Have you tried dgVoodoo2? Timeshift can be a bit picky, if this is an issue with the video hardware, then the wrapper can take care of it most probably.

Timeshift was designed for Nvidia gaming GPUs of the time and runs wonderfully on the newer ones. You might get lucky with dgVoodoo, but the IHD4K is known to be woefully inadequate for even low-end gaming, so I wouldn't get my hopes up. Also make sure you have the latest patches installed, cause that game definitely has some buggage.

Did you try this:
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/TimeShift#G … _with_Intel_GPU

RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2022-10-11, 12:58:

, but the IHD4K is known to be woefully inadequate for even low-end gaming, so I wouldn't get my hopes up.

I disagree with that a bit. It was not a gamers solution at launch of course, but it handled older budget and less demanding titles as well as top end GPU of 5 years previous. It was good enough that you didn't go looking for a board with onboard Nvidia or Ati graphics instead. It was much improved over previous intel integrated graphics. The previous generations were worse, barely up to "also ran" DX7 cards speeds, but coaxable into running pre-2000 stuff okay. This was more like a DX9 era card for speed, but supports higher features, which are not useable maybe due to low spec for that class.

Thanks for the replies, everyone, but so far nothing has worked.

Garrett W, I tried dgVoodoo2, but no joy, I will have to experiment with the settings more.

RetroGamer4Ever, yes, I tried the patches, but no matter what, I always get the same white-square-then-nothing results.

BEEN_Nath_58 , tried it, and nothing. The same file does work with Fallout 3, but not with Timeshift, despite what PCWiki says. Maybe there are different versions of Timeshift on the PC (aside from patch-related, I mean), and the Fallout 3 fix works on only one/some of them, but I've not found any information about it, if so.

I will continue to try, if any other possible solution presents itself, and post here if I find a solution. I'm not too bothered if I can't play Timeshift on this laptop, as it works on my desktop PC, and I also have it on the XBox 360, but I'd like to know the solution in case other games have similar problems on the laptop. So if anyone else has any suggestions then please let me know.

Thanks again.

Kerr Avon wrote on 2022-10-13, 12:17:

Thanks for the replies, everyone, but so far nothing has worked. […]
Show full quote

Thanks for the replies, everyone, but so far nothing has worked.

Garrett W, I tried dgVoodoo2, but no joy, I will have to experiment with the settings more.

RetroGamer4Ever, yes, I tried the patches, but no matter what, I always get the same white-square-then-nothing results.

BEEN_Nath_58 , tried it, and nothing. The same file does work with Fallout 3, but not with Timeshift, despite what PCWiki says. Maybe there are different versions of Timeshift on the PC (aside from patch-related, I mean), and the Fallout 3 fix works on only one/some of them, but I've not found any information about it, if so.

I will continue to try, if any other possible solution presents itself, and post here if I find a solution. I'm not too bothered if I can't play Timeshift on this laptop, as it works on my desktop PC, and I also have it on the XBox 360, but I'd like to know the solution in case other games have similar problems on the laptop. So if anyone else has any suggestions then please let me know.

Thanks again.

I actually meant the 3D-Analyze route that fakes a GPU device with an Id. That may enable the game to work well.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-10-13, 13:11:

I actually meant the 3D-Analyze route that fakes a GPU device with an Id. That may enable the game to work well.

Oh, somehow I missed that. I will try it tonight, and post the results, thanks.

I've tried 3D-Analyze, both as instructed on the PCWiki page, and as instructed in:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/10130/discussi … 86227/?l=polish

(the difference is, the PCWiki page says only to use Vendor ID (with the value of 4318), whereas the latter link says to use both 4318 for VendorID, and 592 for DeviceID), but neither makes a difference. Mind you, I'm a little confused as to why the PCWiki page about the game would offer two potential fixes for getting the game to run on Intel intergrated graphics, then further down the page it says "The game does not support Intel integrated graphics chipsets".

3D-Analyze does offer a lot of options (many of which I don't understand):

Can anyone maybe suggest anything that I can change in 3D-Analyze's options, to try again, please? Otherwise, I might just give up. I checked GOG.COM to see if they had the game, as they are great at making problematic games work in general, and they do indeed have Timeshift, but a quick look on the GOG Timeshift forum showed that that version of the game is still problematic about the machines it runs on, so if GOG can't fully fix it (the first time I've seen GOG failing in this way), then it's probably a lost cause.

