Enable / Disable HWA in runtime

[Bibin]

I'd like for my game to allow the user to fall back on the software renderer should their machine's GPU not be up to the DX9 spec (DX8 does not play nice with my game). Furthermore, the level editor only works in the software renderer. I'd like to not have to have multiple applications if possible. Is this a thing yet, to build with both runtimes?

[LB]

Are there any specific command line switches I can use with a stand-alone application?
Yes, the following command line options allow you to force your stand-alone applications to use specific graphic modes, etc.:

• /DIB => forces standard graphic mode
• /DIB3 => forces standard graphic mode, 256 colors
• /DIB4 => forces standard graphic mode, 16 millions of colors, 24 bits
• /DIB6 => forces standard graphic mode, 32768 colors
• /DIB7 => forces standard graphic mode, 65536 colors
• /DIB8 => forces standard graphic mode, 16 millions of colors, 32 bits
• /DDRAW => forces DirectDraw + VRAM mode
• /NOVR => no VRAM in DirectDraw mode
• /DEBUG => displays graphic mode in title bar
• /MIS0 => disables the Machine Independent Speed option
• /MIS1 => forces the Machine Independent Speed option
• /NOF => runs in windowed mode
• /NOC => prevents images from being compressed in memory (for internal test)
• /NOX => disables Alt+F4
• /NOK => disables the Keep Screen Ratio option (in full screen mode)
• /VSYNC => forces V-Sync ON

In other words, you could have two shortcuts - one which launches the game normally, and the other with the /DIB option.

[Bibin]

That helps, but I don't know if the /DIB options will work with one compiled under the HWA runtime.

[LB]

Why wouldn't you think it would work? Have you tested it? (I don't have anything good to test with atm)

[Gustav]

Bibin's talking about an important thing in the MMF runtime. I'm also thinking about it right now.
I think it's time to clarify how MMF works finally.

I noticed the following things: If you create an application in Display Mode ...

• ... Direct3D 8 the file mmf2d3d8.dll will be included in the exe file.
• ... Direct3D 9 the file mmf2d3d8.dll and mmf2d3d9.dll will be included in the exe file.

Because of this results there are now some questions:

• Why the DLL for Direct3D 8 is included in an application with Display Mode Direct3D 9?
• Does MMF switch to Direct3D 8 if Direct3D 9 is not available on the machine? (would be testable with expression variable DisplayMode [1 = Standard, 4 = Direct3D 8, 8 = Direct3D 9, ...])
• Is there a way to switch manually between the Direct3D runtimes? Are there command line parameters for this?
• Can the application be started in Standard Mode (/DIB) if Direct3D is not available on the machine?

The Display Mode is changed to Standard if I force the application with the command line /DIB. Variable DisplayMode also says 1.
But the question is whether the application starts or not if Direct3D is not installed.

It would be great if someone could help to clarify this.

[Yves]

IIRC MMF switches to D3D8 if D3D9 is not available.

If D3D8 or D3D9 are not installed, it uses the software renderer (this should be a pretty rare case...).

Command line options:

/DIB switches to standard software mode
/D3D8 switches to D3D8 mode (I think the application must have been built in D3D8 or D3D9 mode)
/D3D9 switches to D3D9 mode (I think the application must have been built in D3D9 mode)

[Gustav]

Thank you Yves, for clearing this up. That sounds very good.

IIRC MMF switches to D3D8 if D3D9 is not available.
Command line options:

/DIB switches to standard software mode
/D3D8 switches to D3D8 mode (I think the application must have been built in D3D8 or D3D9 mode)
/D3D9 switches to D3D9 mode (I think the application must have been built in D3D9 mode)

Ahh, very good! This command line parameters are not mentioned in the help file (build 255).

So it seems it would be most preventive and flexible to build apps in Direct3D 9 Mode and use a starter app to manage the different settings.
Then both Direct3D DLLs will be included automatically and it's possible to switch to all runtimes.

[Nifflas]

I'd like for my game to allow the user to fall back on the software renderer should their machine's GPU not be up to the DX9 spec

I can't remember when I last ran across a computer that doesn't support DX9. Those must be horribly old... but I suppose if you want to make sure the game runs on everything