3D acceleration working! (FIX)

[teleguy]

Image comparison:

3D accelerated with AA
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=481890575
software
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=481890620

Solution 1: XWA Wrapper

The ddraw wrapper created for X-Wing Alliance now also supports the other games in the series (thanks to Reimar Döffinger).

Usage:

Grab the xwing_ddraw zip file from here
https://github.com/rdoeffinger/xwa_ddraw_d3d11/releases/latest
and extract ddraw.dll and ddraw.cfg to the game directory
......\Steam\steamapps\common\STAR WARS Tie Fighter\remastered

EDIT: As of v1.4.5 the next step should no longer be needed.

Then righight-click on the game under the Library in the Steam client and select Properties.
Under the General tab click the "Set launch options..." button.
Enter
-softwarecursor
and click on OK. 

Solution 2: Aqrit ddraw

This solution doesn't cause color corruption like the old (WineD3D) one.

Usage:

Download http://workupload.com/file/fXsasZps (This is a modification of Aqrit's ddwrapper.)
mirror: www.vogons.org/download/file.php?id=18485
mirror: https://www.dropbox.com/s/58w5f5dzjt79cbn/aqrit%20ddraw%28ModifiedByTeleguy%29.zip?dl=0


Extract aqrit.cfg and the modded ddraw.dll to the game directory.
......\Steam\steamapps\common\STAR WARS Tie Fighter\remastered

Windows 7 is the last OS that can do 3D acceleration natively.

AMD users might have to downgrade their drivers to Catalyst 13.1 or put one of these atiumdag.dll files into the game folder. 

http://workupload.com/file/TSpxA5Tz
mirror: http://www.vogons.org/download/file.php?id=18776

Some Nvidia drivers can cause graphical glitches so you might want to try different versions.

If you aren't satisfied with it this way or if you're on a later operating system use dgVoodoo in addition to aqrit ddraw:

Download it here
http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/dgVoodoo2/
and extract dgVoodooSetup.exe / dgVoodooCpl.exe and D3DImm.dll to the game directory.

(If you use dgVoodooSetup.exe / dgVoodooCpl.exe to change settings  (like enabling AA and removing the watermark) make sure the conf file it creates is also placed in the game directory by clicking on the ".\" button. See dgVoodoo Readme.)

Before you put dgvoodoo's DDraw.dll into the game folder rename it to voodraw.dll

Then open aqrit.cfg and replace
RealDDrawPath =AUTO
with
RealDDrawPath = voodraw.dll

All files in one download:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/szc0unpec7yp6dq/Steam%20X-Wing%20Tie%20Fighter%20Hardware%20Fix%201.rar?dl=0 (Password: HardwareFix)
mirror: http://workupload.com/file/9KpxrKp (Password: HardwareFix)






Windows 7 color issues

(This issue is not present when using dgVoodoo.)

There's a bug in Windows 7 that affects a lot of old DirectDraw games resulting in distorted colors.
If that happens enable "ColorFix" in aqrit.cfg by replacing the 0 with 1.

Another way to fix it is using this tool:
http://www.bitpatch.com/downloads/ddraw_color_fixer.zip
You can also do this manually:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/927140-win7-fixing-old-256-color-games-with-distorted-palettes/?do=findComment&comment=593322376


Windows 10 issue/invisible ships

On Windows 10 the game sometimes doesn't take advantage of dgVoodoo. This is immediately noticeable by the dgVoodoo watermark missing from the screen (that is unless you disabled it) and results in 3D acceleration not working on AMD and invisible ships with acceleration enabled on Nvidia.
The cause is as of yet unknown.
This only happened to me a couple of times when freshly applying the fix to BoP. Since I couldn't find any error in the configuration on my part I copied all the aqrit/dgVoodoo dll and config files from the BoP to the XvT folder unchanged. Surprisingly they worked like they should there. Then I moved the files back to the BoP directory and BoP was miraculously fixed as well. All in all quite puzzling.
Edit: Added Solution 5 to address this.

