I come bearing good news!
I’m releasing version 0.3.0 of the PowerVR SGL Wrapper. It comes with a lot of improvements. I’ve had a very productive summer dedicated to the project, and I’ve been able to make quite a lot of progress towards the goals I had set for myself.
Many thanks to @DosWin for all the testing and for his logs. (Just one comment: besides the ddraw logs, I would also need the SGL logs. This means enabling the logs in both INI files.)
Many thanks as well to @VirtualIceMan for his videos of Ultim@te Race. The wrapper is not yet ready to render the 3D as it should, but it is true that I can now get into the game. This will be addressed in version 0.4.0.
Now I’ll list the games I’ve been able to test regularly (I’ve included videos for most of them) and their current status in version 0.3.0:
Purevex and PurevexDemo → Playable and no regressions.
https://youtu.be/mViuJmfMY10
MoonRacer → My main goal, and I finally achieved it! It is fully playable. I have identified a few graphical issues that I’ll fix little by little.
https://youtu.be/njOJ7M5_ovM
Revolte → Perfectly playable, although I’d like to debug it a bit more, since the game is time-based (rather than frame-based) and sometimes the tanks behave strangely 🙂
https://youtu.be/I2jhxMKxLhU
OmegaField → Playable. There are still a few things that need looking into.
https://youtu.be/duiPRLO70ds
Pacfa → Playable.
https://youtu.be/QTsMXm2nZmo
Biohazard → Playable. I found a way to run it on Windows 11, and almost everything was already working. I fixed a few things. I would need to spend some more time actually playing it and keeping track of the things that still need fixing.
https://youtu.be/f-Qx90oTOCc
Enigma → Playable. I also found a way to run it on Windows 11 and fixed, especially, the videos (as already mentioned by @DosWin). The game itself, just like Biohazard, was already working. I’ve fixed a few more things at the 3D level, and I know there are still others. I also came up with the idea of implementing a Japanese translation system, which I think could make the game more enjoyable for us.
https://youtu.be/e3wb2FC8MiA
Ultim@te Race → InGame. Due to the amount of work involved in the implementation, I’m leaving this for version 0.4.0. I managed to get it running on Windows 11 and reach the menu. However, as soon as I entered the 3D part, I could immediately see there was a problem with the fog... everything is white with a few lines visible. I already have some things fixed in my local version, but it still needs some work.
Nirgends → InGame. I didn’t have to do anything special to get it running on Windows 11. The videos don’t expand to full screen, but the game itself continues running. I’m going to look into implementing translation support so that languages other than Japanese can be used. I’ll put this on the list for **0.4.0**.
MechWarriors 2 → Does not run. I’ve spent some time trying to get it running on Windows 11, but I still haven’t been able to find a solution. I’m leaving this for version 0.5.0.
The new ZIP includes sgl.dll and draw.dll for modern systems, as well as a legacy folder containing the corresponding sgl.dll and ddraw.dll versions for CPUs without SSE2 support. @DosWin, you’ll have to tell us what kind of performance you get with these! If you want, you can keep sending me the logs and I’ll go through them, because some of the problems on older computers may also be related to the graphics card. By the way, I also want to mention something regarding Windows 95/98. At least from what I’ve encountered, it seems to prioritize DLLs located in C:\Windows\System over those located in the game’s root directory. So, especially for ddraw.dll, what I do is put the wrapper’s ddraw.dll into the System folder.
If anyone knows how to change this behavior, I would personally be very happy if you could explain how 🙂
And finally, I’d like to make a request. I’ve found quite a few of the PowerVR games I’m testing online. However, I’ve been unable to find Virtual On for PowerVR. If anyone knows of a URL where the image can be found, or if anyone would like to share one (preferably in BIN/CUE format), I would be very grateful. The same goes for the rest of the PowerVR games... the more games we have access to, the better we can refine the wrapper.
One more thing: I still can’t reply to private messages on the forum. So, if you want to get in touch with me, please use the comments on the YouTube videos, which I can read. Hopefully this will change at some point!
I hope you’re happy with the progress so far, and we’ll keep working on it!
