1080p and some fixes for playing in 2019 [REMASTERED]

Overview

Hello and welcome to my guide to fixing Conflict Desert Storm and getting it working in 2019 2020. This guide was originally made in 2019 and written in about an hour so a lot of sentences were run on or didn’t make a whole lot of sense when re-read. This is my attempt at remastering the original and adding more information that many of the community members that commented on the post graciously provided me. If you please could read through all the information provided in this guide and do your own testing before commenting that it does or does not work for you that whole be helpful. If it does work for you or if it doesn’t work for you, leave a comment on the guide and I’ll try and get back to you as soon as possible. Please also can you make sure you read all amendments or additions added in future if I update this guide.Please be aware that the last time I played Desert Storm was back in March of 2020 so although I may not be able to give you the most up to date information in the comments, all the information provided in the guide is still accurate and still works in 2020.And one last message, to all that have viewed and left a favourite on my guide, I huge thanks and appreciation for taking the time and effort to read through it and use it. It may sound weird but this was and still is my first Steam Community Guide and so any appreciation for this guide is great. Keep an eye on this space for any more guide that I might release in the future. No promises though, depends on how busy I am or if the guide needs to be as extensive as this one.Now on with the show.

Introduction

This guide is for the year 2020. This guide should work for all years into the future unless a Windows update destroys any possibility of us actually being able to continue to play this gem of a game. This guide will give you some information and tips on how to get the game to run in the present day. Please be mindful that even with this information available it is still somewhat hearsay. Some of this information may work for you, it may not, while at the say time it may work for some else or it may not. It all depends on your setup, you circumstances and what you are trying to achieve.

I would advise for you, either while your reading this guide or maybe some other time, to read the PCGamingWiki page on Conflict Desert Storm as it could prove to be very useful if you can’t understand my guide, need information or more of a TL;DR than what I am providing. This link will be listed here and at the bottom of the guide along with other links to other Steam forum threads.

[link]

Understanding abbreviations

Throughout this guide I may use abbreviations to get across information in a more compact way. If at any time you are confused about what said abbreviations mean, then you can always just refer to this section to remind yourself. This is also why I have put it as the second section, so you can all see and understand the abbreviations I will be using in the guide.

#1. DC – Stands for Decimal. This will be important for the section on Resolution.

#2. HXD – Stands for Hexadecimal. This will be important for the section on Resolution.

#3. SMS – Stands for Single Monitor Setup.

#4. DMS – Stands for Dual Monitor Setup.

#5. MMS – Stands for Multi-Monitor Setup. This means anything that is three monitors or above.

#6. PCGW – PCGamingWiki.

The most important abbreviations to remember are DC and HXD as these will be the main abbreviations that I will be using in the section on Resolution.

Getting Conflict Desert Storm to work

IF THE GAME LAUNCHES FOR YOU AND YOU CAN ACTUALLY PLAY THE GAME THEN YOU CAN SKIP THIS SECTION. IF THE GAME DOESN’T LAUNCH OR PLAY THEN READ THIS SECTION

Getting Conflict Desert Storm to work might be a pain in the backside, however for most people it should work out of the box. If for some reason it doesn’t, you can check one thing to make sure it isn’t because of Windows. Any other problems with the game not starting may be due to graphics card drivers or conflicting programs that are active. The first thing you can do is to check that Windows Feature, DirectPlay, is enabled. This can be found by going to the Windows Features list and enabling DirectPlay, located under Legacy Components.

HOW TO FIND THE LEGACY COMPONENTS:

If doing this and restarting your computer doesn’t fix the problem then try starting the game with the bare minimum applications running in the background. Make sure applications like Discord or applications that use overlays or that directly inject into programs are not running.
If it still doesn’t work then it is more than likely either a missing DirectX installation, Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable or an incompatible graphics driver. At that point I can only apologies as this is the end of your journey for now. You can try and get old DirectX installations and Visual C++ Redistributables and see if it works other wise you can look at the linked Steam community threads, the PCGW page or use Google to see if you find any fixes for your problem.

