[Windows 10] Compatibility Notes

Ask here if you experience technical problems with X³: Reunion, X²: The Threat, X-Tension or X-Beyond The Frontier

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[Windows 10] Compatibility Notes

Post by X2-Illuminatus » Fri, 28. Aug 15, 11:28


Compatibility notes for the X games on Windows 10


We can confirm that all X games run under Windows 10. Nevertheless, in some cases there a couple of tweaks necessary. Listed below you find a couple of known problems for all or only specific games and workarounds. If you encounter a problem with either of the games, please check if it is listed below and if so, try out the mentioned solution. If it doesn't work or if the problem isn't listed yet, then please create a new topic with all of the requested pieces of information.

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General problems applying to all games

The following problems and solutions apply to all or most of the games listed here.

Installation
The installation via Steam or from one of the newer disk versions like the X-Superbox still works under Windows 10 without problems.

If you, however, have one of the original disk versions of XBTF, XT or X2, you will most-likely have to do a manual installation, which basically means copying the data from the disk(s) to your harddrive. An example way of doing that for X2 is described in this topic.


Running the game (XBTF, XT, X2) in Fullscreen mode, the title bar and windows border are displayed.
To fix this, please do as follows:
  1. Download the "XBTF, XT, X2 - Windows 10_compat.zip" file from the download link below and extract it to an empty folder.
  2. Copy the three *.sdb files from that folder to C:\Windows\AppPatch\Custom\
  3. Double click the .reg file (which adds registry keys referencing these 3 files).
    This assumes Windows is installed on C:\windows (if not, you need to edit the .reg file and change the paths to your dedicated Windows directory).
Please note: This fix is not required for the GOG version of those games, where these registry settings are set by default.


No voices are played under Windows 10 N
As with its predecessor, there's also an N version of Windows 10, which comes without installed Windows Media Player and related codecs (like the WMA codec). See also this Microsoft Support article for reference. The X games, however, need the wma codec to play the voice file(s). To fix this issue you can download and install the Media feature pack for Windows 10 N and Windows 10 KN editions.

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Specific problems and workarounds for each game

The following problems and solutions only apply to the specific games listed.

X: Beyond the Frontier (XBTF)

Running the game in Fullscreen mode pops up a dialog box with the error message "Error opening video. Check your display settings! Further Information can be found in the manual or readme.txt".
To fix this problem you need to run the game in compatibility mode for Windows 7. To do so:
  1. Locate your game directory, i.e. the folder where you installed the game. If you cannot find it, you can search for the "X.exe".
  2. Right-click on the "X.exe" and select "Properties".
  3. Open the "Compatibility" tab and tick the "Run this program in compatibility mode for" box.
  4. From the list of Operating System select "Windows 7".
  5. Click "Ok" and start the game.
PLEASE NOTE: If you use the Steam version of XBTF, the compatibility for Windows 7 is set by default already.


Running the game in windowed mode requires a 16bit color desktop.
To run the game in the 16bit color mode, please do as follows:
  1. Locate your game directory, i.e. the folder where you installed the game. If you cannot find it, you can search for the "X.exe".
  2. Right-click on the "X.exe" and select "Properties".
  3. Open the "Compatibility" tab and tick the "reduced color mode" box.
  4. From the list of Color modes select "16-bit color".
  5. Click "Ok" and start the game.
PLEASE NOTE: If you use the Steam version of XBTF, the reduced color mode option is set by default already.


X-Tension (XT)

Running the game in Fullscreen mode pops up a dialog box with the error message "Error opening video. Check your display settings! Further Information can be found in the manual or readme.txt".
To fix this problem you need to run the game in compatibility mode for Windows 7. To do so:
  1. Locate your game directory, i.e. the folder where you installed the game. If you cannot find it, you can search for the "XTENSION.exe".
  2. Right-click on the "XTENSION.exe" and select "Properties".
  3. Open the "Compatibility" tab and tick the "Run this program in compatibility mode for" box.
  4. From the list of Operating System select "Windows 7".
  5. Click "Ok" and start the game.
PLEASE NOTE: If you use the Steam version of XT, the compatibility for Windows 7 is set by default already.


X2: The Threat (X2)

The game won't start, when Antialising is enabled
To fix this problem, disable "Antialising" by clicking on the "Graphic Settings" option in the X2 starter and remove the tick from the "Antialising" box. Afterwards click on "Ok" to confirm your changes and start the game. If X2 still won't start, check that Antialising is not forced by your graphics driver in your driver control panel.


