Sins of a Solar Empire Netbook Low Resolution Mod
Sins of a Solar Empire Netbook Low Resolution ModCreated by: shadowfox11Version: 3.0Build date: September 30, 2012
******************************************************************Changelog:******************************************************************Version 3.0: - Version for Rebellion only (tested with v1.04 of Rebellion, but should work with newer versions as well as long as Stardock doesn't make any changes to the layout of the buttons).
Version 2.2: - Updated the instructions included in the mod to include a fix for the "diplomacy.user.setting" file (see the Troubleshooting section below for more info).
Version 2.1: - Fixed Diplomacy and Research screens in the Diplomacy expansion so that you can now see how much Crystal you have while in those screens.
Version 2.0: - Added support for Sins of a Solar Empire Diplomacy Expansion/Sins of a Solar Empire Trinity collection. - Now tested and working on version 1.19 of the original game, v1.05 of the Entrenchment expansion, and v1.0 of the Diplomacy expansion. - Fixed Main Menu Screen for original Sins of a Solar Empire game so all buttons are fully visible. - Fixed the player theme picker so that the title and buttons are in the correct location. - Fixed the location of the Fleet Logistics buttons and window in Diplomacy (Version 1.0 of Diplomacy from Stardock seems to have a glitch because the buttons located a little out-of-place by default, so I changed them to where they're supposed to be. The game would still work fine even if I hadn't fixed them, but I just did it to make it look nicer). - Updated one of the modified game files to reflect the new "Galaxy Forge" string when changing map types. - Updated instructions with HillybillyBoozer's user settings fix for users who have screen resolution problems, and other changes (see below for details on the fix). - Updated backed up originals of modified game files to reflect the newest strings from the newest versions of the game and the two expansions (v1.19, 1.05, and v1.0).
******************************************************************Introduction:******************************************************************Many of today's netbooks contain the power to run Sins of a Solar Empire(albeit on the lowest visual settings). However, many netbooks have a maxresolution of 1024x600, and Sins of a Solar Empire requires at least a1024x768 resolution to work (the game would run on the netbook's lower resolution, but many of the buttons were cut-off making it very difficult to play the game (the only possible way to play was to use a screen scrolling technique (got very annoying very quickly), or using the "Tab"button on the keyboard to go through the different buttons you wanted(very confusing since you couldn't tell which button your had selectedmost of the time). Well, since Ironclad still has not created support forthese lower resolution netbook screens, I decided to take the liberty of creating it for them, in my Sins of a Solar Empire Netbook Low Resolution Mod.
******************************************************************Credits:******************************************************************Before you go any further in installing this mod on your computer, you need to know that I did not do this mod on my own. A lot of credit needs to go toJoe McCormack from:
http://www.virtualsecrets.com/acer-aspire-one-netbook.html
because that was where I got the idea to create this mod in the first place. I built upon and revised his original modded files and made them compatible with all the screens (except for the Ironclad Online screens (see below))instead of just some of them, and I went on to create versions of the mod tosupport each of the expansions and additions to the original game.
******************************************************************Disclaimer:******************************************************************- A lot of time and hard work has gone into this mod by both myself and Joe McCormack. Please be curteous and give credit where credit is due. You may decide to adjust a few things in the mod yourself, and that is totally fine. If you want to include this mod in one of your own mods, please notify me first, and please remember to give original credit to both shadowfox11 (myself) and Joe McCormack.
- Use this mod at your own risk. Although it is virtually impossible that this mod could cause any damage at all to your computer, please be aware that I will not be held responsible for any possible damages (no matter how slim) that using this mod could cause.
******************************************************************Features:******************************************************************- v3.0 is only compatible with Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion (tested with v1.04 of Rebellion, but should work with newer versions of Rebellion as well, as long as Stardock doesn't make any changes to the layout of the buttons).
- Supports resolutions as low as 1024x600 (the resolutions many popular netbooks use including the Asus 1000HE, 1005HA, MSI Wind U100, Acer Aspire One, etc.)
- All screens fixed except for Ironclad Online Screens. I did a minimal amount of fixingto those screens, but I didn't bother fixing them all since I feel that many netbooks are a little underpowered for online play. (I also do not play online and don't have much interest in ever doing so, but if anyone is interested in me adding support for those screens let me know and I'll see what I can do).
******************************************************************Installation Instructions:****************************************************************** a. Make sure that you've run Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion at least once on your computer to ensure that the needed directories for your settings are created. b. In Windows, browse to the "My Documents" folder for your username on your computer. It should contain a folder entitled "My Games". c. After extracting the downloaded netbook mod archive, copy the "Netbook Resolution Mod v3.0" folder to the following directory within your "My Documents" directory:
"\My Games\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion\Mods-Rebellion vX.XX" (where "X.XX" is whatever version of Rebellion you are using).