If this has fixed your problems and you can now get into the game and play then you can move on to the resolution section. If not then again apologies, but try and find the answer in the numerous steam threads to see if someone else has the same problem as you and has found a fix.

Resolution

Resolution in Conflict Desert Storm is limited by the age of the technology that was used to create it and what was on the market at the time. The maximum resolution by default is 1400×1050 on SMS or 1080p monitors* or 1920×1440 on DMS or larger monitors*. Thus being able to play at 1080p or higher is not available to you by default, shame I know but it can be very easily changed by doing some registry edits. I know, having to edit the registry sounds scary but trust me, as long as you don’t press delete or edit something your not suppose to then nothing will go wrong.

*Unknown if it is monitor amount or monitor type i.e. 1080p 1440p 4k etc.*

First before we get ahead of our selves. Make sure you have completed the following check list;

#1. Started the game at least once. Start the game and start the first mission just to make sure everything actually works. If you are not doing basic due diligence, do yourself a favour and just make sure it works first.

#2. Edit the graphics settings to your liking. Please be aware that once you edit the registry the setting that are enabled will not be able to be changed without changing resolution. Also if you launch the game, the resolution may or may not get changed to 800×600. It depends on if you press Cancel or OK to exit. But just make sure the settings you want are enabled and maxed.

#3. Test the game again with these new settings.

Once this is done you can move onto the registry editing.
First port of call is to open the Registry Editor. This can be done in two ways. #1. Windows Key + R then typing in Regedit into the Run prompt that appears. OR #2. Pressing the Windows Key or clicking the start button and typing in Regedit. Once Regedit is open it is important that you go to a specific registry location. Below is the locations where Conflict Desert Storm’s registry entries are held. These locations depends what operating system you are using.

IF you are using Windows 7 then the registry location you want to go to is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWow6432NodePivotal GamesConflict Desert StormDevice Settings

IF you are using Windows 8 or above then the registry location you want to go to is:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREClassesVirtualStoreMACHINESOFTWAREWow6432NodePivotal GamesConflict Desert StormDevice Settings

There may be a different location for the registry entries if you are using a 32-Bit OS or using Windows XP so you’ll have to do some sleuthing yourself. It shouldn’t be too hard.

The registry entry you are looking for is called “ResolutionIndex”. By default the Resolution Index is set to 3 which means 800×600. The lowest it can go is 0 which means 640×480. If it’s different then more than likely you have changed the resolution to something higher than 800×600.

Here is were the trickiness comes in. The following values are directly from PCGW for easier reading and understanding. I’ve have chosen not to add the HXD values, in contrast with the original guide which included them, based off of what the DC values directly covert to purely on the basis that its kind of pointless and time consuming. I would just stick to HXD values for ease of use purely because that is what the launcher defaults to. If you have a DC value then just change the registry setting to DC and enter the value. It shouldn’t make a difference on the surface but accounts vary as to whether it does or doesn’t. You can try both DC and HXD and see if a HXD value works but a DC value doesn’t.

Default values given by the Desert Storm Launcher:
HXD 0 = 640×480
HXD 3 = 800×600
HXD 4 = 1024×768
HXD 5 = 1152×864
HXD 9 = 1280×960
HXD 10 = 1600×1200
HXD 14 = 1920×1440

The values above however are for the lowest of the low settings. All that was changed was the resolution. After testing again at 1920×1440 with every turned on and maximum settings, the Resolution Index value changed to 2a (HXD). This just shows how changing a bunch of settings can change the value. But not just that. Depending on your monitor setup and the size of the monitor’s resolution you will have completely different values to other people with different monitor setups. If you are using an SMS then the values listed on PCGW should work. However if you are using a DMS or a MMS then your values will vary massively.

