VOGONS


First post, by Googolplexian

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Hey Dégé 😀

Your dgVoodoo2 wrapper works so great with this game, but there is one big trouble in the ddraw.dll
This file definitely needs to be fixed for this game. The game always gets in trouble with its own window behavior. For example when you are in game and open an option window or when you finish a level and the trading window appears the game will lose focus and everything is just black or start in a small window or will crash etc. Always when a window pops up, the game will get in trouble.

The only ddraw.dll wrapper that works here is from Narzoul: https://github.com/narzoul/DDrawCompat/releases

This file has something better or more compatible with this game than all other ddraw.dll files inclusive dgVoodoo2's.
So maybe you can fix the file for this game?

ddraw.dll by Narzoul has still an issue with the window boxes which are missing for example when you press "Resume game" you can not select any save game file because they are invisible. They are still there but invisible and very difficult to select & load. But overall it's the best ddraw.dll wrapper you can actually use for this game. The problem is that dgVoodoo2 has no impact in combination with ddraw.dll by Narzoul. You can no longer use all the good features that comes with dgVoodoo2. So it would be the best when you, Dégé, would update your ddraw.dll for this game to fix the window behavior and the missing surfaces.

You may also need dinput.dll to run the game on Win11 24H2 from here: https://github.com/riverar/IndirectInput

Thank you, Dégé.

Reply 1 of 3, by Dege

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Hi,

Yes, with default config dgVoodoo minimizes the game window if it detects that another window appears on top of it, even if its own. But after closing the save/load/game options dialog the game window comes back and everything continues properly.
But with option DirectX\DisableAltEnterToToggleScreenMode disabled, dgVoodoo won't even minimize it at all.

Unlike Narzoul's wrapper, dgVoodoo runs on DXGI that has some quirks compared to the plain old DD/D3D window handling.
For example, DXGI has a watchdog thread that kicks out the window from fullscreen if something else gets over it. And this behavior is not even the same on Win7 and various Win10 versions AFAIR.
Unexpected lost of fullscreen status is unwanted, that's why dgVoodoo minimizes the window instead.

I could change to not do it with fake fullscreen (I think I'll), or with Win10+, but as I wrote, the game should be playable without it, I've just tried it.

Reply 2 of 3, by RetroGamer4Ever

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Perhaps the communal work done for JK/MOTS can be repurposed to make this game playable and more enjoyable on modern systems.

Reply 3 of 3, by Googolplexian

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Hello Dege,

I tried dgVoodoo2 2.84 now, but it didn't change anything with the window focus when a dialog box appear. The main game window is still getting minimized.
By the way I have found the issue about the lagging I reported here:
Re: dgVoodoo 2.6.x and related WIP versions

The issue is when you play at 59 Hz resolution instead of 60 Hz. Playing at 60 Hz will remove the lagging and everything is smooth.

For now I still prefer the Narzoul wrapper for this game because the windows won't lose fullscreen / focus.