I was originally going to DM this to @CreatureFeet because it was about Summoner, but since THQN has so many old games under their belt I figured I may as well put it in a more public eye for anyone that may run into issues with old games:
If you’re having 3D acceleration issues… it’s probably related to being such an old game, not any hardware issues.
Give dgVoodoo a look if you need to emulate the game. This will let you drop a few DLLs in the files to tinker around in a wrapper that brings 3DFX Glide or DirectX 7-8 (now even 9!) games to DirectX 10 or 11, with tweak options if necessary. It’s entirely free and made by a Hungarian programmer in his spare time. I can’t give you much more info than that, as I don’t really follow it too much. I just kind of check in every now and then, download the latest version, and spend a furious and excited few days tinkering around to see which old broken games I can get working this time. SHOGO even went up to “Playable-ish with some caveats” with the version I downloaded half a year ago, so I’m pretty excited to see what I can get working next! (Splinter Cell 1, prepare yourself)
Unfortunately the last time I tried to download dgVoodoo 2, it had been given a false positive by Chrome as a virus, and I had to use Edge (yuck) to download it. Unless something’s changed, the program’s entirely safe, and the trigger has everything to do with the fact that the software works as an injector and functions through DLLs you drop in the target game’s folder.
If you’re scared, I also know of an ENB that wraps DX8 games to DX9. Pretty niche fix, but it helped when I was trying to use RivaTuner to put a 30 FPS cap on Red Faction 1 (the physics get weird at high framerates and there’s a submarine section that outright ruins your playthrough if the FPS isn’t capped). There’s also nGlide, which will port 3DFX Glide to DX9 with a simple no-stress fix. It was great for an Unreal Tournament LAN party on busted-ass Windows 10-- however, it’s pretty old, not as flexible as dgVoodoo, and doesn’t cover any early DirectX versions.
Good info! I’m not very good with techie things. Most I’ve managed is Joy2Key to get my Logitech Wingman to work with stuff and once upon a time, 3DAnalyze, which of course, you can’t use with Steam.
Good thing you made that public because it went WAY over my head Lmao. I still can’t get my head around the hardware side. When I hear specifications being named it’s sounds like Chinese to me!
There was a time in PC gaming (90s) where 3D acceleration, as in, rendering 3D environments and such without melting your computer COULDN’T be taken for granted. Games like Doom and Quake were CPU killers.
3DFX and other companies developed 3D graphics cards with APIs, and these offered the opportunity to put intensive 3D rendering stuff on another device more suited for the task… this also clears up the CPU for more intensive things. It meant you could do way more with games that supported it. That’s where the term “3D Accelerator” comes from.
It’s all really cool stuff, and I highly recommend giving a channel like Nostalgia Nerd or LGR (Lazy Game Reviews) a look if you’re interested.
Phew, that was quite the tangent, wasn’t it?
Anyway, on the topic: Windows compatibility, especially Vista and onwards, SUCKS. It’s really bad. Windows 10 is probably worse than any other iteration in this regard, as updates can break programs as well. If they’re not even tested well enough to protect your Documents folder, what makes you think they’ll put effort into making sure Unreal Engine 1 didn’t get trashed?
I recommend the program dgVoodoo 2 because with some effort, it lets you convert an old game on old APIs to something more modern. DirectX 11 is the modern standard API, and what you’ll see across the board in gaming today unless you’re looking at some alternative, like OpenGL or Vulkan. This program (dgVoodoo, nGlide, etc.) helps you deal with serious compatibility issues where Windows lets you down, and I’ve had some great results with the program on several old games that weren’t working right.
Im actually subscribed to both channels and have watch almost everything but for some reason nothing sticks haha. I’ve also watched a bunch of explanations with no luck. I think I just need to be more hands on with my system to understand it more thoroughly. Oh and I forgot to say thank you because I appreciate the help a lot!
Started to watch the Alone in the Dark movie and am so confused only a few minutes in, lol. Goes to show, as good as game trailers and snips may look, that doesn’t mean the game is actually awesome, O_o. I’m a sucker for spooky and great story line though. That’s why up to now, HOGs and to a lesser extent, Visual Novels and old school RPGs have been bread and butter.
