Fixed an issue with the wrapper code that was causing a blank screen on
OpenGeneral and probably hundreds of other games.

---
YURI runs fine here so it will be hard for me to debug.
It sounds like an issue with specific drivers...
so the best solution from my point-of-view will be to add front buffer locking in HEL

YURI also works here under just the wined3d ddraw lib

open wined3d.exe inside of 7zip
and extract libwine.dll, wined3d.dll, and ddraw.dll from $SYSDIR into your game folder

Placed the wined3d ddraw.dll (and libwine.dll, wined3d.dll).

No issues on a working Windows 7 64bit (edit: crashed once after 30 minutes of network play, and the buttons now freeze if alt-tabbing, yet they recover on first click and then keep on working).

Rebooted in Windows 8 (64bit).
Menu buttons animation is fixed.
While playing, the mouse cursor is flickering fast, and the game stutters badly, and is slow (compared to how fast it worked with these libraries on 7).
After exiting to the main menu, menu buttons frozen problem was back, and worse, nothing (needed task manager) could overlap the game.

I have installed the video card drivers from AMD.
Me thinks Microsoft has removed something, or is somehow keeping the video card in low power mode?

Thank you for the new version, open general runs now good for me.

http://bitpatch.com/

Awesome. DOSFreak's llink fixed Stronghold HD in Win8 for me. Woot.

Been trying to use this with Dark Omen to resolve my win8 issues:
Dark Omen Windows 8

however just gives me a crash. If its any help dark omen is a Dx5 game. Thanks

Hi,

I tried your DirectDraw Wrapper with Blade Runner to limit the FPS. In general, the game works fine on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 (I developed a patch and a new installer), but, caused by a too high framerate, some sequences cannot be passed.

"NoVideoMemory" and "FakeVsync" succesfully limit the frames, but the screen is flickering in green color shades. Any idea?

Regards

I'm popping in just to let people know I'm not dead :p

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I fixed one of the bugs in NoVideoMemory a few days ago, make sure you have the lastest version. Whenever I see alot of green I want to assume its a 555 vs 565 color bug. I ordered a copy of Blade Runner, I'll take a look when it shows up.

Collector added "some kind" of graphic fix to his installer.
http://archive.adventuregamers.com/forums/sho … ead.php?t=30597

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I'll get my Dark Omen CD back sometime around XMAS.
Once I get Win8 install I'll take a look at that too.
I'm not entirely sure what Dark Omen is doing.
Rumor has it that it supports Glide, I know it static links to Direct3D.

---

here some stuff on getting some Command & Conquer games running with win8 http://cnc-comm.com/community/index.php?topic … g11551#msg11551

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lately I've been looking at generically converting paletteized games to 16-bit color. http://www.bitpatch.com/downloads/palette_test.cpp GDI32.BitBlt converting to 16 bit-color is pretty snappy (0.5ms). BitBlt converting to 32-bit color takes twice as long as it does if converted by hand. But we can't really convert by hand because we shouldn't be locking the primary surface. It seems the real speed difference between 32 and 16 bit colors is simply how many pages of memory a 640x480x32 texture spans.

Final Liberation is one of those games that would benefit from running entirely in 16-bit color... (can't be fixed by colorfix=1) But I've decided to hard-code a patch to do that for this game [ edit: http://bitpatch.com/downloads/fl_highcolor_patch.zip ] . By stopping the game from changing display modes we also fix the crashing on WinXP.
/ramble

I ordered a copy of Blade Runner, I'll take a look when it shows up.

That's great, thank you.

555 vs 565 color bug

Well, I recorded a short video. Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYE2zZmF7m0

Hi,

Thanks for putting this .dll together. I have just tryed your latest version with RayForce (aka Layer Section aka Galactic Attack) under WinXP and it was able to make the framerate more playable. Still mucking around with the settings so I'm not sure I have it running perfect, but it is this (wrapper?) has done the best job so far that I have found.

A couple of requests or questions as to whether these features might be possible in the future;

1) Being able to force display output to windowed mode instead of a game defaulting to fullscreen?