Solution 3: WineD3D

I finally found a way to make 3D acceleration work in the Steam version.

1. Go the the Tie 95 directory.
......\Steam\steamapps\common\STAR WARS Tie Fighter\remastered
2. Make a backup of ddraw.dll.
3. Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/ydo8hg1yei7kd27/Wine%20for%20Star%20Wars%20games.zip?dl=0 and extract the files to the game directory.
4. Run wined3dcfg.cpl and select "backbuffer" as Offscreen Rendering Mode.
This way the old workarounds are no longer required and I was able to force AA from the driver controlpanel which didn't work before.

Edit: If your desktop color depth is lower than 32 bit or the game fails to launch you still need these workarounds:
4. a) Rightclick on Tie95.exe and set compatibility mode to 256 colors and Windows XP.
or
b) Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/4cp63htqn5eyeon/opengl32.zip?dl=0 and extract the file to the game directory.

All files in one download:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yfw2xooee3c7mvb/X%2CTie%20Fix%20Complete.zip?dl=0
http://workupload.com/file/8fhqXje

More up to date versions of these files:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6a23eoghu5qpiga/Wine3Dfix_Tie_X-Wing.zip?dl=0
mirror: https://workupload.com/file/cgXnZdr
The most notable improvement for me was increased performance on Win XP.

3D acceleration should work now however there is the downside that the colors in the concourse and menus are severely messed up but it's manageable to find the right buttons.
Judging from some reports it's possible only Windows 7/Vista/XP are affected but not Windows 8/10.

The Steam Overlay can cause poor performance. See the relevant section in Solution 4 for ways to launch the game without overlay.


Edit: Sometimes the keyboard fails to initialize for some reason. If that happens usually the game seems to hang at the start because it's displaying an error message in the background. In that case close Tie Fighter with Alt+F4 and try again. (You can skip this message with Esc or Enter but the Keyboard will not be available in flightmode so it's pointless.)

Edit2: I managed to fix the "Dinput Keyboard aquired failed message". Instead of setting 256 color mode download .. , extract the files somewhere and run install.bat with adming rights.

Uninstallation:

Delete ddraw.dll, wined3dcfg.cpl, libwine.dll Opengl32.dll and wined3d.dll from the game folder.

Restore original ddraw.dll from the backup you've made or use "Verify Integrity of Game Cache".

Solution 4: DDrawCompat

This is for everyone who can't get other the other solutions to work properly.


Usage:

Download ddraw.zip
https://github.com/narzoul/DDrawCompat/releases
and extract ddraw.dll to the game folder.
......\Steam\steamapps\common\STAR WARS Tie Fighter\remastered

AMD users might have to downgrade their drivers to Catalyst 13.1 or put one of these atiumdag.dll files into the game folder. (The atiumdag.dll will probably not work on Windows 8 and above.)

http://workupload.com/file/TSpxA5Tz
mirror: http://www.vogons.org/download/file.php?id=18776


EDIT: The experimental/test release contains a fix for the driver issue so this workaround should no longer be needed.

If enabling AA from the driver controlpanel doesn't work use MLAA or FXAA.

Switching from flightmode to menus, map, damage report etc. may take it bit longer than usual. If you still only see a black screen after waiting a while, pressing the left/right arrow key on the keyboard should help.

Currently there seems to be a conflict between the Steam overlay and DDrawCompat which causes the game to crash at launch (DDrawCompat used to work fine a few months ago). This can be fixed by

a) launching Tie95.exe directly from the Windows Explorer
or
b) rightclicking on Tie95.exe and enabling Windows XP compatibility or admin mode
or
c) deleting GameOverlayRenderer.dll from the Steam directory (Steam will restore that file every time you launch the Steam client though)

Simply disabling the overlay in Steam options is not enough!


Some of the graphics might be missing in flightmode. Using Win XP compatibility mode usually fixes this.

Solution 5: DxWnd

This is basically Solution 2 done in a slightly different way.

