40th Anniversary Edition

[Scorpion82]

Found a quick solution to install SEF2000.
https://github.com/otya128/winevdm/releases

Very easy to use in order run 16 bit setups on 64 bit O/S.

So here is the exe from my German SEF2000 copy, it's definitely much larger, but based on the file size it seems that the "superw.dat" is probably included, as there is none in my SEF2000 install, but one in the v2.0 Win95 install.

[mikew]

Thanks again!

I just run the 16-bit on my Linux PC, then copy the resulting folder as nescessary.
That's the right version as I get some warning in German when I try to run it.

The idea is to compare it with the English version I installed earlier. While we use the DOS version for Reloaded, SEF is easier to work with in IDA where I can set breakpoints etc

[Krishty]

Interesting version. Here is the version string from the EXE: version $Revision: 3.23.2.35 $ by Derek on Nov 18 1996

DID,DAT format is standard, but the name hashing is unlike EF2000 v2.

[Scorpion82]

It was actually a low budget copy I stumbled across in June 2001. Just the CD case with the CD, manuals in PDF format on the CD. Had the hard copy of EF2000 Special Edition (EF2000 + TACTCOM).

[mikew]

Is that comment about SEF2000 or the DOS Tactcom version?

I see the German SEF2000 exe is dated 4 minutes later than the English version I got from this disk:

ef2000.jpg (86.89 KiB) Viewed 195 times

Strange that there's French and German on the back, but the only installation is English. I need to go to did.com to complain.

That DOS version has an even larger did.dat than the SEF version, plus a 14MB did1st.dat which I assume is the due to the Tactcom add-on.
It's tempting to see if there's anything interesting in them, but I'll resist for now. Maybe we can find the appropriate 3dfx patch to bring it to the 'final' state.

EF2000 V2.0 is the first to use the 'new' name hashing algorithm as far as I know, and all 3 versions (Tactcom, 3dfx &SEF2000) all use exactly the same did.dat.

[Scorpion82]

That comment was about the SEF2000. There are a few minor differences between tactcom and SEF2000. SEF2000 doesn't support the Graphics+ update and VFX1, but has the online help library. In SEF2000 the display overlays are also available in the 3D cockpit, not just in the HUD only view. I mean to remember that I had the Graphics+ update somewhere, not sure though. Maybe it can still be found on the net, or maybe something can be extracted from the v2.0 CD? What's a bit disturbing with Tactcom is, that when you enable VFX1 the graphics become darker, as if you lower a glare visor. Dunno whether it's related to the software rendered only graphics, or whether it's an issue with the older DOS versions.

[mikew]

Interesting!

On the V2.0 disk, there are installers for Tactcom, Graphics+ and SEF2000. So, Graphics+ is installed all in one go without any need for patching. I can post a link to the resulting installation folder for the 3dFX version if you like.

I haven't tried anything other than the 3dFX version with VFX1 enabled, but the game needed to send alternating left and right frames to the VFX1 and we may be missing half of them in SW rendered mode...or something like that.

It would be good to have an European version of EF2000, patched all the way to Graphics+, but I'm not sure if anybody ever managed to do that.

[mikew]

Anyway. now I have both the English and German SEF versions running off the same extracted dataset.
So, just checking my assumptions, I can run the Takeoff mission with both exe and see that I get the RAF and Luftwaffe markings in the respective exes...and I can then change NATO to SWEDISH in the takeoff.cfg file and get the expected response.
This totally proves that the NATO difference is in the exe and not some config file.

ef_se.PNG (51.01 KiB) Viewed 183 times

[Scorpion82]

Thanks, interesting find. I have all relevant versions installed, maybe placing the German TACTCOM exe into the v2.0 3DFX version has the same effect, albeit I have some doubts about it. Might be worth to also give a try to Italian and Spanish nationality assignments for the scripted missions, as their roundles are included in the texture file you have posted. So for an annivesary release one idea could be to include all localised executables and make them swapable, if possible and possibly edit the scripted missions nationalities to give a wider range of choices for users, covering the core nations.

I'll experiment with the TACTCOM plus GFX+ thing. At simhq there was the hint to run the GFX+ patch directly after the base install and before running the cobfig exe for the first time.

[Scorpion82]

Am just in the process of making a fresh install of EF2000 TACTCOM using DOS Box. I have backed up the original install and am patching to TACTCOM. Can confirm that the 1did.dat is created by the TACTCOM installer. I have found the Graphics+ update and try to run it therafter. I'll report on the results.

