X3 Reunion - Using a mounted image

[TigRon]

I've been searching alot lately for a way to run X3 with a mounted image, and although there are many guides out there, i couldn't seem to get them to work, after one post buried somewhere in the fourm and a few trials i finally got it to work. Now DT4 is supposed to support it without somthing so drastic but heres my hopefully simply explained version.

Programs needed:
SF Cure - it comes in a SFcure01.zip and contains 3 batch files, !start.bat, !Stop.bat and !Install.bat. Along with outher files...

Starforce Nightmare - It comes in a sfn.rar and contains 3 readme's and a SFNightmare.exe.

Alcohol 120% 1.9.5 (Build 3105) - Image Making software, located Here!

Daemon Tools 3.47 - I dont need to tell you about these i hope

I dont have all the links of the top of my head so if anyone has the links i missed please post it. After you have these programs move on to the imaging process.


Creating the Image file
After you have that you need to make the image.

1. Install and Start Alcohol 120%
2. Select "Image Making wizard" from the graphic menu on the left.
3. Insert the DVD and select the drive the DVD is in as the "CD/DVD Device"
4. Read Speed can be left at whatever is the fastest! If the image doesn't work you could try lowering it, but for now go full speed.
5. If your using a FAT32 drive seperate the image at 4gb, if your NTFS you can use Never seperate (Dont know what you have? Then right click on your drive in my computer and select properties. it will be under file system)
6. Tick the "Data position Measurment" box and set the precision to "HIGH"
7. Click "Next"
8. Name the image. and set the image type to "mds" (I didn't get an alternative anyway...)
9. Click Start
10. It will then ask you for the Data Position Measurment (DPM) Measuring Speed. Choose "1x" (you can try faster I just cant guarentee it'll work!)
11. Alcohol will then make your nice 4.36 gig Image.


Mounting the Image:
The fun Bit and bit i had trouble with...

Mounting the Image Step by step.
Firstly If you use Alcohol regularly, remove any alcohol virtual drives you might have.

1. Install daemon Tools
2. Shutdown your computer
3. Remove the power cord from any Physical DVD or CD drives you have.
4. Start up the computer again.
(Not sure if this will make a difference but i disabled my cd drives in my Bios by changing it from Auto to none! cant guide you through this as all Bios's are different but you should be able to disable them and leave them off, Windows should pick them up as a PNP device and have them available when you power them back up again)
5. Start "daemon.exe" if it doesn't autostart
6. Right Click on the D-Tools icon in the Task bar and select "Emulation -> RMPS"
7. Right Click on the D-Tools icon in the Task bar and select "Virtual Cd/Dvd Rom -> Set Number of Devices... -> 1 Drive"
8. Right Click on the D-Tools icon in the Task bar and select "Virtual Cd/Dvd Rom -> Device 0 -> Mount Image"
9. Browse to the location of the image and select open to mount it.
10. Right Click on the D-Tools icon in the Task bar and select "exit"
11. When prompted to leave emulation options enabled click "yes"


Getting Around Starforce:
1. Extract SfCure01.zip to a folder on your HD
2. Browse to the folder and run "!Setup.bat"
3. Then Run "!Start.bat"
4. Extract Sfn.rar to a folder on your HD
5. Browse to the folder and run SFnightmare.exe
6. Select "Disable Node" and wait until "processing..." on the Title bar changes back to "Starforce Nightmare"
7. Select "Disable CD" and again wait until "processing..." changes back to "Starforce nightmare" on the titlebar
8. Finally Click "Disable Node" Again and close SFnightmare.exe when "Processing..." canges back to "Starforce Nightmare".
9. Run the game and it should detect the CD as the original.

This was done with Windows XP Sp2

Hope this helps!

[Tr0n]

With StarForce 3.5.x games it's almost the same procedure as with older SF protections - SFcure + SFNightmare.

But in case of 3.5.x you have to physically disable CD/DVD wiring too and that makes it a pain.

I don't know if DT4 can really emulate SF3.5.x (kinda doubt it) but if it can - probs to the devs.

[Dllfile]

You do not need to disable Alcohol 120% virtual Drives.

I run X3 from an image of my DVD as well, Simply disabling emulation options in Alcohol 120% will solve any issue such as RMPS, ect.. And of course, not having Alcohol 120% running in the tray. But using virtual hide cd takes care of the above, I have all options enabled in mine as well as a virtual drive on Alcohol 120%, only thing I saw that made it not work was having more than 1 virtual drive on Daemon-Tools. or Alcohol 120%, with just 1 on each and virtual hide cd, it works.

