Continued from the first post:

I then tested Pharaoh. It works correctly when the game is configured to Windowed mode but when I configure the game to Fullscreen mode, I get the same black screen from Zeus except that some residue text from the loading screens appear:

Finally, I tested Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom. This one behaved pretty much identically to Pharaoh. Works correctly if set to Windowed mode but gives a black screen with loading text if set to Fullscreen mode:

Another thing I want to mention is that I was trying to make the games run in a Borderless Window using the WIP50 version of dgVoodoo. As you can see from my screenshots, I couldn't get this feature to work at all (unless it is working in those cases where I just get a black window).

Continued from the second post:

All of the above is from me using dgVoodoo with the unmodified GOG versions of the four games. Things change after I apply the unofficial high resolution patches for the games. You can grab those patches from here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/xjdhdr-rando … s_Series_files/

All of these results were obtained using the WIP50 version of dgVoodoo.
Caesar 3 was put in a window with a border despite me telling dgVoodoo to create a Borderless Window. This happened regardless of whether I selected Windowed or Fullscreen mode in the game:

As for Pharaoh, if I configured the game to use Windowed mode, the game was put in a window with a border. If configured to Fullscreen, the game used a Borderless Window instead:

For Zeus, the game demonstrated the same "background in front of buttons" bug that occurred in the unmodified version of the game if configured to use Windowed mode. Conversely, the game was rendered correctly and in a Borderless Window if configured to Fullscreen mode:

Finally, Emperor was placed in a Borderless Window regardless of whether I set the game to Fullscreen or Windowed mode. However, the game's window seems to be shifted to the right slightly and appears under the Windows taskbar. Telling dgVoodoo to "Center app window" did not fix this problem:

Here is the dgVoodoo.conf I used for all four of the games:

1;==========================================================================
2; === Text based config file for dgVoodoo2
3; === Use this file if you are a game modder/hacker or an experted user and
4;     want to modify some advanced properties not available via the CPL.
5;==========================================================================
6
7Version                              = 0x255
8
9;--------------------------------------------------------------------------
10
11[General]
12
13; 	OutputAPI: "d3d11warp", "d3d11_fl10_0", "d3d11_fl10_1", "bestavailable"
14;	 Adapters: "all", or the ordinal of the adapter (1, ...)
15;FullScreenOutput: "default", or the ordinal of the output on the adapter (1, ...)
16;     ScalingMode: "unspecified", "centered", "stretched", "centered_ar", "stretched_ar",
17;                  "stretched_4_3", "stretched_4_3_crt", "stretched_4_3_c64"
18
19OutputAPI                            = bestavailable
20Adapters                             = all
21FullScreenOutput                     = default
22FullScreenMode                       = false
23ScalingMode                          = unspecified
24ProgressiveScanlineOrder             = false
25EnumerateRefreshRates                = false
26
27Brightness                           = 100
28Color                                = 100
29Contrast                             = 100
30InheritColorProfileInFullScreenMode  = false
31
32KeepWindowAspectRatio                = true
33CaptureMouse                         = true
34CenterAppWindow                      = true
35
36;--------------------------------------------------------------------------
37
38[GeneralExt]
39
40;      DesktopResolution: Desktop (native) resolution can be forced for dgVoodoo's internal calculations.
41;                         Useful for rare applications that pre-set the desktop to other than the native
42;                         resolution before dgVoodoo gets in action. Only the compact format can be used here,
43;                         and applies to all outputs of the desktop.
44;           DeframerSize: When resolution is forced to other than the app default then
45;                         a black frame is drawn around the output image coming from a wrapped API
46;                         to remove scaling artifacts -
47;                         frame thickness can be defined in pixels (max 16, 0 = disable)
48;       ImageScaleFactor: Integer factor for scaling the output image coming from a wrapped API
49;                         Always done by nearest point filtering, independent on scaling mode
50;                         (0 = max available)
51;                         Separate factors can be defined for horizontal and vertical scaling
52;                         by subproperties, e.g.
53;                         ImageScaleFactor = x:3, y:2
54;ForceNearestPointFilter: When the scaling is done by the wrapper for the given scaling mode,
55;                         you can force nearest point filtering instead of bilinear one
56;              FreeMouse: If true then physical mouse is free to move inside the game window 
57;                         when using emulated scaling and/or application and forced resolution
58;                         differs; can be useful when a game relies on the physical window size
59;     WindowedAttributes: You can define attributes for forced windowed appearance (separated by commas):
60;                          'borderless'  - forces the app window not have any border

