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NHL 2004 Launcher 1.45 - 01/09/14; Adds new features incl. widescreen
Topic Started: Jun 16 2013, 07:54 AM (79,744 Views)
Vod
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Development Team
Features:

  • Select any resolution and refresh rate your monitor can support (including widescreen resolutions)
  • FOV modifier
  • Texture filtering
  • Antialiasing
  • VSync and triple buffering
  • Windowed mode
  • Wireframe mode
  • LOD Bias and Max mip level
  • Draw FPS
  • Multiple display support
  • New screenshot key
  • Set process priority
  • Set dynasty start year
  • Change My Documents path. With this you can have multiple game installs. (May not be compatible with all systems)
  • Set maximum fights per game
  • Instant fights option
  • Change game points
    ... and more (see below)
Notes:

  • This tool requires nhl2004.exe v1.04 from the rebuilt interface
  • The resolution you set only takes effect when you enter a game
  • This program uses code injection which may trigger antivirus false-positives.
  • This tool is not compatible with other D3D hooks such as ENB.
Instructions:
Extract to any folder and run it as admin. This does not modify the exe, it's all done in memory. Most of the options needs to be entered manually in Launcher.ini using a word processor.

Support:
Reverse-engineering the game and developing this software is a very time-consuming and tiring process. Click here if you would like to support the continuation of this massive undertaking. :coffee:

Modder Notes:
HCKU\EA SPORTS\NHL 2004\MyDocsPath is equal to the MyDocsPath setting in launcher.ini when the launcher is used to start the game. If this key is blank, then the standard My Documents path is being used or the launcher was not used to start the game.

Hotkeys
[dohtml]
<table style="width:450px;" border="1" cellpadding="5px">
<tr><td>F8</td><td>Toggle Wireframe mode</td></tr>
<tr><td>F9</td><td>Decrease FOV modifier by 2</td></tr>
<tr><td>F10</td><td>Increase FOV modifier by 2</td></tr>
<tr><td>F11</td><td>Toggle FPS Display</td></tr>
<tr><td>F12</td><td>Take Screenshot</td></tr>
<tr><td>Alt+F12</td><td>Take Screenshot, including text such as the FPS display and launcher messages</td></tr>
</table>
[/dohtml]


Launcher.ini settings:
[dohtml]<table style="width:450px;" border="1" cellpadding="5px">
<tr><td style="width:20%;font-weight:bold;">Option</td>
<td style="width:80%;font-weight:bold;">Info</td></tr>
<tr><td>Width</td><td>Screen Width</td></tr>
<tr><td>Height</td><td>Screen Height</td></tr>
<tr><td>RefreshRate</td><td>Screen refresh rate (Hz)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Antialiasing</td><td>Antialiasing samples. 0 to disable antialiasing.</td></tr>
<tr><td>Filtering</td><td>Texture Filtering. 0 = Point, 1 = Bilinear >1 = Anisotropic</td></tr>
<tr><td>VSync</td><td>Enable or disable Vertical Synchronization</td></tr>
<tr><td>TripleBuffering</td><td>Enable or disable triple buffering</td></tr>
<tr><td>Fov</td><td>Field of view modifier (Gets added to default FOV)</td></tr>
<tr><td>DrawFPS</td><td> Display FPS by default. F11 toggles in-game regardless of the setting</td></tr>
<tr><td>LODBias</td><td>This is a float, so it can have a decimal. 0 = default. This can be negative (sharper distant textures, with possible aliasing) or positive (more blurry distant textures).</td></tr>
<tr><td>MaxMipLevel</td><td>Every increase by 1 effectively cuts all max texture dimensions by half. For instance, the crowd texture dimensions is 1024x1024. A value of 1 will cut the max dimensions to 512x512, a value of 2 will cut the max dimensions to 256x256 etc. This may or may not increase performance on some systems.</td></tr>
<tr><td>Wireframe</td><td>Enable or disable wireframe mode by default. Can toggle with F8</td></tr>
<tr><td>Windowed</td><td>Launches the game in a window</td></tr>
<tr><td>DisableIntro</td><td>Disables the game intro</td></tr>
<tr><td>QuickLaunch</td><td>Bypass the settings window and launch the game</td></tr>
<tr><td>Adapter</td><td>Display adapter. You can use this for selecting a monitor if you have multiple monitors.</td></tr>
<tr><td>DeviceType</td><td>1 = HAL (Hardware - default), 2 = Ref (Software)</td></tr>
<tr><td>VertexProcessing</td><td>1 = Hardware (default), 2 = Mixed, 3 = Software</td></tr>
<tr><td>HighPriority</td><td>1 = High priority, 0 = Normal priority</td></tr>
<tr><td>MyDocsPath</td><td> (May not work on certain systems) Full path to your My Documents folder. This can be any folder, IE the main game. With this you can have multiple self-contained installs without shuffling folders.</td></tr>
<tr><td>DynastyStartYear</td><td>The starting year for dynasty mode.</td></tr>
<tr><td>FightsPerGame</td><td>Maximum fights per game</td></tr>
<tr><td>InstantFights</td><td>When enabled, the option to fight is always available when there are fighters on the ice.</td></tr>
<tr><td>PointsWin<br />PointsWinOT<br />PointsLoseOT<br />PointsTie</td><td>Applies to all game modes. By default, the vanilla NHL 2004 values are used.</td></tr>
<tr><td>CreateLog </td><td> Set to 1 to create a log file in the NHL 2004 main folder. The file is named "Launcher Log.txt".</td></tr>
</table>[/dohtml]