***Note: You could replace steps d-g (directly below) by opening the game and enabling the mod through the game, but unfortunately the buttons used to enable the mod are cut off (since the mod hasn't been enabled yet) so you'd have to tab through the buttons to enable the mod. You're welcome to do it that way, but to make things easier I included steps d-g so you can enable the mod before starting the game. d. Within that same "Mods-Rebellion vX.XX" folder you should see a text document entitled "EnabledMods.txt". Open it using Notepad; (i.e., right click on it and click "Open" or "Open with..." and choose "Notepad"). e. Once the "EnabledMods.txt" file is open, you should see a line that says "enabledModNameCount" with a number next to it. Add one to whatever that number is; (e.g, if it is a "0" then change it to "1"). (this just allows you to enable the netbook mod in addition to whatever other mods you might have enabled (it should work with most other mods as long as they haven't changed the layouts of the buttons)). f. Add a line directly below the "enabledModNameCount" line and paste in the following line (with no spaces before the line): enabledModName "Netbook Resolution Mod v3.0"
(so if the enabledModNameCount was originally 0, the file should look like this now (with no spaces before each line)):
TXT Version 0 enabledModNameCount 1 enabledModName "Netbook Resolution Mod v3.0"
g. Save the changes you made to the "EnabledMods.txt" document; (i.e., go to the "File" menu of Notepad and click "Save"), then close Notepad. h. Start up the game and you should be able to be able to play Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion on your netbook without scrolling at 1024x600 resolution! Enjoy!
***Note: If you have any issues with the mod not working right, or still don't see the buttons correctly, see the troubleshooting section, directly below:
*************************************************************************************Troubleshooting (Thanks to HillbillyBoozer for finding this fix) (*UPDATED 9/30/12*):*************************************************************************************Some users of my mod have reported that they were unable to get the mod to work simply by copyingover and enabling my mod using the steps above. This problem is most likely to occur if yourun the game and mess with the video/resolution settings before or after applying my modded files. Uninstalling and reinstalling the game may not fix this issue as the user settings file that stores your chosen settings could potentially not be deleted even if you uninstall the game. If you have followed the directions above to install the mod, but you are getting a black screen and/or some elements of the game are still cut off, try the following:
1. In Windows, browse to the "My Documents" folder for your username on your computer. It should contain a folder entitled "My Games".2. Browse to the following directory within your "My Documents" directory:
"\My Games\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion\Setting"
3. Right click on the "rebellion.user.setting" file in that folder and click "Open" or "Open with..." and choose "Notepad."4. Once the file is open in Notepad, find the following four lines and type in the following numbers after them like so:
VideoFullScreenWidth 1024 VideoFullScreenHeight 600 VideoWindowedWidth 1024 VideoWindowedHeight 600 ***Note: If you are using a resolution other than 1024x600, replace the numbers above with whatever your netbook's resolution (width and height) are.
5. Click the "File" menu of Notepad and click "Save" to save these changes. Then close Notepad.6. Try running Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion again and it should run without any problems!
***************************************************Download Links & File Hashes:***************************************************
Netbook Low Resolution Mod v3.0 for Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion (Compatible with Rebellion Only):Download:Netbook Low Resolution Mod v3.0 by shadowfox11 - MediaFire
ZIP Archive File Hashes:CRC32: 966E386FMD5: 10DAE4DF4F1909C7FE19079A76BFA5BDSHA-1: 51DAB2CA64AF4459696A11BBE787B8E4E8A25F4D
Older Versions of Mod (For Trinity/Original Game, Entrenchment, and Diplomacy):
Note: Before downloading either of the Distant Stars Netbook Low Resolution Mods below, I highly recommend that you download and apply my original Netbook mod v2.2 (directly below). Also, please note that the instructions and notes for installing the older versions of the Netbook Low Resolution mods will be different from the instructions mentioned in this post (which are for the Rebellion v3.0 mod) so please read the instructions text files in each of the older archives after downloading them for instructions on where to put the files for the older Netbook Low Resolution Mods.
