Widescreen Gaming Forum

Good news everyone!

I created simple console patch, a ColdFix which patch Cold Fear executable for usage of any desired resolution, so you dont need to manually hex-edit it anymore.
This tool also removes black bars in main menu and cut-scenes - making screen space 100% observable.
And as a little bonus it would also fix pre-rendered cut-scene and bonus video stretching and would make aspect ratio of any bik videos 100%.

You can download it here http://dl.dropbox.com/u/75754626/ColdFix_v0.8_beta.rar

Its not completely finished, a beta yet, but at the moment it can do all the things, just not exactly the way i wish, but later i would probably update it.

Right now it works this way:

Patches 640x480 resolution by any resolution you entered in prompt.

Allows to re-patch game any time you want, if for example you need to change resolution.

Removes black bars during 1st patching, since there is no need to repatch these values and since they are not inside exe they would not be patched again.

Re-encodes FMV with correct aspect ratio which is automatically calculated based on entered resolution.
As all bonus videos are 4:3 they would be hor+ centered with black bars at sides to preserve full image.
Cut-scenes are Anamorphic widescreen - effective frame space is widescreen, something near 1.85:1, but they are endcoded as 4:3 wtih hardcoded black bars. So all cut scenes would be ver- and hor fit. This works fine on any resolution with ratio up-to 1:85:1 but tripple screen displays could have potential problems where upper and lower sides would be cropped too much and low res videos doesnt look sexy, when they upscaled to 3 screens.
This is one of things i plan to fix in future, but i dont have any devices to test it and select the most optimal way to render FMV cut-scenes.
I need at least list of common resolutions per screen and all together plus some opinions. My current idea is to crop video until it would fix center screen and then add black bars for entire space of left and right screens.

Few more things i plan to-do:
Replace manual entering of resolution by enumeration of all supported resolutions.

Automatically patch config file to avoid game crash if wrong resolution selected (this is actually done, i just had no time to test new portions of code with base and not sure that offset of resolution byte in config will remain the same for others, so i removed this part of code for now - few config files SAVESCOLDFEAR.DAT could help )

Improve Bik re-encoding to make it 100% looseless and to preserve all 5 audio channels (right now i only managed to keep 1st audio channel with English voices).
Or as alternative, do inline patch for binkw32.dll , injection of microcode that would apply aspect ratio correction based on filename. This is ideal solution, but would be challenging for me as i barely remember asm and have quite limited time these days, so any help appreciated.

Usage is simple, put all exe and dll files in game folder, run ColdFix.exe and do as instructed ;-)
Some dumbass antiviruses may have false positive due of mpress packer.

Sounds great ! Solution added to the DR.
If you could add comparison screenshots and details by the time the fix is finished, please do. Just use the Edit button on top of the DR page. ;)

Should i add screenshots made after fix?

Yes please ! ;) The screenies should answer the question: how does Cold Fear look in all ARs after the fix ?

I just saw the game is available on Steam. Does your patcher work on the Steam or retail disc version only ?

Im not sure about Steam version.

In most cases Steam executables have steam bootstrap which loads steam and executes encrypted code, but some devs dont protect theirs exes on steam, so im not sure.

But anyway official unprotected patch (which is the only version i tested) is available and there is no harm to replace exe from steam version with this one. However patch designed to not use fixed offset, but use a pattern of 640x480 resolution in hex with separator instead, so in theory it should would with any unprotected exe.

But if someone would upload exe from steam version, i can tell for sure.

TADA!
As promised, i updated patcher to v0.9

Some improvements:

+ you dont need to start game or select 640x480 resolution prior patching, 4 bytes in binary config file autopatched now, if no config exist, its generated for you..
+ Improved BIK re-endcoding default quality to make it loseless and in same time to keep size of files close to original.
+ original video files will be kept in OLDER folder, in case if you will change resolution and will need to re-encode videos again only original files will be re-encoded, no more re-encoding of re-encoded videos mess.
+ added external INI config file so anyone could manually tweak BIK compression for advanced users.
+ all audio channels with various languages are preserved now inside BIK, but it could be tweaked via ini so you can set maxTrackid=0 to force English language only, this would save some extra time if you dont need to re-encode other (will probably enhance this in next update, to allow forcing any language).
+ added minimum resolution limitation with return to entry prompt to prevent some miscalculations such as divide by zero, also anything except for numbers now considered as delimiter.
+ added detailed Debug log, so you can post it here in case if something will go wrong.
+ some cosmetic improvements, like more information about whats going on and pauses between 3 major step, so u can just look at numbers and generate debug log, or just patch exe, without converting all videos again.
+ merged all external tools into single exe for easier installation and to keep game folder clean of crap, however, if you will quit without re-encoding - 3 extra exe will remain in folder, you can delete them or they will be deleted next time you re-encode videos.

You can download new version here:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/75754626/ColdFix_v0.9_beta.rar

Report me bugs or something that doesnt work right for you!

Also im still thinking about Tripple head display support and need help such as information about how resolution treated there, how to detect tripplehead and how to deal with prerendered scenes.

And yeah, i tested patch will all retail versionы i could find (us and rus, also crack by Hooldum) - works as good as official unprotected exe, steam version not tested, need exe from it but i suppose it should work fine.

That application trashed my game I had to redownload it and reinstall it, it made it so only a narrow 4:3 window was visible and had huge black bars on the sides when I wanted 1920x1080

does anyone know the hex for this because the above application is broken.

If i did everything correctly, this patch is not HOR+ but VERT-
1600x1200

1280x800

2560x1080

Can someone reupload Coldfix? It seems that Dropbox decided to remove it due to too much traffic.

Can someone reupload the patcher please? The old link is dead, and i can't find any other links. Thank you.