FAQ
Q) "After setting the 'Device' value in launcher.ini for my secondary monitor, what do I do if the native resolution of this display is different than the primary display?"
A) Set the resolution of the secondary monitor in Launcher.ini and set QuickLaunch to 1 in order to bypass the settings window. This way the Width and Height values aren't changed. This will be addressed in a future version.

Download
Click here to download
Click here to be notified of updates



Credits

  • Jedeash - Created the program icon
Changelog:
[dohtml]<div style="height:240px;overflow:auto;border: 1px solid #000;padding:10px;">[/dohtml]Version 1.45 - 01/09/14

  • Added an alternative fullscreen mode if regular fullscreen exclusive mode fails
  • Added a new registry key for modders: HCKU\EA SPORTS\NHL 2004\MyDocsPath. This will be equal to the MyDocsPath setting in launcher.ini when the launcher is used to start the game. If this key is blank, then the standard My Documents path is being used or the launcher is not in use.
Version 1.44.5 - 11/03/13

  • Bug fixes
Version 1.44.4 - 11/02/13

  • Experimental optimizations
Version 1.44.3 - 10/29/13

  • LODBias config option. This is a float, so it can have a decimal. 0.0 = default. This can be negative (sharper distant textures, with possible aliasing) or positive (more blurry distant textures).
  • Added MaxMipLevel config option. 0 = default. Every increase by 1 effectively cuts all max texture dimensions by half. For instance, the crowd texture dimensions is 1024x1024. A value of 1 will cut the max dimensions to 512x512, a value of 2 will cut the max dimensions to 256x256 etc. This may or may not increase performance on some systems.
  • Added Wireframe config option. Can toggle with F8
  • Reduced the default FOV modifier to 12 for widescreen resolutions
  • FOV modifier hotkeys now increases and decreases by 2 instead of 5.
Version 1.44.2 - 10/27/13

  • Experimental optimizations
Version 1.44.1 - 10/26/13

  • Fixed a bug which could cause a crash when then game loses focus
  • The launcher now registers BrowserEngine_pc_z.dll and becontrols_pc_z.dll
Version 1.44 - 10/12/13

  • Fixed VertexProcessing config option
  • Compatibility fixes
Version 1.43 - 10/01/13

  • Fixed points bug, added PointsTie config option and more optimizing
Version 1.42 - 9/11/13

  • Bug fixes and optimizations
Version 1.41.4 - 8/18/13

  • Bug fixes and more logging
Version 1.41.3 - 8/15/13

  • Added InstantFights config option
Version 1.41.2 - 8/14/13

  • Fixed a silly mistake on my part. (Jedeash's report)
  • Fixed another path issue
Versions 1.41.1 - 8/13/13

  • Fixed a path issue
Version 1.41 - 8/13/13

  • Added FightsPerGame config option
  • Added PointsWin, PointsWinOT, PointsLoseOT config options
  • Added Windowed config option
  • Added DisableIntro config option
  • Added MyDocsPath config option. This will allow fully contained installations
  • Applies IE fix prior to launching the game
  • The launcher can now be run from any folder. It no longer needs to be in the NHL 2004 folder.
  • The launcher will now set the proper game path in the registry if it's incorrect
  • New icon. Thanks Jedeash!
Version 1.4 - 7/19/13

  • Created basic a in-game text console for displaying messages
  • F12 takes a screenshot and saves it to My Documents\NHL 2004.
  • Control + F12 will take a screenshot without displaying the text overlay.
  • F11 now toggles FPS display
  • F9 and F10 decreases and increases the FOV by 5
  • Added CreateLog launcher.ini setting. Setting this to 1 will create a log file called "Launcher Log.txt" in the main NHL 2004 folder.
  • Added HighPriority launcher.ini setting. Setting this to 1 will set the priority of NHL 2004.exe to high
  • Added DynastyStartYear launcher.ini setting (only works with NHL2004.exe version 1.4)
  • Added a couple performance fixes.
  • Added LUA support
Version 1.31

