Cant's switch to D3D mode in Torque 1.5

#1 Just out of curiosity, why do you want to run TGE in D3D? It really works quite a bit better in OGL. That said, I have no trouble getting it to go to D3D mode on XP x64, but it's kind of buggy.

#2 How does it run on Vista? That is my only concern. I appreciate the old TGE engine has gone through many abominations of O/S from microsoft but I'm jsut wondering how it handles vista at this point.

D3D is supported natively by Vista.. OpenGL is not as easily embraced is my understanding.

Thanks

#3 I've had good success with using TGE on Vista. But I also made sure that my video drivers were up to date. That is the problem that most people encounter.

#4 Thanks David. I know the OpenGL will be a problem at some point but for now as long Vista works I've got another 2-3 year window Im sure :)

I'm just taking the D3D layer out of the game. it's a waste of space as it sits now as it doesnt work on any of the 4 boxes I've tried. I tried 2 nvidia cards 1 ATI card and an onboard intel chipset.

#5 DirectX 10 that's currently in Vista might have dropped legacy support for Direct3D versions 8.x and older based games. I seem to recall somebody on here a week or two ago posting about some news that Microsoft's MSDN notified developers that the next DirectX SDK and runtime update will drop all 3D support for APIs older than version 9.0.

Since the Direct3D wrapper library was developed supposedly for Direct3D 8.0 at the time it was created I wouldn't be surprised at all that it doesn't function on Vista.

#6 Just to clarify Nathan, the D3D api doesnt function on WinXP either.. My enquirey was regarding wether or not that was a bug with my code or a problem with the engine... It's actually an issue with the D3D layer in the Torque engine. This problem exists in all versions of the engine including the demo for torque1.5 -- If you try and go to options in the 1.5 demo and swithc to D3D it goes freaky.. I tested it on WinXP home and WinXP pro with 2 different Nvidia cards (one older and a newer 6800) as well as an ATI card (9600 pro) and an onboard Intel video chipset. In each case the screen went totally wonkey when you tried to switch to D3D mode. These tests were all done using DX9c

I was merely asking about the issue to make sure I hadnt bunged something up. (which I confirmed I hadnt by running the test on the TGE 1.5 demo) Also I had some concerns as to how much longer the TGE engine had in it's forseeable future with the next abomination of microsofts rendering protocols coming down the pipes :)

The D3D support should probably be yanked from the HEAD IMO since it simply doesnt work but I dont mind either way. Since I know it doesnt work anymore I can very easily remove it from my project :)

#7 TGE Patch: DX9 Support

TGB Direct3D9 Port

TGB Direct3D9 wrapper (Code)

#8 Just to make sure I read those correctly Stephan (And thanks a bunch for those links helps clarify the situation so people dont think it's just me):

- First link.. the DX9/D3D doesnt work in TGE post to 1.3

- Second link.. Prairie Games wrote their own D3D wrapper for TGB

- Third link.. There is a working DX9/D3D wrapper for TGB owners that someone made as a resource.

Seems to me that one of two things should really be done..

- Either yank the existing non-funcitonal D3D wrapper from head or roll in the D3D wrapper from the TGB resource..

I'll play devil's advocate on this as well. I am well aware that D3D is a "windows" thing and that MS changes their gameplan more frequently than they do their underware.. OpenGL works well in Mac/'nix OSs.. The original question I had in this thread was how does this bode for TGE down the road with DX10 being rolled into Vista and OpenGL support quickly dwindling from the MS product lines.

The answer is not "the sky is falling"... It seems quite clear that someone with the appropriate coding skills and who is very familiar with the DX9/10 programming libraries can write a working D3D layer for TGE but it just hasnt happened yet. I am sure when the time comes it will be addressed :)

So to sum it all up the existing D3D wrapper does not work in TGE.. No reason for it to even be there and certainly should be removed from the TGE demo because it really doesnt make the engine look good when someone tries to switch to D3D and everything blows up :) Normally I would propose a solution when I find an issue but truth be told I am certainly not the guy to write the wrapper :) I am an absolute novice coder at best.

Thanks for the link Stephan

#9 Actually, since GG advertises that TGE works with Direct X, they should fix it to actually make it work. Expecting some third party to fix their code is stupid. Perhaps I could make use of the TGB wrapper from Prairie Games, but I can't access it since I don't own TGB.

#10

Quote:Actually, since GG advertises that TGE works with Direct X, they should fix it to actually make it work

Well I can't say I've had any issues running the demo app in D3D mode using DX 9.0c. Not sure about Vista though. My concern is M$ supposedly killing DX8 and opengl support in their March Release of DX10...

#11 @Jason: So you start the demo app.. then go to options and change to D3D mode? And it works for you? What video card do you have? I tried it on both Nvidia cards and ATI cards. Anyways, regardless it is completely unstable as there are many posts about D3D not working.

This IS going to become a major problem with DX btw..

#12 Well I launch the demo app, and it brings up the splash screen with options for the various editors. I have a button there that launches the actual mission file. I go into the options and select D3D mode, then I am still able to go into the mission editor, gui editor and launch my mission and run around.

I have a Geforce 6800 go ultra 256mb card with my original Dell XPS Gen2 drivers.. they are from 2005 but I have no issues in games so I tend to favor them over newer releases. I thought my wife's PC also played my mission fine, which is using a Geforce 8600 GTS card with the newest Nvidia drivers. Both systems have WinXP w/SP 2 and DX9.0c.

Quote: This IS going to become a major problem with DX btw..

This could be a problem for us all, not just users of the Torque engine. I imagine the new trend will be needing to buy a Games For Windows license (and using DX10) to produce games. Its pretty sad.

#13 Switching to D3D mode mostly works for me in windowed mode, but is totally screwed up full screen. This is on an ATI X1650 with current drivers.

#14 Thanks for the input guys. I'm try and keep nagging this issue gently over the next few weeks/months in hopes that we get a community resource with a better D3D wrapper. I feel bad that I have nothing to offer in assistance for it but I am definitely not the guy to write it :/

#15 Have you looked at the EaseWrapper Library of Ease Production once? EaseWrapper library allows you using DirectX 9.0 and OpenGL in a same way, with a clean and easy-to-use interface.

EaseWrapper library

You can get the EaseWrapper SDK sources under L-GPL licence in the download section !

Download EaseWrapper SDK sources