Not so long ago I said I am not going to work on supporting D3D3... and I haven't, really. It was @CkNoSFeRaTU who volunteered and implemented execute buffers, so we pushed the remaining piping onward, to have D3D API completeness after all. Yes, you heard that right, we now support D3D3 as well, which was the last piece of the D3D puzzle in the DDraw world. In addition to all that, v1.5 includes a lot of improvements and fixes for "higher API" games.
"But what happened to D3D1, 2 and 4?", you may ask. See here.
Back buffer and depth write-back
Quite a few games relied on having access to back buffers and depth stencils post presentation, and were getting blank data beforehand because of our reliance on DDraw. Recent advances in "moving bits around" technology have enabled us to somewhat address the problem. See for yourselves how it has helped Drakan: Order of the Flame:
| D7VK v1.4 | D7VK v1.5 |
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Both pause menu backgrounds and save game screenshots are correctly captured now. Mind you, games that capture such images via GDI or other cursed side-stepping ways that can't be addressed solely in D3D (cough, Black & White, cough) are still very much unfixed.
Fixes/additions:
- Execute buffers have been implemented thanks to @CkNoSFeRaTU, which means both D3D3 games, and D3D5 games that relied on execute buffers (e.g. Incoming, O.D.T.: Escape... Or Die Trying, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire), are now supported.
- Back buffer and depth write backs have been implemented and enabled where needed, which has fixed games such as SimCity 4, Total Club Manager 2003, Nocturne, The Mystery of the Druids, Gorky 17, Delta Force 2 etc.
- Also thanks to @CkNoSFeRaTU various situations where games were passing incorrect viewport depth values have been identified and fixed (Summoner, Empire of the Ants (2000), Urban Chaos).
- Fixed a texture filter type mismatch with caused issues in Knight Rider and potentially lowered mip map filtering quality in other games.
- Added support for Begin/Vertex/End buffer streams in D3D5/6, which was needed by Frogger (1997). As a result, it is now fully playable.
- Fixed missing geometry in several older ATI tech demos (Radeon's Ark, Rage Dawning).
- Fixed a bug that prevented the selection of 32-bit color modes in Ground Control.
- Fixed missing loading screen artwork in Need For Speed 3/4 (modern patch).
- With some help from @CkNoSFeRaTU, fixed a bug which prevented color key transparency from being applied in Wing Commander: Prophecy.
The black sheep of D3D: a D3D3 showcase (guest starring D3D5)
In some ways you could say execute buffers were ahead of their time, but for a 3D API which wanted to market itself on ease of use, they simply were too convoluted and hard to grasp. As a result, not a lot of games came out on this particular rendering path, however, there are still enough titles for a modest showcase:
Moto Racer 2
Outlaws
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Take No Prisoners
Venom. Codename: Outbreak
Incoming
O.D.T.: Escape... Or Die Trying
As I've said before, in the time of D3D3 (also 5 and 6) Glide was king, so if any games offer the choice between the two, there's really no contest. In some of these games 3D acceleration didn't even offer much benefit beyond improved texture filtering, but you can now enjoy them with D7VK, at least for the sake of nostalgia or for historical reasons. Enjoy!