As aforementioned in the title, my last conversation with scripter made me think how to solve the non-accelerated GPU issue for DirectDraw games, which is highly dependent on it, such as AoC for example. Recently I have discovered some threads albeit for a different game claiming to have solved the DirectDraw/3D hardware acceleration issue.
Here are the threads in question:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/215930/di ... 704592766/
and
http://steamcommunity.com/app/78000/dis ... 562612847/
I'm not sure if any of you guys were aware of this trick, but it did wonders for me when I tried it for AoC. I followed all those steps. The only difference being the ddraw.dll file wasn't necessary for AoC (was crashing it). I'm assuming because it's hardcoded into AoC? Maybe someone knows exactly why... Anyway, I did place the other two files libwine.dll and wined3d.dll into the Age2_x1 folder. To my amazement AoC is running as it basically should --smooth and responsive. I do not notice any stuttering so to speak concerning the frame rate dropping and laggy mouse movement like many people have compleined on here. The old solution of disabling hardware acceleration in the DXTOOL was never a real solution because the responsiveness still sucked.
So far I have tested the game offline (for obvious reasons) under various settings, but I started with the most basic and standalone features (No compatibility options i.e. Win XP etc, disable scaling on high DPI settings, etc). I'm only running it as an admin, that's it. Furthermore, I tested this on UP 1.4 RC with a native resolution of 1280x1024. I haven't tried it yet for widescreen. Also, the DXTOOL I have left untouched in its original form, meaning I did not disable DirectDraw Hardware Acceleration/ Direct3D Acceleration. Both are enabled
Here's a revised installation of the original steps I did:
1. Go to http://www.nongnu.org/wined3d/
2. Look for: Full directory (with older versions, patches...): http://download.savannah.nongnu.org/releases/wined3d
3. Look for v1.1.38 / 24-Jun-2013 20:02 (I personally tried 1.1.38 as well as 1.4.1 -- both work)
4. Download the wined3d.exe (Do not try to install it)
5. Extract wined3d.exe with 7zip
6. Copy [linethru]ddraw.dll[/linethru], libwine.dll and wined3d.dll from extracted $SYSDIR folder into the root folder of AoC (ddraw.dll will be found in 1.1.38 but not in 1.4.1 -- in either case, as I already mentioned, it's not needed for AoC)
I would like to hear some feedback if possible. Hopefully the game is running for yall as it is for me now. I would love if this could be implemented for online use
Here are the threads in question:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/215930/di ... 704592766/
and
http://steamcommunity.com/app/78000/dis ... 562612847/
I'm not sure if any of you guys were aware of this trick, but it did wonders for me when I tried it for AoC. I followed all those steps. The only difference being the ddraw.dll file wasn't necessary for AoC (was crashing it). I'm assuming because it's hardcoded into AoC? Maybe someone knows exactly why... Anyway, I did place the other two files libwine.dll and wined3d.dll into the Age2_x1 folder. To my amazement AoC is running as it basically should --smooth and responsive. I do not notice any stuttering so to speak concerning the frame rate dropping and laggy mouse movement like many people have compleined on here. The old solution of disabling hardware acceleration in the DXTOOL was never a real solution because the responsiveness still sucked.
So far I have tested the game offline (for obvious reasons) under various settings, but I started with the most basic and standalone features (No compatibility options i.e. Win XP etc, disable scaling on high DPI settings, etc). I'm only running it as an admin, that's it. Furthermore, I tested this on UP 1.4 RC with a native resolution of 1280x1024. I haven't tried it yet for widescreen. Also, the DXTOOL I have left untouched in its original form, meaning I did not disable DirectDraw Hardware Acceleration/ Direct3D Acceleration. Both are enabled
Here's a revised installation of the original steps I did:
1. Go to http://www.nongnu.org/wined3d/
2. Look for: Full directory (with older versions, patches...): http://download.savannah.nongnu.org/releases/wined3d
3. Look for v1.1.38 / 24-Jun-2013 20:02 (I personally tried 1.1.38 as well as 1.4.1 -- both work)
4. Download the wined3d.exe (Do not try to install it)
5. Extract wined3d.exe with 7zip
6. Copy [linethru]ddraw.dll[/linethru], libwine.dll and wined3d.dll from extracted $SYSDIR folder into the root folder of AoC (ddraw.dll will be found in 1.1.38 but not in 1.4.1 -- in either case, as I already mentioned, it's not needed for AoC)
I would like to hear some feedback if possible. Hopefully the game is running for yall as it is for me now. I would love if this could be implemented for online use