EDIT: The 1.3 GOG update released on 21/08/2019 automatically restores the loading screen, there is no need to perform the below steps anymore. This guide is now obsolete. (The NULL resource in ART.REZ is not restored, but that is anyway not really necessary.)

The GOG version of Might & Magic IX is missing the loading screen (replaced by blackness), supposedly because it can cause technical issues with the game, like the screen freezing on it when loading finishes. Not all systems may be affected by those issues however, and luckily the needed resources are not deleted from the data files. They can be restored by some hex editing.

Here are the files that need to be edited, the replacements needed in each, and the number of occurrences for each replacement (all instances should be replaced). The search strings are case-sensitive. If the new text is longer than the old one, do not insert new bytes into the file, just overwrite the existing ones (those bytes should contain only binary zeroes initially).

data\cshell.dll:
WING.PCX -> LoadingBG.pcx (x1)
loadscree_ -> loadscreen (x3)
WINGB.pcx -> loadingBG.pcx (x1)

data\ART.REZ:
NNLL -> NULL (x1, optional)

The last one is marked as optional because it's not really needed for the loading screen to function properly. It seems to be used as a placeholder image in case another image is missing (e.g. it will show up on the loading screen if it is not restored properly).

Is this something GOG recently added? I played the GOG version some time ago and I think I remember seeing the loading screens. Any chance you could show a screenshot of those loading screens, please?

EDIT: And by the way, thanks for posting this.

There is only one loading screen (that I know of). It's supposed to show up when starting a new game or loading a saved game. I've attached a screenshot. The small boat in the middle is supposed to be moving.

I don't know when it might have been removed, I only installed it recently because someone posted some related issues on the DDrawCompat GitHub page. GOG Galaxy doesn't show any other available versions when auto-update is disabled.

I found a post on these forums that mentions there are no loading screens in the GOG version, back in November 04, 2011: https://www.gog.com/forum/might_and_magic_series/does_gogs_version_of_mm9_work_with_win_7/post4

Thanks. I don't think I saw it either.

Nice. I remember seeing those screens way back when the game was first release. Most excellent!

With the new update the game seems to be compatible under windows 10 and runs at your desktop resolution if you choose it, you can choose anisotropic, aspect ratio on/off, antialiasing, windowed/fullscreen, vsync etc... and all at a very good framerate.

And then animated loading screen is back as intended. Great update.

Indeed, thanks for the info! I marked my original post as obsolete.

The update adds a mysterious ddraw.dll with the description "GOG.com DirectX 1-7 wrapper". Is that a new thing? I don't remember seeing it before, either with this game or with others. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to fix the black screen issue underwater or when changing the gamma slider, which is affecting some drivers (like my Intel HD 4600). At least there are other available (unofficial) wrappers for those cases.

Yes, the new update does consist in a homemade/modified ddraw wrapper that I presume is one of those wrappers optionals in the past but optimized for the game because the update adds some kind of registry info at end of install plus the files itselves.

Similar configurators can be seen in other gog version games like Combat Mission series.

It adds the ddwrapper.dll. an exe config file and the txt where the options are stored.

About the unsafe gamma I think is not needed to manage it into the game because the gamma can now be externaly configured with the wrapper itself via options in the dxcfg.exe configurator. And it appears to do the job safely, if I am not wrong.

Greetings.