Let's Play Homeworld: Cataclysm (or Emergence) - Mission 4 (No Commentary - PC Gameplay 1440p)
0Homeworld: Cataclysm (or Homeworld: Emergence as Cataclysm is a registered trademark) is a stand-alone expansion for Homeworld released in 2000.
Buy it here: https://www.gog.com/game/homeworld_emergence
Homeworld: Cataclysm was not part of Blackbird Interactive and Gearbox' amazing Homeworld Remastered Collection as the source code for Cataclysm vanished without a trace.
Good Old Games (GOG) managed to secure the license to ensure that this amazing title didn't disappear into obscurity and abandonware, so it can be (re)experienced by new players and veterans alike. It was released in 2017, a few years after the Homeworld Remastered Collection was released.
In a 2015 Twitch interview, former Cataclysm developers stated that a remake should be possible even without the Cataclysm source code but with the Homeworld Remastered engine. 9 years later, we have sadly not seen anything.
As the game is 24 years old at the time of writing this, the game can be finnicky in getting to work.
As I am not one to shy away from making old games look as best as possible, I spent a day to research how to make this play and look the best in full 1440p.
Below I have documented the process, including sources.
While Homeworld: Cataclysm works well out of the box, it shipped with resolutions pre-widescreen era, which either stretches or gives bars around the game, depending on your setup. The least picky of us would be just happy with this, but not me.
While it is possible to increase the resolution through the registry editor (as seen below), the HUD becomes increasingly smaller which is playable. I prefer the upscaling solution below.
The basis of this guide is to make use of dgVoodoo to create a wrapper for older graphical APIs and make it upscale to desired resolution.
Some technological know-how is expected but I am happy to help if it doesn't work for you.
1. First we need to apply the compatability fix to enable NT4 compatibility mode. The GUI option to enable this was removed in Windows 8, so we need to "hack" it a bit. Download the fix here: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/5-homeworld-hardware-acceleration-fix/
2. Unzip the content of the file into the Homeworld: Cataclysm folder and run the install.bat file. If you require additional information, check out the readme.txt.
3. Download dgVoodoo (http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/). Extract dgVoodooCpl.exe and dgVoodoo.conf into the game folder. Still in the zip file, go into dgVoodoo2_82_3.zip\MS\x86 and copy these files into the game folder again (in the root of it).
4. Launch dgVoodooCpl.exe and into the DirectX tab. Set the resolution to your desired one (2560x1440 for me). Set up filtering and antialiasing if you want (I have force anisotropic 16x in Texturing Filtering, Auto-gen with billinear filter in Texturing Mipmapping and Antialiasing (MSAA) set to 8x. Disable the dgVoodoo Watermark if set. Keep the rest of the settings as is, unless you have issues. See sources below for further troubleshooting into this.
5. Launch the game once, as we need it to apply the configuration to the registry of Windows. Set the Rendering System to dgVoodoo. Quit the game.
6. Start regedit (windows button + R and type in "regedit", alternatively search for registry editor)
7. Go to Computer\HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2392051331-1456116503-4111860496-1001_Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Sierra On-Line\Cataclysm (or similar). This might differ depending on OS version.
8. Change the screenDepth to 32 (decimal), screenHeight to 720 (decimal) and screenWidth to 1280 (decimal). This will set the game to widescreen. Change this if you are ultrawide although I do not have the possibility to test this. Why 720p only? Because of the HUD. The HUD becomes increasingly smaller and it gets a lot harder to read it. 720p seems to be a sweet spot.
9. If the game window is on the wrong screen, use windows button + shift + key to push it to the main screen. If the window is in a corner or generally looks out of place, go into video options, change the resolution and then revert the setting by not accepting the prompt.
10. That's about it. The game runs at 60 FPS, with the ship movements looking more like 30 FPS, which is mostly noticeable during in-game cinematics. Please enjoy this amazing classic.
Sources:
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Homeworld:_Cataclysm
https://www.reddit.com/r/homeworld/comments/rkhl1y/homeworld_classic_widescreen_fix_better_texture/
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