Dune 2000 in co-op, I have some problems.

[Judgment]

Hello,

I would like to play the three campaigns of Dune 2000 in co-op, with my brother.

To do so, I think I will have to edit maps to add a construction yard of an another house somewhere and we will have to play the map in the skirmish mode of the game.

I have already tried some things but it is not working :

I have installed the automatic version of Dune 2000 (which is available on the abandonware-france.org's website)
The game is okay to run on Windows 10 with this version (and it is functionnal, I can play the game without difficulty on Windows 10).

With the "D2kEditorv2.0pre1", I can modify a campaign's mission (I have read the manuals of the editor).

But, the problems start here : I can not play the modified map on the skirmish mode.
I have to rename the map : "2PLAY1", "2PLAY2", etc., or "8PLAY6" so it can be recognized in the skirmish mode.
If I do so, when I start the skirmish, the field of the map is good (well recognized) but there is not any building on the map. 
There is some construction yards, etc., but not any building already constructed.

So, I can not do the maps of the campaigns in co-op.

I don't know if the problem is the "_prac" file or something ? Or is it my version of the game ?

If the problem is my "_prac" file, please, can you explain me how can I modified it ?
With the editor, it is difficult for me, I don't understand very well how I can do.

I know that co-op is possible in this game because I have seen a video of Feda on Youtube called : "Dune 2000 Co-Op #1 - Damn spice blooms" and I would like to do this with my brother.

(I would prefer used the "WinVista&7 ipx x64" patch (that I have) to play multiplayers rather than "CnCnet".)

Thank you so much in advance for your help.
 

[Feda]

Well that's the problem, it cannot be done with the vanilla Dune 2000 and the IPX patch. Those are very old versions which were good enough for hamachi, but will not allow any of the new features.

You actually need cncnet, there is no other way. Cncnet has a modified dune2000.exe that allows buildings in skirmish (the original game removed both buildings and events from skirmish maps). Note that in order to convert the original missions to coop you need to enable the "Use .ini file" option in the Mission Settings in the editor, and give it a name. This way the cncnet launcher will recognize and be able to load the map. It has to be placed into Data/maps. Be careful, yoy'll have to place 3 files: Test.map, Test.ini and _TEST.mis (assuming you named it Test). Cncnet doesnt read from _PRAC.mis unless the map you load has no mis file of its own. If there is a mis file with the same name, it will read that. This allows you to have multiple coop maps without replacing _PRAC.MIS.

Please download cncnet and try these things out. If it still doesn't work then let me know and we'll look into it further, but that should be enough i think.

[Judgment]

Hi Feda, 

Thank you for your reply.

I downloaded CnCnet and put it where my Dune2000.exe is.

I can launch CnCnet, choose a map and some options like IA, etc. but when I clic on "Launch Game", I have a black screen and... return to CnCnet.
I selected different resolutions, different options like "DirectDraw", etc., but the game does not launch.

I installed the Gruntmods Edition of the game but I have the same problem.
However, when I launch the "MissionLauncher" of this edition, I can select a mission and play it.

Do you know why does this happen ?

I have a good PC (i9, RTX 2080 Super, 32 gb of RAM, etc.) and my screen displays 1080p natively.

I wish I / we could fix this.

Thank you for your help.


Edit : It's okay, I unchecked "Disable Max Windowed Mode" and now, the game seems functional when I launch it in CnCnet.

I thank you very much for your help. 

I have a lot of alternative missions to discover (alone and in co-op too), so I am happy.

Thank you for all the work and the help given to the players about this really great game.

Edited September 16, 2020 by Judgment

[Feda]

Glad you got it fixed man! If you're interested in learning more about how to edit/create missions or modding in general, feel free to join our modding discord server. Link is in my signature.