The game launcher offers weird monitor resolutions
In the X2 starter under "Graphic Settings" you can select a resolution for the Fullscreen mode. On Windows 10, X2 offers weird resolutions like 1900x480 and 1600x600 that will not fit any monitor. Therefore when starting the game, make sure that the correct resolution is selected.


The game starts in window mode, although the full screen option is selected
To solve this, open the Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), while the game is running. In the Processes tab look for the X2 entry and expand it (right-click on X2 and select "Expand"). Aftwards right click on the expanded X2 entry and click on "Maximise".
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Last edited by X2-Illuminatus on Sun, 22. Jan 17, 19:46, edited 2 times in total.

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Post by froger » Thu, 3. Sep 15, 00:24

Well this is good to know but that does not help with my 0xc000007b error.

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Post by Alan Phipps » Thu, 3. Sep 15, 10:35

@ froger: Well according to your other post on this that was just an X Rebirth issue and nothing to do with the far older games being covered in this forum. :roll:
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Post by froger » Sat, 5. Sep 15, 01:28

sorry didn't see that their had been replys my bad. Thank you.

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Post by shawncrites » Sun, 27. Dec 15, 21:22

Still no fix for the windowed full screen mode??

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Post by otterflosser » Fri, 1. Jan 16, 23:15

I have installed Windows 10 and seemingly lost all my saves... where should they be? Is there a way I can recover them, or move them so I can access them through the game again?

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Post by X2-Illuminatus » Sun, 3. Jan 16, 17:23

For XBTF, XT or X2 the savegames are stored in the game directory. For the X3 games, the saves are stored in your Documents in the Egosoft\<game name>\save folder.
Nun verfügbar! X3: Farnham's Legacy - Ein neues Kapitel für einen alten Favoriten

Die komplette X-Roman-Reihe jetzt als Kindle E-Books! (Farnhams Legende, Nopileos, X3: Yoshiko, X3: Hüter der Tore, X3: Wächter der Erde)

Neuauflage der fünf X-Romane als Taschenbuch

The official X-novels Farnham's Legend, Nopileos, X3: Yoshiko as Kindle e-books!

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Post by Arkajf » Tue, 22. Mar 16, 21:53

Really weird. GOG version works fine in fullscreen but here developers don't have a clue how to solve problem (100% they just don't care)

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Post by X2-Illuminatus » Wed, 23. Mar 16, 11:46

The GOG versions use the Microsoft compatibility database to set some flags within the registry. Unfortunately, there's no way to easily set these flags automatically for the Steam games. I will update the Compatibility Notes with a guide on how you can manually adjust the respective registry keys later this week.
Nun verfügbar! X3: Farnham's Legacy - Ein neues Kapitel für einen alten Favoriten

Die komplette X-Roman-Reihe jetzt als Kindle E-Books! (Farnhams Legende, Nopileos, X3: Yoshiko, X3: Hüter der Tore, X3: Wächter der Erde)

Neuauflage der fünf X-Romane als Taschenbuch

The official X-novels Farnham's Legend, Nopileos, X3: Yoshiko as Kindle e-books!

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Post by Skeeter » Fri, 27. May 16, 07:01

I have a white border at the top of my screen. Running win 10 64bit, latest drivers, latest 1.5 of x2 the threat.

Its kinda like how mafia 1 plays, it doesnt like aa and it has a horrid white thick border at the top of the screen which cuts off the bottom so say during bandana talk at start you cant see the subtitles very well. Etc.

Any fixes?
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Fullscreen border fix

Post by dany_db » Wed, 13. Jul 16, 10:37

Here is the fix for the white border in X-BTF. Just download and run install.bat.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ev99 ... sp=sharing

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Re: [Windows 10] X2 Compatibility Notes

Post by Pendrokar » Mon, 25. Jul 16, 19:31

X2-Illuminatus wrote:Running the game in Fullscreen mode, the title bar and windows border are displayed.
When running the games in Fullscreen mode, the title and window borders are displayed. It looks, as if the game would be running in a windowed mode. We unfortunately don't have a solution for this problem yet, but will look further into it and update this post, if possible.
Indeed, all you have to do is maximize the window. Though in Windows 10 the process is a bit more complex as seen in this user's video:

https://youtu.be/T5qcathK4Mk?t=139

Though that leaves the problem of the UI as seen in the video. Although in the crazy resolutions given for windowed mode, the UI shows up correctly.

