First post, by Smp
I have a new laptop. A DELL XPS 15 9560 with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 with 4GB GDDR5 running Windows 10.
The game in question is Final Fantasy XI (FFXI) which is an online game.
The video card driver will not render the game on the dedicated NVIDIA GPU because its using DirectX 8.
This is by design according to NVIDIA:
"Games based on DirectX 8 and older versions of DirectX will only run on integrated graphics in an Optimus laptop under Windows 10
This is expected behavior. Most Optimus notebooks use MS Hybrid under Windows 10 which under DirectX 8 and older DirectX APIs will only run on the integrated graphics."
Using dgVoodoo 2.53 solves this problem. I am able to get the game working on the dedicated GPU at 4K resolution @30 fps (which is the game fps limit) by using a global dgVoodoo config and placing the dgVoodoo dll files in the following locations:
..\SquareEnix\PlayOnlineViewer\ (excluding DDraw.dll as PlayOnline can't handle the upgrade)
..\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XI\
The problem is the game is unstable. After logging into your character... if you move straight away without waiting a minute it will crash either straight away or soon after for about 2 times in a row. Once you get past this awaked part it will run fairly stable for a long time; even for hours but at anytime it may still randomly crash.
I have tried using your latest version today dgVoodoo 2.54; however the textures on the models aren't loading (they are transparent; so cannot see oneself or other players etc.). But the map textures are fine. The game also appears to be totally stable; it doesn't crash upon moving imminently etc. So either the stability issues in 2.53 is related to loading of model textures or you fixed the issue in 2.54.
For now I have reverted back to using 2.53; and considering just using integrated graphics just for stability for the time being (but its horrid; <1080p and low fps). I was really hoping your new version would make the game more stable.
So anyways it would be nice if you consider looking into extending compatibility of dgVoodoo to this game so the textures on the models load again and to get the game to run more stable. I know many people who play FFXI on laptops would also really appreciate this also.
Thank you!