E2150 - Customization

= PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION =

Here you may find additional info how to format wiki structures (link): Media Wiki

== Creating custom interface

Check the modest guide about it.

Adding custom videos
intro videos can be added, but other videos can only be replaced, although with scripting for a custom campaign, custom videos should be able to be added (looking at the edbase1script.ec in the TMP EarthC documentation, they call cutscene videos by raw filename);

can play up to 7 intro videos (intro[1-7].wd1)

video format that i know works is .avi with video codec that is intel video 5.10 (may display as indeo video 5.0 or 5.1) in 640x320 resolution (for intros, same res as all the others) or 256x192 (confirmed max for cutscenes according to dev guide) at 25 frames per second (some videos are in 30fps, so that will probably work too) and audio codec that is mp3 (may display as mpeg layer 3 or III) with a 44.100 khz sample rate and 192 kbps bitrate; once converted, change the file extension from .avi to .wd1;

while there doesn't appear to be a hardcoded limit on length (longest i tried was a little over 1 hour 30 min and it worked), longer videos do make the game stutter significantly when using the seek bar: it works okay for the first few minutes, but as it gets further in, it begins locking up for tens of seconds; i used avs video converter for this (it's free), however if you want a program that's more lightweight and with a simpler interface, nch software's prism video converter works as well;

for video codec, if you do not have the intel video 5.10 as an option when converting, cinepak also works, but according to, intel video 5.10 offers better video quality; luckily, intel video 5.10 is already on most windows systems by default, it just needs to be registered/installed: to do this, open cmd.exe as administrator, then change directory to system32 "cd c:\windows\system32" (running as admin should put you in system32 by default) then type "regsvr32 ir50_32.dll", if it says it failed to load/cannot be found, then change directory to syswow64 "cd c:\windows\syswow64" and try again

PLEASE READ IF YOU WANT TO MESS WITH INTRO FORMATS when trying to test another codec/resolution for intros, i ran into a VERY annoying bug caused by the game not displaying the intro video properly: - audio may or may not play but the screen is black, the game never loads the menu after the intros (at least it didn't for me), and IT CANNOT BE CLOSED; - while alt+tab technically works, the game will ALWAYS be on top, and since it always goes into full screen for the intros, it covers the whole screen, blocking any windows you open, meaning you can't use run or task manager to close the game;

however the windows key works after using alt+tab, so you can log out, which should force close everything (it did for me), and if it doesn't, you can restart you computer

Customizing in game sounds
music cannot be added (been triple/quad-checking the wdfiles to find something that might have the list of playable music but got nothing), but it can be replaced with other tracks, and with scripting for a custom campaign, custom music should be able to be added, although only at the certain points they're triggered (like the videos, it appears they call the music tracks by raw filename);

audio format that i know works is .mp2 with a 44.100 khz sample rate and 160 kbps bitrate (renaming a .mp3 to .mp2 WILL NOT WORK, it must be properly converted to .mp2); i used avs audio converter for this (it's free), however if you want a program that's more lightweight and with a simpler interface, nch software's switch audio converter works as well

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PLEASE READ FIRST IF UNFAMILIAR WITH WINDOWS REGISTRY!!!!

Otherwise, scroll to the big gap with +++++++ at the bottom. ________________________________________________

This involves dealing with Windows registry entries. This only involves editing registry entries that PERTAIN TO AND ONLY TO the Earth 2150 game(s), and is thus HIGHLY UNLIKELY to cause anything that can't be fixed by simply reinstalling the game(s). However, for the sake of keeping you fully aware of what exactly you're going to be doing, I'd like to link the following from the Microsoft website (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-ie/troubleshoot/windows-server/performance/windows-registry-advanced-users), and draw attention to this particular bit 2/3's down from that page:

-- Warning

Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk. --

While that does sound scary, I would like to reiterate that the following instructions pertain to registry entries EXCLUSIVE to the Earth 2150 game(s) and should not affect any system related entries in any way.

That being said, if this is the first time you've done something like this, and/or you are not confident in doing this correctly, BUT you still want to try it and would prefer some peace of mind, then I would suggest the following:

1. Creating a backup of your current Windows registry: Upon opening the Registry Editor, click "Computer" on the left-hand side, click "File" on the top-left, and click "Export" and save it as "registry [date]" or something similar. This will create a .reg file of your entire current Windows registry, allowing you to reload the entire Windows registry in the event that something goes wrong. You simply need to double-click it to run this file.