61;                          'alwaysontop' - forces the app window into the top-most band
62;            Environment: Software environment in which dgVoodoo is running: can be left unspecified (native)
63;                         or can be set to 'DosBox' or 'QEmu'.
64
65DesktopResolution                    = 
66DeframerSize                         = 1
67ImageScaleFactor                     = 1
68ForceNearestPointFilter              = false
69FreeMouse                            = false
70WindowedAttributes                   = borderless,alwaysontop
71Environment                          = 
72
73;--------------------------------------------------------------------------
74
75[Glide]
76
77;  VideoCard:      "voodoo_graphics", "voodoo_rush", "voodoo_2", "voodoo_banshee", "other_greater"
78; OnboardRAM:      in MBs
79; MemorySizeOfTMU: in kBs
80;
81; Resolution: either "unforced", "max", "max_isf", "max_fhd", "max_fhd_isf", "max_qhd", "max_qhd_isf", "%d x"
82;             or subproperties: h: horizontal, v: vertical
83;             + optional subproperty refrate: refresh rate in Hz
84;             e.g. Resolution = max, refrate:60
85;                  Resolution = 2x, refrate:59
86;                  Resolution = h:1280, v:1024, refrate:75
87;             or just use the compact form like "1024x768@60" or "512x384"
88;
89;Antialiasing: "off", "appdriven", "2x", "4x", "8x", "16x" (your GPU must support the chosen one)
90
91VideoCard                           = voodoo_2
92OnboardRAM                          = 8
93MemorySizeOfTMU                     = 4096
94NumberOfTMUs                        = 2
95ForceBilinearFilter                 = false
96DisableMipmapping                   = false
97Resolution                          = unforced
98Antialiasing                        = appdriven
99
100EnableGlideGammaRamp                = true
101ForceVerticalSync                   = true
102ForceEmulatingTruePCIAccess         = false
10316BitDepthBuffer                    = false
1043DfxWatermark                       = true
1053DfxSplashScreen                    = false
106PointcastPalette                    = false
107EnableInactiveAppState              = false
108
109
110;--------------------------------------------------------------------------
111
112[GlideExt]
113
114;               DitheringEffect: "pure32bit", "dither2x2", "dither4x4"
115;                     Dithering: "disabled", "appdriven", "forcealways"
116;  DitherOrderedMatrixSizeScale: integer scale value for dither matrix size
117;                                1 = normal, 2 = double size, etc.
118;                                0 = automatic (the aim is to have some retro feel&look)
119
120DitheringEffect                     = pure32bit
121Dithering                           = forcealways
122DitherOrderedMatrixSizeScale        = 0
123
124;--------------------------------------------------------------------------
125
126[DirectX]
127
128;  VideoCard: "svga", "internal3D", "geforce_ti_4800", "ati_radeon_8500",
129;             "matrox_parhelia-512", "geforce_fx_5700_ultra"
130;       VRAM: in MBs
131;  Filtering: "appdriven", "pointsampled", "bilinear", "linearmip", "trilinear"
132;             or the integer value of an anisotropic filtering level (1-16)
133
134DisableAndPassThru                  = false
135
136VideoCard                           = internal3D
137VRAM                                = 128
138Filtering                           = appdriven
139DisableMipmapping                   = false
140Resolution                          = unforced
141Antialiasing                        = appdriven
142
143AppControlledScreenMode             = false
144DisableAltEnterToToggleScreenMode   = true
145
146BilinearBlitStretch                 = false
147PhongShadingWhenPossible            = false
148ForceVerticalSync                   = false
149dgVoodooWatermark                   = false
150FastVideoMemoryAccess               = false
151
152;--------------------------------------------------------------------------
153
154[DirectXExt]
155
156; VendorID, DeviceID, SubsystemID, RevisionID:
157;           can be defined only for SVGA and Internal3D card types
158
159;  DefaultEnumeratedResolutions: you can define what resolutions should be enumerated to the application by default