2) If 1) is possible then to be able to specify window size.

3) possibility to have a "output" framerate counter.
(I have checked Fraps FPS counter works with your .dll as an alternative in the interim)

PS: Tried D3DWindower to do 1) & 2) above but noticed that it introduced a 'flickering' or 'blinking' to the displayed output.

Thanks.

Actually after trying a few different settings out with Raiden 1 it seems best to keep things simple.

In the aqrit.cfg using FakeVsync = 1 by itself seems to be the only way I could play the game without it crashing after a random amount of time. Using one or more of the other options seems to cause random crashing but I couldn't find which setting/s exactly were the culprit so I decided to just make all the other options = 0 which resulted in the game working fine.

Out of the three different options pertaining to 'framerate' FakeVsync = 1 was the only one that gave me the best results... well, sorta.

You see it's not quite 60 FPS it ends up averaging around 65 FPS (oscilating between 58FPS and 68FPS) but that is a better result than anything else I have tried so, hmm.

I'll spend a little bit more time and if I find anything else worth mentioning I'll report back.

Edit:
~~~~
Ok, I just turned VSync off in my video driver and now the framerate oscilates between 65FPS & 69FPS so the average is around 68FPS. It makes things a bit smoother since the framerate is not making large movements. But it is still a shame it is not fixing it to 60FPS? I'll have to make my reaction times 10 percent faster to compensate. 😅

hi,
I have/know-how-to add windowed mode to ddraw games, but I have no plans to add that feature to this wrapper. I link to DxWnd in my readme... did you try that?

FakeVsync targets 71 fps because I have it sleeping for 14ms between frames.
It can easily be made to target 62 fps by simply changing the sleep interval to 16 ms. This was also an issue with Total Soccer 2000, which I "fixed" yesterday by simply reporting a Monitor Frequency of 71Hz if FakeVsync=1. So grab the latest version... and see if it is also fixed for your game.

Yes, it is possible to add a frame rate counter.
Anytime I've needed it I just drop it into the debug build and log it to a file.
I'll add an on-screen display at some point.

----

@Mr.Blade
Blade Runner should now work with the NoVideoMemory option.
GetCaps and GetSurfaceDesc now lie and add the DDSCAPS_PRIMARYSURFACE flag when reporting the characteristics of the Fake Primary Surface.
I didn't take the time to reverse things any further.

---

Also fixed a regression with ForceBltNoTearing today.

.

Hi Aqrit,

Wow, cool a new version to try. Just trying it out now...

1) Trying this and the previous version does nothing with Raiden II. The game appears to lock the framerate internally or something similar because it will always run at a rock stable 59/60FPS. I enabled/disabled video card VSync, tried all the settings in your config file, but nothing has an effect on the game. No complaints, just an observation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edit:
Actually, I should explain that I only tried using your .dll with this game because when you first start level one the scrolling forest has a kind of wave effect to it as if it is not scrolling 100% perfect. It is not 'tearing' though. Also, the scrolling of the trees creates a kind of blinking light effect around them which is distracting. The two 'problems' are not that bad though and I suppose some people might not even notice them. Maybe nothing can be done about it anyway, as it might just be the result of the games internal framerate limiting?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2) Trying this new version with RayForce, ok I can confirm that the framerate is now at a rock stable 71/72FPS. The game feels too fast though. I assume it is suppose to run at 60FPS. I am thinking most of the older games were made to run at 60FPS (or 30FPS if you go way back)?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Results:
Video Card VSync ON and NO .dll = 200+FPS
Video Card VSync OFF and NO .dll = 200+FPS
Video Card VSync ON and .dll FakeVSync OFF = 600+FPS
Video Card VSync ON and .dll FakeVSync ON = 71FPS
Video Card VSync OFF and .dll FakeVSync OFF = 600+FPS
Video Card VSync OFF and .dll FakeVSync ON = 71FPS
So it doesn't matter if I have Video Card VSync enabled or disabled, yay!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I would love to try a version with target 62FPS please. Wonder if the extra 2FPS could be turned into some kind of buffer like triple buffering for example? Maybe that could net us 60FPS?

