DirectDraw emulation still broken in Windows 10

Anonymous
2015-08-17T12:32:58+00:00

Hello, Microsoft, please fix DirectDraw, considering Windows 10 is your last OS, and loads of people have complained about this in Windows 8, and it's STILL NOT FIXED IN 10. most games DX8 and below run horrible thanks to this, either screwed up colours and/or a very bad framerate to other problems such as sprites not loading. This is odd considering it was fine in Windows 7. 

An example is Red Alert 2, it's unplayable unless you use a 3rd party directdraw emulation such as WineD3D.

Another example is Commandos 3, the graphics are corrupted and it crashes on some missions making it unplayable.

And no compatibility settings don't fix any of this.

All we need is Windows 7's DirectDraw emulation back since that was fine.

Cmon microsoft fix this!

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Gaming

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-02-28T12:10:35+00:00

    Hi Kevin,

    my brother found the gog version: http://www.gog.com/game/panzer\_general\_3d\_assault  Here you can download a version of Panzer General 3 D Assault which works on Windows 10. Probably it is possible to copy the ddraw file of the download into the game folder of Panzer General III Scorched Earth, so that it works properly.  This might fix all versions from disc or download of PG3SE.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-02-28T04:21:30+00:00

    Kevin,

    I have a Surface Book i5 with the Nvidia GPU and Intel 520 graphics and I am seeing this same issues with Sim City 4 from Origin (EA).  When I start the game it says "Could not initialize graphics card".  I have tried using the Nvidia Control Panel to set the SimCity4.exe to use the Nvidia GPU but it still gets the same error.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-25T21:18:34+00:00

    Baldur's Gate I and II - original versions, patched and some fixes added (f.i. BG2Tweaks/, etc.), not EE.

    AoE 1 - works, possibly by the fullscreen-scaling option of my video card (had similar effects on SWKOTOR 1 - didn't work without CTD's with Fullscreen mods, works now through the video card).

    Arcanum - v. 1.0.7.4 (noCD.exe, I believe) with Unofficial Patch, runs fine. No Wine DLL's installed, as far as I see. It's quite a while since I installed it...

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-02-25T16:04:06+00:00

    Neverwinter Nights also work here...

    It doesn't use Infinity Engine.

    Also Baldur's Gate I and II you used the old versiond, or the "Enhanced Edition" ? the EE works on Windows 10 because it is intended to.

    I don't tried AoE, have no idea if it works or not.

    Arcanum... no luck without Wine DLLs here, on any machine that runs Win 8 or 10.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-02-20T21:46:44+00:00

    Regarding my own experience, I beg to differ on some games at least. Age of Empires I, Baldur's Gate I and II, Icewind Dale I and II, Neverwinter Nights I and II, Planescape Torment, Arcanum: Those are all running very nice on my Windows 10 system, without any of the DDraw symptoms noted by others. As some of them were installed on an external harddisk at Windows 7 times - and are running (from this external drive) as good or glitchy as ever -, I don't exactly see any major influence of game handling changes between Windows 7 and 10. Maybe there is one in other games not tested by me. Maybe there are other influences, too (what comes first into my mind, are changes in video cards / drivers).

    FYI: ASUS ROG 751JY laptop, Intel i7-4720HQ, NVidia GeForce GTX 980M (4 GB VRAM), 16 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, 2 TB SATA III HD, 2 TB external HD.

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