Playing Tachyon @ 2560x1600? Sure!

Silver_83 · 03-19-2012, 06:13 AM

Tired of playing Tachyon The Fringe at 1024x768?

Well, I was. But there is an easy way of playing this game in almost any resolution you'd like.

Editing the game to get better resolutions is tricky and buggy, so that's no option. Thankfully Tachyon was released in a time GLIDE was way more popular than D3D. The Steam version only uses the D3D api, which is totally understandable because 3Dfx and GLIDE are long gone. But the GLIDE dll still exists in the game directory...

So why not using a GLIDE Wrapper, which itself can be configurated to almost any resolution.

Let's start:

The follwing steps were done under Windows 7 Pro 64bit with a GeForce GTX 570 and newest drivers:

1) Download the glide wrapper. The newest and by far the best ist nglide.

http://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide

2) Open the nglide configuration utility and select your desired resolution.

3) Open your Tachyon The Fringe game directory and open Tachyon.cfg. Change "HW_type=2" to "HW_type=1" (2 is D3D, 1 is GLIDE) and make sure "USE_HARDWARE" is set to "1". Do not open the launcher's video config any more or it'll reset the config file!

4) Have fun playing the game at high resolutions!

This way I'm playing the game @ 2560x1600 (with black bars , so no stretching) with 16x AF, 32x CSAA under Win7 64bit without any problems. It's looking great!

Btw.: Anyone knows how to play the intro ingame? Until now I just drag and drop the tachyon.bik onto the binkplayer.exe (download the RadVideo Tools. It includes a new binkplay.exe, which can play the video in fullscreen). But still, viewing it ingame would give a better experience. And, is there no ending video?? Still need to complete the game...

JGZinv · 03-20-2012, 11:42 AM

Hi there.

That's some interesting information you've found.
I tired doing things the hard way I guess by modifying the game files. http://widescreengamingforum.com/for...tachyon-fringe

In game the intro is set to not show after the first time you've played it in the files. So you'd have to know where to edit them or reinstall the game.

The intro movie though is on rolfmohr's site I believe, and also on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiepY4cGlE4

As to the ending, you can also watch playthrough's on youtube, but there's a different ending for each faction.

Right now the server lobby is not hosting games but it should come back up again soon. Also visit FringeSpace.org for patches and things.

JGZinv · 03-20-2012, 11:51 AM

I'm actually having a problem at 1920x1080
When in mission, you do nothing but spin around as though the controls are locked. Any ideas on this?

Edit -

Figured out how to get around it. Alt+Tab to another window then back to the game any time you load a mission (not respawn, just initial load). It works fine after that.

Silver_83 · 03-21-2012, 03:01 PM

I had no troubles with controls. Though I have to try a tool to map rotating to my Hotas T Flight.

Thanks for the youtube link. But that's really bad quality

I just made a selfrunning exe out of the Tachyon.bik via RadTools. That way I can easily watch it fullscreen with an acceptable quality. Put that into a batch file together with a modified space.exe and it's finally being played right before the start of the game

JGZinv · 03-21-2012, 06:36 PM

Well it's from the author's site, don't know what else to tell you about quality.

Also the editing of the dll's proved to be unneeded. You can acomplish the same thing by editing the tachyon.cfg file in notepad.

[VIDEO]
WINDOWED=0
USE_HARDWARE=1
NO_VSYNC=0
RES=2
HW_TYPE=1
DEVICE=0
DEF_GAMMA=100
DEF_BRIGHT=70

RES= can be 0 or 1 or 2 (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768) respectively. But that's what you need in there to do this.
Gamma and brightness are set in game.

Silver_83 · 03-22-2012, 02:12 PM

Well, it's a Youtube 240p video, heavily compressed

The bik video file has a higher resolution and a higher bitrate.

I don't get your RES=0,1,2 comment...if I understand you correctly, that way the highest achievable resolution is 1024x768...so totally uselesse. Or am I getting something wrong?

JGZinv · 03-22-2012, 10:09 PM

Actually I don't think it matters....

But you can reference this thread -
http://www.zeus-software.com/forum/v...php?f=10&t=432

Silver_83 · 03-23-2012, 05:15 AM

Yeah, I get it.

You are referring to Zeus's posting regarding that changing HW_type to 1 is enough for using glide. So no dll renaming any more. That's cool. Thanks.

I'll edit my first posting.

JGZinv · 03-23-2012, 09:23 AM

I'll probably try to package this up as a mod and
get it out there soon. So you may not have to worry about
it too much. ^_^

Bet · 04-30-2012, 12:34 PM

Oh MAN this game is incredible in high res, what a fantastic thing. Zeus is an apt name for someone that made a glide wrapper that works better than the real thing.

Tachyon is now as stunning as Freespace Open thanks to this find.

Edit: Thanks also to JGZinv, also had the spinning problem, alt-tabbing fixed it right up!

JGZinv · 04-30-2012, 09:43 PM

A mod was made off this if you wish the check it out at FringeSpace in the downloads section. Visual Enhancements Mod.

Chyronn · 10-14-2012, 01:03 PM

This would be great, but it doesn't work for me. i followed the steps and everything loads up fine; the only problem is there is no text whatsoever. i never bought it from Steam, this is an original i've owned since it came out and i'm currently in the process of finding out what games i can run on Win7 64bit Ultimate

JGZinv · 10-15-2012, 08:12 AM

So you've already been through http://www.fringespace.org/ ??