  • Fixed an issue with antialiasing
Version 1.3

  • Rewrote most of the code and fixed bugs in the process
  • Added DrawFPS config option. Can also toggle with F12
  • Added Adapter config option. This is for multiple displays
  • Added QuickLaunch config option. Bypasses the options window and automatically launches the game
Version 1.22
  • Added 1.01 support
Version 1.21
  • Fixed a bug involving the config file
Version 1.2

  • A bunch of bug and compatibility fixes
  • Added two ini compatibility settings:
    DeviceType - 1 = HAL (Hardware), 2 = Ref (Software)
    VertexProcessing 1 = Hardware, 2 = Mixed, 3 = software
Version 1.1

  • Added 1.04 support, including the version that comes with the interface
  • It now alerts you if it does not detect the proper version
  • Closing the window saves the settings
  • Added refresh rate
  • Added antialiasing setting
  • Added texture filtering setting
  • Added VSync setting
  • Added triple buffering setting
[dohtml]
</div>
[/dohtml]
NHL 2004 Launcher | My Changelog | NHL 2004 Preservation | NHL 2004 Debugger
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Södy
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[ *  *  * ]
Hey Vod,

I still have a stretched image. 1920x1080 and 1366x768.
Colorado Avalanche
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Vod
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Södy,16 June 2013
8:21 AM
Hey Vod,

I still have a stretched image. 1920x1080 and 1366x768.

Where is the streching? The 3d scene (players etc) or the 2d sprites (gameclock etc)? Can you take a screenshot?
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stlouis26
PNHL v2 Project Leader
Vod, two questions as I do have also a stretech image (1920x1080 resolution):

As you wrote you have tested it with v1.3 - can you post a download link for this exe ?

Will it really be not stretched as the aspect ratio is different ? I think a 1280x1024 windowed version would be a great alternative.

I would try it again with v1.3 and if there is still strechting I will make some screens.
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Vod
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Do the players appear fat/squished or is the gameclock etc stretched? They are two separate problems. For now, this only fixes the first one, which was more severe. The second one still requires some more research.

Here is 1.03 (download the version by Drunk!)
Code:
 
http://m0001.gamecopyworld.com/games/pc_nhl_2004.shtml#NHL%202004%20v1.03%20[ENGLISH]%20No-CD/Fixed%20EXE
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Södy
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No, both, gameclock and players are fat/squished.
Colorado Avalanche
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Vod
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Södy,16 June 2013
8:54 AM
No, both, gameclock and players are fat/squished.

Are you using the no-cd that I linked to and does changing the fov have any affect? (Try setting it to something like 50 to make it obvious)
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Södy
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No. Works like a charm with the 1.03 exe :)
Colorado Avalanche
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stlouis26
PNHL v2 Project Leader
Tried it with your exe and have an improvement. Everything that is rendered by the game looks fine (I mean players, ices, "ingame graphics"), but interface stuff and overlay graphics (e.g. line change) is scretched - I hope you know what I mean.

Ingame resolution was set to 800x600 - I tried it first with 1280x1024 but then the game was a bit lagging.

This a great improvement, but an alternative (windowed 1280x1024) would be great to, so that all graphics are not stretched, but I don't want to complain.

Your patch is really HUGE.

Perhaps if you could make it real with 1.04 too it would be awesome (I think there were some reasons for using 1.04).

But: :tup: :tup: :tup: :tup: :tup: :tup: :tup: :tup: :tup:
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Vod
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I will add support for 1.04 in the next major version and hopefully fix the 2d interface. :)
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stlouis26
PNHL v2 Project Leader
Thanks Vod, this is really a great improvement. What is the FOV parameter in the launcher for (it is set to 15 atm) ?
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Södy
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FOV. The higher it is set, the more "you see from the game". Hard to describe.

Vod the mod is awesome! Especially that I can choose the resolution when starting up the game. Really good since I switch displays quite often (Notebook or TV).
Colorado Avalanche
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Vod
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stlouis26,16 June 2013
9:25 AM
Thanks Vod, this is really a great improvement. What is the FOV parameter in the launcher for (it is set to 15 atm) ?

It essentially controls the zoom. It gets added to the default FOV, so 0 = default. The higher you set it, the further back the camera will be, but it may also result in FPS loss since more of the crowd needs to get drawn. I found 15 to be a decent value, but feel free to mess with it.
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stlouis26
PNHL v2 Project Leader
Thanks for the explanation and this amazing tool !!! Really awesome.
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Vod
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No problem. Enjoy! :)
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