[Scorpion82]

Some updates. As reported elsewhere GFX+ converts your European version of EF2000 into US v2.0. Replacing the exe or DId.dat of v2.0 with TACTCOM doesn't work and unlike the Win95 versions there is also no change in insignias when swapping the executables between different TACTCOM languages (tested with UK and GE versions). Might be that by extracting the DID.dat of these installs some file might be found to address this issue.

[mikew]

I think we can replace most of the English briefings, menus and weapons pictures with the French and German equivalents by swapping the appropriate files in did.dat.
What we probably can't do is change the messages that appear on screen as these are hard-coded in the exe.

[mikew]

Even V2.0 has a flag somewhere for installation language. The file 'mainmenu.gui' from V2.0 still contains some French and German text, and if I swap the words 'english' and 'german', so it's reacting to the word 'english' rather than taking the first position in the list.

ef_mainmenu.PNG (253.82 KiB) Viewed 78 times

I can't find any way I can set this globally though and there doesn't seem to be a 'hidden' config parameter in 'ef2000.cfg', so it's either find it in the exe or just replace 'english' with 'french/german' in all the .gui files

[Menrva]

It would be good to have an European version of EF2000, patched all the way to Graphics+, but I'm not sure if anybody ever managed to do that.

I think I did that already, here: viewtopic.php?t=426
I patched the original EF2000 with all available patches, also offered them all as separate installed folders, so that people can compare each version step by step.

[Scorpion82]

I think I did that already, here: viewtopic.php?t=426
I patched the original EF2000 with all available patches, also offered them all as separate installed folders, so that people can compare each version step by step.

Hello Menvra,

were you the creator of the ef2000fix.exe as well? I think it was only posted at the former combatsim forums. I think it's useful to share this tool for those who like to run the 95 version.

[Scorpion82]

Even V2.0 has a flag somewhere for installation language. The file 'mainmenu.gui' from V2.0 still contains some French and German text, and if I swap the words 'english' and 'german', so it's reacting to the word 'english' rather than taking the first position in the list.
ef_mainmenu.PNG
I can't find any way I can set this globally though and there doesn't seem to be a 'hidden' config parameter in 'ef2000.cfg', so it's either find it in the exe or just replace 'english' with 'french/german' in all the .gui files

Not sure whether it's really worth the effort. Getting the insignias would be more interesting I think. I have shared a link on the German versions and could post it here as well, do you can have a look at its DID.dat content, if you like.

[mikew]

No, I don't think it's worth the effort either but in principle, you could change the language to anything if you're careful not to exceed the length of the original strings. There are only English, French and German versions of the weapon pictures, but even those those could be edited in Deluxe paint.

I have all the files I need. Your German version of the SEF exe you uploaded earlier is useful to compare with the English version I already had...and now we know that all 3dFX patches lead to V2.0.

Now, back to the insignias...

[Scorpion82]

The interesting aspect of the DOS version of EF2000 is that the insignias seem not to be hard coded in the exe, unlike in Super EF2000. I have placed the _ef2000.exe from the German version of EF2000 TACTCOM into the UK version and it neither changed the game's language, nor the insignias, unlike what you observed with SEF2000. That the file structure is evidently different between DOS and Win95 versions is obvious. Could be interesting to take a look at the extracted DID.dats of EF2000 TACTCOM and SEF2000. Thus far we had the v2.0 only, if I'm not mistaken.

[mikew]

That's interesting. but it's all a matter of time really.
The 'quickest' way to change the insignias in the 3dFX version is probably just to edit the .3 model files of the EF2000 to redirect the semaphore that gives the USAF markings to the plane
That would save trying to reverse engineer the exe.

For V2.0, the three versions on the disk, Tactcom, SEF and Graphics+ all use exactly the same did.dat.

[mikew]

Well, that seemed to work although I'm not sure how to best package the solution.
I've edited the model files and removed the original model efa.3 from did.dat.
I've then created a new did.dat (from the files I happen I to have handy, which may not be complete) and moved the EF2000 models to a '3' folder. When the game can't find efa.3 in did.dat, it will look there.
The included version is called 'efdid.dat'. It will need to be renamed to 'did.dat', so backup your original version.
In the '3' folder are three variants, one of them will need to be renamed to 'efa.3' depending on which markings are desired.

EDIT:
Just to clarify that this did.dat is only compatible with the existing Reloaded or V2.0 and not the European versions