Download Dxwnd v2_04_23 (direct link https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/files/Latest%20build/v2_04_23_build.rar/download ) and extract it to an empty folder.

Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/2aboewobay7av84/Dxwnd3Dfix.zip?dl=0 and extract it to the same folder, overwriting dxwnd.dll.
mirror: https://workupload.com/file/bXmKfd2

Launch dxwnd.exe, click on File and import the Tie Fighter dxw file included with the Dxwnd3Dfix.

Rightclick the new entry ->Modify, change the filepath so that it points to the location where the game is installed on your PC and click on OK. The icon in front of the Tie Fighter entry should now have turned green.

Download dgVoodoo http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/dgVoodoo2/
and copy DDraw.dll, D3DImm.dll and dgVoodooCpl.exe to the game directory
......\Steam\steamapps\common\STAR WARS Tie Fighter\remastered

Either launch the game directly from Dxwnd or have Dxwnd running in the background when launching from Steam.


On Windows 7 and prior, 3d acceleration might work without dgVoodoo (in this case make sure to delete the ddraw.dll that Steam includes with the game!) however the same limitations apply as with aqrit ddraw, see Solution 2.
Distorted colors on Windows 7 can be fixed by enabling "Win7 color fix" on the Compat tab in Dxwnd.

Alternative Method

http://steamcommunity.com/app/355250/discussions/0/618463738393252329/

[teleguy]

I whipped up a new fix based on DXWND for those that have problems.

Download http://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/files/Latest%20build/v2_03_48_build.fix3.rar/download and extract it anywhere you want.

Then drop these files into the DXWND folder replacing the original dxwnd.dll.
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=31287443819035884520

Launch DXWND.exe, import "X-Wing - Tie-Fighter (Steam).dxw" and adjust the file paths.

Keep DXWND running in the background.

3D might or might not work now (similar to the aqrit fix) however forcing AA from the controlpanel doesn't seem to have any effect so I'd recommend adding dgVoodoo (and using it's AA implementation) in any case. Renaming the DDraw.dll is not necessary with DXWND.

I successfully tested this solution on a Windows 7 64 bit system with an AMD 290X but didn't have time for more.

There seems to be a conflict between DXWND and the Steam overlay so in the case of Tie Fighter and X-Wing you have to either launch the exe directly or from DXWND's gui. Disabling the Overlay is not enough.
(Or you could delete gameoverlayrenderer.dll but Steam keeps restoring this file.)

Also the inflight menues in Tie Fighter always lag behind the keyboard input one step so they're a bit tricky to use.
X vs T sometimes fails to close properly so you have to kill it from taskmanager.

These issues might be fixable by changing some options in DXWND's config.


PS:

x a écrit :

Starting the exe directly will only work if you have a steam_appid.txt with the game's id inside in the game folder. (Sometimes Steam creates this file on it's own, sometimes you have to do it manually with Notepad)

The id for Jk is
32380
and for MotS it's
32390

BTW the steam_appid.txt thing applies to a lot of Steam games. You can find the id in the link to the game's forum or store page.

For example
http:// steamcommunity. com/app/32380/discussions/0
and
http:// store.steampowered. com/app/32380

[teleguy]

Well, I bit the bullet and installed Windows 10 on a PC with Nvidia Kepler GPU.

These are my findings:

With the aqrit ddraw.dll alone all space objects are invisible.

This issue also affects the X-Wing/Tie Fighter games released on GOG (which allowed me to enable hardware acceleration without using that dll at all) and apparently the original games released on CD.
http://www.play-old-pc-games.com/2013/06/20/x-wing-vs-tie-fighter/
http://www.savingcontent.com/2014/08/09/guide-play-x-wing-tie-fighter-series-on-windows-7-windows-8-windows-8-1-with-an-xbox-xb1-playstation-ps4-controller-flight-stick/?page=12

So it's probably a more general problem with these games on Windows 8/10 and not caused by my fix. (Sigh of relief)

Howevver I couldn't replicate this bug when using dgVoodoo in addition to aqrit ddraw and therefore was not able to determine why it doesn't work for some people.