160;                                "all", "classics", "none"
161
162;    ExtraEnumeratedResolutions: you can add extra resolutions (separated by commas, max 16) that will get
163;                                enumerated to the application as display adapter supported ones -
164;                                can be useful if an app supports rendering at arbitrary resolutions
165;                                and you have a particular favorite resolution that are not
166;                                enumerated to the application by default
167;                                you can either use the compact resolution format here, or
168;                                "max", "max@refrate" meaning your desktop resolution with a potential refresh rate, or
169;                                "max_4_3", "max_4_3@refrate", "max_16_9", "max_16_9@refrate"
170;                                meaning the maximum resolution with the given aspect ratio calculated from
171;                                the desktop resolution with the given refresh rate, e.g. "max_4_3@60", "max_16_9"
172
173; EnumeratedResolutionBitdepths: you can filter what bitdepths are included in the resolution enumeration
174;                                any subset of {"8", "16", "32"}, or "all"
175
176;               DitheringEffect: "pure32bit", "ordered2x2", "ordered4x4"
177;                     Dithering: "disabled", "appdriven", "forceon16bit", "forcealways"
178;  DitherOrderedMatrixSizeScale: integer scale value for dither matrix size
179;                                1 = normal, 2 = double size, etc.
180;                                0 = automatic
181;          DepthBuffersBitDepth: internal bit depth of depth/stencil buffers for 3D rendering (32 bit is not recommended)
182;                                "appdriven", "forcemin24bit", "force32bit"
183
184; MSD3DDeviceNames: if true then original Microsoft D3D device names are exposed
185;                   (some applications check for them and they fail)
186
187; RTTexturesForceScaleAndMSAA:   if true then forced resolution scaling and MSAA is
188;                                applied also to rendertarget textures
189;                                Set it to false for games requiring pixel-precise rendering
190;                                but be careful it can EASILY break certain things, not recommended
191
192; SmoothedDepthSampling: if true then extra smoothing is added to depth textures
193;                        when they are sampled
194
195VendorID                            = 0x0
196DeviceID                            = 0x0
197SubsystemID                         = 0x0
198RevisionID                          = 0x0
199
200DefaultEnumeratedResolutions        = all
201ExtraEnumeratedResolutions          = 
202EnumeratedResolutionBitdepths       = all
203
204DitheringEffect                     = pure32bit
205Dithering                           = forcealways
206DitherOrderedMatrixSizeScale        = 0
207DepthBuffersBitDepth                = appdriven
208
209MSD3DDeviceNames                    = false
210RTTexturesForceScaleAndMSAA         = true
211SmoothedDepthSampling               = true
212
213;--------------------------------------------------------------------------
214
215[Debug]
216
217; This section affects only debug/spec release builds
218;
219; Info, Warning, Error
220;                "Disable"      - disables all messages and debugger break
221;                "Enable"       - enables messages and disables debugger break
222;                "EnableBreak"  - enables both messages and breaking into debugger
223;
224; MaxTraceLevel: Maximum level of tracing API calls
225;                0 - Disable
226;                1 - API Functions and methods
227;                2 - Additional trace info for internals
228;
229; LogToFile: if false or debugger is detected then output goes to the debug output
230;            if true and no debugger detected then output goes to 'dgVoodoo.log'
231;            (not implemented yet, always the default debug output is used)
232
233Info				    = enable
234Warning                             = enable
235Error                               = enable
236MaxTraceLevel                       = 0
237
238LogToFile                           = false

