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DxWrapper

Introduction

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 10/11, 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.

Features

DxWrapper has many features including:

• Integration of DDrawCompat
• Configuring DDrawCompat options to improve compatibility
• Conversion of DirectDraw 1-6 to DirectDraw 7
• Conversion of Direct3D 1-6 to Direct3D 7
• Conversion of DirectDraw 1-7 (ddraw.dll) to Direct3D 9 (d3d9.dll) using Dd7to9
• Conversion of Direct3D 1-7 (ddraw.dll) to Direct3D 9 (d3d9.dll) using Dd7to9
• Conversion of Direct3D 8 (d3d8.dll) to Direct3D 9 (d3d9.dll) using d3d8to9
• Conversion of DirectInput 1-7 (dinput.dll) to DirectInput 8 (dinput8.dll) using dinputto8
• Includes LegacyD3DResolutionHack to remove the artificial resolution limit from Direct3D 1-7, which allows DirectDraw games to play at 4K resolution
• Tweaking of Microsoft DirectSound function calls using DSoundCtrl
• Can cause DirectDraw 1-7, Direct3D 8 and Direct3D 9 games to run in windowed mode
• Can limit frame rate of games using or converted to Direct3D 9
• Can enable or disable vertical sync on games using or converted to Direct3D 9
• Can set GraphicsHybridAdapter for Direct3D 9 on laptops with multiple graphics cards
• Can enable Direct3D9On12 for Direct3D 9
• Can set vertex processing and cache modes to fix performance in some Direct3D 9 games
• Can remove scanlines from DirectDraw 1-7 games
• Can disable MaximizedWindowedMode (fullscreen optimizations) for Direct3D 8 and 9 games
• Can disable High DPI scaling to solve issues with some games
• Can disable Microsoft Game Explorer (GameUX) to prevent rundll32.exe high CPU
• Can disable audio pops and clicks caused by games clipping audio while sound is playing
• ASI loader to load custom libraries with the file extension .asi into game processes using Ultimate ASI Loader
• Supports being loaded as an ASI plug-in
• Adding AntiAliasing support into Direct3D 8 or 9 games even if the game does not support it
• Hot patch memory support (update game memory at run time, can be used to remove CD/DVD checks or resolve graphics or other glitches)
• Set single CPU affinity (some games have issues with multi-core CPUs)
• Ability to set all 12 Application Compatibility Toolkit options for DXPrimaryEmulation using SetAppCompatData API
• Set game window to fullscreen (some games have fullscreen issues)
• Handling in-game exceptions or crashes
• Load custom .dll files into games
• Run custom processes at game start-up

Compatibility List for Games on Windows 10/11

So far I have tested this with hundreds of games (many of which don't otherwise work correctly) to get them running on Windows 10/11. Most games will work, but some still have issues. Check out the Compatible Games wiki and the Dd7to9 Supported Games wiki for a list.

Installation

1. Download the latest binary release from the repository's Release page and unzip it to a folder.
2. Determine which stub .dll file is needed for the game. This depends on many factors which will be explained on page created later. Common stub dll's to use are ddraw.dll, d3d8.dll, d3d9.dll, dsound.dll or winmm.dll. You only need to choose one stub file to load dxwrapper into the game.
3. Copy this .dll file from the 'Stub' folder plus the dxwrapper.dll and dxwrapper.ini files into the game's installation directory, next to the main executable file. For some games the main executable is in a subdirectory (like 'Bin', 'Exe' or 'App') so the files will need to be copied it into that directory. Overwriting of any existing game files is not recommended.
4. Open up the dxwrapper.ini file in a text editor and enable the settings needed for the game.

Do not attempt to overwrite any .dll in a Windows system directory as it is currently not supported and will not work.

Uninstallation

Delete the DxWrapper .dll and .ini files from the game's directory. You can also delete the log file, if there is one.

Configuration

To configure DxWrapper, edit the .ini file and enable the settings wanted. See the Configuration wiki for more details.

Sample configuration file: dxwrapper.ini.

List of all configuration options: allsettings.ini

Logging

The log file will be created in the same folder where the game executable is located. It will be named 'dxwrapper' with the name of the game executable appended to it. So if you are running the file game.exe then the log file will be called dxwrapper-game.log.

Supported DLLs

DxWrapper can wrap the following dlls:

• bcrypt.dll
• cryptbase.dll
• cryptsp.dll
• d2d1.dll
• d3d8.dll
• d3d9.dll
• dciman32.dll
• ddraw.dll
• dinput.dll
• dinput8.dll
• dplayx.dll
• dsound.dll
• dwmapi.dll
• msacm32.dll
• msvfw32.dll
• version.dll
• wininet.dll
• winmm.dll
• winmmbase.dll
• winspool.drv
• wsock32.dll

License

Copyright (C) 2024 Elisha Riedlinger

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event will the author(s) be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software. Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose, including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it freely, subject to the following restrictions:

1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be appreciated but is not required.
2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be misrepresented as being the original software.
3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.

Credits

DxWrapper uses code from several other projects. So to give credit where credit is due, below is a list of locations that source code was taken from:

• AppCompatData: Used comments from blitzbasic.com to build the feature to configure the DirectDraw AppCompatData settings.
• Aqrit's ddwrapper: Includes code to read the ini config file.
• cnc-ddraw: Includes code to create emulated surface device context.
• d3d8to9: Includes the full Direct3D 8 to Direct3D 9 code.
• D3DParseUnknownCommand: Includes code for DirectDraw D3DParseUnknownCommand from source code found in ReactOS.
• DDrawCompat: Includes the full DDrawCompat v0.2.0b, v0.2.1 and v0.3.2 and for API hooking.
• doom3.gpl: Includes code to get video memory.
• diablo-ddrawwrapper: Includes some code for converting ddraw to Direct3D.
• DSoundCtrl: Includes the full DirectSoundControl code.
• DxWnd: Includes code from DxWnd for proxy loading (init.cpp) and exception handling.
• GetComputerManufacturer: Includes code from rohitab.com to get the computer vendor and model.
• GetFileVersionInfo : Includes code from stackoverflow.com for getting the version of a PE file.
• GetPPID: Includes Code taken from mattn GitHub project to get the parent process PID.
• LegacyD3DResolutionHack: Includes code from LegacyD3DResolutionHack to removes the artificial resolution limit from Direct3D 7 and below.
• MemoryModule: Includes code for loading libraries from memory.
• OllyDbg: Includes the full cmdlist.c and disasm.c (disasm.dll) code used for exception handling.
• PixelShaderPalette: Includes code from ddraw-cnc for a PixelShader that is used to view DirectDraw palette surfaces properly.
• SilentPatchFarCry: Includes code from SilentPatchFarCry to cache the clip plane in Direct3D 9.
• Ultimate ASI Loader: Includes code for loading ASI plugins.
• WineD3D d3d8.dll: Includes functions ValidatePixelShader and ValidateVertexShader.

Development

DxWrapper is written mostly in C++ using Microsoft Visual Studio 2022.

The project requires both the Windows 10 SDK and WDK (needs to have matching SDK and WDK versions installed). The exact version required can be seen in the project properties in Visual Studio.

GitHub Link: https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper

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