Unlagged graphics with ddraw driver for RA2/YR

[Renegade]

ROFL. So basically, Piscinex knows full well it is a case-depending possibility whether the files helps, and the only one touting it as The One And Only Solution To All RA2 Lag Issues, a must-use download and a 100% sure speed boost are you.

Also note how Piscinex brings the same argumentation as you: "There will be no more drastic slowdowns, but the overall game will run slower." How that is an advantage, I still don't see.
In addition, I find his statement "this is due to outdated game code" questionable, to say the least - he's fixing DirectDraw after all - not the game.

And I told you before, I'm not gonna introduce some hacked DLL off the web into my driver constellation just because you say I should. Never touch a running system. I'm happy with YR the way it is, and actually don't play it all that much anymore anyway...Dawn of War FTW.

[~Guest~]

Its me Djohe from PPM. Sorry about not registering for this reply but this is Bullshit!

Ive tested it and it dont work for me either. Im on 1833MHz AMD AthlonXP 2500+, and Geforce4 Ti4600 (DX 8 card) and using Windows ME (as in Milenium) with DirectX 9.0c installed. Ive put the ddraw.dll in my RA2:YR directory and started the game.

I tested it with a modified Chrono Legion rifle based on railgun from Tiberian Sun with a extra high particle count and longer range and I got a noticable slowdown on the build timer that I used to measure FPS. I also tested a Skirmish game with 7 AI Players on A Path Beyond and I noticed that the graphical limiter got turned on after a while (The Tesla Reactor anim stops playing and the Prism beams transculency gets non transculent) and the game speed going down to a crawling speed even later. It behaved exactly like when I did not put ddraw.dll in my RA2:YR directory.

[Beowulf]

This is only used on Windows 98 and ME. XP and Vista support older configurations of DirectX/DirectDraw back to version 3. You will see no performance boosts at all. Period. Now, please stop telling everyone this will stop the lag.

[tsactuo]

With 7 AIs the game lags anyway from pathfinding and trigger calculations.
Thanks for testing anyway, even if it didnt work for you. If you want try the nuke test I suggested.

[pd]

for me the game ONLY lags if there are at least 2 brutal Yuris in a Skirmish game.
that ddraw.dll better fix THAT or it's useless.

I don't think YR uses any hw acceleration... I got one of the heaviest GPUs that are out there (GeForce 7900 GTX), can play TES4Oblivion on full detail level without any lags (for instance), and as said above, with 2 brutal Yuris, the game's unplayable on max speed.
it's the game engine that sucks, not directx

about DirectDrawCreate and ~Ex, there's no big difference except that the ~Ex gives you a couple of options that non-Ex doesn't give.
DirectDrawCreate isn't outdated, just that since DirectX8, there is no DirectDraw anymore.

[Bobingabout]

I'd rate the 7900 at 5th. its only beat by the GF8### series, the ATI X2### series, the top end ATI X1###, and the GF7950. the only difference between the GF7900 and the GF7950 is that the 7950 is the 7900 modified to work better for duel processoring. hence my graphics card, the GF7950GX2 is a pair of 7950 graphics cards, bolted together, and double bridged(onboard PCIE16 splitter and bridge, and a SLI bridge, the card is designed for Quad graphics processing, so also includes an SLI header for linking to another graphics card), of the same power as PDs(depending on clock and bus frequencies, and RAM, and Slot) you could potentially say the GF7950GX2 has twice the power of the GF7900GTX, however, if its not set up correctly, only the primary processor is used.

i can run all the games i have at max graphics, without problem, i can even play X3: reunion at full graphics in the areas labeled "Warning, Expect massive lag" without much lag, when you are fighting a fleet of ships, with your fleet of ships, all those projectiles, not to mention all those ships really eat up the power.

the GF8800 is suposed to be more powerful than my GF7950GX2!

[tsactuo]

OK Guys I found what this file does. Piscinex was right.

This ddraw.dll file "Disables DirectDraw Hardware acceleration".

You don't have to have this file to disable this acceleration, you can do it by hand.

So for those that fear to get the .dll (Renegade for example). Follow those steps:

Start - Run
type "dxdiag" and press OK.
Once the Dxdiag loads go to "Display" tab.
Press the DISABLE button that is next to DirectDraw acceleration and confirm.

Launch YR or RA2. This is exactly the way the game plays if you use the ddraw.dll file I uploaded. If you disable ddraw acceleration the translucent effects don't lag bad anymore (especially noticable when buildings explode).

So this ddraw.dll (as it overrides the system32's one) disables the HW Accel just for YR/RA2, so you don't have to use the universal DXDIAG switcher (in case you play other games etc.). Test, and use whatever you like.

And yes if you disable HW accel from DXDIAG you always get 0 Blits per Sec in RP's options panel. So this question now answered.

[Renegade]

Okay. So we know what it (supposedly) does.
But that still doesn't prove it has any positive effect on RA2/YR at all - all reports were negative, so far.
(And we still don't know who exactly created the file.)

[Beowulf]

I just tried it and the game went SLOWER! And I run old equipment. I don't know what to make of it now but it cannot be good. Besides, I didn't lag with a nuke before... >_>

[VK]

YR only use hardware fill if possible

This file is safe, because it contain 5 lines of C++ code, not more

Without this file, on shroud screen I have ~110 FPS
with this file - only 50-60 FPS

this file isn't interesting at all

[pd]

these days hw acceleration is possible on almost any machine.
if this dll really removes the hw acc, it's no surprise the game gets SLOWER instead of faster...

[tsactuo]

Yeah it goes slower on normal conditions than default hw accelerated. However when hardware accelerated, there seems to be something wrong when drawing many transparent effects or something, and causes big slowdowns. These slowdowns don't happen when HW ACCEL is off. Imo since most times the FPS is limited because of pathfinding and AI calculations, I preffer playing without accel to avoid those slowdowns.

From my experience:
Measuring FPS on shroud gives boost to hardware acceleration mode.
Measuring FPS on battles/explosions gives boost to non-HW accelerated mode.

You choose what is better for your gameplay. I preffer the non-accelerated way for more stable gaming.

I remember when I first tested Mental Omega mod, without the dll file. That mod lagged a lot in most battles because MO uses many effects.
When I switched to non-HW mode it was much smoother.

Also since this file is an override to the DirectX files, you can use it and test it on any game that uses DirectDraw (not just ra2/yr) by just placing it in the same folder with the executable.

I tested it with Age of Empires 2, but there was only performance decrease .

[VK]

Imo since most times the FPS is limited because of pathfinding and AI calculations,

not right.
the most bad place - graphic output

Problem because a lot of code... from 1994 year.
from C&C Tiberium Dawn DOS Version.

[Bobingabout]

well, is there anyway you can improve the performance of the game?

[Dracaveli]

I used it and it did stop the lag created when my buildings are destroyed, however it didnt speed up the game by no means, it just stop the lag created when explosions occur...im running under win 98SE

BTW: Koe_Dracaveli AOE2 clan