I'm curious as to what exactly DX4win is and what it does for EAW on the install Iget a message "For Windows 7/64 bit users installing the LPT driver ,,The Signature of the driver is not accepted by Win 7 To get around this reboot press F8 and from the boot menu select Disable Driver Signature Enforcement."' OK booted in safe mode ran Msconfig went to the boot section and that choice doesn't exist..Ran it anyway and got "No License file found you can;t save your log"
OK starteed it and opened a sample log and can't understand what in hell this thing does and If I should be messing with it..I had thought it was an alternative to 3d Windower but doesn't look like it is ..windower gives me good screens but can't get the bugger to fill most of my screen..Old eyes need a pretty full screen on my Dell 24" monitor ..
So best place to start is a simple explanation of what it does for EAW Then I can decide if it's worth trying Thanks for any advice about it all

Russ, it's a logging program for HAM radio operators. The DX stands for long distance.

VonBeerhofen

Kind thought that VB looking at the set up screens ,,but re reading old posts I see it's DXWnd is what I was thinking of so going to give that a look,,and see if it's better than windower,,Thanks for the answer

Well so far got it up and running in full screen and all the screens are crystal clear,,,Looks to be a huge improvement over the windower program,,now got to figure out what all the other settings do..Well the screens are clear but EAW crashes with a black screen I'll have to figure that one out

That is what happens to me in W10 but I have it running in W7

thanks Jelly ...At least the main screens look clear and it's at full screen I guess I just have to work on the other settings loading
the pre set failed

Edit :: Got it running using the setup on Marks site,,It crashes like every other time and requires a reboot..When it does run the screens are clear but frame rates are between 20--30 and checking the flight it's very jittery..I guess I can live with the fubared screens,,And as long as EAW feels smooth I really don't like FRAPS..Sometimes it starts at 30 FPS and after a minute jumps to 60 fps..I judge frame rates by how fluid it flies..but it was worth a try

aw, sucks man that it crashes for you with DXWND, its a better program than the old D3DWindower. (I actually think it was based off of it code wise, not sure)

Anyhow I did some tests and the game runs at high fps on my system with DXWND using win10.
There is a point of CTD just before loading flight screen, but it doens't happen that much, but the game become non responsive at the same location.
I posted this info over at CombatACE and I figure its just the amount of resources it loads as v1.40 loads and recovers faster in my tests.
It could be a setting or two in the DXWND wrapper or the wrapper is hogging too many resources itself.

I'll be testing more and I'll update my help document with that info eventually.

EDIT:
I do notice that the planes flying about at medium distance are a little jittery with DXWND, even with 74 to 81fps. I feel I tried everything to smooth them out, but I'm guessing widly on the setting that would effect that.
Now since I notice the jitter in those planes, I may ditch DXWND..we'll see.

Hi Mark using the settings on your site at least got it to run but frame rates are under 30 fps..i did figure out that like we do on line a reboot after flying helps the crash problem but not the frame rates..I don't particularly care foe FRAPS it tends to show very low rates at first then instantly snaps to 60 FPS after a minute or two..One small thing that puzzles me is my machine seems to always top out at 60 FPS in any game i play flight or war games 60 fps is OK anything over 30 is good ..Maybe later I'll test it with different versions of EAW especially one that has it's own built in frame rate counter,,The other item is if I uncheck run in window and leave run full screen unchecked it runs full screen but check run in full screen it crashes just weirdness with the program,Did a search and found Jellys setup in an old post but it wouldn't load a mission ,,Yours got me closer I'll have to look at them side by side and see whats different ,All in All I can live with the buggered menu screens as long as the game runs well

Theres ways to boost the FPS more, but I'd have to reread what I wrote and go back to the wrapper and experiment. You should get atleast 60fps just on the main menu screen in UAWv1.60

Finally came to the conclusion ,,Rather than waste time to just get clear menu screens,,To just fly what works right out of the box..I can live with the messed up screens the only one that give me serious issues is the config screen setting up the stick
is rough to read but I don't use it that much and mostly just edit the ini..The screens do flicker a bit but that's acceptable..I'd rather fly then spend a lot of time trying different settings and currently my FPS runs around 60 and 55 over large cities and looks great in what ever version I'm flying..If I really need to make adjustments I can run the program just to make changes..Thanks for the help

I agree. It sucks trying these programs out. But I like it myself sometimes, its fun stuff once in awhile.

