What version/patch to play the Classic Story Campaign [Everything you need to know]

[Darkcranio]

I spent a week figure out which version is the best to play the story campaign on modern systems in >classic< graphics.
1.23-26(these patches are before 2010): Doesn't have native widescreen, the Hive widescreenmod makes the letters way too small on higher res to enjoy the campaign, also the "movieplayer" within the came aren't capable of playing the movies higher than 800x600 although I even ported pack the HD1080p movies from reforge, still plays with 800x600, you can imagine on a 4k screen that's not really a good experience.
1.27 to 1.29: Ambiance sounds missing(all of them yes, because of compability issues back then with Mac)
1.29 to 1.31: Above 2k resolution the fonts are smashed together in campaign text.
1.31: AI heroes can't learn spells, although this doesn't affect OG campaign, just custom campaigns and short matches.
1.36 Reforged(today): Buckle up.
-Model bugs: Malfurion had 3 different models in the OG game: On foot, brow cape stag, without stag browncape. Now the moment he comes out of his Den in the debu mission he is instantly on a stag, doesn't make sense. In reforged there is only 1 model the stag one.
-Sound bugs: The sound/music constantly plays in the next scene, for example a movie starts and you still hear the human/orc theme on top of the movie.
-Censored content: Furion in ROC became Malfurion, Thrall calls Grom "HELLSCREAM" all the time. Jokes from the dryad cut. As well as the dreadlord "druglord" joke.
-Just being lazy: They didn't redo the original 3D campaign backgrounds only shitty barely moving 2d ART. Also there is another Menu sound bug:
The mainmenu.flac plays once then it keeps playing all the other music in the menu in sequence from the game. Also the original menu music cut for some reason.
-There is no gamma slider which makes the whole classic campaign darker as it should be, not major but still.

TL : DR: If you want to play classic campaign, play the 1.31 version because it has native widescreen, just don't play it over 2k cause the texts are smashed together.
OR
If Reforged client but the bugs above still gives a shitty experience. As of now I prefer 1.31, but I'm on the way to improve reforge with my censore and main menu fixes, so Soon(tm).

 

[Ravager16829]

I wanted to point out a mistake you had when you mention 1.31.1. You said that it was the best version for playing the custom campaigns in proper Classic Warcraft 3 because of the native widescreen feature, but in my opinion, I would disagree. Some people suggest that they should stay away from 1.31.1 and even go straight to the latest patches of Reforged, which is 1.36, because there were a plethora amount of bugs that seemingly didn't happened if you are using the 1.36.

In addition to the said AI Heroes not learning their new skills as they level up (though, you may still fix this problem by using a custom map script from this thread), 1.31.1 suffers for two annoying bugs:
1.Saving the progress during the custom campaigns/maps and then try to load it will cause most of the unit event triggers to be disabled. Meaning that maps that require a unit event to happen before you can progress will not work and you won't be able to finish the mission. The only thing you can do this is by playing the whole chapter in one run without saving/loading, which is kinda embarrassing.
2.If you try to finish certain map by clicking on the "Continue" (or "Quit Game", if you earned a victory or resign during the skirmish game), it will brings up the score screen, where clicking on the "OK" will cause the game to be completely lock-up. The black screen will remain there without returning back to the main menu, which is also quite annoying. To make things even worse, there's no way to solve this problem, as killing the game process with Task Manager or by completely logging out your computer will seemingly remove this bug.

 

[Darkcranio]

"because there were a plethora amount of bugs that seemingly didn't happened if you are using the 1.36."
What I listed is true of today. So 1.36 the current version of Reforged is def. not it.
The sound leak to next scenes and movies and the obvious texture bugs on ledges are alone enough to majorly ruin the experience.

 

[Darkcranio]

Update: The above pictures does not reflect the reality, for some reason when I extracted the "replaceabletextures" folder from the CASC archive and DIDNT DO anything with it, 0 mods. Just alone made the bugs you see above, but you I leave this if anyone would counter this bug.
I deleted the folder from the retail folder and it it's good again now. I modify the main post based on this.
"You said that it was the best version for playing the custom campaigns"
I didn't say this, I didn't put custom word in it on purpose, I'm talking about the best way to play the story campaign. But I added to the title to make it more clear.

