Panzer Commander graphics issue, please help
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Perfect. Now I'm not at home, but I think I collected enough material to have an interesting time this evening ... see you later.
Hi, @agathosdaimon I installed the game correctly on Windows 10, however there is a bug where all objects (houses, hills, etc) are TRANSPARENT. I try to shoot at something only to realize that i am shooting at the object before it. Did you face this problem?
hi, yes i did have that problem - you should read through all of this thread as i did find a solution using a ddraw wrapper - read through both this thread and the related one at VOGONS regarding "aqrits ddraw" - one needs to make use of programs like DGvoodoo and or D3D Windower as well as teh CFG file for aqrits ddraw to find the result that works best for them
that is good to hear thank you
Here I got something interesting to work on.
First of all, I trimmed down the aqrit.cfg configuration to find out what was the magic flag that fixed the problem. First thing, I had to turn to 0 the DisableHighDpiScaling flag, or the game image wouldn't fill the whole screen. Then I got the bare minimum configuration that didn't cause the screen locked to gray color, and that was this:
So, I tried to emulate the same setting in DxWnd with window mode turned off, renderer = none and vSync enabled plus an extra delay. The surprising thing was that DxWnd is still causing the gray locked screen! The purpose of DxWnd vSync is quite similar to that of Aqrit's FakeVsync in 2D modes, but evidently I missed something in 3D modes, I'll have to something to revise and copy from Aqrit's better implementation!
A side note: with every ddwrapper configuration I used, the Z-ordering problems were still present, look at the screenshots! But this problem probably depends on the video card, maybe you don't see it.
screenshots:
aqrit1 = with DPI scaling
aqrit2 = seems ok, but look at the turret ...
aqrit3 = definitely, something is wrong!
Last edit: gho 2020-05-21
No luck so far: if what fixes the game with ddwrapper is the FakeVsync feature, I duly replicated all its effects on DxWnd, but for some reason the game hungs when controlled by DxWnd.
But in effect, the game seems quite sensible to vSync intervals: changing the delay value in the delay field, you get a game that could hung itself after a very shot or a quite longer time.
I wonder if ddwrapper shows the same problem too: you set it to 36 mSec delay, maybe changing that value could bring the problems back.
Maybe I should ask Aqrit for some hint ....
@agathosdaimon:I got one doubt. I'm still wondering about this gray-locked screen that seems going deep beyond the application level, possibly a problem at the video driver level. But I wonder if this problem could be related to my video card. Maybe on other machine the same problem won't happen? I don't know, if you like you could try DxWnd with this attached configuration file, this is supposed to make the game working exactly as with ddwrapper and FakevSync.
hi gho - i wasnt getting any of these problems with the ddwrapper, - one thing i was doing though was i had my panzer commander exe set to winXP compatibility - i think having it at win98 comp was good too but ran a bit too choppy in frames, - winxp was working well , with out this i recall i was getting grey screens in the game - the tank would be visible for a second, but then it would go grey, like there is some screen over everything - i wonder if the game running too fast causes this
Oh, my! This changes everything. XP compatibility can have a great impact on the game.
I made a few attempts with the DxWnd configuration I sent you yesterday, plus the panzer.exe set for Windows XP2 compatibility.
The result was strange: the game was hunging quite soon (so soon that I couldn't take a screenshot of first trial mission, I took a screenshot of the second mission that lasted about 5 seconds before hunginig. So, this wasn't much of an improvement, except for one thing: looking at the tank turret, it seems that XP compatibility fixes the Z-ordering issue: the 3D scene is perfectly rendered.
I should investigate, I don't know how these compatibility mode can fix the rendering issue.
Last edit: gho 2020-05-22
Anyway, it seems all a ddraw implementation problem. Replacing ddraw.dll with the dgVoodoo wrappers I got another working game, though the rendering is a little different. Looking at the screenshot:
1) the colors are darker
2) the smoke is no longer semi-transparent
3) the textures are not aliased, the ground shows a pixellated surface
But in any case the game works with no problems.
is that just teh software mode still? - i am finding i cant seem to get the working Hardware mode that i had before - i get the messed up incorrectly overlapping textures like before. I have no idea what i have changed now - urgh, these old games can be so random with whatever did or not work at the time. i should not have changed this up trying to see if i could go the dxwnd route with it d'oh
at least the software mode still works
what are the dgvoodoo settings you are using?
default settings, corresponding to no dgvoodoo.conf file present on the file system. If you download and read that file, it is quite self-explainatory. In particular, if you don't like the dgVoodoo watermark, you can insert this line do delete it:
The number of settings here is quite high, I never tested most of them but some seem very interesting.
I get very similar results as you got with dgVoodoo when I enabled "No HAL Device" and "fast bilinear 2x"
Is it possible that with dgVoodoo it works in sw mode?
I don't know. The picture is quite similar, so it's a reasonable possibility. I knw that dgVoodoo is very good to take advantage of hw acceleration, but maybe that's not true in all conditions. In any case, hw or sw it doesn't matter too much for such an old game that consumes so little resources. Looking at the result, it seems that you just have many ways to get always the same two possible scenarios:
a) better smoothed textures with a lot of z-ordering problems and instability
b) squared textures, no alpha channel but good z-ordering and stability
Too bad that dgVoodoo is closed source (and Dege seems quite determined to keep it so) and I wouldn't know how to find out how it gets these results.
Well, I think there's a way to know it.
interesting, well i will just also mention here again i did at least for a day in fact get HW graphics with no z-ordering issues at all - i just cant seem no to repeat it, - i was using the aqrit.cfg, the ddraw.dll from it and also dgvoodoo and its d3d8 and ddimm.dlls, something worked albeit for a brief time
tell me are you all using the physical panzer commander cd for your attempts or just an image? if i am doing it outside of dxwnd, i have to use my disc as it wont recognise an image outside of dxwnd
I have to admit, it works with Dxtory in hw mode as described on this page
https://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3973959/all/panzer-commander-on-windows-7
I set it according to the picture. Unfortunately, this application is not free (and I do not assume any source code). I haven't read the whole thread is too long for me at the moment.
@agathosdaimon
I use a mounted CD image, it works for me in Win7.
Update:
I see that agathosdaimon has a post at the end, so maybe "I'm carrying wood to the forest".
Last edit: huh 2020-05-23
thanks Huh - looks like dxtory is the way, just dont have the money for it atm
i tried playing with some timing in dxwnd but still can get either the grey or the overlapping texture errors to clear in HW mode - very annoying, it feels like there should be a some solution here amongst all teh Dxwnd settings available, i refuse to believe that only Dxtory can fix it
something i noticed from that simhq link is the mention about the grey screen or freezes being caused by fps being too high? so lowering can fix this - hmmm, maybe playing with timing in dxwnd could help?
thanks Huh - looks like dxtory is the way, just dont have the money for it atm
i tried playing with some timing in dxwnd but still can get either the grey or the overlapping texture errors to clear in HW mode - very annoying, it feels like there should be a some solution here amongst all teh Dxwnd settings available, i refuse to believe that only Dxtory can fix it
I THINK I HAVE SUCCESS! - i am using aqrits ddraw - i switch off the force directdraw emulation in its cfg
and then i run the panzer commander exe through D3Dwindower 1.88 - and it the 3d graphics and tehre and looking beautiful!
OK, I wonder if your setting also fixes the invisible tank turret in the 1-Training mission and overlapping textures (eg when I hit a house with a tank)?
If yes, can you attach your aqrit.cfg and ddraw.dll (and also screenshots of D3Dwindower settings)?
Last edit: huh 2020-06-10
ok i will check and let you know