With a new install of the latest version I have it working in both W7 and W10.
A test with the old D3Dwindower in W7 was interesting. I had it displaying the frame-rate in the border, and I also hit Ctrl-G to display it with the exe.
The values agreed all the time.
Repeating this with DXWnd gave much higher rates, sometimes double or more, on the DXWnd border

Interesting. Good information.
Could partly explain the jitter of the planes at medium distance or so. The planes movement seem to drop back slightly as they move across the screen. Like a pixel or so. Even if the FPS was high on the DXWND.
Thats why I'm dropping usage of the DXWND Wrapper. (IT still needs work).
I'll put up with Win10 long delay of screen switching instead.

I simply must update my EXEPRO and V1.6 sims, and experiment with this window program. Been putting it off due to time/weather Real Life constraints, but will do so shortly. My frame rates on my rather crappy comp are in the 20-30 FPS range, and that is adequate so far. a Wrapper yielding better FPS rates is always interesting.

Will refer to mark's EAW Help Site for setup instructions.

Hey Bob did you give EAW PRO with nglide a try..I get crappy frame rates when using D3D glide gives me solid 60's

Hi, Russ! NGlide is installed on the machine, and I reckon it's working as I have the ground haze at edges of screen, and not a "fall off the edge of the world" straight edge at the horizon.

I could try any of the games and bypass the wrapper, I suppose. that would still leave Nglide operating by itself, then.

But then I'd have the wonky menu screens and sometimes that's a bother trying to pick out some menu choices--can't even see some of them, so I can't select them.

Posted the following at C.A, site:

EXEPRO installed on a GTG version of V1.28E. Was scrupulous in following directions on EAW Help Site. Same identical game works OK with d3d windower, so I assume I configured the game incorrectly. Game disk inserted. Menu screens load, I can click through all of them, but game crashes to desktop once any type of mission is selected. There are also some "breakthrough" of underlying screen when viewing menus.
Oddly, I cannot use in-game selector function to assign snapviews to top hat: I reckon I'll have to do that in the game's ini file.
Any ideas?

As post over on CombatAce EAW forums, Its EAWPRO by VBH (correct?) That goes over 1.0 1.1 or 1.2.
Don't mix it with 1.28E.

Correct, EAWPRO, just downloaded via link on your Help Site.

I overlaid it into a V1.28E version of the game, and it works with D3D Windower, not so much with DXWnd.

So, where to get a download of V1.2?

Is this suitable for a basis for EAWPRO: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/0e8990vqszo0n/EAW#jeja95280bzj5?

Naw, no 1.28E (It may work with 1.26e Sybod version though) Over writing it.

1.2 is available by patching the CD1.0 to 1.2.
or download a 1.2 complete version I guess.
Yeah you can download that version from there, but its just what it says it is.

OK, I'll look for the patch to V1.2, since I have the original disk.

Suggestion in the section concerning configuring DXWnd;

You have written:

Aero Handling, Aero compatible mode and Optimize for Aero mode, checked

This was a bit confusing; suggest it be re-written so:

Aero Handling section: "Aero compatible mode" and "Optimize for Aero mode", checked.

Defining the section being configured helps locate the user, and breaking up the separate entities being configured/checked helps the user to see that there is more than one, if that is the case.

Might also want to give better directions on how to access Main Menu at any stage, particularly once the game is configured. For example, I double click the DXWnd shortcut, and game icon(s) pop up. Getting to Main Menu for configuration at that point is something of a trial and error, for me, at least.

main menu of what, the game or DXWND?

Thanks for the other ideas. I know i was lacking in pointing out what your suppose to check when i written it, never got back to it i guess.


EDIT:
You only need the disk then place EAWPRO over it. overwriting as necessary You o NOT need to update to 1.2 first, that is no longer necessary., but it won't hurt things if you have already.

Getting to Main Menu screen of DXWnd is what I was referring to; sorry about confusion.

I think I will try to use my disk, strip it of unnecessary stuff, as per your instructions on help site, apply v1.2 patch, available on your web site, overly EAWPRO, and then try to get DXWnd going. As I say, the v1.28E with EAWPRO applied seems to be OK in D3D Windower. FWIW, my particular disc does not have any patches included. ETA: has V1.2 patch included on disk.

I will let you know the different frame rates when things are up and running.

Getting to the main window of DXWND, is you run the dxwnd exe correct?

IIRC, I had to fiddle with things to get to DXWnd configuration screens. A better description of how to get to config screens when one is in DXWnd main screed (that one is easy to get to) would be useful, I think. Most users will not be configuring often, so will not have memorized required step(s) to get to config screen(s).

okay, I'll come up with some perhaps.