 

[tulee]

Having multiple versions of wc3 / using mods has been known to create issues with the latest patch of wc3. You encountered those issues above doesn't represent the experience for people who just use 1.36+. Yes, there are some sound issues etc, but for the most part 1.36+ is in my opinion the best experience, provided you dont have multiple versions of wc3 installed/ using mods/modified local files.

 

[Darkcranio]

Everything I posted except the texture one is legit and current. The sound bug/leak is present in a single install as well, I've seen several videos of playthroughs with this bug. Model bug, yet again, present Reforged client only uses 1 model of Malfurion even though several models in the game files just not used by the game. Censored content is again has nothing to do with several installs, it's valid cause the modification can be found in the file archive as well. Menu backgrounds and music as well, instead of 1 main music playing it keeps playing all music in sequence in the menu.
None of these issues are because multiple installs because before I even started to investigate I took notes of this when I had only Reforged installed. This was the whole reason I started to look into it.

 

[tulee]

Well, I guess we each have our own experiences with it. My own experiences were that latest patch of wc3 was being messed around by multiple installs of older versions, which is why I now only stick with the latest patch, nothing else.

 

[Retera]

The CD that we have in our basement has version 1.00 Reign of Chaos, and version 1.14 Frozen Throne. These would be the best versions to experience the original classics. Change monitor settings to 4:3 resolution or buy a 4:3 monitor. Then it's the best experience, because it is the original product with all systems fully intact in the manner that was intended to be shipped -- not some data steward's attempt at maintaining something after the fact.

 

[Darkcranio]

Well that's nice all, but I meant it on modern systems. True in terms of from an archiving perspective do that. I do have 4:3 CRT monitor to other reasons as well. But on a modern system, no it's not.
It's not just about the 4:3 the original movie player within the OG game only plays at 800x600 and with pretty ugly color banding which cannot be modded unless the game recoded. Personally I could just switch to my 4:3 monitor and call it a day, although the color banding would still be present even there.
But to say "go buy a CRT monitor" is not really a solution for most. Especially if you want to record, stream it whatever, it just gives extra hussle to the whole thing.

 

[Opus132]

Funny, i read this thread and others and i still have no idea what version i should use for the campaigns.

 

[Opus132]

I wanted to point out a mistake you had when you mention 1.31.1. You said that it was the best version for playing the custom campaigns in proper Classic Warcraft 3 because of the native widescreen feature, but in my opinion, I would disagree. Some people suggest that they should stay away from 1.31.1 and even go straight to the latest patches of Reforged, which is 1.36, because there were a plethora amount of bugs that seemingly didn't happened if you are using the 1.36.

Isn't the campaign full of bugs, crashes and stuff like that in Reforged, even now?

Also, i heard that while the graphics are like the original in classic, the audio still has some differences (censored voice lines, and a couple of broken ones). I also believe there are some changes in the campaign itself, starting with some reworking of some maps and the difficulty in general, though i'm not sure what the specifics are. Out of a limb, i'm going to assume they just simplified things (since this is how it usually goes).

WC3Champions seems the go to way for multiplayer, so all that's left is figuring out the best version of the original campagins and any single player custom campaigns, RPG maps etc.

 

[Retera]

It's not just about the 4:3 the original movie player within the OG game only plays at 800x600 and with pretty ugly color banding which cannot be modded unless the game recoded. Personally I could just switch to my 4:3 monitor and call it a day, although the color banding would still be present even there.

If the movies concern you, you could just watch the updated versions on YouTube, although you might want to be careful to avoid the Reforged ones where it was noted that video cinematics include alterations, such as Thrall's voice being lowered mechanically with a basic audio pitch program and other weird things.

But in my experience the original games -- for the part of the game where you are playing it -- can run fine even on a 4k flat screen monitor if you just do 4:3 resolution and not quite use all the pixels. Saying that the originals require a CRT monitor or that they only play at 600x800, for like 95% of the experience (i.e. the game part) seems relatively disingenuous to me.

