This wrapper translates Glide API calls directly into DirectX API (for instance - Sven's wrapper uses OpenGL).
Features
- Turns the game into a well behaved DirectX 11 title on Windows 10 (also 7, 8 and 8.1).
- High quality scaling to fit modern screen sizes, including widescreen aspect ratios (not supported with MXL).
- High FPS mod using motion prediction, bypassing the internal 25 fps limit. Play at 60 fps and higher! (video)
- Anti-aliasing of specific jagged edges in the game (sprites, walls, some floors).
- Seamless windowed/fullscreen switching with (ALT-Enter).
- Improved fullscreen: instant ALT-TAB and low latency.
- Improved windowed mode.
- Proper gamma/contrast.
- Fixes a few window-related glitches in Diablo II itself.
Installation for MXL
Basically to install D2DX you need to put glide3x.dll file into D2 folder, disable resmod (required!) and run the game with Glide video mode.
1. Install D2LoD and Median XL as usual.
2. Download D2DX. This archive contains config file with disabled resmod and custom build version of D2DX dll that supports floating point scaling for windowed mode. Alternatively, you can download latest official version from D2DX releases page (d2dx.zip file) and prepare config file by yourself (see below).
3. Unpack archive and copy both files (glide3x.dll and d2dx.cfg) to D2 folder overriding old wrapper dll. You may want to keep old wrapper's dll as backup option.
4.1 If you use MXL launcher to run the game, go to settings and set "3DFX Glide" video mode.
4.2 If you use shortcut to run the game add
-3dfx option to your target (so it will look like this: "D:\Diablo 2\Game.exe" -3dfx). 5. Run the game. Note: Press ALT-Enter to switch from fullscreen to windowed mode and back.
► Command line options
High FPS (by motion prediction)
Internal game logic only ticks at 25 fps. Rendering at e.g. 120fps won't give a smoother experience normally. D2DX has a feature that predicts unit positions between logic updates, resulting in actual high fps rendering. This is enabled by default, but can be disabled with
nomotionprediction=true. Here is how it looks like: video.Advanced configuration
You can configure D2DX options via config file and command line options (latter has higher priority).
If you are using config file, ensure that it has name d2dx.cfg.
Some important options in d2dx.cfg file:
noresmod=true Disables resmod (high resolution mod). Required to run MXL.noclipcursor=true Will not lock cursor to the game window. nocompatmodefix=true Will not block the use of "Windows XP compatibility mode".nomotionprediction=false If true, will not run the game graphics at high fps. scale=1.5 Window scaling for windowed mode. Float-point numbers supported only in custom build.Scaling window by floating-point number
Official version supports scaling window only by 2 and 3 times, but even with x2 it might not fit to your screen. When there is not enough space, D2DX will reduce window size to fit into your screen, but it will leave black borders on sides. I've prepared custom D2DX build that supports window scaling by floating-point number (here is according PR that I used), so you can set any non-integer scaling factor like 1.5.
Screenshots
F.A.Q.
Q: How to remove side black bars in a fullscreen mode?
A: Unfortunately MXL is locked at 1024x768 (4:3), you can't get real widescreen 16:9. That's why you have to disable built-in D2DX resmod to run MXL. If you really want you can get stretched 16:9 look with 3rd party tools like ReShade. As well as you can replace black bars with some graphics, look at this thread.
Q: How to remove side black bars in a windowed mode?
A: Set some lower scaling factor for window in a config file, like
scale=1.2. This option supported only in custom build version. Q: How to enlarge game window in a windowed mode?
A: Set some higher scaling factor for window in a config file, like
scale=1.7. This option supported only in custom build version. Q: How to fix game crash on "Save and Exit" with Unhandled Exception: Access Violation (c0000005)?
A: Set compatibility mode with Windows XP SP3 to your Game.exe.
Q: How to fix not working mouse scroll?
A: Set compatibility mode with Windows XP SP3 to your Game.exe.
Q: How to take screenshots?
A: Taking screenshots with PrtScr doesn't work with D2DX, it's a bug. However you can use any other tool to take screenshots, like built-in Windows Snipping Tool (Win+Shift+S) or open-source ShareX.
P.S. I'm not an author of this project. If you have discovered a bug, you can create new issue at GitHub page.
