Command & Conquer: Generals

What works

- Installation (with work around) - Splash screen

What does not

The game does not load.

Workarounds

What was not tested

Playing the game.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

If you copy the data off the CD's so that it's all in one spot, then run the setup from there, it will install. Running it displays the splash screen and then hangs. Applying the 1.08 patch does not help. Applying a no-cd crack does not help.

The game should mostly run out of the box if you install it from the CDs.

You might need a NoCD crack.

If you already have a locally installed version of the game,
be aware that General won't start without some specific registry entries.
Mandatory entries include the game path, the language and the key.

The following note is a script that automated the registration of the game.

Save it locally, make it executable and start it from a shell.

It will ask you for the installation path, the language and the keys.

You can also preset keys within the script to make it easy to deploy for LAN parties.

--

Graphics: sidescreen scrolling does not work in windowed mode.  You can activate
the virtual desktop in winecfg though.

You can change the game resolution to an arbirary value via the command line
parameters `-xres X -yres Y`.

To make the changes permanent after the game has been start once,
go to the "Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour Data" (by default in your home
directory), edit the Options.ini and set the Resolution to the desired value
(the value of the virtual desktop if you use it).

No winetricks needed, runs out of the box. If you encounter problems, install d3dx9 (winetricks d3dx9).

#!/bin/sh

usage () {
	cat <&2
Usage: ${0##*/} [MODE] [OPTIONS]

Setup Command & Conquer: Generals and start the game.
If started from a TTY, an X session will be automatically started.

MODE:

	generals: Original game.
	zerohour: Official extension (default if found).

OPTIONS:

	-quickstart:   Disable 3D menu for faster startup.
	-xres : Horizontal resolution.
	-yres : Vertical resolution.
	-noshaders:    Improve performance on weak graphic cards.
EOF
}

[ -z "$GAMEROOT" ] && GAMEROOT="$HOME/games"
[ -z "$GAMEPATH" ] && GAMEPATH="$GAMEROOT"

[ "$1" = "-h" ] && usage && exit
[ "$1" = "--" ] && shift

## Start X if needed.
# TODO: Do this first or last?
# If last, maybe errors can be caught before and printed to TTY.  Compare.
# If last, need more work on the parameters.
if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ]; then
	exec xinit "$(command -v "$0")" "$@" -- :1 vt$XDG_VTNR
fi

## Game mode.
mode="zerohour"
echo "$1" | grep -q '^-' && mode="$1" && shift

## Registry functions
## On x86_64, x86-specific nodes are stored in a sub-node.
regnode32=""
[ "$(uname -m)" = "x86_64" ] && file $(command -v wine) | grep -q '64-bit' && regnode32='\\Wow6432Node'
## Return the value of the registry KEY of NODE.
## If KEY is omitted, return the default value.
regquery() # $1=node [$2=key]
{
	if [ $# -eq 1 ]; then
		## "reg query" uses CRLF (\r\n) newlines, hence the call to 'tr'.
		# echo "QUERY: '$(wine cmd /c reg query "$1" /ve)'"
		wine cmd /c reg query "$1" /ve | tr -d '\r' | \
			awk '/(Default)/ {if($3) print substr($0, index($0, $3))}'
	else
		wine cmd /c reg query "$1" /v "$2" | tr -d '\r' | \
			awk -v key="$2" '$0 ~ key {if($3) print substr($0, index($0, $3))}'
	fi
	## The 'awk' expression remove the first two fields and the leading whitespace.
}
## Set KEY of NODE to the VALUE of type TYPE.
## TYPE can be REG_SZ (default), REG_DWORD, REG_EXPAND_SZ, REG_MULTI_SZ.
## If KEY is omitted, set the default value.
regadd() # $1=node $2=value [$3=key] [$4=type]
{
	local switch="/ve"
	local type="REG_SZ"
	[ $# -ge 3 ] && switch="/v"
	[ $# -ge 4 ] && type="$4"
	wine cmd /c reg add "$1" /d "$2" $switch "$3" /t $type /f
}
path_win2unix() # $1=path
{
	printf '%s' "$1" | awk '{sub(/^Z:\\/, "/"); gsub(/\\/, "/"); print}'
}

## Add the registry nodes.
if [ -z "$(regquery "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software$regnode32\\Electronic Arts\\EA Games\\Generals")" ]; then
	cat<<\EOF | regedit -
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Electronic Arts\EA Games\Generals]
"InstallPath"=""
"Language"=""
"MapPackVersion"=dword:00002710
"Proxy"=""
"Version"=dword:00001008

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Electronic Arts\EA Games\Generals\ergc]
@=""

EOF
fi
if [ -z "$(regquery "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software$regnode32\\Electronic Arts\\EA Games\\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour")" ]; then
	cat<<\EOF | regedit -
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Electronic Arts\EA Games\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour]
"InstallPath"=""
"Language"=""
"MapPackVersion"=dword:00002710
"Proxy"=""
"UserDataLeafName"="Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour Data"
"Version"=dword:00001004

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Electronic Arts\EA Games\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour\ergc]
@=""
EOF
fi

