Your welcome

Game natively works on WIn10, in case if you choose "Use Direct3D" in ConfigEditor and set game compability to 16bpp screen on Disciple.exe properties (not required for RoTE)

But if you want to play game without any lags, with higher animation speed and custom widescreen resolution - gl wrapper is a best choice

It is kind of annoying you have to tweak the files to make Disciples 2 Rise of the Elves work now with the new Galaxy launcher.

I played this game last year and it worked just fine.

Usually GOG is better with older games, but now I find I can play Disciples Sacred Lands and Disciples 2 Gallean's Return on steam right from the get to without any need for fixes, while Disciples on GOG is acting up.

Thank you SIR! You have helped me immesurably! I can play my favorite game again! I'm sorry! YOU have helped! The wrapper helped. I have no idea what happened before, now it just works :toddemojihere:

thank you that sorted me out

The first game works "out of the box" for me but the other one didn't.
Removing files didn't work (Win failed to initialize or something) but this OpenGL stuff made it work.

Thanks!

yes the game works on my Windows10 computer; setup to install the game in C:/ or C:/Games instead of C:/ProgramFiles. remove the ddraw.dll file from the game folder. the first time before you run the game you need to set the compatibility properties of the discipl2.exe to WindowsXP ServicePack2. this needs to be done only once, after the game has been launched you can disable this. if you want to run Rise of the Elves in widescreen, run the game settings program and enable 'run in window' and 'use Direct3D' and 'stretch to full screen' and 'screen resolution 1024x768'. For Galleans Return and Dark Prophecy only enable 'use Direct3D' and 'screen resolution 1024x768 or 800x600'.

That not the topic that mods should sticked. There is another where i suugest rename ddraw.dll (especially for using with GLwrapper). There is topic with just link to GLwrapper in first (and only one) post.

I faced problem with launching the game on Windows 10 too, but I didn't remove any files, or set up compatibility mode.
Somewhy the game is shipped whith two configurators. So I opened game folder: "Manage installation" > "Show folder", there are two configurators: ConfigEditor.exe and dxcfg.exe.
After setting in both of them the same screen settings: 1280x1024 60Hz, the game could launch.

Native game resolution is 800x600. 1024:768 if fine too. 1024p is 5:4 format, scaled wrong (especially on 16:9 widescreen) (and so - too much smoothed\blured image quality) and too much zoomed out (how game set resolutions).

Switch to 1024x768 (and manually set refreshrate).

Or rename ddraw.dll (dxcfg tool dll) and download GLwrapper aka DisciplesGL by Verok.

Same problem, game crashes at start. This is the crash report. Looks like an access violation.
Any thoughts on how to fix?

******* UNHANDLED EXCEPTION *******

Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION

Module : C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Disciples 2\Discipl2.exe
Creation: 2021-11-01
Write : 2021-11-01
Size : 4413440

Fault address: 7708402D 00:00000000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll

Write to location 02cfb4f2 caused an access violation.

Registers:
EAX:00000001
EBX:02D703C8
ECX:00100000
EDX:00000000
ESI:02CFB4F0
EDI:00C10000
EBP:00A7E820
DS:002B ES:002B FS:0053 GS:002B
CS:EIP:0023:7708402D
SS:ESP:002B:00A7E6D0
FLAGS:00010202

Bytes at CS:EIP:
32 46 02 a8 01 0f 85 fc 02 00 00 85 c9 74 26 8b
57 50 33 16 89 16 8b ca c1 e9 10 8b c2 c1 e8 08

Bytes at SS:ESP:
00a7e6d0: 751b8d66 02d703c8 00c10000 00000000
00a7e6e0: 76a0d5b0 76a0d5b0 00a7e78c 62cb445c
00a7e6f0: 76a0d62e 000000bf fffff6d2 00000000
00a7e700: 00000000 02d8ae14 00000000 00000000
00a7e710: 00000000 00c10000 000000c1 00000000
00a7e720: 000000c1 00c16f24 00a7e7dc 00000600
00a7e730: 00000000 00000600 02d703ce 000003b0
00a7e740: 00a7e7f4 00000200 0a9321dc 00c10000
00a7e750: 00000000 00a7e808 00000600 00000000
00a7e760: 62cba500 02d703ce 000003b0 0a931f6d
00a7e770: 00a7e7dc 02d703c8 02d703d0 00b60060
00a7e780: 62cba500 00000000 00000001 00000000
00a7e790: 00000000 00a7e808 0a931f6d 00c102a4
00a7e7a0: 00000001 7509b4a0 62cba500 00a7e7bc
00a7e7b0: 00000000 02d70de8 02d70000 00b60060
00a7e7c0: 02d8a620 02d80000 00000000 01cba500

