DirectDraw Compatibility Tool

Alchemist

Alchemist

Nocturnal Mechanic
Modder
Question about corrupted colors under Windows Vista/Seven is asked frequently present days. So galogen from Fallout.ru forums created a small useful program which makes access to the built-in (but rarely invoked) compatibility options of NT6 quick and simple. Should fix palette corruption not only for Fallout but for some other pre-DX8 games.

Sсreenshot:
directdrawcompatibility.gif


Readme: [spoiler:d601291a6b]===============================================================
DirectDraw Compatibility Tool
===============================================================

[ Program purpose ]

DirectDraw Compatibility Tool is designed to fix color palette corruption
in the old games (Fallout, Age of Empires, Worms Armageddon, Theme
Hospital and other from the second half of the 90th).
Corruption occurs because of incompatibility between graphical
interface Windows Aero and games intended to work with DirectX 7
DirectDraw or an older DirectX version. Both Windows Vista and
Windows 7 have built-in compatibility tools for such games. But to invoke
compatibility mode there should be information about specific exe-file in
the corresponding part of the registry. DirectDraw Compatibility Tool allows
to completely automate process of compatibility rules creation.

[ Program functions ]

DirectDraw Compatibility Tool has two operation modes:
- create compatibility rules for a given game;
- save compatibility rules to the reg-file.

'Apply' button allows to automatically create compatibility rule. When
field 'Pathname of the target exe-file' contains desired game, on button-
press it will be analyzed and corresponding rule will be formed. If problems
where caused by incompatibility on DirectDraw level they should cease
immediately after rule creation. But it's probable that there are some other
problems which have to be solved with different tools or could not be
solved at all. For example Worms Armageddon version 1.3 doesn't run
under Windows 7 x64, meanwhile version 3.6.29 processed with the
Compatibility Tool runs smoothly under that OS.
If 'Pathname of the target exe-file' is empty, button 'Apply' will open the
file selection dialog.

'Create reg-file' button allows to export compatibility rule as a Windows
registry file. This file could be imported into the registry manually or
distributed along with the game. I need to admit that reg-files are different
for 32- and 64-bit Windows (64-bit version has keys in the additional registry
brunch). In the case of the automatic rule creation ('Apply' button)
DirectDraw Compatibility Tool detects Windows version itself. Manual
application of the reg-file from the 32-bit Windows most probably will not
give a positive result on the 64-bit OS but reg-file from the 64-bit Windows
could be used on the 32-bit OS version seamlessly. In the latter case one
redundant registry key will be created.

[ Supported games ]

Updated list of the supported games will be published on the DirectDraw
Compatibility Tool web-page. Click 'homepage' link in the upper right
corner of the program window to get there. If you managed to solve
problems with a game which is not in the list, you could help the project
leaving a comment on the site.
At the current moment color corruption has been fixed for Fallout 1,
Fallout 2, Worms Armageddon (version 3.6.29), WarCraft 2 Battle.net
Edition and Theme Hospital. This method should work for Age of Empires
as well but has not been really tested.

[ From author ]

Hope I made a life of an old-gamers and fans a little easier. Any
comment and suggestion are welcome, especially since the program
homepage is my blog.

Copyright 2010 Galogen
English Localization by ALCHEMIST
[/spoiler:d601291a6b]

Thread @ fallout.ru (google-translated from Russian);
Post(s) @ author's blog (google-translated from Russian).

DL link Multilingual (EN/RU) v1.01


Updated since v1.01 is out.
 
Should. But even in this sub-forum there are people who by some reasons either prefer 8bpp video-mode or play without Sfall at all. For example discontinued Sfall for Fallout 1 has rather rudimentary functionality compared to it's modern Fallout 2 counterpart. And 16-bit or DX9 modes do not work too well in the Fallout 1 version. Distorted or omitted cut-scene playback and such.

--- Update --

Sorry for typos in the English readme/help. I've translated it in hurry.
 
Hi, people!
I've just create account here to help answering the questions about DirectDraw Compatibility Tool.

First of all, sorry for my ugly English.

Lexx is right: problem with "rainbow color glitch" can be resolved by using sfall, but I tried to resolve the root of problem. So, it possible to solve same problem in other games like some versions of Star Craft, Theme Hospital etc. Windows registry keys which make this fix work, can be included in Killap's patch etc. And, besides, I had game crash with official Russian localization of Fallout 2 and sfall.
 
Like killap said, good work galogen but i have a few suggestion that could be useful for you and everyone:

1 - make the tool multilanguage instead of only 2 languages (you can of course include a link to english or russian readme in the tool aside of making the tool detect the language of the Operating System to make the tool start in that language or start in english if it detects that there is no translation to that language). ;)

2 - put the file on a virtual drive like in 4shared.com of my signature, pretty cool GUI, support download resume and all your stuff can be organized like in windows explorer (needs register)

3 - compress the file with upx http://upx.sourceforge.net/ instead of zip or 7z since it's only an .exe file

4 - i saw you gave support only to windows vista/7, xp users could benefit of this since this tool can be useful with other games too. (please, add support for us) ;) :P

Btw, i noticed a small problem in the tool, the link to homepage doesnt work.

That's all, i hope you dont get scared with the suggestions. (mainly the first one ;) )

Thank you for this very nice tool, it will make the lives of the ones who like to play the old and good stuffs better. ;)
 
killap, thank you! it is an honor for me, if I can assist your work!

Felipefpl, thanks for suggestions!
1. I planned to make DCT multilingual, and fortunately Alchemist already did all the work about translating, so I just need to slightly improve code.
2. I'll try to upload multilingual version 1.01 to 4shared.com when it be done.
3. I know about exe packers and it is no problem to pack the program exe. I'll make it in 1.01
4. Problem with DirectDraw and Windows Aero is possibly only on Windows Vista and Windows 7. My tool is written on Delphi 7, so it should working even under Windows 95. I had a hard time to make it working under Windows 7 x64, so it should be OK in older Windows :)

Thank you for your "thank you" and sorry for my English! It is a good opportunity for me to improve it :)
 
If you give me the (english) text strings, I can make a german translation of it.
 
galogen - congrats for the release and for uploading your tools to 4shared and for using UPX (btw, did you use lzma compression with UPX?), yes, the link to homepage works now (too bad the page is in russian :P) now you only need to create a signature with the specs of your computer and a link to your folder ;) (btw, you can go to settings window at 4shared and rename the address of your virtual drive to galogen.4shared.com if you wish ;) ). One more thing: the tool is multilingual now but i cant access the choice of languages (and you need to give us the text to translate the tool remember? ;) :P)
 
Felipefpl, thank you for advices and support!
I used default settings for UPX, because I hope that it is optimal settings. Is there a significally differences with various compression options?
Signature is already done.
About choice of languages - I make it automatic, based on GetUserDefaultUILanguage function.

Text to translate tool I've already send to Lexx. Should I just post it here?
 
galogen - you are welcome. ;)

i believe may be a difference between several compressions, better way is to test every one of them to know what one will reduce more the size ;) - alas, there is other tool to compress the .exe files but i didnt indicate it to you since it's a paid one: PECompact, the same tool used to compress the .exe of utorrent.

good you have a signature with specs and link of the folder now. :)

about the languages: i see, i thought there would be a menu to choose the language, no problem it is this way ;) - it would be cool if you posted the language file here indeed, this way everybody interested will be able to colaborate.
 
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