SS1 SHLink - System Shock Windows wrapper (no music)

[673f198c6568cMalba Tahan]

SYSTEM SHOCK LOADER 0.6

Hello there!

I have recently switched from WinXP to Win7 64bit, so I couldn't get SS working without Dosbox anymore.
After that, I started to code a loader to run SS natively under win32. It basically acts as some kind of layer between SS and Win32, in order to fool SS into thinking it's running under DOS. There is no emulation, game runs full speed.
Unfortunately, there is one issue to be corrected yet: no music.
The current issues are:
- No music (I have just started to disassemble the music driver in order to try to figure out a way to make it work under Windows).
- Some bugs

I'd like to point out (is this the right verb?) that there are very important reasons to get SSHOCK running under Windows. Some of them are:
- OpenGL and/or Direct3D graphics. This reason should be enough to justify all the work "porting" SSHOCK to Windows.
- Better sound. Add support for custom sounds.
- Use 3d models instead of billboards.
- Add support for high-res textures.
- Add support for dynamic shadows (shadow mapping), bump mapping, normal mapping, etc...
- Add support for scripting (using LUA or another nice scripting engine).
- Add support for multiplayer (this is probably the hardest mod to create, I guess).
- Many more things.

Here are some screenshots:

Cut-scenes seem to be working.

The usual "init game settings" screen

...

Enemies coming. Game doesn't crash anymore.

Automap also works

I would appreciate any help, if possible.
The link to download the loader lies below in case anyone wishes to test it.

!! Source code released !!
Source code has been uploaded
Tools that you will need in order to compile the program:
* Open Watcom C compiler (I have used version 1.9)
* Nasm
* SDL library, developer for VC6 (I'm using SDL 1.2.13, because version 1.2.14 is buggy)

Best regards,
Malba Tahan

[673f198c65d7aEnchantermon]

I'd like to point out (is this the right verb?)

Yes.

Dude, if you're able to get this working, the System Shock fanbase will revere you forever. I'm not a programmer, so I can't really help, but you have my support!

[673f198c65ee0ZylonBane]

That's some crazy ambitious stuff right there. Good luck!

[673f198c6613cMarvin]

So that's what you've been up to in the last months? Most of the people here can only give you moral support, though.

[673f198c666e0Twerty]

I'd like to point out (is this the right verb?)

Yes.

Dude, if you're able to get this working, the System Shock fanbase will revere you forever. I'm not a programmer, so I can't really help, but you have my support!

I dunno about the fanbase, but you've already reached deity position for me with what you've done to System Shock 1 alone. :p I am not entirely sure what your goal is, though. You're trying to get it working natively under a 32-bit XP-ish environment or 32/64 bit Windows 7?

[673f198c66874Nameless Voice]

What's the difference?  Windows 7 x64 can run 32-bit programs written for Windows XP without any issue.
It cannot run 16-bit programs written for DOS (which 32-bit XP could manage to emulate via NTVDM...  somewhat).

[673f198c66ad9Malba Tahan]

I have updated my first post with screenshots and a link to download the Loader.

So that's what you've been up to in the last months? Most of the people here can only give you moral support, though.

Actually, I was working during the last months in another project, that was targeted at *modding* SSHOCK. I started to code the loader a week ago. But I haven't given up on the Modder project.

[673f198c66bd1Golan2072]

If you'll get this fully working we'll be eternally grateful to you!

[673f198c66ccdMalba Tahan]

Updated! System Shock runs under Windows now (no sound yet). There may be some bugs lying around which I haven't ran into, though.
Minimum system requirements: Windows XP.

[673f198c66dbbMarvin]

I'll try it out tomorrow, well done!

[673f198c66ea5Enchantermon]

Excuse me for a second while I pick my jaw up off the floor.

[673f198c66fa7Blue]

Very nice work! Sounds like a very worthy endeavor, wish I knew more about programming and could help in some way. Good luck.

[673f198c67136Kolya]

I played with this for a while and it worked really well for about 15min when I hit some lever in game and it crashed.
Last message from the command line:

Code: [Select]

Calling main()...
vga mem at 008B1000Impressive work.

[673f198c67480Malba Tahan]

I played with this for a while and it worked really well for about 15min when I hit some lever in game and it crashed.
Last message from the command line:

Code: [Select]

Calling main()...
vga mem at 008B1000Impressive work.