Last time I put the 1.00 Reign of Chaos CD into a Windows 10 computer and played it, it played fine.

 

[Opus132]

If you are struggling to get the game at 4:3 without stretching, you can always set the desktop at a custom resolution and launch the game like that.

Still, i would think it might be worth trying to make the widescreen versions of the game work.

Right now, from what i understand it's a toss up between 1.30.4 and 1.31.1. The latter has introduced some bugs (severe ones from what i can see) but i'm not sure if it has some advantage over 1.30.4 that makes it worth considering it.

 

[Darkcranio]

If you are struggling to get the game at 4:3 without stretching, you can always set the desktop at a custom resolution and launch the game like that.

Still, i would think it might be worth trying to make the widescreen versions of the game work.

Right now, from what i understand it's a toss up between 1.30.4 and 1.31.1. The latter has introduced some bugs (severe ones from what i can see) but i'm not sure if it has some advantage over 1.30.4 that makes it worth considering it.

Just played through on 1.31.1, it's all fine, there isn't censored content. Properly supported widescreen, A.I heroes are fine in campaign. Movies play in widescreen although with tiny subtitles.
- Just dont play over 2k res, the text are mashed together.

 

[Opus132]

What about custom campains? Doesn't the AI bug show up there?

 

[Darkcranio]

What about custom campains? Doesn't the AI bug show up there?

This thread as the title suggest is about story campaign, I'm not interested in custom campaigns. Although others reported that A.I is broken in 1.31 outside of story campaign, I did not test it myself.

 

[Opus132]

Fair enough, though i figured it would have been nice to have one version for all singleplayer needs, original campaigns and custom ones alike.

Right now i have 1.31.1, 1.30.4 (using this for custom content because i don't trust the AI bug) and 126a (just in case) installed plus Reforged for multiplayer. That's like, five different shortcuts for one game, heh.

 

[tulee]

Fair enough, though i figured it would have been nice to have one version for all singleplayer needs, original campaigns and custom ones alike.

Using the latest patch of wc3 is in my opinion the best version for all custom campaigns. Bouncing around between 3-4 different patches is a thing of the past once you start using 1.36+ to play custom campaigns. The original campaigns also should not have issues, though I only played the "reforged" blizzard campaign, not the classic graphic one.

 

[raypack]

If the movies concern you, you could just watch the updated versions on YouTube, although you might want to be careful to avoid the Reforged ones where it was noted that video cinematics include alterations, such as Thrall's voice being lowered mechanically with a basic audio pitch program and other weird things.

But in my experience the original games -- for the part of the game where you are playing it -- can run fine even on a 4k flat screen monitor if you just do 4:3 resolution and not quite use all the pixels. Saying that the originals require a CRT monitor or that they only play at 600x800, for like 95% of the experience (i.e. the game part) seems relatively disingenuous to me.

Last time I put the 1.00 Reign of Chaos CD into a Windows 10 computer and played it, it played fine.

100% agree!
I ran patch 1.00 (physical disc) on Windows 10 some time ago and literally had 0 issues with the game and the campaigns were actually bug free!

 

[Opus132]

Using the latest patch of wc3 is in my opinion the best version for all custom campaigns. Bouncing around between 3-4 different patches is a thing of the past once you start using 1.36+ to play custom campaigns. The original campaigns also should not have issues, though I only played the "reforged" blizzard campaign, not the classic graphic one.

Classic isn't fully classic from what i can tell. Audio is the same as Reforged (missing voices in english version, some terrible localizations in a number of languages), and i think the cinematics aren't the original either. Reforged also made changes that altered the balance and made the game easier, and i'm not sure if those carry to classic.

For custom campaigns, i guess the only thing that would be annoying is the altered audio.

 

[raypack]

Classic isn't fully classic from what i can tell. Audio is the same as Reforged (missing voices in english version, some terrible localizations in a number of languages), and i think the cinematics aren't the original either. Reforged also made changes that altered the balance and made the game easier, and i'm not sure if those carry to classic.

For custom campaigns, i guess the only thing that would be annoying is the altered audio.