## Game settings.
gamepath() # $1=node
{
	## We _need_ a global here so that we can get the return value after we've
	## called this function.
	path=$(regquery "$1" InstallPath)
	[ -n "$path" ] && return
	echo "Working directory: $(pwd)"
	echo -n "Path to game folder: "
	read path
	## TODO: Support drive letter dynamically.
	## WARNING: realpath is mandatory here, but it's not portable.
	path="Z:$(realpath "$path" | sed 's@/@\\@g')"
	## Trailing backslash required.
	regadd "$1" "$path\\" InstallPath
}

gameserial() # $1=node $2=serial_list
{
	## We _need_ a global here so that we can get the return value after we've
	## called this function.
	serial=$(regquery "$1")
	[ -n "$serial" ] && return
	cat <
$(echo "$2" | awk '{print NR, $0}')
EOF
	echo -n "Select an entry: "
	read choice
	echo
	if [ "$choice" -eq 0 ]; then
		echo -n "Enter serial: "
		read serial
		echo
	else
		serial=$(echo "$2" | awk "NR == $choice {print; exit}")
	fi
	regadd "$1" "$serial"
}

gamelang() # $1=node
{
	## We _need_ a global here so that we can get the return value after we've
	## called this function.
	lang=$(regquery "$1" Language)
	[ -n "$lang" ] && return
	while [ "$lang" != "english" ] && \
					[ "$lang" != "french" ] && \
					[ "$lang" != "german" ] ; do
		echo -n "Language (english, french, german): "
		read lang
		echo
		lang=$(echo "$lang" | awk '{print tolower($0)}')
	done
	regadd "$1" "$lang" Language
}


## Register game.
echo "==> Generals"
serial_list_generals="PRESET-KEY-#1
PRESET-KEY-#2
PRESET-KEY-#3
PRESET-KEY-#4
PRESET-KEY-#5
PRESET-KEY-#6
PRESET-KEY-#7
PRESET-KEY-#8"
gamepath "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software$regnode32\\Electronic Arts\\EA Games\\Generals"
path_generals=$(path_win2unix "$path")
gameserial "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software$regnode32\\Electronic Arts\\EA Games\\Generals\\ergc" "$serial_list_generals"
serial_generals=$serial
gamelang "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software$regnode32\\Electronic Arts\\EA Games\\Generals"
lang_generals=$lang


printf "Path: '%s'\n" "$path_generals"
echo "Serial: $serial_generals"
echo "Language: $lang_generals"
path="$path_generals"

echo "==> Zero Hour"
serial_list_zerohour="PRESET-KEY-#1
PRESET-KEY-#2
PRESET-KEY-#3
PRESET-KEY-#4
PRESET-KEY-#5
PRESET-KEY-#6
PRESET-KEY-#7
PRESET-KEY-#8"
gamepath "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software$regnode32\\Electronic Arts\\EA Games\\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour"
path_zerohour=$(path_win2unix "$path")
if [ -f "$path_zerohour"/generals.exe ]; then
	gameserial "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software$regnode32\\Electronic Arts\\EA Games\\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour\\ergc" "$serial_list_zerohour"
	serial_zerohour=$serial
	gamelang "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software$regnode32\\Electronic Arts\\EA Games\\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour"
	lang_zerohour=$lang

	printf "Path: '%s'\n" "$path_zerohour"
	echo "Serial: $serial_zerohour"
	echo "Language: $lang_zerohour"

	[ "$mode" != "generals" ] && path="$path_zerohour"
else
	echo "Zero Hour not found."
fi

## Keyboard settings.
## Some in-game shortcuts are bound to the key symbol while others are bound to the key code.
## For instance, in the French version with an AZERTY layout "a" builds a tank
## while "q" selects all unit; with a QWERTY layout "q" becomes "a" and shadows
## the tank binding.
layout=$(setxkbmap -query -v 6 | awk '/^layout/ {printf " -layout " $2} /^variant/ {printf " -variant " $2} /^options/ {printf " -option " $2} END {printf "\n"}')
lang="$lang_generals"
if [ "$mode" = "zerohour" ]; then
	lang="$lang_zerohour"
fi
case "$lang" in
french)
	setxkbmap fr ;;
german)
	setxkbmap de ;;
esac

## Video settings.
# display=$(xrandr | awk '/ connected / {print $1; exit}')
res=$(xrandr | awk '/\*/ {print $1;exit}')
resx=$(echo "$res" | cut -dx -f1)
resy=$(echo "$res" | cut -dx -f2)

## Start game.
cd "$path"
wine generals.exe -xres $resx -yres $resy -quickstart "$@"
cd "$OLDPWD"

## Restore settings
setxkbmap $layout

by Ambro on (May 1st 2007)
I also experienced the bug where the game failed to start after putting my options.ini file to "~/Command and Conquer Generals Data". However, I was able to bypass this bug by installing the game using the loki installer.

To get this game working:
- Copy msvcirt.dll to "~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32"
- Install the game using the loki installer ( www.liflg.org/?catid=7)
- Modify the "generals" script so it will only call wine
- Create the file "~/Command and Conquer Generals Data/options.ini" and put the following inside (adjust the resolution) (this bypassed the splash screen freeze for me):

AntiAliasing = 4
BuildingOcclusion = yes
CampaignDifficulty = 0
DynamicLOD = yes
ExtraAnimations = yes
GameSpyIPAddress = 0.0.0.0
Gamma = 50
IPAddress = 0.0.0.0
IdealStaticGameLOD = Low
LanguageFilter = false
MaxParticleCount = 5000
MusicVolume = 76
Resolution = 1024 768
SFX3DVolume = 79
SFXVolume = 71
ScrollFactor = 50
SendDelay = no
ShowSoftWaterEdge = yes
ShowTrees = yes
StaticGameLOD = Custom
TextureReduction = 0
UseAlternateMouse = no
UseCloudMap = yes
UseLightMap = yes
UseShadowDecals = yes
UseShadowVolumes = yes
VoiceVolume = 70

- Run winecfg and in the Audio tab, select OSS, and in "Hardware Acceleration", select "Emulation"
- Start the game by running "/generals -quickstart" (quickstart will bypass the problem with sound blocking the second movie)