I don't know what error is this. Next release I'll add a kind of "crash dump" so I can get useful information when bugs happen and perhaps I'll be able to fix them.

By the way, talking about bugs, I've found 8 or 9 serious bugs in SS code until now. Most of them are attempts to access data outside the allocated space. Looks like DOS4GW doesn't catch them, but Windows does, so I had to fix them for the Win32 release.

I'm working on sound now. I figured out that System Shock uses AIL3.0 (old MILES audio library) for its audio subsystem (I didn't know that!). Does anyone knows where I can download that library? (the file name should be something like ail30.lib). It would help a lot my disassembly work, and I think I could get audio working much faster if I had that file. I found AIL 2.0 sources for free on the internet, but they seem to bevery different from version 3.0. Thanks!

[673f198c675dcKolya]

Do you know which exact library version you're looking for? There seem to have been a whole bunch of 3.0 versions.

EDIT: Strange. According to that history the first 3.0 version came out in September 1994, but SS1 was released in March. Not sure when exactly the CD version came out. Well I guess it's a safe bet that it's the very first 3.0 version then.

[673f198c68945Malba Tahan]

UPDATED again! Digital effects are working and a game speed issue was fixed.

Do you know which exact library version you're looking for? There seem to have been a whole bunch of 3.0 versions.

EDIT: Strange. According to that history the first 3.0 version came out in September 1994, but SS1 was released in March. Not sure when exactly the CD version came out. Well I guess it's a safe bet that it's the very first 3.0 version then.

Yes, I guess it's the first 3.0 release. It seems the floppy version uses AIL 2.0, which is opensource, and so it could help me to find the libraries calls that game makes. I've sent an email to John Miles, the author of the MILES (AIL) sound system, asking for a copy of the old library, but it seems that they don't have it anymore. Fortunately, even without access to the original source code, I was able to get digital effects working. I hope to get music working too.

[673f198c6981bMalba Tahan]

Version 0.4 is out. This version features some bug corrections, some new options in SHLINK.INI, and SuperVGA mode support.

[673f198c69917Nameless Voice]

Very cool!

[673f198c69a24Vertiphon]

I cannot get this to work.   I get "could not find configuration file" each time, and error code 4002.  I must have the locations setup incorrectly, but SHLINK loads "CDROM/CDSHOCK.EXE" successfully...

[673f198c69b3fDavx]

Wow, it runs beautifully on Win7 x64. Too bad I don't really want to play it without custom keys and mouse look mod.

Using SSP I had to rename the dir RES to CDROM;
Extract into CDROM;
Edit shlink.ini:
GamePath=E:\SYSTEMSHOCK-Portable-v1.2\cdrom
GameBin=CDROM\CDSHOCK.EXE
ModPath=..\mods
ModScript=mod.txt

Edit mod.txt:
L cdshock.exe

Start Shlink.exe

[673f198c69e11Enchantermon]

I cannot get this to work.   I get "could not find configuration file" each time, and error code 4002.  I must have the locations setup incorrectly, but SHLINK loads "CDROM/CDSHOCK.EXE" successfully...

I'm getting the same error, and I'm not sure why. When I run shlink.exe, it comes up and the System Shock window comes up over it, but they both close almost immediately with the error mentioned above. The paths are right, so I'm confused as to what exactly is happening.

[673f198c69f99voodoo47]

just tried this,it's great,the mouse has never felt that smooth before..this just begs to be merged with the mouselook mod,hope it will will be done sooner or later..

[673f198c6a12aMalba Tahan]

There's a bug in the loader, perhaps that's what's preventing some people from running it.
Looks like the variable GameBin inside shlink.ini is not being used. Thus, the file name is hardcoded inside the loader, in such way that it will always try to load the file CDROM\CDSHOCK.EXE. Notice that this path is relative to the path in the GamePath variable.
To fix that (using System Shock Portable), I had to create a folder named CDROM inside the RES folder, and copy CDSHOCK.EXE (which is inside shlink.7z) there.
I currently have some real life stuff to deal with, so I can't promise when I'll integrate mouselook into the loader, but it probably won't take much longer.

P.S.: I forgot to say something: if you're using System Shock Portable, make sure that the GamePath variable points to the RES folder. (e.g. "GamePath=E:\dos\games\SSPortable\RES")

[673f198c6a22aStingm]

I can't wait to try this once you update it. I hope the update fixes the mouse movement in portable as well. Thanks for all your hard work.