Birthday thread: Software

[64fanatic]

BBCode for youtube in this forum isn't working btw. You should use it as a URL link

 

I figured it out actually lol

 

Just the end bit on the url:

[youtube]IbiUXjQuYVg[/youtube]

 

I did one more test after all:

 

IbiUXjQuYVg

 

Test 3: Using Diablo 1 - dxwnd only with fullscreen setting

 

edit:

 

- fullscreen setting ignores windowed res so this doesn't work, it stays at 640x480 and gets nvidia'd.

 

 

You shouldn't alt+tab the game. Use a hotkey for sizer. Also don't run it on fullscreen

 

I didn't alt-tab i just hit my hotkey ctrl+b and that happened oh well. I tried to just window Diablo 1 using dxwnd then use sizer to make the window bigger/or fullscreen but it didn't work at all. I'll tinker more later and with other games Ross showed in his video.

Edited January 3, 2016 by Guest (see edit history)

[Thomasbelcar]

Test 3: Using Diablo 1 - dxwnd only with fullscreen setting

- Set resolution as 1387x1040 you can use anything though.

- Stays 4:3 though the video capture doesn't show it for some reason openbroadcast stretches it I dunno why.

- Fullscreen toggle makes the game fullscreen again by just using dxwnd, who knew?

- still screws up main menu graphics.

- ingame fine.

 

Downloading Diablo 1. Going to try for myself

[Ap2000]

I don't understand your request for anti-aliasing in emulation. All 3D emulators have that and with 2D emulation those are just filters like Sal, HQ etc., which make most games look gross. lol

I imagine it being pretty hard (if not completely impossible) for an emulator to understand what the edge of a sprite is and just anti-alias that and not the whole picture (which is what filters do).

[64fanatic]

I don't understand your request for anti-aliasing in emulation. All 3D emulators have that and with 2D emulation those are just filters like Sal, HQ etc., which make most games look gross. lol

I imagine it being pretty hard (if not completely impossible) for an emulator to understand what the edge of a sprite is and just anti-alias that and not the whole picture (which is what filters do).

 

He's talking about AA support when you "emulate" Windows operating systems and then run games inside that in software like VMWare or Oracle Box. http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/virtualization/virtualbox/overview/index.html

 

I don't think its actually emulation though, its a simulation or virtualization.

 

They also happen to be pretty shit for running video games, they're intended for busniess use. Like say a company is lazy and doesn't want to port their ancient Windows 95 warehouse stock program, but are using newer computers with modern windows on them.

 

Like Ross said the best way sometimes right now is to run old games that just REFUSE to run on modern windows with all the mods/hacks/tinkering in the world and or newer hardware... is to actually use an old computer with an old operating system.

 

For example Midtown Madness 1 by Microsoft Studios doesn't work at all in Windows 7/8/10 if you want to run it in anything other than software mode which looks hideous. It doesn't recognize new graphics cards so just assumes you don't have one. It runs like dogshit in OracleBox. It plays perfectly on my old Pentium 3, ATI Rage Pro, 256 MB Ram with Windows 98se computer though.

Edited December 29, 2015 by Guest (see edit history)

[Thomasbelcar]

 

I tried to just window Diablo 1 using dxwnd then use sizer to make the window bigger/or fullscreen but it didn't work at all. I'll tinker more later and with other games Ross showed in his video.

 

I think that dxwnd + sizer is the way to go on this one. I find out why your dxwnd isn't working with sizer. You should use this settings:

And also put the original resolution of the game in dxwnd and my 4:3 aspect ratio setting for sizer to upscale the resolution. Sorry if this isn't the fullscreen that you hoped for. Maybe we could program a software that combines both softwares + AutoHotKey. For borderless window games sizer with 1920x1080 resolution should work fine to make it an fullscreen game.

 

Note: Mouse isn't working on the main menu. Uploading a video to show to you guys.

[64fanatic]

Words

 

Hey you got further than I did with that combo lol, awesome work.

 

I think Sizer does a better job with upscaling correctly so that is a bonus. I'll tinker with fullscreening it later using your method if its even possible, but its not end of the world playing in a window at least its not a blurry mess which is what Ross wanted.

 

 

This is pretty cool, didn't know it was possible till this thread happened.