Actually, before I give up, here is Timeshift's user.ini file, which contains various settings. Are there any settings here that stand out as biung maybe problematic, or too demanding for Intel HD 4000 hardware, and might be worth changing, to see if then Timeshift will start? The rest of this post is the contents of the user.ini file:

version = 13

[Sound]
Volume = 1.00
Sfx_Volume = 1.0
Music_Volume = 1.0
Voice_Volume = 1.00
SwitchChn = No
EAX = Yes
HRTF = 2
Music_5_1 = Yes
HWMixing = Yes
SupportEAX = Yes
SupportMusic_5_1 = Yes
VoiceSet = "Male"

[Video]
VIDEO_IgnoreVidMemCheck = Yes
VIDEO_SizeX = 1024
VIDEO_SizeY = 768
VIDEO_BPP = 32
VIDEO_Wait_VSync = No
VIDEO_Gamma = 1.000000
VIDEO_Brightness = 0.0
VIDEO_Contrast = 1.0
VIDEO_Saturation = 1.0

VIDEO_MaterialQuality = 1
VIDEO_TextureQuality = 2
VIDEO_ShadowMapQual = 2
VIDEO_ShadowMapRes = 1
VIDEO_SmoothShadow = true
VIDEO_AF_Qual = 2
VIDEO_HDRQuality = 2
VIDEO_UseDOF = Yes
VIDEO_UseSoftParticles = Yes
VIDEO_UseParallaxShadows = Yes
VIDEO_UseDynamicLights = Yes

VIDEO_SDR_Ver = 2.000000
VIDEO_MipMapFilter = Yes
VIDEO_Detail = Yes
VIDEO_Reflections = Yes
VIDEO_UseDistortion = Yes

VIDEO_LowShatterQual = No
VIDEO_UseDOT3_Specular = Yes
VIDEO_AnisoFilter = No
VIDEO_FSAA = No
VIDEO_FSAA_Qual = 2
VIDEO_LowResTex = No
VIDEO_LowResNormTex = No
VIDEO_ProjShd = Yes
VIDEO_ProjShdQual = 2
VIDEO_Decals = Yes
VIDEO_DecalQual = 1
VIDEO_ParallaxMapping = Yes
VIDEO_ParallaxMappingQual = 0
VIDEO_ScaleCompName = ""
VIDEO_OFF_Flares = No
VIDEO_RenderGrass = Yes
VIDEO_Sat = 1.000000
VIDEO_Force_VSync = 0

;written fov is FOV * 0.75f
;for example: 75 is 56.25
;67.5 is 90
FOV = 56.25
WPN_FOV = 56.25
Menu_FOV = 56.25

[Debug]
Decomp_OFF_Flares = Yes

[Input]
MouseSens = 0.980000
InvertMouse = No
MouseCursorThin = No
JoyVibrOff = No

[Multiplayer]
PlayerName = "Player"
ServerName = "TS_Server"
PlayerModel = "+main_char"
PlayerColorR = 128
PlayerColorG = 128
PlayerColorB = 128
GameType = "-"
ConnSpeed = 1
NetworkMode = No
DedicatedMode = No
RankedMode = 0
ServerMaxPlayers = 8
ServerMinPlayers = 2
ServerTimeLimit = 10
ServerFragLimit = 25
ServerMaxSpectators = 2

[GameOpt]
HideHUD = No
Blood = Yes
Subtitles = No
Time_hints = 1
Def_hints = Yes
WeaponBar = Yes
AutoSwitch = Yes
CameraShake = Yes
ScreenFlashes = Yes
TimeShortcuts = No
ToggleCrouch = Yes

[CONFIG]
ConnSpeed = 0
LastTip = 0
SpeedLevel = 0x0
SpeedLevel2 = 0x0
SpeedLevel3 = 0x0
LunkerNocked = 0x0

Are you sure you aren't running into a DRM issue? Retail is infected with SecuROM.

That's a good question, thanks, but I am using a cracked EXE so I don't need to insert the CD to play the game (I always do this), and the game installs and runs fine on my desktop PC, so the cracked EXE does seem to do the job properly.