Original v2.2 Netbook Low Resolution Mod for Original Sins of a Solar Empire Game and Expansions (Entrenchment and Diplomacy):Download:Netbook Low Resolution Mod v2.2 by shadowfox11 - MediaFire
RAR Archive File Hashes:CRC32: 68CCB868MD5: 86CE2B0E23E95680DEB7C96341417ACASHA-1: A22EB39C911CF31995D0F88A231E128451DC2D08
Link to the Forum Page for the Distant Stars Mod:
https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/335474
Netbook Low Resolution Mod for Distant Stars v0.7 Beta for Diplomacy Mod:
Download:Netbook Low Resolution Mod For Distant Stars v0.7 Diplomacy Mod - v1.0 by shadowfox11 - MediaFire
RAR Archive File Hashes:CRC32: FB3C7C92MD5: A99283E65EF3CED708D7BB5F7A1153F2SHA-1: BC1445C759292AB6700EA3063B74EE4EF6DC11C4Netbook Low Resolution Mod for Distant Stars v0.9951 Beta for Entrenchment Mod: Download:Netbook Low Resolution Mod For Distant Stars v0.9951 Entrenchment Mod - v1.0 by shadowfox11 - MediaFire
RAR Archive File Hashes: CRC32: 823DA03B MD5: F646C6F47CCACEB86BA819325EFFA3CD SHA-1: 5BCDC7359D516470F788FF77606349CFF2BC4D33
******Make sure that you read and follow the "Troubleshooting" section of this post and/or the instructions text document included in the download archive if you have any problems with my mods*********************************************************Screenshots:***************************************************
Shadow and Joe... This is the most useful community fix I've seen in years. Easy, accessible, and no issues. Sins is now running excellently on my Samsung N120 (N270, 1GB).
It always makes me smile when a company says "we can't do it; it's too much work" and the community just gets it done like overnight. Take note stardock; these are people who get things done.
Many thanks guys.
~ Daft
Thank you very much for your most gracious reply, Daft. You are most welcome for the mod.
I couldn't agree with you more about Stardock's unwillingness to add further support. I guess at least we can count on those "we can't do it" statements from Stardock for one thing; they sure drive my passion to make sure that it DOES happen. I'm glad that my mod has been helping you guys.
I have followed all the steps described here... including the *.setting changes to 1024 and 600 under both setting files. And the game (Diplomacy) got a lot better, the only problem being that when I click on the research tree buttons to research new technologies, I'm missing the last line and a half. Any ideas what I should try?
never mind, sorry, I just realized I had forgotten to add the diplomacy mod files to the diplomacy window folder. Now it works, thanks a lot for all the hard work guys.
No worries, diogo6. I'm glad you got it working.
Can you help make Distant Stars mod work with the netbook mod....
Bison......
Sorry for the late reply, G_Bison. School's been insane lately. I'll see about adding support for the Distant Stars mod, but from what I can tell there are three different versions of the Distant Stars mod. One for Diplomacy, one for Entrenchment, and one for the original game. Which one would you be using (so I can know which files to change)?
The only problem with adding my netbook mod support for the Distant Stars mod is that if they continue updating their mod and making changes it might cause problems with compatiblity between my mod and their mod and I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up with all of that. I'll see what I can do and get back to you.
Thanks for your time to get back at me, once i get Entrenchment working, gonna keep the mod regardless of the updates may come. Just gonna keep it around when I'm on the road and leave the more advance one at home. thanks again for your time. Bison....
Sorry it's taken me so long to create a version of my mod for the Distant Stars mod, G-Bison. Luckily I had some time today to work on it, so I messed around with it and I think I've got it working just fine. I've uploaded Netbook Low Resolution (1024x600) mods for both the v0.9951 Beta Distant Stars mod for Entrenchment, and the v0.7 Beta Distant Stars mod for Diplomacy. I didn't bother making one for the Distant Stars mod for the original game since from what I could tell it still hasn't been updated to support v1.19 of the original game. I've tested both of my netbook mods for the Distant Stars mod and I think I've got everything working (other than the ICO screens of course), but let me know if you have any questions or problems. Make sure you read the Info and Instructions text document in the downloaded archive for instructions.
P.S. The menu music for the Distant Stars mod for Diplomacy is quite awesome, I must say.
Yeah, the music is awesome and the mod is top notch too, will try the new mod and get back to you, thanks in advance...BISON.......
No problem. Glad to help. Yeah, let me know how it goes.
In case you missed it, pairing your mod with Major Stress's Sins Optimization Mod might really help out netbook users: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/378149. He has invited anyone to take it and use it for anything they like--no strings attached.
Really fine work. Very cool to see so many people popping up with contributions. You guys are the future.
Indeed, The optimization project will most certainly help out the netbook users.
