Help With Diablo II

[Sirian]

I just upgraded to WinXP. Reinstalling all my programs is a job and a half, it seems, and some aren't going to make the cut. One of my cousins plays D2, though, and I play with him on occasion. I also got curious about the new ladder difficulty after I saw a post in here a month or so ago about it.

Anyway, here's the important point:

I can't seem to get an option to enable software rendering!

The DirectDraw in D2 is one sorry ash piece of code: crashy (a NIGHTMARE especially in single player), sluggish even on a newer PC, memory hog, and it probably worships Satan, too. Does anybody know of a way (especially ini files, command line params, etc) to force software video mode in D2?

Thanks.


- Sirian

[Bam-Bam]

Sirian-

Do not count me as the expert (many in the RBD community can attest to that on all D2X fronts ;P ).

Here is a list of command line switches I dug up from an AB archive.

========== snip ================================

-txt Compile *.txt files into *.bin's for placing into a MoPaQ(MPQ).
-direct Run patch specified in Diablo2DataGlobalExcel folder
-W Run Diablo 2 in Windowed Mode
-window Same as above
-res640 Run D2 under 640X480 Resolution
-res800 Run D2 under 800X600 Resolution
-opengl Run D2 using the OpenGL Drivers
-d3d Run D2 using the Direct 3d Drivers
-glide Run D2 using the 3dfx Glide Drivers
-skiptobnet Loads game to the Battle.net Menu
-client Run D2 as a client
-server Run D2 as a server
-multiclient Run Diablo 2 more than once
-autorest Auto-Restart on Errors
-clientexit Exit game when you Hit Save and Exit
-nosound Run D2 without sound
-notitle No Title Bar in windowed mode
-nonotify Don't show Error Screens
-noexit Don't Exit on Errors
-nochar Don't display character on screen

========= snip ===============

Hope that helps.

- Bam-Bam

[Sirian]

I tried the -opengl switch just now. No use. Plays with graphical errors.

I tried -software and -softwaremode with some hope, but I don't think it worked.

Arrgh. The one switch I'm hoping exists is missing from that list.


- Sirian

[Bam-Bam]

Here is some more information from the Basin. I have not done any searching over at the lounge.

I have no personal experience with your issue, so I cannot comment in particular on the details of the threads.

In any case, even if your take on the game (and the company) is still where it was a few years ago, it would be nice to catch you in a game sometime.

Believe it or not, I haven't fired up another game since I installed the expansion just a couple of months ago.

I feel your pain on the XP upgrade--I was also in the ME (don't laugh) boat, until I realized that my new toy (iPod) wouldn't work with ME (and I wasn't willing to shell out the $$ for the mac that I really want ;P ). Although the XP upgrade process is a major PITA--the difference in how my pc runs on xp vs. me is AMAZING. I can fire up D2 after having the pc running for days---and have NO memory allocation problems. I used to have to babysit the pc and load d2 IMMEDIATELY on start up, or my memory allocation would be fragged and all my chars in permanent slowmo.

Now if I can just get netscape working again...(hmm, wonder if this is a microsoft intended consequence ).

Anyway--good luck on the new operating system.

Bam-Bam

[T-hawk]

I can't help you on the software rendering end, but I can offer an alternative option that's long worked well for me in Windows 2000: Grab a PCI 3dfx Voodoo card for $10 off Ebay and run the thing in native Glide mode.

That's how the game was originally written to run best. If you've never see D2 in Glide, you'll be pretty impressed - it's got a lot of colored lighting and transparency effects that it doesn't even do in D3D mode, never mind software mode. And D2 in Glide has long been 100% rock-solid stable on my Win2000 machine.

Edit: Actually, I do have a suggestion for software mode. If you force it into windowed mode, I'm pretty sure it always uses software rendering. The window frame makes it slightly ugly, but if you set the desktop to 800x600 and position the window to cover the screen, it should be tolerable.

[Sirian]

I think I got it set up right, at this point. Going to go test.

