now. I also performed a manual dig on a different DNS and it seems to resolve correctly. Reverting in a moment.

Hi! I saw your edit on the KOTOR page adding the 9.0b specification. Is there a way to utilize this API? I can't find any information regarding it. Thank you

If I may chime in, the release date confirms it's not 9.0c. KOTOR was a 2003 game.

Guess we won't get a response

A response about what? It's DirectX, what do you even want to do with it?

I wanted to know how to force it to run in DirectX mode, as I couldn't get it to run in DX mode at all. It always runs in OpenGL, and I can't find information elsewhere on how to force this.

Then say so instead of being quite vague :P

Just checked with CFF Explorer, it does indeed call OpenGL, and the only DX component it needs is DirectInput8. I'll correct the article now.

I don’t think such detail is needed, as ALL versions now have the 5100 update. Steam obviously, but GoG & Zoom Platform version.

It is exclusive to digital releases, the retail version doesn't get a patch.

In that case, that note should only be included to the retail release, instead of having to label the Steam,GoG and Zoom Platform version for consistency.

Hello, I'm not sure of the disc count being dubious as many pages with retail releases have it on the notes. I assumed it was there to help people avoid getting secondhand retail copies with a missing disc or so.

Well, RCT isn't the only title that removed SafeDisc in later patches.

It turns out the Infogrames 2001 reissue of Risk II that I recently acquired is just a simple CD check title as well, with no SafeDisc anywhere. You may need to check to see if any reissues of Hasbro-era MicroProse titles utilize the DRM or not because I don't own many (And as I live in the UK, I wouldn't know if later re-releases in the States would use SafeDisc or not).

I sadly don't have a legit copy of Risk II so I can't verify that. For RCT1 in particular I managed to track down the original build I wanted as most copies one can find nowadays is pre-patched to 1.08.187

So it's extremely early first-print copies of RCT1 that utilize the DRM then. I'm guessing the expansion packs (which would have utilized the patches) just have simple CD checks then.

Yup. SafeDisc files are completely absent from the expansions too, and the easily bypassable CD check is thankfully applicable because of it, I suppose.

Hey, awesome man that we are both the main maintainers of the CnC Generals page it seems haha. Just some minor remarks: don't forget to add (external) references to your fixes and to explain all your fixes carefully. No average user for example knows from their head how to check the Generals registry entries haha. I did this for now where I could. About if information should be hidden or not as it is incorporated into GenPatcher; I made it all visible standardly again. If you don't agree with it, feel free to discuss it here with me :) So we can avoid just undoing each other's work.

"No average user for example knows from their head how to check the Generals registry entries haha"

--> That's a non-argument. Have a look at the rest of the wiki, registry entries are placed normally and the in-built tooltip system explains what what is. This site is not meant to teach people computer basics.

Re: "hiding" --> it's just decluttering, the Essential Improvements section is already way too long.

"That's a non-argument. Have a look at the rest of the wiki, registry entries are placed normally and the in-built tooltip system explains what what is. This site is not meant to teach people computer basics."

--> ? You were originally only saying something like "Check the serial registry entries". Without looking the information up on like EA Answers, people wouldn't even know WHICH registry-entries to look for. And no, we're not meant to learn people computer basics, but it is good practice to fully explain your solutions instead of just mentioning it shortly. It keeps it clear for all users, even the not-so experienced ones. This is standard here on this wiki right? Am I missing something here? Can you point me to one of the guideline-pages that supports your argument?

"it's just decluttering, the Essential Improvements section is already way too long."

--> Again, understand your intend, but the way you did it seems to be very uncommon for this wiki. I didn't see it done on any pages on this wiki so far. It is also never mentioned in the guidelines to my knowledge (feel free to correct me). So, I was not fully comfortable with it. One of my reasons is mainly: you were hiding the options using CSS integrated in the wiki-backend, which is ok. But hiding it makes people possibly miss it. If GenPatcher would ever get not supported anymore, it would be nice for people to be able to apply individual solutions themselves. Also, some people maybe like to apply solutions by hand to have more control over what happens instead of letting a program do the work. I would maybe propose to move the Gentool- and command-line parameter-parts to the bottom of the essential improvements list to make the first few stand out more? What would you think of that? Btw, I yesterday added clear notes to those parts that they are already included in GenPatcher.

If btw we're getting in a stalemate, I can always ask the main PCGamingwiki-devs for possible ideas?

You've renamed 1C Company instead of its subsidiary 1C Entertainment.

Official announcements from Fulqrum: "Tencent Acquires Poland’s 1C Entertainment" (https://www.fulqrumpublishing.com/news/7492-tencent-acquires-poland-s-1c-entertainment), "Introducing Fulqrum Games – the new name for 1C Entertainment" (https://www.fulqrumpublishing.com/news/7499-introducing-fulqrum-games-the-new-name-for-1c-entertainment). I mean they've renamed only they've acquired.

They were not differentiated before, they've always shared the page. I've actually started preparing to split 1C Company proper

There are several simple volume label checks left in the game after the Safe Disk patch and this was done intentionally. Restoring functionality was the only point of the patch it was not meant to provide a totally NOCD solution. If the game runs through campaign missions without CD checks for you that means you have a modified GAME.EXE

The SafeDisk patch removes SafeDisk copy protection from the install executable(setup.exe) and the games launcher executable(emperor.exe) Generic volume label CD checks are still present in the primary binary (Game.exe). They are triggered in the primary game binary, not the launcher, when the player makes their final house selection after the intro cutscene to start a campaign mission or when a campaign save is loaded. The official patches only let you reach the main menu without a CD, this was not possible prior.

The volume label checks are generic and are not proper copy protection(that was removed), if you have the safe disk patches installed you can literally get around the volume label checks by burning a completely blank CD and naming it EMPEROR1, or 2 or 3 or 4. That's all the check does is look at the name and device type. A blank CD with the right name will suffice to circumvent those measures. Still, the game will not start the campaign until it sees a disk with the right name. This is why a fan cracked the Game.EXE to remove those pesky remaining checks.

The original purpose of the resource.cfg was to let players move cutscenes to their hard drive to speed up load times, funny enough players were still expected to use the disk to prove ownership of the game. This may seem strange now but back in 2001 it was a fairly normal arrangement.

Editing the resource.cfg will allow cutscenes to load of the HDD but the game will sadly still ask you to insert a CD because The CD prompt is not triggered by the game being unable to find files, it is triggered independently. This is why the resource modification is a needed step in a successful noCD solution but by itself will not work using only official patches.

Copies of the game floating around the internet often have the Game.exe cracked already so that one only needs to apply the newer Win10 fixes/patches and they are ready to go, if you are working from original materials..IE real disks, you will not have success getting the campaign to work without CD's even after all the official patches are applied unless you hunt down the modified GAME.EXE

The very forum referenced at the top of the article has tons of posts spread out over the years of people asking why they can't get the NOCD to work after following this guide and the members of the board have to explain time and time again that it is partially incorrect.

Hey, I just made a fresh reinstall of the game, and you were right about the Game.exe bit. As per PCGW's policy on piracy, I can't *exactly* point to a crack but the procedure still works for removing the SafeDisc part of the DRM.

I am not quite convinced of either you being a developer or seeing many threads complaining about the solution, as I browsed FED2K and found little to confirm this.