You've made no mention whether "Disable Alt-Enter to toggle screen state" was experimented with? I found it a pretty critical setting to test for windowed mode.

ZellSF wrote:

You've made no mention whether "Disable Alt-Enter to toggle screen state" was experimented with? I found it a pretty critical setting to test for windowed mode.

Thank you for the suggestion. In all of the above tests, I used the default option which was "DisableAltEnterToToggleScreenMode = true". When I set that option to false, things did change slightly. The results I had were the same as with the option at True with the following exceptions:

All 4 games: When I had the games configured to Windowed mode and was running the original GOG version, the games would initially start in Windowed mode with a border but switch to Borderless Windowed after about 2 seconds after starting. However, the window looks like it has just had a black overlay applied on top of the title bar and border rather than removing them. Additionally, the mouse's activation point was moved to about 30 pixels below where the mouse appeared to be. I've attached some screenshots demonstrating this. In each case, the mouse cursor was where the red dot I drew is. In each case, you can see that the mouse is activating objects below where I'm pointing the cursor.
I don't get these two problems when I use the unofficial widescreen patched versions of the games. There is no black border present and the mouse's activation point is where the mouse cursor is rendered.

Caesar 3: When set to Fullscreen mode and running the original GOG version of the game, it starts demonstrating the same black screen bug that I saw in the other three games.

Pharaoh: When using the unofficial widescreen version, the game runs in a Borderless Window without issue regardless of whether I configure the game to Fullscreen or Windowed mode.

Zeus: Unofficial widescreen version runs in a Borderless Window even if configured to Windowed mode. Background image being drawn over buttons is still a problem.

Emperor: Unofficial widescreen version starts Borderless in correct position but moves to the wrong position I mentioned in my 3rd post after a few seconds. Every 3 seconds or so, the entire window gets moved to the left to where it should be for a split second but then moves back to the right again after that.

XJDHDR wrote on 2018-09-28, 21:27:

Thank you for the suggestion. In all of the above tests, I used the default option which was "DisableAltEnterToToggleScreenMode […]
Show full quote

ZellSF wrote:

You've made no mention whether "Disable Alt-Enter to toggle screen state" was experimented with? I found it a pretty critical setting to test for windowed mode.

Thank you for the suggestion. In all of the above tests, I used the default option which was "DisableAltEnterToToggleScreenMode = true". When I set that option to false, things did change slightly. The results I had were the same as with the option at True with the following exceptions:

All 4 games: When I had the games configured to Windowed mode and was running the original GOG version, the games would initially start in Windowed mode with a border but switch to Borderless Windowed after about 2 seconds after starting. However, the window looks like it has just had a black overlay applied on top of the title bar and border rather than removing them. Additionally, the mouse's activation point was moved to about 30 pixels below where the mouse appeared to be. I've attached some screenshots demonstrating this. In each case, the mouse cursor was where the red dot I drew is. In each case, you can see that the mouse is activating objects below where I'm pointing the cursor.
I don't get these two problems when I use the unofficial widescreen patched versions of the games. There is no black border present and the mouse's activation point is where the mouse cursor is rendered.

Zeus: Unofficial widescreen version runs in a Borderless Window even if configured to Windowed mode. Background image being drawn over buttons is still a problem.

As of dgVoodoo 2.75, only your 1920x1080 fix will work with the wrapper. All others throw black screen (when game is Fullscreen) and missing buttons (when game is Windowed).

I don't know if it's up to your fixes, or dgVoodoo's inability to handle anything with Zeus in 16:9, but not 1080p, like 720p or 768p, which I prefer as 1080p is a bit too tiny.

First, those aren't "my" widescreen fixes. I simply put all of them in the same place. Most of them were created by JackFuste.

As you can tell by my screenshots, I did those tests using the 1440p fixes so your problems are likely caused by either dgVoodoo or something on your end.

XJDHDR wrote on 2021-07-10, 19:27:

First, those aren't "my" widescreen fixes. I simply put all of them in the same place. Most of them were created by JackFuste.

Apologies.

XJDHDR wrote on 2021-07-10, 19:27:

As you can tell by my screenshots, I did those tests using the 1440p fixes so your problems are likely caused by either dgVoodoo or something on your end.

As I said, 1080p+dgVoodoo2 works for me as well, like 1440p for you. Could you maybe test 720p, or 768p, to see if we get similar results?

I get warnings in the dgv debug log about failed DDraw Blt's because of invalid incoming rectangles.

For some reason, the game seems to feed DDraw with a full desktop-sized rects. It needs further investigation but I think the game should be patched, or, the DDraw hook layer should be improved in dgVoodoo to recognize the reason.

2mg wrote on 2021-07-12, 20:00:

As I said, 1080p+dgVoodoo2 works for me as well, like 1440p for you. Could you maybe test 720p, or 768p, to see if we get similar results?

I want to apologise myself. When I replied to you, I only looked at the screenshots I posted in my OP and didn't re-read what I actually wrote. If I had, I would have noticed that the problems you described are exactly the same as what I saw when I tested dgVoodoo with Zeus back then. I.e. black screen in fullscreen mode and buttons hidden behind the main menu's background image in windowed mode. If you go into Zeus' DATA folder and move, rename or delete "Poseidon_FE_MainMenu.jpg", you will probably find - like me - that the buttons were behind the picture.

And as I noted back then, these problems happened to me regardless of whether I used the widescreen fixes or the unmodified original game.