This is were trial and error comes into effect. You basically have to try all HXD or DC values and find one that works and stick with it. Please bare in mind that if you enter a value that is not accepted by Conflict Desert Storm then all your setting will be reset back to default and you’ll have to start again from the beginning of this section.

HXD 2a = 1920×1440 – This value comes about when all settings are enabled and maxed out.
HXD 2b / DC 43 = 2560×1440? – It seems like this value is 1440p but I have no real way of knowing. It looks correct and goes into a 16:9 ratio so I’m going to say that it is 1440p.

Please bare in mind that I am using a DMS and thus my values may be different from yours. Please also bare in mind that as a result of me using a DMS or having a 1440p monitor that my resolution values as listed above in the defaults may not exist for you. Don’t panic, this is either as a result of me using a DMS or having a 1440p monitor, it’s not because of something you’ve done or because something went wrong. If they look the same then fine if not then don’t worry.

PCGW Values:
DC 16 – 2560×1440
DC 19 – 3840×2160
DC 24 – 1152×648
DC 25 – 1280×768
DC 26 – 1280×720
DC 27 – 1280×800
DC 29 – 1280×1024
DC 30 – 1360×768
DC 31 – 1360×1024
DC 32 – 1364×768
DC 33 – 1440×900
DC 34 – 1600×900
DC 35 – 1680×1050
DC 36 – 1776×1000
DC 37 – 1920×1080

The above values may only work on Single Monitor Setups. If you are not using a SMS then these values may still work but will correspond to either a much lower resolution, a weird 16:9 resolution or may flat out not work. From face value, DMS values seem to be significantly higher in value in comparison with SMS values but you’ll have to do your own testing. My advice is to load into another game or even several other games at your preferred resolution. See what it looks like, see how it feels. Then try and replicate it. It will take time, it will take effort. Just take your time and look carefully. If you like a resolution and it works then stick with it.

Again reminder. IF the value you enter is not accepted by Desert Storm it will default you back to 800×600 and with some settings turned off. So you’ll have to start again and try and value lower or higher than the last one you inputted.

These are my final settings. Ignore the resolution, it is set to 1440p. It just shows 800×600 because the launcher cannot comprehend a higher resolution.

Fixing the FPS and animations

FPS has a massive impact on Desert Storm. Just watch the opening in-game cinematic with unlocked fps. When the game is running over 100 fps, animations no longer exist. They fly out of that helicopter like they are a F35s. So how do we stop that? Simple, limit the FPS. This requires the program RivaTuner. This is basically a requirement to play Desert Storm and not die both in the game and inside from the terrible mouse acceleration + high fps. To get RivaTuner go to:
[link]

When you have downloaded RivaTuner and installed it it will look like this.

From there it is extremely simple to limit the FPS in just 3 easy steps.
#1. Click the green Add button and navigate to the Conflict Desert Storm installation folder, most likely located in your Steam folder. EXAMPLE: D:Steamsteamappscommonconflict_desert_storm

If you don’t know where your installation location is then just go into Steam, right click on Conflict Desert Storm and go to Properties, then Storage and then Browse local files. This will show you were the folder location is.

#2. Add the Desert Storm executable.

#3. In RivaTuner click on DesertStorm and change the Framerate Limiter to 60. If the application detection level is higher than low then change it to low. Also turn off the On-Screen Display. It’s just annoying and pointless since Steam already has one built in. If you already have RivaTuner installed and use it for other games then leave the setting as you set then, just adjust the Framerate limiter as stated above.

And there you go the FPS is limited. This means however that every time you play Conflict Desert Storm you will have to have RivaTuner running in the background. This is a problem however as some other older games and even some newer games refuse to launch if RivaTuner is detected as running as it does “inject” itself into the application to limit the FPS and as a result some games will refuse to run while RivaTuner is running.

SO IF some of your games that previously ran fine and launched now refuse to launch and seemingly crash for no reason, make sure RivaTuner is not running. Basically just make sure RivaTuner doesn’t run on start up that way everything will hopefully still work. This will just mean that you will have to launch RivaTuner every time you want to play Desert Storm but its a small price to pay to make sure that everything else still works.