2. Manually creating a system restore point: Type "system restore" in the Windows Start menu search bar and "Create a restore point" should appear. Clicking that will open a window labeled "System Properties" on a tab labelled "System Protection". Click "Create..." on the bottom of that window. You will be asked to label the restore point, I'd suggest something related to what you're doing ("earth2150 registry"), then click "Create". This creates a backup of critical Windows system files and the Windows registry which the computer can load from in the event of data corruption of system files.

If "Create a restore point" does not appear in the Windows search (it can be finicky at times), a definite way to navigate to it is to open the Windows Start menu (Windows key), "Control Panel" may be on the right; if not, then you should have a scrolling column with programs listed in alphabetical order; if not, then you should have a button at the bottom labelled "All Programs", which will open the aforementioned column of programs. Scroll down to W and there should be a folder labelled "Windows Systems", inside of which should be "Control Panel". Upon opening Control Panel, click "System and Security", then click "System", then click "Advanced system settings" on the left. This will open the "System Properties" window. Same instructions apply from this point onward. ___________________________________________

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while the moon project's setup program doesn't normally have the fullscreen toggle (at least it didn't for me), you can enable this on windows by going into the registry editor: for me, the full path was "Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Topware\TheMoonProject\BaseGame\Graphics\Setup" (if it's not there for you, ctrl+f "themoonproject" until you find where it is for you); in "Setup" right-click "AllowWindowedScreen", click "Modify" and change it to 1, changes should take effect next time you run the setup program;

under "Graphics" is another folder title "Default" which has the current setup options that the game will use to start up, and while you can modify the "Height" and "Width" to whatever you want, it crashed for me whenever i used a resolution that wasn't already in the setup options, maybe you'll be able to figure it out;

within "BaseGame" is "Sound", within that is "Setup" which will have an "AllowHardware" entry: setting this to 1 will enable the sound options in the setup ("Autodetect","Hardware","Software", "No sound"), but considering that autodetect is probably the safest option (and likely what it uses by default), i don't think there's much a point of enabling this

i found that when i tried installing another instance of the game in a different directory (primary purpose to have a modded instance for singleplayer only, an unmodded instance for multiplayer only), it will only run files from the newest installed directory: this seems to be because the file directory that's used is set by a registry entry rather than by the executable itself, so when a new instance is installed, the registry entry is modified rather than a new entry being given for the new instance

however on windows, the file directory that is loaded from/saved to can be changed by going into the registry editor: for me, the full directory was "Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Topware\TheMoonProject\BaseGame\FileSystem" (if it's not there for you, ctrl+f "themoonproject" until you find where it is for you);

in here, you'll find "DataPath" (where it reads from) and "OutputDir" (where saved games, screenshots, etc. go), simply change the registry entries to whichever directories you want it to read from and to save to; to easily maintain 2 or more directories (modded, unmodded, 2.1, 2.2, etc.), right-click the "FileSystem" folder to the left and click "Export": this will allow you to save what those particular registry entries are at that time to an external .reg file, which can be run at any time to load those entries;

"DataPath" directory is formatted as "[directory]/>;[directory]/>", these two directories must be listed in this format (don't erase one of them), must be the same and must point to either a Moon Project directory or a Lost Souls directory: - if only 1 directory is present in this entry, the game will say it's not properly installed; - if these two directories are different, the game will load both directories simultaneously (newest files take priority); - if one of the directories is not a TMP or LS directory, the game will start but the window won't show, requiring task manager/resource monitor to close;

change the registry entries to whatever directory you want them to be, export, repeat until you have as many instances saved as you want or need (remember to give them distinct names so you don't confuse yourself like i did);

before you start the game, make sure to load whichever .reg file has the directories you want to use; it should be possible to use a windows .bat file (a basic text file that runs simple console commands in sequence) to run the registry and open the game at once, that way you don't have to fiddle with multiple files everytime you start the game

what i did to make new directories: uninstalled the game, reinstalled it, renamed "The Moon Project" folder to "The Moon Project 2", run the installer again, repeat, this seemed like the easiest way to get multiple clean installs;

because the video settings and game directory are set in the registry, it doesn't actually matter which .exe you use to start the game if you make multiple instances, HOWEVER because mixsets and dgvoodoo directly hook into the .exe itself, those MUST be with whichever .exe you choose to use for them to function;

if "OutputDir" is different from "DataPath" when saving a game, the saved game will go into the different directory, but will still be available to load from for the duration of that instance (presumably saved in memory), upon restarting, that particular save game WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE;

when using ctrl+f to search "themoonproject", i noticed a few other registry entries that reference the game directory, but they didn't do anything immediately obvious when i changed them, so i changed them back and will refrain from touching them further