I think RoC campaigns retain their balance if you play with classic graphics on 1.32+

 

[Opus132]

So, after spending some time on google, i found the following information:

1) For version without widescreen, 1.26a is the most bug free option. Tested it right now and it runs fine on Windows 11, so that's good at least. Some custom campaigns rely on later versions but many were made for this version so it's good to have if anyone wants to try those. Game supports 4:3 resolution right off the bat. I have a 1440p screen so all i had to do is set the game at 1920x1440 and now everything runs properly at 4:3 ratio.

2) 1.27b is the last pre-widescreen patch but it introduced an ambient sounds bug that wasn't resolved until 1.30.1. Not sure how annoying this bug is but i guess that means 1.26a is the one to go for pre-widescreen.

3) 1.29.2 is relatively bug-free but because of the sound issue not sure why anyone would consider this one or anything between 1.26a and 1.30.1 for that matter.

4) 1.30.1 is the most bug-free version among the widescreen patches. Also works with WC3Connect but i'm not sure if that's still a thing. Grubby plays on W3Champions and i assume everybody either goes there or sticks to Battle.net nowadays.

5) 1.30.4, not sure about this one, if it's better than 1.30.1 or not.

6) 1.31.1. This one added some stuff for modding or editing (world editor updates, LUA support etc) and i think some custom campaigns actually require this one. Has that AI bug (there's a workaround for this though) and also apparently as a problem with corrupted saves or something like that.

This is has far as i got, might be more info out there.

 

[Opus132]

BTW, i think i may have found a problem in the widescreen patches. It seems the cinematics are being reproduced at the wrong ratio. They are blown up now to fit the whole screen, but i almost seems the videos should play at 16:10 rather than 16:9, or at least the picture feels somewhat squished. Anybody knows anything about this?

 

[tulee]

So, after spending some time on google, i found the following information:

1) For version without widescreen, 1.26a is the most bug free option. Tested it right now and it runs fine on Windows 11, so that's good at least. Some custom campaigns rely on later versions but many were made for this version so it's good to have if anyone wants to try those. Game supports 4:3 resolution right off the bat. I have a 1440p screen so all i had to do is set the game at 1920x1440 and now everything runs properly at 4:3 ratio.

2) 1.27b is the last pre-widescreen patch but it introduced an ambient sounds bug that wasn't resolved until 1.30.1. Not sure how annoying this bug is but i guess that means 1.26a is the one to go for pre-widescreen.

3) 1.29.2 is relatively bug-free but because of the sound issue not sure why anyone would consider this one or anything between 1.26a and 1.30.1 for that matter.

4) 1.30.1 is the most bug-free version among the widescreen patches. Also works with WC3Connect but i'm not sure if that's still a thing. Grubby plays on W3Champions and i assume everybody either goes there or sticks to Battle.net nowadays.

5) 1.30.4, not sure about this one, if it's better than 1.30.1 or not.

6) 1.31.1. This one added some stuff for modding or editing (world editor updates, LUA support etc) and i think some custom campaigns actually require this one. Has that AI bug (there's a workaround for this though) and also apparently as a problem with corrupted saves or something like that.

This is has far as i got, might be more info out there.

Making assumptions based on what other people said through a google search really should not be used as reliable information, especially since there are many people who played "reforged" back when it was released in a buggy state in 2020 and never went back, though they kept their prejudice with them and still write about it online.

At least Darkcranio tried to play on the latest patch of Wc3 before deciding it was not suitable (and to be fair, the "classic" campaign on "Reforged" will probably not be fixed for a long time since that is not their priority/every time they make new updates, the campaigns are susceptible to be altered in strange ways). But for everything else, especially custom campaigns, the latest version of wc3 (currently 1.36+) provides close to 0 issues (I want to say 0 but to be less extreme I say ---close to ----) unless you are playing a campaign made with a third party editor, of which there are none on Hiveworkshop, or you play a campaign made with the return bug, like Return of the Dragon on the chapter where you choose the dragon egg).

Back when I played multiple versions, 1.30.4 was by far the best for everything, normal campaign + custom campaign, except of course those campaigns made on the 1.31 +editor.

 

[Opus132]

But, my good sir, you are a person on the internet.

The first results on my google search came from this forum.

