DCoder
15.11.2009, 19:14:45
Hey guys, has any of you tried the "magic" ddraw.dll on Windows 7? Comedy.
1. INI Controls
I implemented the INI controls now, but the surfaces are created before the rules are even read, so I can't really put them there. And I can't put them in RA2MD.ini, since that is rewritten from scratch on every exit. Writing the data into ra2md manually is an option, but the next time you run plain YR without Ares, guess what will happen to these new settings. So I had another thought: are there any objections to me creating an ares.ini instead, and sticking them there? I'm sure we'll come across more settings that only make sense on a global scope like this.
Some mods might want to force specific settings on the user, and mod-switching needs to be aware of that eventually...
2. Windows 7
At least on Windows 7, the ddraw.dll draws nothing, and switching it to hardware accel only crashes real hard. So in there, the DirectX.Force= setting will be ignored and the game will run as it used to. Yeeeeaaaaah.
Edit: Rereading the ddraw.dll thread, I found mention of it also being useless on Vista. Not surprising.
3. Other info related to drawing
Thanks to Westwood's way of drawing, you should actually prefer the surfaces in system RAM, not GPU.
This means disabling the VideoBackBuffer is the right thing to do... maybe I should actually make YR default to that mode? Who knows...
Note for clarity's sake: contrary to wthigon's claim in the old ddraw.dll thread, that dll and VideoBackBuffer are two different things.
ddraw.dll tells DirectX to not use any hardware acceleration on graphics.
[Video]VideoBackBuffer = no (not default) and AllowVRAMSidebar = no (default) tell the game to place all the surfaces in system memory.
Blit counter: It only works when the Tile surface is in VRAM (GPU) , and the Alternate surface is not. That is the default config...
In a short while the testers will get the new build with the options from first post available, even though I should advise you not to expect miracles, we'll see what results we get back.
1. INI Controls
I implemented the INI controls now, but the surfaces are created before the rules are even read, so I can't really put them there. And I can't put them in RA2MD.ini, since that is rewritten from scratch on every exit. Writing the data into ra2md manually is an option, but the next time you run plain YR without Ares, guess what will happen to these new settings. So I had another thought: are there any objections to me creating an ares.ini instead, and sticking them there? I'm sure we'll come across more settings that only make sense on a global scope like this.
Some mods might want to force specific settings on the user, and mod-switching needs to be aware of that eventually...
2. Windows 7
At least on Windows 7, the ddraw.dll draws nothing, and switching it to hardware accel only crashes real hard. So in there, the DirectX.Force= setting will be ignored and the game will run as it used to. Yeeeeaaaaah.
Edit: Rereading the ddraw.dll thread, I found mention of it also being useless on Vista. Not surprising.
3. Other info related to drawing
Thanks to Westwood's way of drawing, you should actually prefer the surfaces in system RAM, not GPU.
This means disabling the VideoBackBuffer is the right thing to do... maybe I should actually make YR default to that mode? Who knows...
Note for clarity's sake: contrary to wthigon's claim in the old ddraw.dll thread, that dll and VideoBackBuffer are two different things.
ddraw.dll tells DirectX to not use any hardware acceleration on graphics.
[Video]VideoBackBuffer = no (not default) and AllowVRAMSidebar = no (default) tell the game to place all the surfaces in system memory.
Blit counter: It only works when the Tile surface is in VRAM (GPU) , and the Alternate surface is not. That is the default config...
In a short while the testers will get the new build with the options from first post available, even though I should advise you not to expect miracles, we'll see what results we get back.