BTW with the DXWND fix every object was also visible but on Win 10 it didn't want to play ball with dgVoodoo and forcing Antialiasing didn't work so I can't really recommend it.

[teleguy]

Updated OP with XWA wrapper.

[*****]

I guess it doesn't matter much, but your hardware 3D screenshot is still at 640x480.
The XWA wrapper however will happily render the 3D objects at 4k resolution if that happens to be your native screen resolution.
The 2D parts can optionally use a blurry kind-of-bicubic filter to make them look a bit better. If I have time I'll try to implement a proper Lanczos scaler as well to see how that looks, hoping that a modern graphics card will have enough power to spare.

[teleguy]

Yeah, I noticed the wrapper upscales the resolution but I don't want to post separate screenshots for each solution. Everyone who uses the XWA wrapper will be pleasently surprised.

[Chris Solomon]

is there any fix yet for having to delete winmm.dll before tie95/xwing95 will even run on win10?

[teleguy]

Chris Solomon a écrit :

is there any fix yet for having to delete winmm.dll before tie95/xwing95 will even run on win10?

I assumed you are already using Tervis fixed winmm.dll because you said you could either have 3D acceleration or music?

[teleguy]

I tried Tie Fighter and Tervis' music fix on Windows 10. It doesn't seem to depend on 3D acceleration if music works or not but it's rather random. Sometimes music works in a mission but when you relaunch the mission it stops and vice versa. Since you have to leave the mission to access the 3D options you might erroneously think that's what caused it. Looks like there's a glitch in the fixed winmm.dll.

Edit: Made a new thread.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/355250/discussions/0/412447524178213776/

[teleguy]

I looked at aqrit's ddraw wrapper again and found a few things that might cause problems.

Could some of the users that get invisible ships on Windows 10 test if this new version
http://www.vogons.org/download/file.php?id=21674 + dgVoodoo works better for them?

Unfortunately I still can't replicate that bug on Windows 10.

[teleguy]

***** a écrit :

I guess it doesn't matter much, but your hardware 3D screenshot is still at 640x480.
The XWA wrapper however will happily render the 3D objects at 4k resolution if that happens to be your native screen resolution.

The next version of dgVoodoo will have an option to maintain aspect ratio and will display the game in your desktop resolution. I will update the screenshots once it's released.

[nealeo]

Windows 10 x64 Geforce 660, Solution 1 worked for me. However I did have to delete winmm.dll from the install directory as well, in case anyone with a similar configuration is having issues.

[IronCore]

Windows 7x64 nVidia GTX780. Solution 2 with the dgvoodoo color correction worked for me.

The aqrit.cfg color correction did not work nor did the ddraw color fixer tool.

I couldn't use solution 1 because I couldn't download from either site due to an "error" with this message: C:\Users\******\AppData\Local\Temp\WgR_21_T.zip.part could not be saved, because the source file could not be read.

Try again later, or contact the server administrator.

[G1ngerbeard_Man]

Anyone have an issue where the game is appearing to run perfectly, however you can't move the mouse out of the upper left quadrant?

[Orkchop]

All 3 options get the game to launch. My problem is when I get to the guy who says "Enter your name, pilot." the animations go really slowly (like a frame every few seconds), and it won't let me type my name. Also, for most of the options, the animation during the opening cinematic is just as slow. (I think I have it set with option 1, and the cinematic is running fine.)

I've tried it on two different Win 10 computers, with the same results (a gaming desktop and a work laptop). Any idea what could be causing a problem? I'm using an Xbox One controller plugged in as a "joystick", if that matters.

[Orkchop]

death.o.malley a écrit :

Anyone have an issue where the game is appearing to run perfectly, however you can't move the mouse out of the upper left quadrant?

I'm going to guess here, but did you try setting -softwarecursor in the "Set launch options..." when you right click on the game? That fixes it for me when I run into that.