Delta Force 2 - dgVoodoo & Hardware fixes
 

Hi all,

Having to type this up again since it logged me out and I lost the whole 1000 word essay I had written for everyone (ouch).

Long story short, I had managed to somehow, by some black magic reason and way, gotten dgVoodoo and hw_d3d.dll to properly run Delta Force 2 at 1024*768 flawlessly. Yep, no glitches, no warping (maybe some pixels peeking out here and there but absolutely low, perhaps, 99% perfect.

I had quit DF2 and went off for a few hours, played a few other games and when I went to DF2, disaster. I started getting this weird 'limited' view distance sort of a glitch where if I looked directly at something, it'd disappear. Only the ground would render, or my weapons and what not.

The funny thing is, when I look away however, my objects appear and display absolutely perfectly at the corner of my eye. Odd...

I've tried and I kid you not, at least 20 re-installations and still no avail sadly...

I've got 20 screenshots to post here but will post them upon further interaction as I hope to not spam and flood this forum with images unnecessarily but perhaps it would show what I mean. I'll attach 2 screenshots of the weird Line of view glitch that's taking place but as said previously, will upload all later.

So much for telling the old man "Oiy, guess what I got running flawlessly without any glitches?" I might have brought this upon myself and spoken too soon....

Any help whatsoever much appreciated, other than reinstall comments...

Note that the ORIGINAL hw_d3d.dll from the vanilla (stock) install without updates works perfectly, as in, I can see things, but through the ground and stuff, without the weird view distance limitation. The updated hw_d3d.dll from the wiki here worked perfectly for 2 games and relaunches but then just went to hell. Even re-downloading it and deleting it didn't help much...

Screenies:

https://i.imgur.com/ZZwDF7G.png
If I look directly at things, they disappear.

However... If I look away....

https://i.imgur.com/0P05Jb3.png
At the corner of my eyes, everything renders perfectly.


Cheers,
Ghost

First off, welcome to the forums! Nice to see people still actively trying to find fixes for these old games :)

Unfortunately, this happens when running DF2 in any resolution higher than 640x480. It happens at 800x600 and more so when the resolutions go higher without using hardware acceleration :(

Cool that you got the hardware aspect running, did you enable hardware acceleration in the game as well when you did this? No other errors?

Thank YOU Scott, for the warm welcome and kind words! Likewise, I was glad to see this forum/group still running. I could have sworn to myself that it used to be http://dfhq.net but yeah. Lots of sites (for example, a Jane's WWII Fighters modding site) went down for these old games, and it's a shame because a lot of things aren't getting archived or saved... And we're losing a lot of valuable resources...

I'm currently tight on schedule with work, but I'll definitely post ASAP when I get the time, just wanted to thank you and give you a heads up that I'm still not done with the post but haven't had time, but will deffo give it a shot to finish this by tonight.


Cheers,
Ghost

Way back in the day we were DFHQ.net but later changed the name to NovaHQ :) Looking forward to more of your testing.

I've tried hard to archive anything Delta Force related but a lot of stuff has been lost over the years. Finding and contacting the people that used to run old sites seems impossible :(

hey Ghost, cheers for stopping by with this info

Thanks for the warm welcome Steve, and no worries, I wanted to share my finds with you all as perhaps maybe one of you can replicate the magical happening where the game is magically working perfectly without any issues as I had it.

I'll have to post again later as my account got logged out for some reason and I lost, yet again, another 2,000 words that I was about to post... I've clicked the 'keep me logged in' thing, but that clearly seems to be a nasty prank button.

This time I'll have to type it up on another forum, double check it, then copy/paste the whole post here when it's finished. C'est la vie.

All images/game is running at 800*600

//================================================== =//

Stock DF2 with the original dlls/etc. (Software Mode)

https://i.imgur.com/TZM1SUk.png
Everything is fine, but in an awful resolution

https://i.imgur.com/zC8fZUO.png
Showing the distance doesn't get clipped/limited

https://i.imgur.com/MjL2gQb.png
Dead bodies everywhere (a 129'er specialty) as well as the building & towers visible through binocs

//================================================== =//

Stock DF2 with the original dlls/etc. (Hardware Acceleration)

https://i.imgur.com/sxlJl6u.png
Clipping through land is okay and is not limited in a distance.

https://i.imgur.com/48jmx6Y.png
Can see the building, towers and all that jazz like I've got wallhacks, just wish I had them on CSGO instead...

https://i.imgur.com/dZe6I9m.png
Even through binoculars I can see things through the hills but it's not cut/limited in render range.

//================================================== =//

DF2 Updated to 030700 with stock dlls/etc. (Hardware mode)

https://i.imgur.com/cn3ltVA.png
Literally same as Stock

https://i.imgur.com/uBURWPZ.png
Literally same as Stock

//================================================== =//

DF2 Updated 030700 with modified hw_d3d.dll (Hardware mode)

https://i.imgur.com/lOKRmaX.png
There's less clipping though the hills and such but still clips.

https://i.imgur.com/54bRG4B.png
Using binocs you can't see things at a distance and gets cut up and made stealthy

https://i.imgur.com/acBY4FD.png
However using a weapon scope renders everything just fine.

https://i.imgur.com/YWo7xg4.png
If you look directly at a distance object it just disappears and goes poof, yet it's visible perfectly through the scope with no clipping.

https://i.imgur.com/jZmTgA1.png
If you look away and look at things with the corner of your eye or screen for this case, everything appears perfectly, but it's got a weird kind of a rectangular glitch/invisibility patch.