03-19-2012, 06:13 AM	#1
Silver_83 Join Date: May 2011 Reputation: 0 Posts: 10	Playing Tachyon @ 2560x1600? Sure! Tired of playing Tachyon The Fringe at 1024x768? Well, I was. But there is an easy way of playing this game in almost any resolution you'd like. Editing the game to get better resolutions is tricky and buggy, so that's no option. Thankfully Tachyon was released in a time GLIDE was way more popular than D3D. The Steam version only uses the D3D api, which is totally understandable because 3Dfx and GLIDE are long gone. But the GLIDE dll still exists in the game directory... So why not using a GLIDE Wrapper, which itself can be configurated to almost any resolution. Let's start: The follwing steps were done under Windows 7 Pro 64bit with a GeForce GTX 570 and newest drivers: 1) Download the glide wrapper. The newest and by far the best ist nglide. http://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide 2) Open the nglide configuration utility and select your desired resolution. 3) Open your Tachyon The Fringe game directory and open Tachyon.cfg. Change "HW_type=2" to "HW_type=1" (2 is D3D, 1 is GLIDE) and make sure "USE_HARDWARE" is set to "1". Do not open the launcher's video config any more or it'll reset the config file! 4) Have fun playing the game at high resolutions! This way I'm playing the game @ 2560x1600 (with black bars , so no stretching) with 16x AF, 32x CSAA under Win7 64bit without any problems. It's looking great! Btw.: Anyone knows how to play the intro ingame? Until now I just drag and drop the tachyon.bik onto the binkplayer.exe (download the RadVideo Tools. It includes a new binkplay.exe, which can play the video in fullscreen). But still, viewing it ingame would give a better experience. And, is there no ending video?? Still need to complete the game... Last edited by Silver_83: 03-23-2012 at 05:19 AM.

03-20-2012, 11:51 AM	#3
JGZinv Join Date: Jun 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 49	I'm actually having a problem at 1920x1080 When in mission, you do nothing but spin around as though the controls are locked. Any ideas on this? Edit - Figured out how to get around it. Alt+Tab to another window then back to the game any time you load a mission (not respawn, just initial load). It works fine after that. Last edited by JGZinv: 03-20-2012 at 12:45 PM.

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03-20-2012, 11:42 AM	#2
JGZinv Join Date: Jun 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 49	Hi there. That's some interesting information you've found. I tired doing things the hard way I guess by modifying the game files. http://widescreengamingforum.com/for...tachyon-fringe In game the intro is set to not show after the first time you've played it in the files. So you'd have to know where to edit them or reinstall the game. The intro movie though is on rolfmohr's site I believe, and also on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiepY4cGlE4 As to the ending, you can also watch playthrough's on youtube, but there's a different ending for each faction. Right now the server lobby is not hosting games but it should come back up again soon. Also visit FringeSpace.org for patches and things.

03-21-2012, 03:01 PM	#4
Silver_83 Join Date: May 2011 Reputation: 0 Posts: 10	I had no troubles with controls. Though I have to try a tool to map rotating to my Hotas T Flight. Thanks for the youtube link. But that's really bad quality I just made a selfrunning exe out of the Tachyon.bik via RadTools. That way I can easily watch it fullscreen with an acceptable quality. Put that into a batch file together with a modified space.exe and it's finally being played right before the start of the game

03-21-2012, 06:36 PM	#5
JGZinv Join Date: Jun 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 49	Well it's from the author's site, don't know what else to tell you about quality. Also the editing of the dll's proved to be unneeded. You can acomplish the same thing by editing the tachyon.cfg file in notepad. [VIDEO] WINDOWED=0 USE_HARDWARE=1 NO_VSYNC=0 RES=2 HW_TYPE=1 DEVICE=0 DEF_GAMMA=100 DEF_BRIGHT=70 RES= can be 0 or 1 or 2 (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768) respectively. But that's what you need in there to do this. Gamma and brightness are set in game.

03-22-2012, 02:12 PM	#6
Silver_83 Join Date: May 2011 Reputation: 0 Posts: 10	Well, it's a Youtube 240p video, heavily compressed The bik video file has a higher resolution and a higher bitrate. I don't get your RES=0,1,2 comment...if I understand you correctly, that way the highest achievable resolution is 1024x768...so totally uselesse. Or am I getting something wrong?

03-22-2012, 10:09 PM	#7
JGZinv Join Date: Jun 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 49	Actually I don't think it matters.... But you can reference this thread - http://www.zeus-software.com/forum/v...php?f=10&t=432

03-23-2012, 05:15 AM	#8
Silver_83 Join Date: May 2011 Reputation: 0 Posts: 10	Yeah, I get it. You are referring to Zeus's posting regarding that changing HW_type to 1 is enough for using glide. So no dll renaming any more. That's cool. Thanks. I'll edit my first posting.

03-23-2012, 09:23 AM	#9
JGZinv Join Date: Jun 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 49	I'll probably try to package this up as a mod and get it out there soon. So you may not have to worry about it too much. ^_^

04-30-2012, 12:34 PM	#10
Bet Join Date: Jun 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 38	Oh MAN this game is incredible in high res, what a fantastic thing. Zeus is an apt name for someone that made a glide wrapper that works better than the real thing. Tachyon is now as stunning as Freespace Open thanks to this find. Edit: Thanks also to JGZinv, also had the spinning problem, alt-tabbing fixed it right up!

04-30-2012, 09:43 PM	#11
JGZinv Join Date: Jun 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 49	A mod was made off this if you wish the check it out at FringeSpace in the downloads section. Visual Enhancements Mod.

10-14-2012, 01:03 PM	#12
Chyronn Join Date: Nov 2008 Reputation: 0 Posts: 15	This would be great, but it doesn't work for me. i followed the steps and everything loads up fine; the only problem is there is no text whatsoever. i never bought it from Steam, this is an original i've owned since it came out and i'm currently in the process of finding out what games i can run on Win7 64bit Ultimate

10-15-2012, 08:12 AM	#13
JGZinv Join Date: Jun 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 49	So you've already been through http://www.fringespace.org/ ??