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README-RENDERERS.md

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Renderers

Included Renderer Versions

  • cnc-ddraw - 6.3.0.0

Recommendations

Due to the increasing number of issues associated with Diablo II's Glide implementation for versions below 1.14 on modern versions of Windows, and due to Blizzard removing DirectDraw support starting with 1.14, Cactus no longer includes glidewrapper. cnc-ddraw is the recommended renderer for all versions before 1.14, and thus I recommend everyone to downgrade to 1.13d (or lower). Besides compatibility fixes implemented in 1.14, both versions are identical. Cactus will only provide video support for versions 1.00 - 1.13d.

cnc-ddraw is more compatible and performs better on Windows, and has more features than glidewrapper. Specifically the ability to dynamically resize the window resolution (not the internal resolution), set any custom window resolution, easily switch between window mode and full screen via a hotkey, and upscale the game's textures to look much better through the use of shaders, are just a few of the features it has. Since cnc-ddraw is a DirectDraw implementation, any Glide related errors will no longer affect you.

If you still want to play Diablo II (Original, Not Resurrected) on 1.14d+, please download an alternative video renderer of your choosing.

For people that never ran a version older than 1.14 on their machine

Blizzard implemented some fundamental changes with how video configuration works in 1.14+, and this will cause issues if you are going back down and your system is missing these settings.

If you have never played a version older than 1.14 on your computer, that means you would have never had ran D2VidTst.exe and thus you won't have the required registry settings for the game to work in older versions. Please follow the instructions for the cnc-ddraw section to set DirectDraw as your default renderer which would in turn allow cnc-ddraw to be picked up by the game and used. Once this is done, all your versions (except 1.14+) should automatically work with this renderer.

If this isn't set up properly, you will experience crashes or weird behaviors such as an Access Violation, etc.

cnc-ddraw

In order to use cnc-ddraw, you will need to make sure that your Diablo II video renderer is set to use DirectDraw. Diablo II versions starting at 1.14 no longer support DirectDraw and thus you will need to use an alternative instead.

The required files for cnc-ddraw are already included as part of the Cactus Base Installation, specifically ddraw.dll, ddraw.ini, and the Shaders directory. Thus, all of these files will be located in the root of your Diablo II directory.

Setting your video mode to DirectDraw

Configuration

To make sure we are starting from a clean slate, we will delete the entire VideoConfig key located in the registry and we will set the renderer to DirectDraw directly.

  1. Open up the Registry Editor by running regedit.
  2. Delete the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Blizzard Entertainment\Diablo II\VideoConfig key if it exists.
  3. Create a new key called VideoConfig under the Diablo II key.
  4. Create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value called Render under the VideoConfig key. This should already be set to 0 for you.

That's it! Try the Quick Testing instructions below to see if the dll is being used and working.

Quick Testing

Try running Diablo II (Make sure you don't have any other settings that can conflict with the renderer such as using -3dfx, -opengl, or -w flags) and see if the game starts up. If the game starts up, see if you can easily switch between full screen and window mode by pressing [Alt] + [Enter]. If you can't switch between these modes, then the dll is not being used to render the game. If it doesn't, you will need to continue inspecting things yourself.

Wine (Tested on Linux)

If you are running Diablo II on Linux, you will want to make sure that your WINEPREFIX is overriding the ddraw dll so that it can pick up the custom ddraw.dll in the Diablo II root directory.

For example, on my system I'm using a specific prefix that just contains Diablo II, located at ${HOME}/prefix/diablo_2. If you are using the default prefix, then you don't need to include the WINEPREFIX part for any of the following commands. If you are, adjust the prefix location to point to the one on your machine.

  1. Open up the wine configuration by typing:

    $ WINEPREFIX="${HOME}/prefix/diablo_2" winecfg

  2. Set the Windows Version at the bottom to Windows XP so that your Mouse 3 button works properly.

  3. Click the Libraries tab at the top.

  4. In the New override for library textbox, Write in ddraw (With no extension) and click Add.

  5. You will receive a warning saying: Changing the load order of this library is not recommended. Are you sure you want to do this?. Click Yes.

  6. You should see a new element in the list below that says: ddraw (native, builtin). Click Ok.

Once this is done, you can run the steps in the Configuration section above. You can also run the regedit command in Wine as well by doing:

$ WINEPREFIX="${HOME}/prefix/diablo_2" regedit

Note: Cactus is a Windows-only application. However, you can still use the rest of the files provided in the Cactus Repository on Wine with the above configuration.

Tweaking cnc-ddraw

You can tweak ddraw.ini to change any settings such as the window resolution (not the internal resolution), renderer, shaders, etc.

Tweaking Shaders (The Game Look)

Cactus contains a carefully curated set of shaders from the upstream repository. I'm using the jinc2-sharper shader as the default since it is an overall good looking shader that still very closely resembles the original game. You can play around with the included shaders and settings until you find a combination that works for you.

To change the shader, just open the ddraw.ini file and change the shader line to a different shader located in the Shaders directory:

shader=Shaders\windowed\jinc2-sharper.glsl

You can get more shaders from libretro's repository, however only .glsl will work, if at all. cnc-ddraw states that they've only implemented preliminary shader support.

Hotkeys and Other

Since cnc-ddraw already has support to switch between full screen and window mode for the game, you need to make sure you don't use the -w flag since it's no longer necessary.

The following hotkeys are also available for you in game:

  • [Alt] + [Enter] - Switches between Full Screen and Window Mode.
  • [Ctrl] + [Alt] OR [Right Alt] + [Right Ctrl] - Unlocks the cursor.

If you happen to also play Diablo 1, you can use cnc-ddraw for it as well!

glidewrapper

glidewrapper is no longer included with Cactus. Please read the Recommendations section at the beginning of this page for further info.

General Problems

Scrolling Letters

  • Both Glide and DirectDraw have this problem, however the problem is experienced differently on both implementations. For Glide, it is much worse and more noticable. It seems it will happen not only when you start Diablo II, but it will also happen when you switch games as well (start a game, save and exit, and make a new game). For DirectDraw, this seems to only happen when you start Diablo II, but not in between games. Singling includes the Scrolling Letters Fix for both implementations.

Error 22/25: A critical error has occurred while initializing X

If you get any of the following errors, your setup is probably broken and will need to be repaired:

  • Error 22: A critical error has occurred while initializing DirectDraw
  • Error 25: A critical error has occurred while initializing Direct3D

Try re-installing Cactus from scratch and try again.

If you are still experiencing issues even after you verified your Diablo II Root Directory files are good, you should follow these instructions to reset your video configuration in the registry.

A full re-install and wipe of the Diablo II registry located at the location below is most likely not required:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Blizzard Entertainment\Diablo II