Machines on Windows 10- running but with one problem

paperpanzer

o7 all. This is my first post here but I've been lurking for a number of years keeping tabs on any and all progress towards a Machines remake. Hopefully one day...

In any case, I finally got around to installing and running Machines on my Windows 10. Suffice to say with some help from M123's guide-
http://wiredforwar.org/topic/77/machines-and-windows-10/14

I managed to get my copy to work (so far) almost perfectly. I just have one issue.

The game's music is very loud, and covers up all other audio almost totally. In addition, the "music" slider in the options menu doesn't do squat (it even resets itself to the default position at 0% after closing out of the options menu), while the "SFX" slider adjusts all volume, including music. So then all i get is quieter music and impossible to hear regular SFX.

If it's a case of editing a .config file, I've never seen one in the data folder for Machines. While this is partially so I can run my own music while playing- it's also more of a quality of life thing from the gameplay perspective. The music in Machines is, to quote the grunt units- "kick-ass", but not when it's blasting and covering everything else.

Any thoughts?

EDIT Tried playing a singleplayer map shortly after this initial post, the menu music plays as it normally would, and once in-game the music plays- for one track. After the song ends the music does not continue to play.

I will add that due to the physical nature of my setup I use a USB to 3.5mm audio jack adapter for my headphones. Though I can't possibly see how that should affect anything like this, since it hasn't affected anything else.

M123

Unfortunately the CD music playback method used by Machines (and many other games from the 90s) is partially broken on Windows Vista and later, causing both of the issues you mentioned.

With some effort, it's possible to work around the problem using an audio wrapper called _inmm.dll.

I haven't tested this very thoroughly yet - there may be better options, this is just what has worked for me so far (hopefully it will work on Windows 10):

Preparation

In your Machines install folder, create a new folder "Music".
Rip the music files from the CD into that folder, or download the Machines OST and extract it to that folder.
(If you use the .flac soundtrack files, you may need to install the OpenCodecs pack from here (opencodecs_0.85.17777.exe) for playback to work correctly)
Make a backup of Machines.exe.

Install/config

Download _inmm238-installer.zip from here ("Download this file").
Extract it somewhere, then run _inmm238.exe to install the wrapper config / patcher program (to, for example C:\_inmm\).
Navigate to the install folder and run _inmmcnf.exe.
Edit the file types and players on the "Method" tab to match this image.
Click on the "Patch" tab.
Using Windows Explorer, navigate to your Machines install folder, then drag-and-drop Machines.exe onto the _inmm.dll setup window. ! This doesn't seem to work on Windows 10 - instead, try these instructions.
When prompted "Patch these files?", click OK.
Click on the "_inmm.ini" tab.
Using Windows Explorer, navigate to the Music folder in your Machines install folder, select all the music tracks, then drag-and-drop them onto the text box in the _inmm.dll setup window. ! This doesn't seem to work on Windows 10 - instead, click the "Add" button, navigate to the Music folder in your Machines install folder, select a track and click "Open" (if using .flac format, you may need to change the file filter from "Sound files" to "All files"). Repeat until all (10) tracks are added.
Click "Save" and save the _inmm.ini in the root of the Machines install folder.

Run Machines.
Tracks should now cycle correctly, and you can adjust music volume by using the Windows Volume Mixer to adjust the volume of _inmmserv separately from Machines. A bit awkward, but functional.
Unfortunately the in-game volume sliders remain broken.

Note: music may stutter when loading a level - may be affected by HDD read / access speed.

paperpanzer

@M123 @M123

Using Windows Explorer, navigate to your Machines install folder, then drag-and-drop Machines.exe onto the _inmm.dll setup window.

Having problems here. Dragging and dropping the .exe file doesn't seem to be doing anything in the setup window. The "search" tab won't find the program (most of the listed entries are in symbol font and all the help documents appear to be in Japanese). The "patch" button also remain grayed out.

antrad

I didn't know about that whole setup process, I only had the winmm dll files from another game (extreme g 2 Steam release), so what I did is I lowered the volume of the music tracks when I was ripping the music from CD. If you don't figure it out, I have uploaded the files, I have tracks down to 12.5% and 25% of original volume.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Vslhbrn9-yFmbUfYJL-BYlgSy5LNh13Q

Just extract the files to the installation directory, it will add 4 dll files and a music folder. Default is 12.5% volume, you can overwrite the files in music folder with the ones with 25% volume folder. If you want to disable music completely, rename or remove the music folder, but leave the dll files which will block the CD music. The music folder has 3 extra tracks(just copies of menu music track), because otherwise it wouldn't play correctly, maybe because the dll files were originally configured for a different game, I don't know.

As for music not looping in the game, in my case it would loop, but not right away, it would take about a minute to start playing again.

paperpanzer

@antrad Thanks! That worked like a charm. Just need to fiddle around with DGVoodoo a bit more and it's golden.

My only worry now is playing on maps where the AI's algorithms are tied to processor speed... (Behind Enemy Lines lel)

M123

@paperpanzer

Having problems here. Dragging and dropping the .exe file doesn't seem to be doing anything in the setup window. The "search" tab won't find the program (most of the listed entries are in symbol font and all the help documents appear to be in Japanese). The "patch" button also remain grayed out.

Hmm... not sure what would prevent the drag and drop function from working. Maybe it's a Windows 8+ thing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Machines can be added to the list of games in _inmm dll setup by editing the config file:

Navigate to the _inmm install folder (e.g. C:\_inmm\).
Open _inmmcnf.ini with Notepad / your preferred text editor.
Copy the below text and paste it at the end of the file.

[Machines]
Group=Acclaim
RegKey=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Directplay\Applications\Machines
Value=CurrentDirectory
File=Machines.exe

Save _inmmcnf.ini and exit Notepad.
Run _inmmcnf.exe.
Machines should now appear under the "Acclaim" group in the Patch tab. It can also be found using the "Find" button (type "Machines" in the box). Assuming the registry entries are correct, selecting Machines in the list and clicking "Patch" should work...