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
    2016-01-30T02:49:56+00:00

    I work on the Game Compatibility team at Microsoft. A fix was made and confirmed for Swat 3. I confirmed it was playing very slow and now is working.

    Kevin,

    Where is the fix available from (i.e. Windows Update, etc.)? I've tried playing "S.W.A.T 3" (purchased from GOG.com) on Windows 10 Pro (Architecture: x64, Version: 1511, Build: 10586.71), but the performance is still quite poor. Any additional details you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Ben.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-01-30T17:49:32+00:00

    I own a Windows 8.1 machine (I don't wanna to upgrade to broken Windows 10, in fact I am considering installing Windows 7 or Linux on this machine, because of all these issues).

    But in my house there is also 2 Windows 10 laptops, and a bunch of other computers with varied other OSes.

    Basically, no DirectDraw games work properly on Windows 8 and onwards, unless you use Wine (on Windows, yes).

    For example SimCity 4 run extremely poorly on Windows 8 and 10, and recently after some driver updates it started to run buggy too (before it was only slow, now it is slow and renders stuff corrupted, with the interface randomly blinking in and out of existence, particle effects disappearing, colour corruption, and so on).

    But when I use Wine it works mostly fine.

    The game Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura also doesn't work without Wine, it renders black rectangles everywhere and keeps crashing, but with Wine it works perfectly.

    In fact I am using Wine so much that this is why I am considering dropping Windows entirely, I've been having more reliable experience Windows Gaming with Wine than with Windows itself.

    Both SimCity4 and Arcanum I got from GOG.com and they both have all updates, I also tried them both modded and unmodded, it makes no difference, the only thing that makes a difference is Windows version (on the Windows 7 spare machine they work correctly without workarounds) and if I am using Wine or not (using Wine, in any Windows version and any Linux version, both work correctly).

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-06T03:52:13+00:00

    I've submitted feedback (regarding the issues associated with the DirectDraw API) through the "Windows Feedback" application. Please be sure to upvote the discussion, as it may convince Microsoft to commit resources to resolving the issues.

    Follow this link for further information (will open in the "Windows Feedback" application): Windows-Feedback:?contextid=23&feedbackid=8cdeaf48-b13a-4dc8-9dcd-492713b607df&form=1&src=2

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-02-17T23:32:47+00:00

    you give me a game, where you got it from that worked on windows 7 and not windows 10. I'll take a look. 

    Update. I looked at Jagged Alliance and have a bug opened on it. Need to compare to Windows 7 status next.

    Next up. Simcity 4 and Arcanum from gog.com.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-02-17T23:33:32+00:00

    I'll take a look again at SWAT 3 from GoG. Fix would be in the OS.

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