[Thomasbelcar]

This is pretty cool, didn't know it was possible till this thread happened.

 

J6Nsqe1N2eo

 

As you can see isn't perfect. Mouse doesn't work on the main menu. But it's playable.

 

EDIT 1: I want to apologize to Spewkies. Sizer will not help with AA in emulated games.

 

Proof:

 

Z76qHiJQj9U

 

I did this video to compare ZDoom and Sizer and this shows that besides of helping with the blurry problem, sizer don't mess with AA.

[64fanatic]

Found a few other programs that might help out with this project. Some of these can also force windowed mode, other can just help run stubborn games. Others can scale games to higher resolutions.

 

---------------

This one is a Japanese program that this bro semi-translated to english. It works for games up to Directx 9 apparently. I can't get it to work on Windows 10, it keeps saying to run it as administrator even though I am doing so...somebody else might have better luck.

D3DWindower

http://forum.xentax.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=10242

 

---------------

This one is a Glide wrapper for old Glide games. Program is a little old. I don't have any glide games to test it on.

http://www.zeckensack.de/glide/

 

---------------

nGlide is also a glide wrapper and much more up to date. Same as above. This one can render games in higher resolutions!

http://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide

 

---------------

This one can wrap Directx games in OpenGL and do some nifty things, but seems limited to DirectX 8 games. Doesn't do much other than compatibility stuff.

DirectX OpenGL Wrapper

http://sourceforge.net/projects/dxglwrap/

 

---------------

"DXGL is a project to create a DirectDraw/Direct3D version 1 to 7 implementation that runs on OpenGL."

This one is in alpha.

https://www.williamfeely.info/wiki/DXGL#Downloads

 

 

 

-------------

 

So with that I did a test with DXGL first.

pzODwqcQUpg

 

- DXGL lets you scale by nearest neighbor and not bilinear!

- Can get proper 4:3 aspect ratio, and it shows up in video capture!

- Software is still in alpha, the menus do not work at all in Diablo 1

- Did run in a nice 1920x1080 res with no blur!

- ****the program installs a ddraw.dll file into the game folder to make this all work so delete it afterwards to not use DXGL****

 

That is one to keep an eye on but its not ready yet, at least for Diablo 1, but it might work for other games already.

[Thomasbelcar]

That is one to keep an eye on but its not ready yet, at least for Diablo 1, but it might work for other games already.

I like it, but will only work with DirectDraw/Direct3D version 1 to 7, so will not work with undertale.

[wowsers]

Biggest problem with AA is that it usually happens within driverland instead of os-land. So unless the OS is actually emulated, not virtualized. It won't work because noone in their right mind would want to rewrite their old drivers for silly AA support. Now if programs actually handled AA itself, old ones by downsampling bigger images, we would have no problems. If people had the will and knowhow they would port the code over, but the facts are people think it's easier to just leave it be instead.

[64fanatic]

Oh I should mention this for dxwnd. ddraw set here is Nearest-neighbor interpolation as described here:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_scaling#Scaling_methods

 

"The resulting image is larger than the original, and preserves all the original detail"

 

 

A good detail to note since this program doesn't do a good job at explaining what any of these options really do. Its default anyways, but to help prevent confusion.

[64fanatic]

Tried this out using just dxwnd.

 

Running game in 1400x1050 which is 4:3.

 

 

Helps them pixels look pixelly.

 

 

Settings:

 

This hides windows background and taskbar. Couldn't get rid of the window border/title though. Annoyingly, it doesn't unhide taskbar so you gotta restart explorer.exe in task manager after you quit.

 

 

Can find resolutions using this handy page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_resolutions

Sort by DAR

Edited January 3, 2016 by Guest (see edit history)

[Ross Scott]

I'll try out sizer later. It feels like Mike Matei is advising me on this. And for the record, I absolutely prefer to run stuff in fullscreen.

[Thomasbelcar]

I'll try out sizer later. It feels like Mike Matei is advising me on this. And for the record, I absolutely prefer to run stuff in fullscreen.

 

Hey Ross, I think you should use both dxwnd and sizer.