Also, I have an AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series card and the game does not crash with Anti-Aliasing enabled.[/u]

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windows 10

Post by lucky2539 » Sat, 7. Apr 18, 08:21

i have to admit, until recently my x3 reunion ran well on windows 10 nor did i lose my saved game, so ive been happy, only recently has it began to run slow sometimes little freezes. annoying but not unplayable. its more likely to be my old pc getting clogged up its quite old..

jim aka lucky

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Post by Alan Phipps » Sat, 7. Apr 18, 13:16

@ lucky2539: That doesn't sound like a typical game or OS issue. I would be inclined more to check for other applications running in the background and 'calling home' while playing, or perhaps for system memory saturation and cache clearance during play periods.
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thanks

Post by lucky2539 » Sun, 8. Apr 18, 20:50

Thanks Alan, i,ll give it a look,

cheers
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Post by narse-t » Fri, 22. Jun 18, 04:37

Following the instructions for removing window border did not work for X-BTF on Windows 10 release 1803.

Knowing that the downloaded .sdb files were Application Compatibility Database entries I just used the Compatibility Database Installer Tool (sdbinst.exe) on each file from an Administrator command prompt. It worked perfectly.

This is the correct method to install app compatibility updates on Windows, not writing directly to the registry.

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Re: [Windows 10] Compatibility Notes

Post by hhr » Thu, 11. Oct 18, 17:29

Windows 10.0.17134.345 (1803).
XBTF, X2 from Steam, XBTF from GOG run and work as expected. Еven if I delete all the compatibility and sdb-base settings, the games will still run, albeit with the window title instead of full-screen mode. XT from Steam and GOG crashes after displaying the initial logo.

Installing/removing compatibility mode and using SDB databases does not solve the problem. I note that at startup no sections and parameters are created in the registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\EgoSoftware\X-TENSION). This summer, the game still worked, but after what kind of Windows update it stopped working — I didn’t watch.

p.s.
I think I found a solution.

XT does not want to run in resolutions other than 4:3 or 5:4. However, if you change the monitor resolution to any of 4:3 or 5:4 before starting (1920x1440 in my case), the main menu is appears in which you can already call up the settings and change the resolution. After that full screen or windowed option can be selected with any resolution and 32 color bits.

You can also set the compatibility parameter "640x480" through the properties of X-TENSION.exe, start the game, configure, exit and add the "-noabout" command line key so that the resolution does not change anymore during the launch.

and the third option is to add the "Force640x480" key through the Application Compatibility Toolkit to the {4d1bfc5b-4da0-4117-aef7-55ef8ee427b9}.sdb file from the first post.

p.p.s.
Unfortunately, widescreen resolutions result in a lower vertical viewing angle. Also, I could not manage to launch the game in my native resolution of 2560x1440, so I use 1920x1440 in fullscreen.

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Re: [Windows 10] Compatibility Notes

Post by MarcelloCarlos » Tue, 4. Dec 18, 13:26

I have X-Tension on STEAM running in Fullscreen mode WIN10 res1920x1080 but the title bar and windows border are displayed.
i tried the downloadfile and it does not help.

any tips?

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Re:

Post by Hartax » Sun, 23. Dec 18, 13:02

narse-t wrote:
Fri, 22. Jun 18, 04:37
Following the instructions for removing window border did not work for X-BTF on Windows 10 release 1803.

Knowing that the downloaded .sdb files were Application Compatibility Database entries I just used the Compatibility Database Installer Tool (sdbinst.exe) on each file from an Administrator command prompt. It worked perfectly.

This is the correct method to install app compatibility updates on Windows, not writing directly to the registry.
Can you explain step by step how to do this?
Thank you

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Re: [Windows 10] Compatibility Notes

Post by jaspericus » Thu, 13. Jun 19, 21:26

just tried to instal x3 reunion from my old disk version (all my others are steam thank gawd) and it completely screwed my windows 10 installation causing repair / fix/ repair/ fix loop, only way to stop the issue was to roll back to restore point. Had something to do with the securom drm I think, pity as loved reunion, cant buy it again as saving for x4. Any work around for this?

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