Update 159001 (aka Unofficial Patch 1.5.9) has been released!
Update Type: Core Release. Changes log: https://www.ee2.eu/patch/changes/#159001
- Included changes from all minor updates 158000-158026.
- Added new icons for UP1.5 units and buildings, created by Loewenherz. They now use the same background style and frames as EE2 originals.
- Added Loewenherz's Mars and space textures for scenarios and maps (available in the Map Editor).
- TL;DR The borderless windowed mode and rendering on secondary monitors is now fully functional and bug-free.
- "Exclusive Borderless Windowed Mode" (activated and deactivated by the ALT+ENTER hotkey) improvements:
* UP15_GameHelper.dll is now removing the window title bar and borders fully, so the other workarounds from update 157021 are no longer used.
* Fixed (minimally) incorrect window height and distorted aspect ratio on Windows 11.
* It reduces the number of times the windows taskbar still remains on the screen.
* REMINDER: You can use the CTRL+F9 hotkey (toggle on/off Constrain Cursor) to move the mouse cursor outside of the game window.
- Improved option "Render on Secondary Monitor":
* The Borderless Windowed Mode now starts with the correct screen coordinates, based on the selected Adapter Index in UP1.5 Settings.
* Added a new Adapter Index option: "Auto", which automatically selects the monitor on game start, depending on where your mouse cursor (e.g. moved UP1.5 Launcher window) is on.
* Fixed a bug where the game was calling the function "EnumDisplaySettings" only for the primary monitor, so bigger screen resolutions on secondary displays could be unavailable in game. It could also result in the error on game start: "FATAL PROBLEM: Failed to find any Direct3D display mode supported by your monitor". UP15_GameHelper.dll is now obtaining the correct monitor from the DirectX adapter index, getting its device name and pushing it as the function parameter. Thanks for the report to player "ReaLadge".
- Added a new custom configuration option "WindowedModeDontPauseOrMute=1" (enabled by default):
* When UP15_GameHelper.dll detects that the game is currently in the windowed mode - it applies fixes that prevent the game from pausing or audio from getting muted when the game window loses focus. It reverts these fixes when the game window becomes fullscreen again (e.g. ALT+ENTER hotkey press).
* Additionally, this option fixes a problem where other games can not constrain the cursor (for camera scrolling on borders) on the side where a monitor with running EE2 is. It's because EE2 was intercepting the mouse cursor whenever it was getting close to the game window.
- Improved the "Take Screen Shot" function using DirectX 9 (DX8 to DX9 converter):
* Added new custom configuration commands which can be inserted in UP1.5 Settings:
# UseNewScreenshotsMethodInDX9=1 | When enabled (default), use the new screenshots capturing method.
# ScreenshotsInDX9UsePNGInsteadOfBMP=1 | When enabled (default), save screenshots to PNG format instead of BMP (CTRL+PrtScn hotkey).
# ScreenshotsJPEGQuality=80 | Allows you to configure the quality of JPG screenshots (PrtScn hotkey). 0 = default compression. Available values from 1 to 100, where 1 is the strongest compression (lowest file size), and 100 is the lowest compression (biggest file size).
* Fixed a game crash (0x00acad91, 0x00b80b91) when taking screenshots, when the game window doesn't fully fit the active monitor (windowed mode).
* Fixed a bug where taking screenshots on secondary monitors could cause a game crash or result in cropped images.
- Enabled V-Sync by default in the windowed mode. It now respects the status of option: "Disable V-Sync" from UP1.5 Settings.
- "Advanced Cache Preloading" improvements: Added the caching progress status (percent finished, total number of files to cache, number and filename of the file currently being cached).
- Added detection of an occasionally occurring bug where the game process is running in the background, while no game window exists. In the past users had to manually terminate the game process by the Task Manager in order to be able to start a new instance of the game. UP15_GameHelper.dll Watchdog Thread is now detecting this problem and displays a message box where it's possible to kill the game process with a single click.
- Updated libraries used by UP1.5 Launcher and DLLs in order to improve security and reliability:
* Libcurl to ver. 7.86.0 | Boost to ver. 1.80.0 | Openssl to ver. 3.0.5 | Zlib to ver. 1.2.13 | Discord GameSDK to ver. 3.2.1.
- Multiplayer Lobby: Removed incorrect, duplicated timestamp of messages sent on the lobby while you were in an active multiplayer game.
- NEW FEATURE: Added a new option to UP1.5 Settings: "AI-Enhanced Menu Video":
* Allows the game to use the AI-Enhanced version of the looped background menu video (in 16:9 aspect ratio). It results in a much higher quality of the background video, but increases the CPU% usage in the menu, and might result in lower FPS in the menu on low-end computers.
* This option is automatically enabled if you use a monitor with the aspect ratio greater than ~1.5 (width divided by height), e.g 16:10, 16:9, 21:9.
- "Green economy, blah, blah, blah. Climate-neutral, blah, blah, blah" - Greta Thunberg.
* Added a new custom configuration option: "PauseBinkVideoWhenGameWindowIsInactive=1" (enabled by default). It allows UP15_GameHelper.dll to decide when to pause the background video in order to save CPU load when the game window is currently minimized, inactive or the mouse pointer is on another monitor. It results in power saving and lower CO2 emission from players who often minimize the game e.g. when they're waiting for a game on multiplayer lobby.
- UP1.5 Units Balance Changes:
* Changed the healing speed of Ambulances from 15 to 5 health points per second.
* Reduced Snipers reload time by 25% (from 12 to 9 in epoch 13).
* Increased the maximum range of Super ICBMs in Ballistic Missile Silo from 256 to 1500. ICBM stands for "Intercontinental" for a reason.
- DEPRECATED FEATURES:
* Option "Fix for graphics bugs (no fire/explosion) on Intel HD graphics cards" has been removed. It's still available as "Fix for graphics bugs (no fire/explosion) in DirectX 9", but requires the option "Enable DirectX 9" to be checked.
- KNOWN ISSUES:
* Intel's 12th Gen processors integrated graphics have an issue where the text is not displaying in Empire Earth II. It's because their drivers use D3D9On12 to support old games. The issue was reported to Microsoft. Read more:
https://github.com/microsoft/D3D9On12/issues/57
# A new custom configuration command is available: "UseD3D9On12InDirectX9=1". It allows all users to try the DirectX 12 mode (D3D9On12) in Empire Earth II. Thanks to "elishacloud" for help in adding this option.
If you have got UP1.5.5+, you can update by clicking:
empireearth2://FunctionMinorVersionInstall