 

First open dxwnd and make the desired game run in a window and also leave the original resolution of the game there. In the first and video options tab of dxwnd you should mark this options:

 

 

After that run the game and click in the best choice of resolution (what makes it fullscreen or close to fullscreen if it is an 4:3 aspect ratio game). I recomend this settings to sizer:

 

 

Also if the game doesn't have a borderless window and you prefer fullscreen > quanlity you should use only dxwnd and make it run at a higher resolution.

 

Btw, do not use DXGL. It freezed my pc 3 times and I have to restart manually. I don't have a shitty pc, so wait until a stable version.

 

Sizer is great because it's option of "window resizing snap size" when you can control directly the quality of the pixels. I don't know who much is good but set it at 10 pixels.

 

I think this will resolve your problem.

 

Any doubts give me a pm anytime!

 

Thomas Eric aka Vincent

[ripa]

I didn't test dxwnd yet, but can it preserve fullscreen mode but with a different video mode? If not, that feature could be implemented since it's open source...

 

edit: never mind, of course it's not that simple. If the fullscreen video mode was forced to something else, the game's graphics would be altered (and probably not work at all).

 

I just found out dgVoodoo supports DirectDraw and old DirectX. Maybe it has some built-in scaling functionality.

[Mr. Nestlé]

Just to throw in some more tangentially related software: Borderless Gaming can help with fullscreening game windows. Although the window does need to be at the native resolution already, I think.

[Thomasbelcar]

Ross,

 

I think we just found the best way to you for run old games.

 

Borderless Gaming (Steam Link) + Sizer will make the fullscreen effect you desire.

 

Just set Borderless Gaming to run in the original resolution of the desired game in a Borderless Window and set sizer to run it in full screen.

[Thomasbelcar]

I actually brought Borderless Gaming on Steam. Tried to run Undertale in Fullscreen "Bordeless". Didn't work out as planned. As you can see here:

 

TUxjXf9_9j4

 

It seems that Borderless Window only works to DEDICATED FULLSCREEN. To games that only work in a WINDOW Borderless Gaming is the same thing as SIZER without the option to ajust the resolution and "window resizing snap size".

 

EDIT 1: BTW Ross, ALL my videos (like this) are in Creative Commons Attribution license 3.0, so you can use all my videos in your Birthday Follow-Up video (if you make a Birthday Follow Up video).

[Asrien]

Isn't upscaling clarity massively limited by engine? I mean with most games you need to get a mod or something to allow upscaling, but the more you upscale the worse it looks, because the resources it uses are configured to work within a specific range of sizes. It would be groundbreakingly awesome if there was a program or utility that could allow for lossless upscaling, but I don't know it seems mighty difficult. Happy to be proven wrong though.

[64fanatic]

Yea I did the same with my vids, use whatever if you want, I don't care.

 

 

 

-----

 

I'll post some more info for other methods for high res older games, though I suspect you probably already know about this Ross, but I don't think you mentioned this stuff in your vid. If you look around enough you'll often find mods or hacks to run even the old 2D games at higher resolutions. Sometimes you just get bigger fields of view which I rather like in the example I'll post. Other times everything can get shrunk which isn't great as sprites don't get scaled up, just stay at their original resolutions.

 

Great places to find resolution hacks:

 

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Home

 

and

 

http://www.wsgf.org/mgl

 

 

For example Pharaoh doesn't run above 1024x768 4:3 normally, fans hacked resolutions in by hex editing the exe.

http://www.wsgf.org/dr/pharaoh/en

 

So you go from 4:3 1024x768:

 

 

 

To 16:9 1920x1080 natively:

 

 

 

 

 

Other games mentioned in vid:

 

http://www.wsgf.org/dr/starcraft

 

 

 

 

Interestingly, no widescreen hack for Diablo 1 here, but there is a fairly new mod:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/09/24/diablo-1-hd-resolution-mod/

 

http://www.wsgf.org/dr/diablo-ii

 

 

 

 

 

---------

 

Another idea is installing Windows 95 inside of DOSBox, not sure how well 3D games would work inside of that but you could do proper upscales that way.

I know Windows 3.11 works flawlessly inside of DOSBox, every Win 3.11 games I've tried works great, even the FMV stuff, there be guides and packs out there.

Edited January 2, 2016 by Guest (see edit history)