Simply deny read access for admin account to these works.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\D-Tools
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Alcohol Soft
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices1 (if exists)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\Scsi

Using SFN just the same, D CD, D Node, D CH2, all worked for me, play Splinter Cell Chaos Theory latest patch as well as X3 and some other SF games that way. And takes less than a min to switch to a diff game, just undo the subacl, unhide virtual drives with virtual hide cd, unmount image, mount next game, hide drives with virtual hide cd, run subacl to deny access again, then play.

All them section are not needed of course, only if you are using one or the other (DT or A120) I just do them all with a batch and it works using subinacl

@ECHO OFF
subinacl /keyreg "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\Scsi\Scsi Port 0" /deny=administrators=r
subinacl /keyreg "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\Scsi\Scsi Port 1" /deny=administrators=r
subinacl /keyreg "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\Scsi\Scsi Port 2" /deny=administrators=r
subinacl /keyreg "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\Scsi\Scsi Port 3" /deny=administrators=r
subinacl /keyreg "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\Scsi\Scsi Port 4" /deny=administrators=r
subinacl /keyreg "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\Scsi\Scsi Port 5" /deny=administrators=r
subinacl /keyreg "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\Scsi\Scsi Port 6" /deny=administrators=r
subinacl /keyreg "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\Scsi\Scsi Port 7" /deny=administrators=r
subinacl /keyreg "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\Scsi" /deny=administrators=r
subinacl /keyreg "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\D-Tools" /deny=administrators=r
subinacl /keyreg "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Alcohol Soft" /deny=administrators=r
subinacl /keyreg "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices" /deny=administrators=r
subinacl /keyreg "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices1" /deny=administrators=r
exit

There is a guide on gameburn world as well that shows how to do this, not sure if I can post links here so I wont, but you can use google. But definately have to disconnect the physical CD/DVD-ROM/RW Drives, game will not run at all with them connected, even using SFN.

[Littlekill]

I've tried so many of these methods, several times over not once has any of them ever worked.

[Joo52]

Although soon to be obsolete this is an excellent thread. The instructions are theyre fool-proof. I however have to wait for DT4 because I use xp sp1 and am not willing to put up with the bs that MS includes with sp2.

[Tr0n]

I'm not using Alcohol at all, because I don't like it. I only want to mount the image in DT without having to install some SF drivers and run SFNigthmare everytime.

Even so, with SF3.5+ the above these methods don't work (it may work on some systems, don't know why yet) unless you physically disconnect the drives. And that's something I'm not prepared to do.

[Dllfile]

Even so, with SF3.5+ the above these methods don't work (it may work on some systems, don't know why yet) unless you physically disconnect the drives. And that's something I'm not prepared to do.

The above works up to version 3.6

X3 itself uses 3.5 and it works.. you have to disconnect drives though, if you have any IDE CD/DVD drives connected at all, even disabled, SF detects them, something that cannot be avoided currently, at least until DT4 (hope)

[Kinlaadare]

This protection also blacklist DT... and that make me wonder when will X3 be out in France...

[Daznis]

Well, i use only sfcure and works perfectly.
no sfnightmare, all emulations off

[Tunatron]

I unplugged my disk drives but now daemon tools wouldn't start. Was getting a SCSI error. I tried reinstalling it but it won't install.

[Tunatron]

I unplugged my drives and then daemon tools wouldn't load, giving me a scsi error. I can't reinstall it either.

[twi41]

Has anybody tried this after installing the 1.2.1 patch? You know the one that addresses framerate issues? I had it working until I patched up.... bleh.

6CD's.... crazy. That's six times as many chances to have a problem.... this is so driving me nuts.

[Overclocker_BG]

please help

hi all
i have problem with sfcure i using 64bit windows and sfcure not run for me

mesage is "This driver has been blocked from loading"

any ideas ??

[Underheaven]

...

Does X3 Reunion work on x64 when using the original disc?

[Tr0n]

The above works up to version 3.6

X3 itself uses 3.5 and it works.. you have to disconnect drives though, if you have any IDE CD/DVD drives connected at all, even disabled, SF detects them, something that cannot be avoided currently, at least until DT4 (hope)

Like I said, it may work on your system. It doesn't work on my system no matter what method I try.