 

[deepstrasz]

Please stay on topic. This discussion is not about custom material.
@Kam might fill in accurate details pertaining 1.32+ original campaign issues.

 

[Retera]

3) 1.29.2 is relatively bug-free but because of the sound issue not sure why anyone would consider this one or anything between 1.26a and 1.30.1 for that matter.

Reasons to use 1.29 are most likely not for classic campaign emulation, but for other purposes that are off-topic for the purposes of this discussion. More such info may be available here or here.

provides close to 0 issues

I was very let-down that from 2022 - 2023 for almost a year the maintainers of this game engine allowed all 3D classic models in the classic render engine to render improperly if the models included classic water on their surface. It broke Naga buildings in the classic campaign, water elemental creatures, etc, and was only fixed in late 2023.

there are many people who played "reforged" back when it was released in a buggy state in 2020 and never went back, though they kept their prejudice with them and still write about it online.

The classic graphics render pipeline in Reforged broke at the 2020 release so that "Ribbon Emitter" visual objects (like the trailing of fire behind the phoenix, the Cripple effect, the Rejuvenation effect, and so many more) do not render visually correctly in a manner consistent with their actual classic counterpart from the Reign of Chaos / Frozen Throne games. These visuals are much darker, and in some cases (such as the paladin hammer) are essentially not even visible on the Reforged emulation of classic. So although it wasn't caused by the new people in 2022 making Reforged patches, it was still caused by Reforged and remains unfixed to this day in the live client. So when we talk about Reforged client, we're talking about something that can't accurately emulate the visuals of the Frozen Throne even after years of this company's attempted maintenance. That's not people keeping prejudice; that's a legitimate technology issue that bothers anyone who cares to pay attention and wants to try to use Reforged client to pretend that they still had a classic client. The Hive Workshop has MIT-licensed, open source technology that renders these ribbon objects with the "View in 3D" button in a manner more consistent with the classic client than the supposedly official game. They do not even bother to copy code we readily provide them -- and everyone -- to correct their broken system. Are folks wrong to extrapolate from that the extent to which this company does (or does not) care about emulating Classic Graphics when given 4 years to try to get it right?

It's also not the only such legitimate technology issue.

 

[Opus132]

So, anybody else seeing what i'm seeing? Cinematics being squished? They should look like this even at full screen, with black bars top and bottom:

Instead in the game it's stretched to fit the whole screen, thus distorting the picture.

Also, the above seems better quality not sure what's up with that.

[EDIT] Nevermind i get it, they cleansed the original cinematics in Reforged, probably by means of some AI upscale.

Cinematics still definitely play at the wrong aspect ratio on all widescreen patches before Reforged.

 

[Retera]

Cinematics still definitely play at the wrong aspect ratio on all widescreen patches before Reforged.

But the "widescreen" patches before Reforged were made by the Reforged team, so that is kind of on them for having created the problem.

My experience with the cinematics is that on the CD versions of the game, if you want the cinematics to look good, you need to install the game using the installer from the CD or from Battle.net back then and notably not just copy the game as a standalone folder from some backup. The installation process performs system-level installs for the DivX video codec(s).

During the 1.27-1.31 era of "prepatches to Reforged," the guys running it had become so accustomed to user reports -- and many user reports came from bootleggers -- that they accepted at face value the report that "cinematics don't work" and were trying to "fix" it. But in my experience, what was really happening is that the cinematics required a system-level install of the DivX video codecs. And you only get that if you install the game.

Before the 2009 Activision merger, if you bought this game from this company in the expected way and played it in the expected way, I recall thinking cinematics worked decently well apart from the screen maybe flashing black as it entered and exited the cinematic fullscreen hardware mode.

Edit:
Another example of the impact of this is that in the original client, the subtitles below the cinematic were included in the letterbox black area, which was always present. But on Reforged prepatches or maybe on Reforged itself, I recall seeing at least one case where the text was overlaid on top of the actual artwork of the video, making the text perhaps harder to read.

 

[Opus132]

Any way to fix it? A mod perhaps?

Good thing i still have my old save with all the missions unlocked from the pre-widescreen era of the game, so at least i can watch them there.