Doesn't seem to matter if I use 3dfx drivers or direct3d mode it CTDs. I just tried launching Sparrow at a plane and it CTD'ed as well however it does not always crash when launching missiles. Its weird.

I tested the game 4 years back but I remember that it worked fine. I will check it again

I think I might be able to help here, added a couple of setup guides to my website covering running JSF natively in Windows 10 and in PCem.

You can find them both here:
https://www.tales-from-darkenedroom.com/my-bl … ries/eidos-sims

Hopefully they'll help out, if you notice any mistakes or somethings not clear, let me know?

darkenedroom wrote on 2024-11-05, 00:02:

I think I might be able to help here, added a couple of setup guides to my website covering running JSF natively in Windows 10 a […]
Show full quote

I think I might be able to help here, added a couple of setup guides to my website covering running JSF natively in Windows 10 and in PCem.

You can find them both here:
https://www.tales-from-darkenedroom.com/my-bl … ries/eidos-sims

Hopefully they'll help out, if you notice any mistakes or somethings not clear, let me know?

Ironically now I have an added problem, that the 3Dfx mode almost immediately crashes. The DirectDraw version is working fine but I am yet to finish a flight.

Edit: It was an old problem, it was solved using dgVoodoo2 3Dfx, not let me try DDraw modes

Did some brief testing with DxWrapper, early days but some promising results.

Quick video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao1dtNHBRgk&a … el=darkenedroom

darkenedroom wrote on 2024-11-06, 19:31:

Did some brief testing with DxWrapper, early days but some promising results.

Quick video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao1dtNHBRgk&a … el=darkenedroom

Looking at the errors when logged with DxWnd it should crash more or less later. dgVoodoo2 Glide worked for me, but crashes instantly for other people. Could be some luck factor going on as to what the game does

Worth noting what I've found so far, it may be helpful.

Yes, I think there's an issue with the in-game flight engine which is exacerbated at higher resolutions. It's particular prevalent during the dogfight mode of JSF. It seems pointing at the sun or up towards the sky in general triggers a freeze and the exceptions.

With the DxWrapper HandleExceptions flag set it no longer crashes to desktop but artifacts appear on screen, in fact it's very very difficult to get it to crash at all. Weirdly pointing nose down clears the artifacts so they only appear within the sky area. So DxWrapper might be useful for the campaign mode to prevent situations where a tricky mission is completed and the game crashes 30 seconds from landing!

Weirdly in dogfight mode with no enemy fighters (so just flying around) I was able to fly for an extended period without exceptions/artifacts at a very high 1920x1200 resolution, as my previous vid shows.

The DxWrapper DInput8 wrapper helps with modern joystick/HOTAS compatibility.

In order to use the Dd7to9 compatibility flag you need to set the following (or at least I did):

EnableDdrawWrapper = 1
[ddraw]
ConvertToDirectDraw7 = 1
ConvertToDirect3D7 = 1

Haven't really done anything with the dsound wrapper so far.

Because the v1.12 patch only seems to enable Voodoo2 compatibility (I might be wrong) it may be worth testing with the v1.00 jsf.exe to see if there's any difference in s/w rendering?

darkenedroom wrote on 2024-11-08, 11:24:

Worth noting what I've found so far, it may be helpful. […]
Show full quote

Worth noting what I've found so far, it may be helpful.

Yes, I think there's an issue with the in-game flight engine which is exacerbated at higher resolutions. It's particular prevalent during the dogfight mode of JSF. It seems pointing at the sun or up towards the sky in general triggers a freeze and the exceptions.

With the DxWrapper HandleExceptions flag set it no longer crashes to desktop but artifacts appear on screen, in fact it's very very difficult to get it to crash at all. Weirdly pointing nose down clears the artifacts so they only appear within the sky area. So DxWrapper might be useful for the campaign mode to prevent situations where a tricky mission is completed and the game crashes 30 seconds from landing!

Weirdly in dogfight mode with no enemy fighters (so just flying around) I was able to fly for an extended period without exceptions/artifacts at a very high 1920x1200 resolution, as my previous vid shows.

The DxWrapper DInput8 wrapper helps with modern joystick/HOTAS compatibility.

In order to use the Dd7to9 compatibility flag you need to set the following (or at least I did):

EnableDdrawWrapper = 1
[ddraw]
ConvertToDirectDraw7 = 1
ConvertToDirect3D7 = 1

Haven't really done anything with the dsound wrapper so far.

Because the v1.12 patch only seems to enable Voodoo2 compatibility (I might be wrong) it may be worth testing with the v1.00 jsf.exe to see if there's any difference in s/w rendering?

I tried the game with EmulateHeap and it still crashes, but after a longer time. The issue is somewhere in the game itself that probably didn't manifest in Win9x, there are a lot of such commercial games.

DxWrapper HandleExceptions is derived out of DxWnd to my knowledge, however I had encountered exceptions that CTDs, I will separately try the DxWrapper HE then.

Why use a DSound wrapper?

Well some of the freezes and artifacting I encountered seem to occur simultaneously with audio triggers like stall warnings, msgs from wingman, missiles warnings, etc. it's entirely possible it was a coincidence in those cases.

darkenedroom wrote on 2024-11-08, 20:17:

Well some of the freezes and artifacting I encountered seem to occur simultaneously with audio triggers like stall warnings, msgs from wingman, missiles warnings, etc. it's entirely possible it was a coincidence in those cases.

i think it is more of game than a DirectX thing. I got artifacts in 3Dfx dgVoodoo2 at the start always and not later

I think I know what the problem is and a workaround

With DxWrapper there aren't any (or at least a lot fewer) crashes to desktop, just a freeze or stutter followed by artifacting around the outside of the HUD overlay, but usually not in the centre.

I think this gives us a clue to the cause, I think the flight engine is handling the HUD overlay sprites badly at higher resolutions and throwing exceptions.

I think you can use higher resolutions (to a point) as long as both of the Low-res emulation options are set in-game.

Had a few 5 min dogfights without crashing, freezing or artifacting, until I was shot down at 1920x1200 resolution.

Even had 3840x2160 running for a min or two before the game crashed hard.

I may be completely wrong about this but I think the cd audio may have played a part as well, so try it with music off first then music on.

If anyone else can try testing this to confirm/refute what I've found, it would be useful.

Added a quick YouTube to demo what I've found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao0HLJdvH9M&a … el=darkenedroom

darkenedroom wrote on 2024-11-09, 02:49:

I think I know what the problem is and a workaround […]
Show full quote

I think I know what the problem is and a workaround

With DxWrapper there aren't any (or at least a lot fewer) crashes to desktop, just a freeze or stutter followed by artifacting around the outside of the HUD overlay, but usually not in the centre.

I think this gives us a clue to the cause, I think the flight engine is handling the HUD overlay sprites badly at higher resolutions and throwing exceptions.

I think you can use higher resolutions (to a point) as long as both of the Low-res emulation options are set in-game.

Had a few 5 min dogfights without crashing, freezing or artifacting, until I was shot down at 1920x1200 resolution.

Even had 3840x2160 running for a min or two before the game crashed hard.

I may be completely wrong about this but I think the cd audio may have played a part as well, so try it with music off first then music on.

If anyone else can try testing this to confirm/refute what I've found, it would be useful.

I used Handle Exceptions and SingleCoreAffinity and I have CTD in less than a minute.

On my first run I was playing at 720x480 and it didn't crash.

This is the DxWrapper config file I'm using with ddraw.dll and dinput.dll stubs.

I added the DdrawRemoveScanlines option in so you can tell it's running as soon as the intro movie starts.

Thanks guys just saw this. I will test it out.