I remember having this problem on Win7 with the original game version. The game can't switch into fullscreen and you can only see a small window in the middle of the screen.
I think something moves the focus off from the game window right when it launched.

What if you Alt-Tab from/into the game?

Dege wrote on 2020-02-11, 20:12:

What if you Alt-Tab from/into the game?

When I Alt+Tab it changes from a small black window in the middle of my screen to a full screen black window and that's it. Nothing visible at all.

I can make the game run with this https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper/wiki … d-II-The-Chosen + the high framerate fix and the widescreen patch(es). But using this DXWrapper will make the game only run in 16 bit color mode and also the framerate can't be locked which causes glitches during cutscenes. I can lock the fps with something like Bandicam but then sometimes I get fps like 40-30 in some areas for whatever reason. That shouldn't be a thing with my i7 and GTX 1060.

dgVoodoo was definitely the best way to run this game on a modern system and I would really love to use it with the game again. I don't know why it does work with Shogo and not with Blood II. I tried the current version and also older versions but none of them worked with Blood II. It's frustrating.

EDIT: I installed 2.63.1 again, configured everything like it was said on PCGamingWiki and now when I hit Alt+Tab I can see the intro videos and the main menu. The only problem now is that the game is not fully shown. I can only see the top left corner of the game for some reason. If I use Alt+Tab more than once the game will crash (see attached screenshots).

Have you tried copying dgvoodoo.conf from the archive to the game directory? It's possible you have a problematic configuration file (in case you've run dgVoodooCpl.exe, it's possible it's not altering the right conf file).

So, it's not exactly the same issue I remembered of.

I can't test the GOG version of Blood2 now, but I'll give it a go.

ZellSF wrote on 2020-02-12, 12:28:

Have you tried copying dgvoodoo.conf from the archive to the game directory?

Yes I used the .conf file that is included in the ZIP file.

I tried a few more things and at the moment I'm able to play the game again. I had to check the "Center App window" box in dgVoodoo. Now when I start the game and hit Alt+Tab the whole game window is visible again. The only weird thing that remains is that the game always starts in a small black window and will only be visible when I hit Alt+Tab. It's like the game starts always minimized or something. No idea why that is happening.

Heh, GOG version (vanilla without any additional patch) doesn't work for me either. I experience the same as you.
Even if I launch it in windowed mode, I cannot switch to fullscreen manually.
I suspect some window type flags were added in this version that aren't compatible with DXGI, or sg like that.

And even, in windowed mode (and natively too) it all freezes when I attempt to start a new game.
So, I cannot say anything smart about it, it seems completely broken. 😖

The original one works flawlessly.

Dege wrote on 2020-02-12, 17:20:

Heh, GOG version (vanilla without any additional patch) doesn't work for me either. I experience the same as you. Even if I laun […]
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Heh, GOG version (vanilla without any additional patch) doesn't work for me either. I experience the same as you.
Even if I launch it in windowed mode, I cannot switch to fullscreen manually.
I suspect some window type flags were added in this version that aren't compatible with DXGI, or sg like that.

And even, in windowed mode (and natively too) it all freezes when I attempt to start a new game.
So, I cannot say anything smart about it, it seems completely broken. 😖

The original one works flawlessly.

The Steam version (which is literally the GOG version, it even has goggame.dll in the directory) works fine for me with dgVoodoo 2 installed, solid 60 FPS with no issue in fullscreen on the latest Windows 10 update.

It's the compatibility mode GOG installs apparently (ForceSimpleWindow). Go to add/remove programs and uninstall the entry "GOG.com Blood 2".

ZellSF wrote on 2020-02-12, 19:11:

Go to add/remove programs and uninstall the entry "GOG.com Blood 2".

I don't have such an entry listed when installing the game through GOG Galaxy. The only one I see is "Blood II - The Chosen + Nightmares". I'll try it with the offline installer later and report back then.

ZellSF wrote on 2020-02-12, 19:11:

It's the compatibility mode GOG installs apparently (ForceSimpleWindow). Go to add/remove programs and uninstall the entry "GOG.com Blood 2".

Indeed! Now it launches in fullscreen, as expected. Still freezes when starting a new game, but I don't care, I don't play with this version anyway.

Installed the offline installer version of Blood II but I still don't see a "GOG.com Blood 2" entry anywhere. The one I can see is "Blood II - The Chosen" but that's all.

EDIT: Ok I found and deinstalled "GOG.com Blood 2". The game does start normally now. No Alt+Tab or Alt+Enter needed to make it go full screen. Finally I can play it again.

Dege wrote on 2020-02-12, 20:51:

ZellSF wrote on 2020-02-12, 19:11:

It's the compatibility mode GOG installs apparently (ForceSimpleWindow). Go to add/remove programs and uninstall the entry "GOG.com Blood 2".

Indeed! Now it launches in fullscreen, as expected. Still freezes when starting a new game, but I don't care, I don't play with this version anyway.

Blood 2 has a relatively high chance of crashing at points like that if it's not run with single core affinity (WinXP compatibility mode is the simple way to set it). Other reason could be that you've set a higher resolution than Blood 2 supports (more than 1000 lines), but considering you made a patch for that I think you would remember that.

ZellSF wrote on 2020-02-15, 12:38:

Blood 2 has a relatively high chance of crashing at points like that if it's not run with single core affinity (WinXP compatibility mode is the simple way to set it). ..

WinXp compatibility mode does NOT set single core affinity. It would be very counter-intuitive if it did so since XP itself and XP compatible programs can also use multiple cores without problems. I think it's rather Win9x compatibility mode.