Thanks.

I should have added text with in a few days if I still have it 'installed'

Let's put it this way: Original author of DXWnd did not provide good instructions on how to go to config screens from Main screen. You are simply correcting his mistake.

Yes, unlike probably a good many people, I DID read his 'ReadMe", but getting to config screens from main screen was not at all intuitive.

Sorry to be so picky, but many people will click on DXWnd main screen, see a blank window, and go "WTF?"


On a side note, have you gravitated to a better windower/wrapper for EAW than DXWnd? You used to be very high on it,

I am currently using D3D windower, and it seems to work well enough for many versions/combinations of EAW. In fact, it works for versions for which some have said it should not work at all.

That said, I am always interested in lightweight windower programs that work well in conjunction with NGlide, which I always use in conjunction with EAW. My graphics card is an ancient nVidea card, as you may recall, so I find I must run both a wrapper and nGlide for best visual experience.

nothing wrong with running a d3d/Dx wrapper and nglide. (The DXWND wrapper said by the author works with nGlide)
I haven't experimented too much with using two wrappers, I use one or the other, or none.

If I could, I'd use dgvoodoo since it has a DX wrapper built in with a glide wrapper. But the DirectX portion needs calls to files names hacked into the eaw.exe, actually name changes for the ddraw.dll I think.
In other words its a pain to set up, so its been rejected by me for now.
Same with DXWND wrapper , alone its a bit demanding and it jitters the planes at medium distance, but I understand with nglide it works good. But thats two wrappers, and I'm not interested in myself using two at the moment.


As far as my limited help doc info on the DXWND, I had the text in there for how to get to the main tab settings from the dxwnd start window. its a right click and then select modify on the eaw.exe icon. I expanded the text a little bit now, hope it helps.

The D3DWindower, its small and light weight, and I honestly only used it for like a month or two when i had windows 7. It runs in compatibility mode cause its an old exe. But if it works for you thats great. I should expand on my help doc notes about it, if I ever run with it again I will.

EDIT:
I remember I dropped using the D3DWrapperV1.88 cause I found a registry fix for windows 7 directdraw colors. The eaw menu screens where toasted so the fix was part of the Window OS , just undocumented, but works.
Now that I'm on win10 I can just run nGlide with opengl or vulkan api's (I think thats what it supports). Thats another not well documented wrapper I used in the help doc as well.
Right now I'm just using Win10 for some EAW games and DXWND for testing with other EAW Games.
DXWND is such a resource hog, I need to find a bunch of tab settings to help remove that plane jitter, and this might take useing the expert tab settings. Thats if the author of the Wrapper doesn't tweak/optimize it better for DirectDraw-D3D combo displays as EAW uses both in the flight screen as far as I can tell.

EDIT2:
There is a OpenGLide wrapper made in 2004 for glide 2.xx games (that restricts the use to EAWv1.2 and EAWPRO, as the other un-offical updates are v1.xx use glide3.xx), its light weight, and you only need the dll and configure file I believe. You need OpenGL to use it, and it cleans up Terrain Shimmering just like the olden days. I used it and may go back to it. I just wish a newer version existed for win10 (but it does work on that os).
https://eaw.neocities.org/troubleshoot.html#wrap


I just found this site trying to relocate openglide....the last openglide is listed.
http://www.sierrahelp.com/Utilities/DisplayUtilities/GlideWrappers.html

In the above, you said: "The D3DWindower, its small and light weight, and I honestly only used it for like a month or two when i had windows 7. It runs in compatibility mode cause its an old exe. But if it works for you thats great. I should expand on my help doc notes about it, if I ever run with it again I will."

May I suggest that you add such comments as soon as conveniently possible? Some people are currently using D3D, and so your additional comments, while still relatively fresh in you mind, might be of assistance to some people now.

Thank you again for your efforts!

Just seen this post , well again, brought to my attention.

I do have it noted that it was designed for Windows XP but runs on later WindowsOS Versions like vista and 7.
Not sure what you want me to enter or add for text on the Troubleshoot Help Doc?

And thanks for the input.

Merely to add your thoughts to the Doc before you become engaged in something more urgent. As I now see, you have such comments down in your notes, so there is no apparent danger of them being lost or forgotten. However, such thoughts being added to the Doc might be of immediate use to others.

You do so much that I am hesitant to make some trivial suggestions. But sometimes, even trivial things can be important to others, hence this post.