dgVoodoo2 VS dxwrapper

Parts of DX5 and previous, such as the "retained mode", are missing from current versions of Windows entirely. Much of the remaining implementation is buggy and introduces render artifacts.

Open source projects such as dgVoodoo offer a solution to run old games, by re-implementing old DirectX and Glide on top of current DirectX [1], similar to how Wine runs DX games on Linux on top of OpenGL or Vulkan.

[1]: https://github.com/dege-diosg/dgVoodoo2

I have not tried this myself, but there are two compatibility wrappers that implement old graphic APIs for modern systems - nGlide and dgVoodoo2.

Voodoo2 for added stability in old games

It's a wrapper for old DirectX 7/8/9 games that makes them use DirectX 11/12/Vulkan instead: https://github.com/dege-diosg/dgVoodoo2

This... here's a link to the github. Click on Releases to get the latest build (it'll be the first zip file without _dbg (debug) in the title).

Try using dgVoodoo2. https://github.com/dege-diosg/dgVoodoo2/releases

You can always use dgVooDoo [0] to translate Glide to DirectX. With great performance, too.

[0] https://github.com/dege-diosg/dgVoodoo2

How to install DGVoodoo2 for use with Windower: download the latest non-dbg, non-api, non-source-code: .zip https://github.com/dege-diosg/dgVoodoo2/releases Unzip it. Move dgvoodoocpl.exe and MS\(x86)\d3d8.dll (just the d3d8) into -- playonlineviewer folder for retail or the same folder that your loader exe is in for private server (you can overwrite any old one in there if you like). Right click on dgvoodoocpl.exe and run as administrator. At the top right press Add and select the same folder as you selected earlier (playonlineviewer folder for retail and/or the folder of the private server loader). On the General tab, set your Adapter(s) to use / enable to your graphics card (note that, if the game won't launch after these steps, then try going back, selecting the same folder again in the dropdown menu at the top, and change it back to All, but it should work most of the time with your graphics card selected and will make sure that graphics card gets used. -- known to be necessary with SurfaceBook laptops, and maybe with external graphics card enclosures as well (untested)) On the DirectX tab, set VRAM to 512 MB (higher if you're using HD textures) and unckeck dgVoodoo Watermark at the bottom.

Then, download this and place the files inside the game directory (C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity Classic).

There's also dxwrapper that implements old DirectDraw/3D interfaces with newer D3D9 api for better compatibility with newer Windows versions:

https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper

FYI: The Space Bar re-release features Elisha Riedlinger's DxWrapper (https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper), whose config file is otherwise stock with just FullScreen enabled. I strongly believe they didn't properly test it.

RTX Remix uses a custom d3d9.dll though so you additionally need another wrapper such as https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper to customize which dll should be loaded since by default d3d8to9 uses the default system file which will result in translated calls not being redirected to the path tracer used by Remix.

If you have a GPU that supports DXVK (Basically it forces DXVK to run the game in Vulkan intsead of it's usual DirectX 9, which the DX9 version hates GTA IV and while GTA IV hates DX9 back) and has more than 2GB of VRAM (DirectX Vulkan), then I HIGHLY recommend it: https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases (Use this guide to install it: http://ant-sh.blogspot.com/2020/07/gta-4-stutter-choppiness-fix.html. If you want aliasing AND DXVK, use this guide: http://ant-sh.blogspot.com/2021/01/antialiasing-with-dxvk-and-gta-iv.html. If your GPU doesn't support Vulkan, use DxWrapper: https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper/releases).