Greetings fellow imp commanders,

It has been a while since I chimed in, so I would like to update everyone with the most current and recommended way to play Dungeon Keeper 2 on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. The only thing you need now is dgVoodoo2, which means that the GoG 1.7 HW patch (DKII-DX.exe) is technically redundant along with most of the old advice that can be found on this forum.

The same applies universally to other games like NoX, Divine Divinity etc. basically any games relying on deprecated graphics API such as Direct Draw, Glide and DirectX 1-7.

1) Install Dungeon Keeper 2 from GoG if you haven't already. Extract the files from this archive into your game folder.

dgVoodoo2 for older games

Thank you to Loobinex for uploading to keeperklan on my behalf.

Alternatively you can download the official dgVoodoo2 release from Dege's website and extract the files from within /MS/x86/ directly into your Dungeon Keeper 2 folder.
You would then need to manually apply my dgVoodoo.conf config file

This has been pre-set to run at the maximum native resolution and to also preserve the in-game aspect ratio.

If you press ALT+Enter whilst in-game you can change from Fullscreen to Windowed mode.

2) OPTIONAL: If you experience crashes whilst loading the DKII executable, you may need to disable in-game intro movies by renaming BullfrogIntro.tgq and INTRO.TGQ to something else. You can also move the files into a different folder if you prefer. The intro files are located in \GOG Games\Dungeon Keeper 2\Data\Movies\

3) OPTIONAL: Run this registry file to force Dungeon Keeper 2 to use a 1280x800 (16:10) or 1920x1080 (16:9) resolution so you have a wider viewing angle. Note that this causes the text within the PAUSE menu to be invisible whilst playing in either of these resolutions; but this is not an issue if you have already configured the options exactly how you like. You can also revert the resolution back to 1024x768 from the main title screen if you prefer playing in its native 4:3 aspect ratio.

DKII 1280x800 Registry Patch
DKII 1920x1080 Registry Patch

4) IMPORTANT: Run the game from DKII.exe and not DKII-DX.exe

The best part of dgVoodoo2 is how it allows you to force improvements to 3D rendering, such as native UHD 2160p graphics rendering, forced anisotropy and antialiasing. It's a huge advancement over WineD3D or other hacky methods.

I also strongly recommend people install the General Improvement Mod (GIM) from the Keeper Klan website and play Dungeon Keeper II using the included v1.51 executable. This is especially important if you want a stable Multiplayer experience.

General Improvement Mod 1.05 Lite (Recommended version)

General Improvement Mod 1.05 by Wyrmcast

General Improvement Mod (GIM) fixes two of the most important bugs introduced in 1.7/GoG (Thank you Loobinex for highlighting these points):
• Threat level assessment bug: Rival Keepers assess all your armies as trivial and will only fight you with imps or goblins. This makes all maps with keepers easy.
• Attraction bug: In many maps you can't get all units that you should, like Dark Angels.

If you're looking for something rustier and a bit more decrepit, here is my guide to running Dungeon Keeper 1 KeeperFX.

KeeperFX Latest builds and install instructions

If anyone has any recommendations or corrections, please reach out and I will update this thread to keep it current.

As a thank you, all I ask is that you have a listen to this.

Best regards.

You could mention that the General Improvement Mod (GIM) also fixes the two most important bugs introduced in 1.7/GOG:
- Threat level assessment bug: Rival Keepers assess all your armies as trivial and will only fight you with imps or goblins. This makes all maps with keepers easy.
- Attraction bug: In many maps you can't get all units that you should, like Dark Angels.

Also, you could link to the new zoom-out mod: https://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=138

Thank you! I updated the OP with the GIM points. I wasn't aware of the zoom-out patch, but it seems to conflict with any patch that uses DDraw.dll. This removes all benefits of using dgVoodoo2. Is there an EXE patch alternative which preserves the fixes provided by Wyrmcast's GIM?

I guess, the easy thing about that patch is that it's just a DLL and you don't have to mess with the exe, but yeah, if you already want to mess with the dll, you should use the old exe-patch: https://keeperklan.com/threads/1051

I can't access the dgVoodoo preconfig you uploaded. Does it still exist and have the correct share settings?

Please try again, I re-uploaded the file and all seems to be good now!

Bizarre. I'm still receiving a Google 404 error redirect after attempting to load the link on both Firefox in safe mode and a fresh install of Chromium. Are you sure that the link works for everyone and not just for you?

EDIT: Yeah, that's the issue. You need to post a shareable link from the Google Drive account hosting the file, as explained here

Actually the issue is that Google Drive is incorrectly flagging the file as a virus. I re-uploaded the archive, and thanks to Loobinex it is now on keeperklan

The developer of dgVoodoo has had a long battle with his hook being incorrectly flagged as a false positive. Super frustrating in this instance.

Alternatively you can download the official release from Dege's website and extract the files from within /MS/x86/ directly into your Dungeon Keeper 2 folder.
You would then need to manually apply my dgVoodoo.conf config file

Passwords suck. You could have uploaded it to keeperklan. But I took the liberty to do it for you: https://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=139

If you want text-changes, let me know. EDIT: Actually, I just made you the uploader so you can edit it yourself if you'd like.

Most kind, Sir. Thank you so much.

I did exactly as you said devilhood but the game only runs the DK2-DX exe . The DK2 exe does nothing . It seems to want to start by taking me to a black screen for a split second but then throws me back to the desktop . I did remove the intro movies from the folder completely . This is a fresh GOG install with the dgvoodoo2 files added to the game nothing more . Did I miss anything ?

Did you also install GIM? I use this too.

What OS and graphics card are you using? Are you positive you extracted the files into the Dungeon Keeper 2 folder?

There are 7 DLL files including dgVoodoo.conf and dgVoodooCpl.exe. These files must be present in the same location as DKII.exe.

Some additional information. The GIM comes bundled by a set of 'balance changes' that not everybody will want. If you don't, simply don't extract the DATA folder that is inside the archive. This way you have the bug fixes in the exe, like more stable multiplayer and a functional keeper AI, but no gameplay rebalance.

However, the fix to the creature attraction bug is inside the level files you just skipped. If you also want to attract Dark Angels(and more) that are missing from 1.7, download the patched level files as well. I uploaded those here:
https://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=141

I just wanted to also say that I run into the same issues with an immediate crash upon starting, here are my specs;
Windows 10
GTX 1080
i7 6700
16GB RAM

I can get the game to run by running compatibility mode for Windows XP SP3, but that starts the game in the lowest resolution, and changes the REG files from the 1080p res I want to force. In-game, it does show that the dgVoodoo engine is being used.

My only goal is to play the game in 1080p, but so far every single thing I have tried has had no luck.

I am very bad at reading things, and taking steps, but I am great at visually understanding things. Could you please make a YouTube video showing each step to make everything work correctly? I hope that is not asking to much.