Thanks for the help. :wub:

If you want to try some nonvariant ladder chars (nonvariant? Blasphemy in these parts?) on USEast, send me an email and we'll see what develops.


- Sirian

[Sirian]

I played with Glide through to where I quit playing altogether, except for a few ongoing team variants. Descent 3 was also made for Glide. 3DFX was the shiznit in the late 90's.

Thx anyway. I don't intended to mess with hardware just trying to get Diablo II to run. I'll probably hit my "OK this is the same ****, different year" threshold at an unpredictable moment and drop D2 like a hot potato. Or... HL2 might actually get released at some point.

Direct Draw is stable enough. It's only the D3D that crashes and stutters all over the place.


Oh, and BamBam... I'll have to SEE WinXP handle D2's massive mem leaks for myself, before I'll believe that one. I've got a ram checker running... And under WinME, a couple of hours of D2 would see my available RAM drop from 379MB down to like 60MB (gets back up to 60 after closing D2! I'm sitting here in XP at 311 with Opera open looking at ten webpages and hoarding a huge cache. I have about 400ish free on boot. When I close Opera, I won't get all of that back. I've been watching the RAM like a hawk lately. (Forming a bad habit there, I guess, but uh... if you're running things that move into swap file territory, I've found it enormously useful to know EXACTLY when the RAM has run out and the hard drive grindage and general slowdown are about to begin. Also helps to know when I've already lost some RAM to memleaks and should reboot before operating hungry programs.)

Although the WinXP task manager is a step and a half above anything from the DOS line (9x) it is still short of divine. Here's the util I've fallen in love with:

http://www.jfitz.com/software/RAMpage/


- Sirian

[KingOfPain]

Why East when "everyone" is on West, (even if you don't plan to be playing variants in the near future)... unless you still have lag issues on West Realm.

Go West, young man, go West!

KoP

[Sirian]

East is where my cousin plays, and he's the chief reason I bothered to get patch 1.10, which then sparked my curiosity about the ladder. So I've set up shop there. Don't really plan to dive in and out of RB general gameplay anyway. Dedicated teams where the chars play only when the team plays would be the multi of choice for me, and that can be done on any Realm.

Not asking anybody to move to East. Just saying that's where I'm doing my ladder exploration.


- Sirian

[Bam-Bam]

Originally posted by Sirian@Jul 22 2004, 10:26 AM
Oh, and BamBam... I'll have to SEE WinXP handle D2's massive mem leaks for myself, before I'll believe that one. I've got a ram checker running... And under WinME, a couple of hours of D2 would see my available RAM drop from 379MB down to like 60MB (gets back up to 60 after closing D2! I'm sitting here in XP at 311 with Opera open looking at ten webpages and hoarding a huge cache. I have about 400ish free on boot. When I close Opera, I won't get all of that back. I've been watching the RAM like a hawk lately. (Forming a bad habit there, I guess, but uh... if you're running things that move into swap file territory, I've found it enormously useful to know EXACTLY when the RAM has run out and the hard drive grindage and general slowdown are about to begin. Also helps to know when I've already lost some RAM to memleaks and should reboot before operating hungry programs.)


- Sirian

You have put more work into this than I have. I am speaking COMPLETELY from intuitive and anecdotal evidence from my own configuration, without the benefit of ANY monitoring of RAM allocation.

All I can say is that I could not let my system sit idle for more than five minutes before starting D2, or it would not work right (this in ME).

With XP, I can have the pc running for days---doing various things--fire up D2, and it works perfecto.

Considering my primary two reasons for reboot were to get D2 running right and getting my internet connected (verizon's dsl seems a bit buggy on my pc sometimes)--the change to XP has definately gotten rid of the arrg for me.

As for east-west, I have an account on east that I sometimes frequent with non-RB types. Perhaps I may see you around. BamBam_RB is the account, same name as my more frequently used westie account. Of course, that account has no support from my or the RB mule community, but I suspect that's not something you particulularly care about. ;P In any case, glad that I could pass through some knowledge (even if I don't have it myself ;P ).

Happy hunting.

Bam-Bam