//================================================== =//

DF2 Updated 030700 with dgVoodoo and stock hw_d3d.dll (Hardware)

https://i.imgur.com/hPD2iXw.png
The images are blurry due to it's up-scaling and then down-scaled images when taking screenshots - however, the textures are much cleaner and it was actually displaying at a proper 1024*768 resolution (forced via dgVoodoo).

https://i.imgur.com/ylDcSgy.png
The textures are clean as heck with it's texture filtering and anti-aliasing mode. Only goof up is the damn clipping and wallhax yet again...

//================================================== =//

DF2 Updated 030700 with dgVoodoo and modified hw_d3d.dll (Hardware)

https://i.imgur.com/PbNs1IE.png
The clipping and wallhax has stopped however, distance objects get this weird rectangular invisibility block/patch that blocks stuff in your line of sight, even with binocs.

https://i.imgur.com/zheRvF3.png
However through the scope everything is good and the quality is actually amazing (which you sadly can't see through this down-scaled image.).. But if you look look in the distance, look, the nasty nooby wallhacks have disappeared and there's not vortex clipping and other nasty things!

//================================================== =//

It's a combination of both dgVoodoo and the hw_d3d.dll that makes it work/fixes the problems, but for me I get this stupid clipping/limited view distance that buggers everything up... Why can I only see through the corner of my eye? It is not known. I have no knowledge in dll editing or graphics driver mods/hacks such as dgVoodoo and Direct X dll modifications but I will be contacting some people on my IL-2 Sturmovik page who have done such dll modifications and graphics enhancements and guide them to this thread and ask them if they can help us out with this problem, which hopefully, will result in us all using the full potential of our beefy PC's for a truly deserving game.

Hope this gives some insight and stuff.

@Steve - I see you use Steam. Does anyone else here? If anyone else here does, how about we hop into a group chat/voice call on steam, and I'll walk you gents through (if needed) on how to do this patching and install these programs. If one of us manage to get it working just right or perfectly, that's all we need. I'm up for this if anyone of you guys are and have the time.


Cheers,
Ghost

:headbang:

If they could fix the clipping problem at higher resolutions that would be awesome :). I know how to install all the dll stuff but as far as modifying them, I know too little about that.

Wasn't quite asking you to do the .dll modifications and such, so no worries about that, but simply to save me the typing. Anyhoo, no worries, will post a video on how to do what I'll be planning to ask of you and Steve (if that's okay with you both) so you can both give it a try and give me some feedback if you miraculously manage to get it working just fine.

Sound good?

:bigthumb:

Update
 

Hey Gents,

Sorry about the delay - been stuck with interviews and applications for jobs lately which have been taking up my time.

Quick update: I have received an e-mail from the creator of dgVoodoo and he's explained to me what the current issue is with Delta Force as well as the hw_d3d.dll that he modified to use.

However the only current issue is that he is currently busy with some projects of his and asked if it's okay for him to get back to this at a later stage and such. To be honest, we really can't force him nor can we tell him do this or that (though in theory, we could) but I'm sure we're better than that.

So I've given him the go ahead with taking his time (since honestly, I too can't and have zero information regarding hw_d3d.dll modifications and 3d injection fixes/etc so guess we're going to have to hold onto our seats and be preoccupied with something else, or software rendering for the time being...

Despite all this, I have been trying to use yet another program called DXWnd. It's a more complicated program, similar to dgVoodoo but with a ridiculous amount of features/things to fix, patch and values you can add to help get a game to run (mostly ancient games and etc) which supports DirectX mods and stuff like that, sadly, no avil whatsoever and no luck with any of that. I've stuck to Software rendering (sadly) for the past 2 days of playing some Delta Force 2 with some buddies over LAN but that's as good as it gets I'm afraid, but that's as good as it gets for NOW at least.

Fingers crossed gents. Will definitely try to post the guide/what to do to get dgVoodoo running on your systems.


Cheers,
Ghost

Nice work contacting the developer. He had some nice info, maybe it'll give him (or someone else that knows what they're doing) a spark to try and fix it again.

I also tried many variations in DxWnd with not much success.

I wonder if the developer of DxWnd knows anything that might help solve the issue. I don't understand most of the settings in DxWhd, there are just so many of them.

I just wonder if a dll injector could do it?

Also I wonder if an old trick like lowering AA or buffer thresholds could reveal fine edges that
go undetected at higher than standard LODs?

That's exactly what I was thinking. DLL Injection. Problem is, I don't have any of the hw_d3d.dll code... At least if I had some, maybe I could screw around with the settings and such and try to find a value. What I'm seeing, is the scaling as Dege said is off. He modified the scaling value, and if you think of a rectangle upscaled; it'd make sense as to why you can see from the corner of your eye; because the edge of the rectangle (view range theoretically) is then in view with the objects. I could be wrong but maybe it also needs to be rotated 90 degrees in either clockwise or anticlockwise direction..?

As for the lowering AA or buffer thresholds - No idea about buffer thresholds, but AA definitely doesn't do any justice - AA on, off, x4, whatever bloody setting just doesn't work out.

I imagine it like this - the original scene is rendered in bigger squares and AA puts smaller squares around them to refine the edges, so at a higher resolution this would theoretically give a longer, sharper view distance but also would a higher resolution and therefore distance, make everything disappear without a new LOD to match?

Clipping may be easier and I wonder if collision detection is affected.

In some engines there's no collision detection when a material texture has 100% transparent alpha. Has to be some opacity, greater than 127 is the norm.

I remember a program called SweetFX it's innocent and I'm sure you're honest but you must be careful where you get it from and also watch out what you do with it online because shader injectors can be used to cheat by turning buildings transparent or adding colored spectra which can be used to indicate player positions (x-ray vision, tracking etc) and as so, some cheat detection software may go off.