d3d8to9 (DirectX 8 Games)

corsair91 · Sailing Master Posts: 8201 **206645 Gold** -

Sid Meier Pirates! (2004) is already DirectX 9 so not required
for Pirates! (2004) or any other DirectX 9 game.

For DirectX 8 Games only

d3d8to9

https://github.com/crosire/d3d8to9/

A D3D8 pseudo-driver which converts API calls and bytecode shaders to equivalent D3D9 ones.

d3d8to9

This is a pseudo-driver module that intends to improve compatibility and stability in games using Direct3D 8 for rendering by converting all API calls and low-level shaders to equivalent Direct3D 9 ones. By that it also opens those games to new possibilities from proven modding tools written for Direct3D 9, including ReShade.

https://github.com/crosire/d3d8to9/releases

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_DirectX_8_games

DirectX 8 was released in 2001
DirectX 9 was released in 2002 but took a while before DirectX 9
games appeared.
Shader Model 3.0 in DirectX 9.0c, was released in August 2004.

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

corsair91 · Sailing Master Posts: 8201 **206645 Gold** -

ReShade is mentioned above

ReShade

https://github.com/crosire/reshade
A generic post-processing injector for games and video software

https://reshade.me

This is a generic post-processing injector for games and video software. It exposes an automated way to access both frame color and depth information and a custom shader language called ReShade FX to write effects like ambient occlusion, depth of field, color correction and more which work everywhere.

The ReShade FX shader compiler contained in this repository is standalone, so can be integrated into other projects as well.

ReShade supports all of Direct3D 9, Direct3D 10, Direct3D 11, Direct3D 12, OpenGL and Vulkan.
A computer with Windows 7 SP1, 8.1 or 10 and .NET Framework 4.5 or higher installed is required.

corsair91 · Sailing Master Posts: 8201 **206645 Gold** -

DxWrapper

DxWrapper is a .dll file designed to wrap DirectX files to fix compatibility issues in older games. This project is primarily targeted at fixing issues with running games on Windows 10, by simply dropping .dll and .ini files into the game folder. Its secondary purpose is to offer a single tool combining several projects into one.

https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper
https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper/releases

https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper/wiki/Configuration

https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper/wiki/Compatible-Games

has fixes for specific games

DxWrapper Compatible Games for Windows 10:

Alien Nations
Atlantis: The Lost Tales

Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg BHRT
BloodRayne 2
Blood 2 The Chosen

Castle Adventure
Close Combat IV
Codename Outbreak
Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord
Conquest: Frontier Wars
Creatures 2: The Albian Years

Dark Fall 2: Lights Out
Dark Reign
Deadlock II
Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive
Diablo
Diablo Hellfire
Double Dragon Trilogy
Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard

Far Cry
Final Liberation: Warhammer Epic 40,000
Freespace 2

Gangsters: Organized Crime
Gothic
Guilty Gear Isuka
Guilty Gear X2 Reload

Heretic Kingdoms
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

InkBall
Interstate 82

Jagged Alliance 2

Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2

Majesty Gold HD
MechWarrior 4
Might and Magic IX
Moto Racer 3
Myst III Exile

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
Outpost 2

Pandemonium
Patrician 3
Perimeter
Port Royale

Prince of Persia
Raiden Legacy
RavenShield
Return of TIM
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition
SimCity Classic
Splinter Cell
Star Trek: Armada
Star Trek: Starfleet Command
Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force
Star Wars: Battlefront
Star Wars: Starfighter
SWAT 3

Temple of Elemental Evil
The Great Battles of Caesar
The Great Battles of Hannibal
The Longest Journey
The Nations Gold
The Settlers IV Gold
The Summoner
TIM: Even More Contraptions
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness

War Wind
War Wind II: Human Onslaught
WarGames: Defcon 1
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate

corsair91 · Sailing Master Posts: 8201 **206645 Gold** -

WineD3D For Windows

https://fdossena.com/?p=wined3d/index.frag

WineD3D For Windows is a DirectX 1-11 to OpenGL wrapper based on WineD3D, which is an almost full implementation of DirectX used in Wine.
Even if Windows supports DirectX natively, using WineD3D can enhance backwards compatiblity with older games, especially on Windows 8 and newer that don't support 16 bit screen modes. Another possible use is to emulate unsupported versions of DirectX, or porting DirectX applications to OpenGL without having to rewrite the rendering code.
Please note that WineD3D is far from perfect, and many games will not work.

Instructions on how to use the DLLs are included.

Pre-Vulkan or Vulkan Versons available
Important: read the readme file if you're using DirectX 1-7 games!

Vulkan (API)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulkan_(API)
https://www.khronos.org/vulkan/

Vulkan is a low-overhead, cross-platform 3D graphics and computing API. Vulkan targets high-performance realtime 3D graphics applications such as video games and interactive media across all platforms. Compared to OpenGL and Direct3D 11, and like Direct3D 12 and Metal, Vulkan is intended to offer higher performance and more balanced CPU/GPU usage. Other major differences from Direct3D 11 (and prior) and OpenGL are Vulkan being a considerably lower-level API and offering parallel tasking. Vulkan also has the ability to render 2D graphics applications. In addition to its lower CPU usage, Vulkan is also able to better distribute work among multiple CPU cores.