You can try this with 3D Analyze: https://steamcommunity.com/app/10130/discussi … 186227/?l=czech
It's likely the devs coded the game to not work if Intel HD is detected since the demo supposedy worked.

If 3D Analyze does work and if the Intel HD 4000 is capable enough to use dgvoodoo2 then may want to ask Dege about why dgvoodoo2 doesn't work or how to configure it to work.

Since HD4000 only has DX11.2 hardware features, I'd assume you'd want to run the dgvoodoo2 DX11 version, dege says in the readme dx12 is buggy still. I'd assume buggier on cards without the full feature set. Says the HD4000 is working though, but doesn't specify special info, maybe assuming it's obvious not to shoot higher than it's hardware DX.

Kerr Avon wrote on 2022-10-14, 21:15:

I've tried 3D-Analyze, both as instructed on the PCWiki page, and as instructed in: […]
Show full quote

I've tried 3D-Analyze, both as instructed on the PCWiki page, and as instructed in:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/10130/discussi … 86227/?l=polish

(the difference is, the PCWiki page says only to use Vendor ID (with the value of 4318), whereas the latter link says to use both 4318 for VendorID, and 592 for DeviceID), but neither makes a difference. Mind you, I'm a little confused as to why the PCWiki page about the game would offer two potential fixes for getting the game to run on Intel intergrated graphics, then further down the page it says "The game does not support Intel integrated graphics chipsets".

3D-Analyze does offer a lot of options (many of which I don't understand):

Can anyone maybe suggest anything that I can change in 3D-Analyze's options, to try again, please? Otherwise, I might just give up. I checked GOG.COM to see if they had the game, as they are great at making problematic games work in general, and they do indeed have Timeshift, but a quick look on the GOG Timeshift forum showed that that version of the game is still problematic about the machines it runs on, so if GOG can't fully fix it (the first time I've seen GOG failing in this way), then it's probably a lost cause.

Put both the values in respective places. Maybe you should configure dgVoodoo2 too, and set it to use D3D11 or D3D10, or .1.

About the game configuration file that you sent, I would think changing the YES to NO for values: VIDEO_xxxxx=YES to VIDEO_xxxxx=NO

Progress! I copied the following files from "dgVoodoo2_79_3.zip":

D3D8.dll
D3D9.dll
D3DImm.dll
DDraw.dll
dgVoodooCpl.exe

into the \Timeshift\Bin\ folder, where the game's .exe folder is, double clicked on Timeshift.exe, and it actually loaded. I can even get the gameplay started!

It's not yet playable, but it loads, plays the cutscenes, and goes to the gameplay. For some reason, loading takes much longer than I remember it taking (even though now it's loading from an SSD, whereas back when I last played it on a PC, a few years back, it was loading from a mechanical hard drive. But the big problem is that it's unplayable because it's so choppy. I tried it at both 1366 x 768 (the laptop's native resolution), and 1024 x 768 (the latter was stretched instead of 4:3, unfortunately), and every couple of seconds the game goes unresponsive for part of a second. This isn't the usual "this machine is too slow to run the game" type of slowdown, instead the game plays fine for a few seconds, then seems to freeze for maybe half a second or so.

I haven't yet properly tried with dgVoodoo2's settings, so hopefully the solution lies there. I don't know what many of those settings do, so I'll have to read up on it, and of course any suggestions will be gratefully received,of course. I did try some of the other graphic cards in the drop down option, but so far the GeForce 9800GT was the only option that worked, though I didn't try the memory setting or anything, so maybe other cards will work if I alter other settings. But now I know that the game will boot up and display fine with an Intel HD 4000, which is half of the battle. And the HD 4000 only has 128 MB of RAM (which might be shared system memory), so I'll first be trying the VRAM setting - the current 512 MB setting (the default) might well be (I'd imagine) a contributing factor to the game's jerkiness.

Here are screenshots of the dgVoodoo2 settings that allowed the game to load and to start playing:

And thanks to everyone who has posted suggestions in this thread so far. I tried them all, leaving dgVoodoo for last because of the intimidating number of options.