System Info:
WinNT 6.2 #Processor: 16

Stack Frame:
Address Frame
7708402D 00A7E820 RtlGetCurrentServiceSessionId +3DD
770C791D 00A7E87C RtlGetNtGlobalFlags +78D
77083C16 00A7E898 RtlFreeHeap +46
76A86B20 00A7E8B0 CoTaskMemFree +30
62DD4906 00A7EB14 ModernColorGetGDILutFromHDC +3A6
62DFA18A 00A7F18C InternalSetDeviceTemperature +420A
62DFA2D0 00A7F1AC InternalGetAppliedGDIGammaRamp +20
7521EA93 00A7F1C0 GetDeviceGammaRamp +23
1801C5CC 00A7F214 CompleteCreateSysmemSurface +1A302
75F21493 00A7F244 isleadbyte_l +13
75F6B7BF 00A7F24C ungetwc +D0F
7708D2EC 00A7F388 LdrGetProcedureAddressForCaller +3CC
77080C4F 00A7F3A8 RtlUpcaseUnicodeChar +A4F
7706F6F2 00A7F3AC RtlRandom +9E2

Module list: names, addresses:
00400000 C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Disciples 2\Discipl2.exe
77040000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
75690000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNEL32.DLL
6f3e0000 C:\Program Files\AVG\Antivirus\x86\aswhook.dll
74f80000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
6f1b0000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\apphelp.dll
76e60000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\USER32.dll
761c0000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\win32u.dll
75660000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\GDI32.dll
751a0000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\gdi32full.dll
74ef0000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\msvcp_win.dll
0a930000 C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Disciples 2\SHW32.dll
75d40000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\ucrtbase.dll
10000000 C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Disciples 2\C4dll-R.dll
21100000 C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Disciples 2\mss32.dll
755c0000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\ADVAPI32.dll
75ef0000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\MSVCRT.dll
76cc0000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\ole32.dll
76070000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\sechost.dll
76330000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\RPCRT4.dll
76980000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\combase.dll
74e50000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WINMM.dll
30000000 C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Disciples 2\binkw32.dll
18000000 C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Disciples 2\DDRAW.dll
62e80000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\d3d9.dll
74590000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\kernel.appcore.dll
74670000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\windows.storage.dll
6b7d0000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\dwmapi.dll
745a0000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\Wldp.dll
76040000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\IMM32.DLL
76160000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\bcryptPrimitives.dll
6e470000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\uxtheme.dll
76250000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\MSCTF.dll
76890000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\OLEAUT32.dll
6eaf0000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\textinputframework.dll
6c1c0000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\CoreMessaging.dll
6bf40000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\CoreUIComponents.dll
761e0000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\WS2_32.dll
75e60000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\SHCORE.dll
6c260000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\wintypes.dll
74cc0000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntmarta.dll
73db0000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\msasn1.dll
6e3b0000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\cryptnet.dll
75430000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\CRYPT32.dll
70cb0000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\cryptbase.dll
76e10000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\WINTRUST.DLL
75640000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\imagehlp.dll
70d40000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CRYPTSP.dll
70d10000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\rsaenh.dll
77010000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\bcrypt.dll
64020000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvmdi.inf_amd64_c903e327075f556c\nvldumd.dll
74580000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\VERSION.dll
6b630000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\drvstore.dll
716c0000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\devobj.dll
75280000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\cfgmgr32.dll
53380000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvmdi.inf_amd64_c903e327075f556c\nvd3dum.dll
75780000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\Shell32.dll
76930000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\shlwapi.dll
5d6f0000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\nvspcap.dll
716a0000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\profapi.dll
6e390000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\gpapi.dll
6b540000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\dxcore.dll
65810000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\dcomp.dll
62de0000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\mscms.dll
74cf0000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\USERENV.dll
62dd0000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ColorAdapterClient.dll
75fb0000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\clbcatq.dll
62cb0000 C:\Windows\System32\Windows.Internal.Graphics.Display.DisplayColorManagement.dll
6f250000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\dbghelp.dll

--end--

Reinstall GOG Galaxy to C:\Games\GOG\. Even with that set galaxy exe admin run. This need for both UAC and for Windows Defender.

Reinstall game(s) to X:\Games\GOG\ (and better if possible not on C: drive). If you start game from Galaxy you keep galaxy exe admin run. If you start game\configurator\DXCFG directly from folder - set admin run to them too. Scenario Editor do not require this (ofc not installed to Program Files).

After reinstalling game from Galaxy to new folder always make game validation. At least twice. Current Galaxy version always re-download something and never report result of validating. So it is more (even more than in Steam) important to do validate at least twice.

There is no link to DXCFG from GOG Galaxy. So go to game folder and directly start dxcfg.exe as admin. Properly set it. Same from folder or from Additional menu from GOG Galaxy start game Configurator, properly set it too.
---------------
This is what necessary not matter what where you install. Did you or not use un-official wrappers.