Also if you don’t like the animations still being fast, then I hope you like 30 fps or even ~20 fps. Even then I don’t know how much of a difference that will make. It is very likely that the incredible CPU speeds we have now speed up the animations by default. You can try, but lets be fair. If you are going to play this game, you’ll probably play at 60 fps.

Graphical Fidelity

If you are looking for more graphical fidelity from Desert Storm then you’ll need to consult your graphics card’s control panel. If you are using a Nvidia graphics card then the following screenshots will help you. If you are using a AMD graphics card then I’m sure you can figure it out. It shouldn’t be too hard to find the settings. If you need help I’m sure just googling where the settings are in your AMD control panel could help. These are not strictly required but I’ll put it this way.

The antialiasing in Desert Storm is, how do I say it in a Steam friendly way, absolutely atrocious. To be fair, the ability for graphics cards in 2002 to do AA wasn’t the greatest. As a result you can quite clearly see the aliasing in the Game. The game is running possibly the lowest form of AA. As a result using your graphics card’s control panel to force higher levels of AA and also adding other stuff like Anisotropic Filtering, Multi-Sampling etc. is great for getting higher levels of graphical fidelity out of this game.

The following is the setting I use for Desert Storm. This may be helpful for AMD users. I don’t know what the appropriate settings are for you guys so take from this what you can.

To put into writing I enable:
Anisotropic Filtering = 16x
Antialiasing – FXAA = On
Antialiasing – Mode = Enhance (You can put it on overwrite if you want. I don’t personally see any difference)
Antialiasing – Setting = 8x
Antialiasing – Transparency = 8x (supersample)
Multi-Frame Sampled AA (MFAA) = On
Texture Filtering – Anisotropic sample optimisation = off (This is a setting that has been set off for another game on the global settings, it only affects DirectX titles)
Texture Filtering – Negative LOD Bias = Clamp
Triple Buffering = On
Vertical Sync = On (I do this just to make sure that it absolutely stays at 60 FPS and doesn’t start frame tearing)

You can also choose to put on the Max Frame Rate setting and set it to 60. It shouldn’t change anything but just adds extra insurance that it will be locked to 60.

Community Information, links and finality

Here we come to the community section. The following section will be dedicated to information provided by the community. If you want to contribute to this then leave your comments.

Thanks goes to BadShank – 02/09/2020
Thanks BadShank for the comment. It good to know that it’s working and you’ve confirmed that the values work. Don’t know about the crashes though, if anyone else can support the issue of crashing when alt-tabbing I’ll make others aware. I personally have never had a crash even when alt-tabbing but I can definitely see it happening. Anyway glad it works for you anyway. Happy gaming!

Originally posted by BadShank:

I can confirm a few things from my side:
I have a dual monitor setup. (main – 144hz, 1080p res and other one 60hz, 1080p res)
Registery values of Hex11 / Dec17 works for me to get 1080p.
Any other values just resets the settings.

Forced 60fps via RivaTuner server, works like a charm.
I also forced FSAA, AF and AA from Nvidia panel and the edges looks a lot better.
I am also running the game as Admin.

If the game is running at too high fps most of the movements, including the mouse turning will be janky. Turn off acceleration. Also, Alt+Tab crashes the game for me mostly, especially if done at loading screens.

Here are links to all the information and where to find other sources.
Steam Discussions:
Guide to 1080p:
[link]
1080p Widescreen?:
[link]
1980×1080?:
[link]
About widescreen resolution:
[link]

PCGamingWiki:
[link]
[link]

To all those that have made it through this remastered version of the guide then thank you and I hope this has helped you.
I hope you all have a great gaming experience and enjoy the game for all it has to offer.
Also thank you to all the previous and new comers to the guide. I didn’t know so many people wanted to play such an old game but I’m glad you are.

Happy Hunting.