Kerr Avon wrote on 2022-10-16, 19:57:

Progress! I copied the following files from "dgVoodoo2_79_3.zip": […]
Show full quote

Progress! I copied the following files from "dgVoodoo2_79_3.zip":

D3D8.dll
D3D9.dll
D3DImm.dll
DDraw.dll
dgVoodooCpl.exe

into the \Timeshift\Bin\ folder, where the game's .exe folder is, double clicked on Timeshift.exe, and it actually loaded. I can even get the gameplay started!

It's not yet playable, but it loads, plays the cutscenes, and goes to the gameplay. For some reason, loading takes much longer than I remember it taking (even though now it's loading from an SSD, whereas back when I last played it on a PC, a few years back, it was loading from a mechanical hard drive. But the big problem is that it's unplayable because it's so choppy. I tried it at both 1366 x 768 (the laptop's native resolution), and 1024 x 768 (the latter was stretched instead of 4:3, unfortunately), and every couple of seconds the game goes unresponsive for part of a second. This isn't the usual "this machine is too slow to run the game" type of slowdown, instead the game plays fine for a few seconds, then seems to freeze for maybe half a second or so.

I haven't yet properly tried with dgVoodoo2's settings, so hopefully the solution lies there. I don't know what many of those settings do, so I'll have to read up on it, and of course any suggestions will be gratefully received,of course. I did try some of the other graphic cards in the drop down option, but so far the GeForce 9800GT was the only option that worked, though I didn't try the memory setting or anything, so maybe other cards will work if I alter other settings. But now I know that the game will boot up and display fine with an Intel HD 4000, which is half of the battle. And the HD 4000 only has 128 MB of RAM (which might be shared system memory), so I'll first be trying the VRAM setting - the current 512 MB setting (the default) might well be (I'd imagine) a contributing factor to the game's jerkiness.

Here are screenshots of the dgVoodoo2 settings that allowed the game to load and to start playing:

And thanks to everyone who has posted suggestions in this thread so far. I tried them all, leaving dgVoodoo for last because of the intimidating number of options.

You may change the Output API to D3D11 or lower, which may help but there is no guarantee.

Additionally, since I am hearing multiple problems from around with this version, you can, at last, try a much older version to see if it improves.

It's working! Using an older version of dgVooDoo2 and the settings as shown in the screenshots, Timeshift is totally playable. Brilliant.

It's not perfect, as there is still the occasional slight pause when turning to face something new, but this only lasts like a fifth of a second (it seems like), and is now extremely rare. Also, the loading is still really slow (the longest I timed was 1 minute 52 seconds for going from the main menu to the gameplay, but strangely, loading a quick-save when you've just died only takes a few seconds).

I've not tried many of the options in dgVoodoo2 yet, but I've tried all of the graphics cards on the third options page (the rightmost page on the enclosed screenshot) and only the GeForce 9800 GT runs the game. Any other GFX card selected and the game just shows the quarter-screen white square then returns to the desktop.

And so far I've only run Timeshift at 1024 x 768 (unstretched 4:3, using the dgVoodoo2 'Scaling mode' setting of 'Centred, keep aspect ratio"), with most game settings set to low, as when I set everthing in-game to high then it chugs, so I will have to test the options to see which ones are too demanding.

But overall I am very pleased. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to read this thread, and to those who gave me help and suggestions, I appreciate it.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-10-16, 20:01:

You may change the Output API to D3D11 or lower, which may help but there is no guarantee.

Additionally, since I am hearing multiple problems from around with this version, you can, at last, try a much older version to see if it improves.

dgVoodoo2 doesn't have a specific D3D9 option, does it? And do you know what versions of dgVoodoo2 are the best, at least for lower D3Dx versions, that might squeeze a few more FPS out of the game, please?

Kerr Avon wrote on 2022-10-19, 22:09:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-10-16, 20:01:

You may change the Output API to D3D11 or lower, which may help but there is no guarantee.

Additionally, since I am hearing multiple problems from around with this version, you can, at last, try a much older version to see if it improves.

dgVoodoo2 doesn't have a specific D3D9 option, does it? And do you know what versions of dgVoodoo2 are the best, at least for lower D3Dx versions, that might squeeze a few more FPS out of the game, please?

No there's no D3D9 option. You may start with D3D11 (feature level 10.0), then go up if the game doesn't run or you have issues. dgVoodoo2 always used D3D11, then added D3D12 and other feature levels. 2.73 should work fine imo.