Please don't think I am trying to upset you but why were you targeting 71FPS?

Anyway, thanks for improving the FakeVsync & ForceBltNoTearing.

PS: I can't compile myself which is why I ask for a 60 or 62 FPS version.

hi,
I have/know-how-to add windowed mode to ddraw games, but I have no plans to add that feature to this wrapper. I link to DxWnd in my readme... did you try that?

I looked at DXWind but couldn't work out how to force into a windowed mode. None of the options screamed to me 'click here to run in a window'.

I'll have another look.

jclampy wrote:

hi,
I have/know-how-to add windowed mode to ddraw games, but I have no plans to add that feature to this wrapper. I link to DxWnd in my readme... did you try that?

I looked at DXWind but couldn't work out how to force into a windowed mode. None of the options screamed to me 'click here to run in a window'.

I'll have another look.

You may change Directx version Hook to" Directx1~6" and Emulation to "Primary Surface" in Dxwnd Option, it should work for most games. If not simply send a question to http://sourceforge.net/p/dxwnd/discussion/. Hope that help!

You may change Directx version Hook to" Directx1~6" and Emulation to "Primary Surface" in Dxwnd Option, it should work for most games. If not simply send a question to http://sourceforge.net/p/dxwnd/discussion/. Hope that help!

Hey cloudstr, thanks heaps that got the game into a window.
Now I'll have to test the framerate out.

I noticed you mentioned:

It seem that a new ver released today make a game faster than a first fix ver, weird , and enable ForceBltNoTearing make Dxwnd not work: "could not initialize directx" while an older version work well !

Could you please explain why mix this .dll with DXWind and do you need to rename the .dll?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edit1:
Ok, can't get a FPS readout, not from FRAPS or a video driver tool.
It does feel kind of like the proper speed, but I got no readout so...

One thing I am notice is tearing in the scrolling. Turning VSync on
in my video driver almost got rid of it but not quite. Is this why you
were using this .dll with DXWind?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edit2:
Yep, this .dll does clear up the 'tearing' issue I noticed with DXWind.
Unfortunately I still can't get a FPS readout with DXWind yet...

I'll investigate further...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edit3:
Still can't get an FPS readout in DXWind yet.
I am trying to make a visual guestimate and reckon it is running a bit
slower than 71FPS. Maybe DXWind is capping it to 60FPS even when
using this .dll but I won't be sure without some solid proof.

Also I can confirm what cloudstr said in regards to new version of .dll;

enable ForceBltNoTearing make Dxwnd not work

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edit4:
I tried using the old version of the .dll with DXWind to see if I could
see what 'enable ForceBltNoTearing' does and I couldn't see any
difference. I wonder if perhaps it wasn't actually working properly at
all in the older version and now it does. But it is DXWind's end that
does not like this new .dll using a now 'functional' 'ForceBltNoTearing'?
I mean, maybe the problem is not with the new version of .dll?
Just another way to look at it.

isn't there another thread on here with an Open GL powered DX/draw wrapper?

This one here? DXGL (DDraw\D3D wrapper to OGL)

Haven't tried it since I'm using an ATI card and OpenGL can be hit and miss. I'll give it a go in a few minutes...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edit:
Awesome! That DXGL works fine with my ATI card. Probably because
it is using OpenGL 2.0 instead of 1.x which can be hit or miss.

Quite impressed at the moment because using DXGL by itself with
nothing else added; I have been able to get RayForce running
fullscreen 1280x960 at a rock solid 60FPS exactly the same
mode as what my monitor was in. So perfect scrolling and correct
running speed for the game.

If the game isn't running at correct speed then you can notice that
sound effects and speech pitch will sound either too fast or too slow.

Aqrit, your new version works great for Blade Runner. Thank you very much!

Edit: I hope, it is okay for you that I took your DirectDraw Wrapper in my own Blade Runner Installer\Patch: http://www.replaying.de/blade-runner/blade-ru … xp-vista-7-x64/

Of course, I mentioned you as the developer of it and linked to your web page.

Greetings