Than. What OS you have? I mean Win 8 with 8.1 update pack, right? x64 as i see. Did you install DirectX 9, Directx web setup and just updates from Windows Update? After that go to Control panel - Programs - Windows components - Legacy - Legacy DirectPlay - turn it on.

I ask cause it looks you use very outdated Windows 8 without win 8.1 update (isnt it should be 6.3 for win 8.1?).

Also, try to completely turn off (or maybe even temporary remove) AVG antivirus (it can have more than one stop function, something about self-protecting still in use or else protection - some antiviruses have mora than 1 swither to turn off protection). This is temporary for debugging. If it helps, try to add entire Games (every ones on all drives) folder's to exception.
But, since you currently installed everything to Program Files, and as module list above show, it is only Windows and Program Files folders used - reinstalling to properly path probable help with antivirs as well.

List above is NOT whole memory dump. This is only list what is loaded with the game. And as you can see - one of the antivirus modules is interfere with the game.

Did all that, no change. Win 10

Since user above initially use GOG Galaxy im answer only for this online galaxy build. But this rare time, current offline build is better - it have more content. So, as one of the solution to try - if validating do not help, try to download and install offline build.
(polish Galaxy version is correct), english one miss 12 blnk heroes and probably something more from maps folders)
-------------------
Offtop here:
(GOG version still based on unpatched 2005 Gold release - it is really miss a lot of heroes\maps from both Disciples 2 game, along with 3.01 patch for RotE game)

(GR 2005 Gold - from CD edition is partially updated to 2.02 - but only remain file from 2.01 is main menu dbf file where only this one string with number are outdated - you can just change it in any Office\dbf editors from 2.01 to 2.02

RotE is completely 3.0 on 2005 Gold CD and only exe files are 3.01 - same for GOG, 3.01 patch files is completely missed here, along with DLC content from 2006 Gold edition
and RotE Gold Upgrade 2006 DLC installer from one of the near threads is not patch even if main menu number changed, patch should be installed after Gold Upgrade DLC for RotE)
/offtop end
----------------------------

GOG put unneeded (especially with build-in GOG wrapper (sic!)) compatibilities. Uncheck everything from all exe properties. Keep only admin run and only on galaxy exe if you do use only Galaxy to start games (or set game exe admin run as well).

Because, again. NT 6.1.7601 is Win7 Sp1 *core* version (full version number for Win7 x64 Sp1 with partially 2014 updates is 6.1.7601.24384). 6.2\6.3. with some additional numbers is Win 8\8.1 core. I never use Win10, but as i google it now - it looks im right. Win10 core labelled as WinNT10 as google say.

So it is something wrong with Windows entirely. Or it is Win8 very outdated. Or it is Win10, but again - very outdated updates build. Or most likely some compatibility enabled... If this is crash report from created log file in game folder - it is compatibility enabled.
If this is crash report from Windows\user AppData crushdumps... this is strange...

Try to turn it off. If this not help - experiment with that.
Currently GOG always put fullscreen optimisation even if you use Win7 and there is no such option\very differ. This is not needed with they own GOG wrapper. And mostly not needed at all even on Win10.

If you cant solve this, any settings in DXCFG not solve this - rename _ddraw.dll file. Make sure game work.
And later - use another wrappers. ddraw.dll file from narzoul, degevoodoo or DisciplesGL GLwrapper from Verok - there is link above in this and some other threads on his blogspot site.
DisciplesGL require some settings edit ofc. Nothing matter what you use - settings first. Set 800x600 in the game configurator and custom resolution in DisciplesGl itself (use F4 to toggle borderless windowed\windowed to access to wrapper settings menu).
GL wrapper from Verok is more than just compatibility wrapper - this is mod.

Your AV is hooking it. Add an exception in your antivirus for the game is the first thing i would try.

Since he said nothing help - better to uninstall that.

There is almost no one normal (nor good) antiviruss. Microsoft, Kasperky and Dr.Web. In they free editions.
Any else - all of them freeware, free-but-paid and paid - is always piece of trash. Especially if this is pre-installed on PC. Better to make clean Windows installation.

All three mentioned above not so easily turned off (completely), but any else - do not do anything when you stop basic protection or add exception. Literally nothing happened after that. Still every protection applied. As seen on that log file, antiviruss still intercept game process.

Try to not use them at all. Maybe Microsoft MSE\Defender only. In case if you install games only to D(X):\Games\, always set admin run to GOG\Steam installers, always set GOG Galaxy\Steam\game exe's adminrun - you be OK with Defender most times. Adding Games as exception make in 100% (but only for Defender, DEP\firewall\etc services still should be completely disabled by CMD command promt - only UAC with adminrun to exe is good to stay).