Any Infinity Game on Windows 7 :)

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Turn off DirectDraw and Direct3D with a single click! Windows 7 32bit and 64bit!

After a couple weeks of frustration trying to get the old infinity engine games playing on Windows 7 I discovered what I'm sure you all know, you must have DirectDraw and Direct3D disabled if you want the games to run without terrible choppiness and lag. But in Windows 7 it is a widely known fact that you cannot disable them. [DXDIAG -> Display] just shows you the diagnostics, it no longer allows you to enable or disable them. I downloaded GemRB and constructed all of that stuff to emulate it all without DirectDraw, which was a huge pain in the butt, and it worked somewhat but was very buggy, and doesn't work with Icewind Dale 2 at all. Well I'm a stubborn man, so I did a bit more research and after a couple weeks finally I found a solution for myself and for all of you that would like to play Infinity Engine games on Windows 7 without any hastle whatsoever. Thank God

With this simple code you can disable/enable DirectDraw and Direct3D whenever you want to, with the click of a button.

Step by step to avoid confusion:

Step 1: Go to any directory and make a new folder with any name (Example: "C:\Scripts\" )

Step 2: Open Notepad and copy paste this code:

@Echo Off
::Set Mode=1 to Disable, Mode=0 to Enable as the default if nothing specified on the command line.
Set _Mode=0
If /I "%~1"=="Disable" Set _Mode=1
If /I "%~1"=="Enable" Set _Mode=0
Reg Add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectDraw /V EmulationOnly /T REG_DWORD /D %_Mode% /F
Reg Add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Direct3D\Drivers /V SoftwareOnly /T REG_DWORD /D %_Mode% /F

Step 3: Save the file into your new folder (Example: "C:\Scripts\" ) save it as "SetDx.cmd"

Step 4: Right click on your new notepad file "SetDX.cmd" and select "Create Shortcut" and place the shortcut onto the Desktop

Step 5: Rename the new shortcut "Enable Dx"

Step 6: Right click on the shortcut and select "Properties" and under the "Shortcut" tab, locate "Target" and change it to: "C:\Scripts\SetDx.cmd" Enable

Make sure that includes the quotations around C:\Scripts\SetDx.cmd

Step 7: Copy the shortcut on your desktop and rename this copy to "Disable Dx"

Step 8: Right click on the shortcut "Disable Dx" and go under the "Shortcut" tab and locate "Target" and change it to: "C:\Scripts\SetDx.cmd" Disable

Make sure that includes the quotations around C:\Scripts\SetDx.cmd

Step 9: We aren't finished yet! (I made this a Step 9 so you silly people wouldn't think you were finished and stop reading the rest) You must run this a particular way to get it to work in Windows 7.

Firstly, you must run these scripts as Administrator (You can do this by right clicking on the shortcut and selecting "Run As Administrator")

Secondly, if you run the SCRIPT as an Administrator, you must also run the Infinity Engine Game (Planescape, BG1, BG2, IWD, IWD2) as an Administrator.

Lastly, if you would like to check and make sure it worked perfectly, just click on Start, then in the little run box on the bottom type "DXDIAG" and your DirectX Diagnostic tool should pop up. From there you can go to the "Display" tab and at the bottom you should see DirectDraw and Direct3D and it should say whether or not they are Enabled or Disabled.

There we go! That should be it. If you have issues with the little black squares and such, just fiddle with the different settings in the game, because DirectDraw and Direct3D are the only real problems that affect the Infinity Engine games running on Windows 7. Sometimes Graphics Drivers can play a role in glitches and such, but the main issue is DirectDraw and Direct3D.

I hope this can get stickied on all of the Infinity Engine games' forums so people don't have to jump through all of these stupid hoops such as GemRB to get their games to 'partially' run.


Troubleshooting: If you have any issues getting the DirectDraw and Direct3D disabled using this technique, you can just skip using the Shortcuts (EnableDx and DisableDx) and manually do it by accessing the "SetDx.cmd" file by right clicking it, select "Edit", then simply change the "Set_Mode=0" to "Set_Mode=1" whenever you want to disable DirectDraw and Direct3D.

Then you can just right click on the "SetDx.cmd" file and select "Run As Administrator" and you should be good to go!

ATTENTION:
Make sure you re-enable DirectDraw and Direct3D when you are done playing your Infinity Games, because Windows 7 relies heavily on those to run properly

 

I have never had any trouble running any Infinity Game on win 7.
I even have them all installed on my laptop.

It's strange, that some people have to go tru some serious voodoo to get things running!

 

Hi,

I have followed the instructions (several times over to make sure) but whether I run it as an admin through the shortcut or direct when I check through the DXDIAG display everything is still enabled and the game still runs impossibly slowy. Any other advice would be much appreicated and would be great if I could get this playable on Window 7!

 

For Infinity Engine games that support 3D acceleration (BG2, IWD), make sure to enable that in the config. The game should run fluidly, and look quite a bit better.

For those that don't (PS:T, BG1, IWD2) (or if for some weird reason, enabling hardware acceleration doesn't help ), I describe the fix in my "Extras" video for the IWD2 LP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQamKGzjsZg

Written summary:
- Install the Microsoft Compatibility Toolkit (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=7352)
- Run it, select the new Database under "Custom Databases
- Click Fix
- Locate the game's executable (bgmain.exe, IWD2.exe, etc)
- Click next until you get to "Compatibility fixes", select Force Direct Draw Emulation"
- That's all you need in this wizard
- Click save
- Right-click the fix you created and select Install.

That's it, next time you start the game you shouldn't have any lag.

 

I added a few more extra's to my IceWind Dale compat file based on getting older NEED FOR SPEED games working.

CorrectFilePaths
EmulateGetDiskFreeSpace
EmulateSlowCPU
ForceDXSetupSuccess
GlobalMemoryStatusLie
SingleProcAffinity (This is probably the most important along with the DX stuff)
ForceDirectDrawEmulation


Hope this helps and make sure its using the correct file path to your idmain.exe file.

 

I just clicked on this by accident, and I know it's a bit late, but I had the choppiness described with other games until I installed DirectX 9.0c manually even though it shipped with DirectX 10.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35

 

Interesting topic. I've never had any problems with BG in Win7 or Win10, but I am experiencing this choppiness and lag with JA2, on Win10. Maybe some of these things will work there.