Dege wrote on 2021-07-20, 15:27:

I get warnings in the dgv debug log about failed DDraw Blt's because of invalid incoming rectangles.

For some reason, the game seems to feed DDraw with a full desktop-sized rects. It needs further investigation but I think the game should be patched, or, the DDraw hook layer should be improved in dgVoodoo to recognize the reason.

I wouldn't be surprised if the game itself needs to be patched. This wouldn't be the first time anyone has needed to do some hex editing to the game. As I said in my OP, this game seems to initialise in fullscreen before switching to windowed mode. Thus, I originally wanted to use dgVoodoo to override this behaviour and make it run windowed from initialisation.
I'm currently creating a program that lets someone customise what resolution the game runs at as well as fixing an animation bug that this game experiences on modern CPUs.

I'll see what I can do about patching the game's EXE but I'm still very much a beginner at reverse engineering. If you figure out anything, please can you let me know what offsets need to be patched. I think such a patch would line up with what my program already does.

XJDHDR wrote on 2021-07-22, 03:15:

I want to apologise myself. When I replied to you, I only looked at the screenshots I posted in my OP and didn't re-read what I […]
Show full quote

2mg wrote on 2021-07-12, 20:00:

As I said, 1080p+dgVoodoo2 works for me as well, like 1440p for you. Could you maybe test 720p, or 768p, to see if we get similar results?

I want to apologise myself. When I replied to you, I only looked at the screenshots I posted in my OP and didn't re-read what I actually wrote. If I had, I would have noticed that the problems you described are exactly the same as what I saw when I tested dgVoodoo with Zeus back then. I.e. black screen in fullscreen mode and buttons hidden behind the main menu's background image in windowed mode. If you go into Zeus' DATA folder and move, rename or delete "Poseidon_FE_MainMenu.jpg", you will probably find - like me - that the buttons were behind the picture.

And as I noted back then, these problems happened to me regardless of whether I used the widescreen fixes or the unmodified original game.

Dege wrote on 2021-07-20, 15:27:

I get warnings in the dgv debug log about failed DDraw Blt's because of invalid incoming rectangles.

For some reason, the game seems to feed DDraw with a full desktop-sized rects. It needs further investigation but I think the game should be patched, or, the DDraw hook layer should be improved in dgVoodoo to recognize the reason.

I wouldn't be surprised if the game itself needs to be patched. This wouldn't be the first time anyone has needed to do some hex editing to the game. As I said in my OP, this game seems to initialise in fullscreen before switching to windowed mode. Thus, I originally wanted to use dgVoodoo to override this behaviour and make it run windowed from initialisation.
I'm currently creating a program that lets someone customise what resolution the game runs at as well as fixing an animation bug that this game experiences on modern CPUs.
Zeus Resolution Customiser.png

I'll see what I can do about patching the game's EXE but I'm still very much a beginner at reverse engineering. If you figure out anything, please can you let me know what offsets need to be patched. I think such a patch would line up with what my program already does.

Well, I hope animation fixes also mean God spawn/speed fixes too, don't forget about that, it's a more critical issue than just some random animations being too fast.

I did notice something strange - the game plays smooth, like 60fps smooth, but decides to drop randomly, but what can be reproduced is that if you click on the "Mission" tab (the one that explains your current mission), and then close it, the game jumps to 60fps smooth animation. If you hover over any buttons that have tooltips, the FPS will drop again. This is consistently reproduced.

2mg wrote on 2021-07-22, 15:35:

Well, I hope animation fixes also mean God spawn/speed fixes too, don't forget about that, it's a more critical issue than just some random animations being too fast.

Don't put words in my mouth. I didn't say anything about animations being too fast.

2mg wrote on 2021-07-22, 15:35:

I did notice something strange - the game plays smooth, like 60fps smooth, but decides to drop randomly, but what can be reproduced is that if you click on the "Mission" tab (the one that explains your current mission), and then close it, the game jumps to 60fps smooth animation. If you hover over any buttons that have tooltips, the FPS will drop again. This is consistently reproduced.

Unfortunately, I can't reproduce this. I haven't been able to make an FPS drop happen in my copy of the game. But remember that I also said that I am a beginner at reverse engineering. Even if I could reproduce it, I wouldn't know where to begin with fixing it. Pecunia, who created the animation fixes, told me that it took him half a year to figure out what needed to be patched. I don't have that sort of time to spare, even if I had his level of knowledge.