Vulkan is intended to provide a variety of advantages over other APIs as well as its predecessor, OpenGL

Also available

Mesa3D For Windows
https://fdossena.com/?p=mesa/index.frag

Mesa3D can be used to provide a Software Renderer to OpenGL applications.

It is especially useful to run old apps and games that use an old version of OpenGL and do not work properly on modern hardware.
Please note that this renderer is far from perfect, and many games will not work.

corsair91 · Sailing Master Posts: 8201 **206645 Gold** -

GLDirect

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gldirect/

GLDirect is the utility package for Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP that enables OpenGL based games and applications to access 3D hardware acceleration through the Direct3D drivers provided by your graphics hardware manufacturer.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gldirect/files/

GLDirect provides a replacement opengl32.dll
add to game directory alongside the game executable

Back in the Windows XP days this was often required for XP era
OpenGL games

corsair91 · Sailing Master Posts: 8201 **206645 Gold** -

pcgamingwiki.com
Windows Support info

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Windows

DirectDraw is broken Section
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Windows#DirectDraw_is_broken

DirectDraw is broken

This issue actually first materialized in Windows 8.1,
unfortunately there is little more that can be done than use a DDraw wrapper:

DXGL
https://www.dxgl.info/

Wine3D for Win
https://fdossena.com/?p=wined3d/index.frag

DDraw Compat
https://github.com/narzoul/DDrawCompat

DDraw Hack
https://code.google.com/archive/p/ddhack/

DDWrapper
http://bitpatch.com/ddwrapper.html

DxWnd
https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/

Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004)
https://sourceforge.net/p/dxwnd/discussion/general/thread/d9848eb5d2/

DDRAW FPS Fix
https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/579-windows-881-ddraw-fps-fix/

dxwrapper
https://github.com/jarikomppa/dxwrapper

DgVoodoo 2, a glide wrapper, also has a DDraw wrapper built-in.
http://dege.freeweb.hu/

Direct3D 8 has a very similar issue on 8.1 and later as well, however the ddraw wrappers (with an exception to the ones that include a d3d8.dll) do not fix the issue as D3D8 doesn't use ddraw, being the first version of DirectX to deprecate it. Instead use a patched d3d8.dll, the DX8 to DX9 convertor or the d3d8to9 wrapper.

Users of Windows Vista and on-wards actually benefit from a DDraw wrapper due to it no longer being hardware accelerated on such systems, however the built-in DDraw wasn't completely broken until 8.1.

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

dgVoodoo2

dgVoodoo2 is a set of implementation of old graphics API's for Windows 7 and later versions

http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/
http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/dgVoodoo2/

They are implemented on Direct3D 11/12 and they can use different
device types as wrapping output:

Hardware rendering at GPU feature level 12.0 (recommended but currently has some issues)
Hardware rendering at GPU feature level 11.0 (recommended)
Hardware rendering at GPU feature level 10.1 (has a minor limitation for D3D8/9)
Hardware rendering at GPU feature level 10.0 (there are some restrictions)
Software rendering through Microsoft WARP renderer

The following graphics API libraries are implemented:

Glide 2.11, Glide 2.45, Glide 3.1 and Glide 3.1 Napalm
DirectX 1-7 (all versions of DirectDraw and Direct3D up to version 7)
Direct3D 8.1
Direct3D 9

Old Game Patches
http://dege.freeweb.hu/Patches/patches/

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/DgVoodoo_2

https://github.com/dege-diosg/dgVoodoo2
Glide/DirectX implementation on D3D11/12
Play your old Glide and DirectX games even on the latest,
modern version of Windows.

Glide, Glide2, Glide3 and Glide3 Napalm versions are available
DirectDraw, D3D3/5/6/7, D3D8 and D3D9 are all available too

corsair91 · Sailing Master Posts: 8201 **206645 Gold** -

DxWnd
https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/
https://sourceforge.net/p/dxwnd/discussion/general/

Windows hooker - intercepts system calls to make Win32 programs run in a window, to enhance application compatibility, to enhance video modes, to stretch timing and emulate CD disk data and audio tracks. It is typically very useful to run old Windows games.

Features
Run fullscreen programs in window mode

Perform time stretching to slow down or speed up actions

Add several compatibility options to support legacy programs

Log operations, show program status and palette

Emulate CD audio tracks playing ripped audio files

Emulate CD and HD file systems

Usable through a GUI or with customized proxies

DxWnd Discussion
Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004) (DirectX 9)
https://sourceforge.net/p/dxwnd/discussion/general/thread/d9848eb5d2/

Kataah - 2019-09-22
So i tried out "Sid Meier's Pirates!" (2004) from GOG.
I would need DxWnd for it, cause the Game is running in 30 FPS, so with the always great Timing Function from DxWnd i can have a sort of "60 FPS Patch".
The problem is that it getÂ´s hooked, but always showing a error when you launch it whatever DirectX Version i choose in DxWnd. It seems you also donÂ´t have a Export Profile, so i think you actually didnÂ´t touched or tried that Game out yet. Could you help me out with this one, please? Thank you.

Edit:
I fixed it when running the Game itself in Windowed Mode, which is possible via editing itÂ´s config.ini. Now it runs hooked and fine without a problem.

gho - 2019-09-22
That's curious. I installed the game version 2.0.0.4, hooked the executable Pirates!.exe to DxWnd with default configuration and it worked.
Whatever happened on your computer likely depends on your environment. It could be interesting to get some logs with this strange error.