Shadowfox11 I am in need of your assistance. You seem to know your way around the UI. Specifically the grid system. The Sins UI is the most important thing that needs optimizing. Can you PM me and ill give you details on what i need help with. TIA
Thanks Sin-Imperium and Major Stress. Your Optimization Mod looks very promising, Major Stress. I'll definitely see about adding that to my own mod as the netbooks could definitely use the performance boost. Thank you. And I would be glad to help out your mod in any way I can.
You have a great attitude shadow...good to see ya here. my son is getting a netbook--I may have to borrow it. Next we need to get it to work on the iPod shuffle
Thanks for the compliment, SIN-Imperium. It's great that these forums have so many supporters for all of the different efforts going on to make this amazing game even better. The community here is truly amazing.
Haha, yeah I'll have to see about adding support to the iPod shuffle. Maybe I could implement the Shuffle's new text-to-speech capabilities to tell players what was going on in the game since they wouldn't be able to see anything.
Re: the distant stars thing: last time I did it, I just threw the netbook files over the top of Distant Stars (iirc) and it worked fine.
@Carbon016. Yes, if you're refering to copying my original netbook mod files over the Distant Stars mod files then you're right: that does work for the most part, but some things will be a little off. Namely the Research screens. That's why I made a seperate mod to put on top of the Distant Stars mod files. A lot of the files in the netbook mod I made for Distant Stars are the same as the original mod files, but I only included the ones you need and made changes to a lot of them to fine tune everything to work with the Distant Stars mod.
ShadowFox11 you are amazing!!!!! Just finished uploading your Net book mod For DS and it works. Now if the SOP mod works with the other mods for netbooks. i can let my wife stay on the main PC. Maybe....Thanks again...Bison...
Thank you G_Bison. I'm glad that that worked for you. I'm definitely planning on incorporating the SOP mod into my own netbook mod soon. Probably once I finish this semester here in a few weeks and have a little more free time. Thanks again for getting back to me on that and letting me know that it worked.
Hello,
I have been having a slight problem with the mod. I have Diplomacy v1.01 (+entrenchment v1.05 and original v1.19) installed, with the Low Res Mod v2.2. I have copied all the 'window' folders from the original, entrenchment, and diplomacy (in that order) folders overwriting the files in the install directory. I have also changed the user.setting and diplomacy.user.setting files to match the instructions (1024X600).
Now the problem: it appears that the game start menu, game options, pick theme and others are fixed so I am able to start a game and access these menus, however when I play the game the loading screen, relationship window, diplomacy window, research window, and underground window are unchanged and cutoff. I am not sure why some screens are changed and some aren't. Has anyone else run into this problem? Any suggestions?
PS. I have a standard Acer Aspire One.
Thanks!
Wow!!! Just got this to work. Awesome mod! Now I can finally play this gem. Had to have Microsoft support explain how to copy(yes , I know I am computer stupid).Once I had that figured out I had the game running in 1024x600 in less than 5 minutes.Thank you for taking the time to develop this mod.
Hi-I need help!
Ive downloaded your mod but cant find the instalation instructcions or troubleshooting info. Where is it or can you post it up for me?
Thanks,
assuming you have sins 1.191/entrenchment 1.051/diplomacy 1.01, the Mods NEED to be placed here for xp
C:\Documents and Settings\'user name'\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods-v1.191C:\Documents and Settings\'user name'\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods-Entrenchment v1.051C:\Documents and Settings\'user name'\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods-Diplomacy v1.011or here for vista/windows 7
C:\Users\'user name'\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods-v1.191C:\Users\'user name'\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods-Entrenchment v1.051C:\Users\'user name'\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods-Diplomacy v1.011NOTE the first two folders after the 'user name' are hidden , so to see them you must first click on 'tools' then 'folder options', then 'view', then click on 'show hidden files& folders' then click ok, then you will be able to browse your want to the folder. I suggest when you find the folder that you create a shortcut to it on the desktopNOTE 2 the 'user name' in the above paths is your WINDOWS login user name, eg Administratorand if the mod you want to use is from an EARLIER sins/entrenchment version place the mod in the mods folder FOR THAT version eg mods-entrenchment v1.03, then download and run my mods updater from the latest version archive which will have the same number as the vanilla sins version number, and AFTER updating the mod(s) to the current version for any mods of pre 1.04 entrenchment ALSO run the manifest maker on ENTITY manifests on EACH of the mods EXCEPT for total conversion mods
and myfist0 also has instructions in the sins weebly section placing mods
harpo
SO I am curious--pardon the voodoo zombie magic--is this still available and it's author to be found? I thought it was way cool. COME BACK! THERE'S AN EXPANSION!! (and netbooks are way more common and powerful now).
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