Staredit Network > Forums > Modding Discussion > Topic: Play any mod in windowed mode
Play any mod in windowed mode
Jul 9 2017, 7:41 pm
By: Neiv  

Jul 9 2017, 7:41 pm Neiv Post #1



I was wondering how difficult would it be to create a tool that launches mods in windowed mode even when the mod didn't originally support it. Turns out that it wasn't that bad =)

How to use
Drag and drop a mod .exe to chainwmode.exe. It should work with any kind of mod loader, or anything that launches starcraft. But to be fair, I didn't bother testing Memgraft/Stargraft/Stardraft mods. Alternatively you can run it from command line like 'chainwmode.exe "C:\mods\cool mod.exe"'

Attachments:
chainwmode.exe
Hits: 36 Size: 960.5kb

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 18 2017, 3:12 am by Neiv.



None.

Jul 9 2017, 7:46 pm Pr0nogo Post #2



Good stuff. This will help make older mods playable. Thanks for the tool!

edit: if you have issues getting it to work, make sure you have wmode.dll and wmode_fix.dll in your starcraft 1.16.1 directory. I've attached them here.

Attachments:
WMode.dll
Hits: 11 Size: 34.97kb
WMode_Fix.dll
Hits: 8 Size: 26kb

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 17 2019, 8:41 am by Pr0nogo.




Jul 10 2017, 2:13 am Corbo Post #3

ALL PRAISE YOUR SUPREME LORD CORBO

This is an amazing addition. Thank you very much!



fuck you all

Jul 10 2017, 2:15 am Black_Overseer Post #4



Great work!




Jul 10 2017, 2:45 am Pr0nogo Post #5





:bang:

(Wanted to see if it would force w-mode exes to w-mode even if you hit no. It does!)




Jul 15 2017, 3:04 am Dem0n Post #6

ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Not sure if it's an issue with the program or something I'm doing wrong, but this only worked once. Every time I try it now, the console shows up for a split second and then goes away, and nothing happens. Tried re-downloading but still getting the same results.




Jul 18 2017, 3:18 am Neiv Post #7



It definitely should work more than once.. The one possiblity that is not a bug in the program is that the first starcraft process was still running when you tried again.

Anyways, if you still have the problem, I updated the exe to be a bit better at reporting errors. Though due to technical reasons, some errors don't appear in the console window but get logged to a file in directory "%TEMP%\chainwmode_0" instead.



None.

Dec 17 2019, 9:07 pm UndeadStar Post #8



I was wondering if it would work the way I expected, and it did! :)
Modifying the Starcraft shortcut by adding the full path of chainwmode.exe before the full path of starcraft.exe (without a mod) do work.

I had added "" around the 2 paths initially, but Windows 10 removed them...maybe it's safer to still try to put them, it is more likely to fix things than break them.




Jan 8 2020, 9:19 am UndeadStar Post #9



Is there a way (command line parameter?) to start directly in 2x size?




Options
  Back to forum
Please log in to reply to this topic or to report it.
Members in this topic: None.
[02:49 am]
Ultraviolet -- "Not many people know this, but I actually got the idea for my mustache after seeing the end of a paintbrush for the first time." :lol:
[2026-3-08. : 1:15 pm]
NudeRaider -- literally Hitler
[2026-3-08. : 12:54 pm]
Oh_Man -- this is a work of art: https://youtu.be/NmjrfXO0mdk
[2026-3-08. : 12:10 am]
Ultraviolet -- "often was always pretty cool" 60% of the time, it works every time :shifty:
[2026-3-07. : 11:26 pm]
NudeRaider -- The visuals are good, the animation is terrible: the movement is off, the impacts in battle scenes have zero weight to it, the lip sync is right up uncanny valley. But yeah, considering what it is it's pretty good overall.
[2026-3-07. : 6:24 pm]
Oh_Man -- https://youtu.be/pPZafFJOi48 crazy good
[2026-3-07. : 9:51 am]
NimoStar -- And Pathfinding in SC1 was not *that* bad, the problem is that it was designed as a flat 2D game like WC1 (and it was in the alpha) and then switched to isometric without changing the base code. So its actually a flat game pretending to be isometric. With the custom competitive maps that use larger ramps and elevation, pathfinding is quite fixed.
[2026-3-07. : 9:47 am]
NimoStar -- The unlocking and map choice was fine, but mostly in WoL - In HoTS the worst of all units are irrelevant because Kerrigan has infinite summon and stuff. And even in WoL the spaceship instakill map powers are better than units. If I could RTS in my RTS that'd be great.
[2026-3-05. : 8:45 pm]
NudeRaider -- Nekron
Nekron shouted: NudeRaider not that the og sc1 campaigns are particularly good mechanically but cmon, SC2 map mechanics are the opposite of fun
There's many parts to it. I think the raw rts gameplay of sc1 is unsurpassed to this day. And I too never liked that sc2 missions always rush you in some way or another, because I like to take my time. However I still have to admit that they way they did it often was always pretty cool. Like lava rising and receding, a huge-ass mothership destroying bases, undead coming at night, just to name a few, those are definitely creative, so I'm sure there's people that liked it. But that's not even what I meant. It's the unlocking of new features and upgrades and choice which map to play next that made it so much more motivating for me.
[2026-3-05. : 6:49 pm]
Nekron -- like the train maps, enemies just kind of come at you (I'm not sure if there is a real enemy base, there might be one just on a technicality - you are to never interact with its production) and then you gotta chase trains for lulz
Please log in to shout.


Members Online: pointlessapex30