What's with the wacky color palette, Flick?

T

teukros

It Wandered In From the Wastes
Here's my deal - I have a homebuilt system:

Gigabyte-GA-790XTA-UD4
AMD Phenom II X4 965 125W (C3 stepping) 3.4 GHz (Black Edition)
Corsair Dominator 4 GB 1600Mhz Dual Channel DDR3 1600 MHz
Sapphire Radeon HD5770 Vapor-X 1 GB DDR5 860 MHz
Creative Labs SB0880 PCI-E SB X-Fi Titanium Sound Card

which I recently converted (from XP) to Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. So far, so good but I would like to download the latest drivers for my graphics card (OpenCL at least, for BOINC and Rosetta@Home). Now Radeon downloads have given me fits in the past so I want to make sure that everything is working BEFORE I download graphics drivers.

Naturally I chose Fallout 2 for my first game installation. :oops:

I know I could put up with the wacky colors during installation ("I haven't even started to play and already I'm addicted to Jet!") and then install the RP. But Killap recently stated that he is putting "the finishing touches" on the more or less final version and I really don't want to install an older RP just to make sure that F2 works on this system (incidentally I am installing from the White Label "Fallout Collection" dvd-rom).

Besides, I have a cartload of older games I would like to install and play.

So I guess my questions boil down to these:

1. Should I install and run the DirectDraw Compatability Tool?

or, (and?)

2. Should I download and install the Windows Virtual PC / Windows XP Mode?

3. annnd I was reading this page: http://fallout.answers.wikia.com/wi...lout_2_and_Fallout_Tactics_on_Windows_Vista/7 which helpfully tells me that an alternate method is to "make a batch file to stop explorer.exe process while playing the game". :shock: What the hey? Why would I want to do that, what good would it do, and what's the idea?
 
Your spec is pretty close to mine. I used both DirectDraw compatibility tool and hi-res patch (set to 16bit color) and never got any color issue on Win7 x64.
No need of VPC, XP mode, or killing explorer.exe process.
 
Last edited:
PaletteStealerSuspender is a very good program for closing explorer and fixing the weird colours.
 
Thanks for the replies. NovaRain, you say that you use both the DirectDraw compatability tool and the HiRes patch. I thought that the HiRes patch itself took care of the issues? Do you really need both?

I haven't been able to find out anything concerning stopping explorer.exe. How is that helpful?
 
teukros said:
Thanks for the replies. NovaRain, you say that you use both the DirectDraw compatability tool and the HiRes patch. I thought that the HiRes patch itself took care of the issues? Do you really need both?
Click to expand...
Just to ensure nothing will go wrong, since it only takes a few mouse clicks. "Better safe than sorry" I guess.
Sometimes I set the hi-res color back to 8bit or disable it entirely for testing some stuff, if not using DirectDraw compatability tool the color would still be messed up.

teukros said:
I haven't been able to find out anything concerning stopping explorer.exe. How is that helpful?
Click to expand...
AFAIR it has something to do with Windows Aero. Killing explorer.exe process seems preventing Aero from messing up the color palette. But honestly I have no idea on the technical detail how it truly works, sorry.
 
Last edited:
Thanks... but I had some trouble finding a copy I could download. I found a copy of 1.01 from a rather disreputable seeming site, but AVG, MBAM and SuperAntiSpyware all gave it a pass.
Google seems to show that there is a 1.1 out there somewhere. Any idea where?

EDIT: I read something about opening the screen resolution screen and leaving it open... This makes the F2 installation screen look much much better... maybe not perfect but definitely no psychedelic colors... what in the name of Juno Moneta is Microsoft doing???
 
Last edited:
teukros said:
Thanks... but I had some trouble finding a copy I could download. I found a copy of 1.01 from a rather disreputable seeming site, but AVG, MBAM and SuperAntiSpyware all gave it a pass.
Google seems to show that there is a 1.1 out there somewhere. Any idea where?
Click to expand...
I don't know if there's really a 1.1 or not. The author's blog or the NMA thread only mentioned about 1.01.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top