It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
This dgvoodoo 2 lights up a ton of antivirus programs, more than even demoscene hacker stuff. I'd call it extremely suspect based on that.

Can GoG just fix this already? It's not right that they can sell things that simply don't work.
Thank you for the Guide, finally I can play this great game again.

Works perfect on my WIN10pro x64 System with AMD Radeon 470 Graphics Card.
I am still getting crash issues... can someone confirm it still works with the latest dgvoodoo2?

Running Windows 10 64bit
Post edited May 04, 2018 by Bacon2890
avatar
Bacon2890: I am still getting crash issues... can someone confirm it still works with the latest dgvoodoo2?

Running Windows 10 64bit
Yes, Populous The Beginning + dgVoodoo 2.55 works perfectly on Windows 10 64-bit.
avatar
JigenD: This dgvoodoo 2 lights up a ton of antivirus programs, more than even demoscene hacker stuff. I'd call it extremely suspect based on that.

Can GoG just fix this already? It's not right that they can sell things that simply don't work
The vast majority of antivirus programs do not flag dgVoodoo2 as a virus. That a small minority screw up their heuristics and get false positives on game hacks is not unexpected.
avatar
Bacon2890: I am still getting crash issues... can someone confirm it still works with the latest dgvoodoo2?

Running Windows 10 64bit
Same here. Doesnt work at all for me.
avatar
Bacon2890: I am still getting crash issues... can someone confirm it still works with the latest dgvoodoo2?

Running Windows 10 64bit
avatar
Sachys: Same here. Doesnt work at all for me.
I did it like 5 min ago. I can confirm that it works with dgVoodoo v2.55.2. Was following instructions in the first post. After compleating the procedure, game lunched but there was a problem with mouse. Coursor was slowing down while moving, jamming very ofter and in general, making game unplayable. ZellSF came up with a solution to this. Many thx:

" - add /frameratemouse as a parameter to d3poptb.exe"

Works like a charm!
Great guide!

You can find a recently patched version of the hardware exe file over at Populous Reincarnated and if used in tandem with dgVoodoo you will have very few issues playing single player D3D.
Thanks for sharing this. Your instructions worked almost perfectly but there appear to have been some changes since 2015 (Can't say I'm surprised).

The executable as of dgVoodoo v2.55.3 is the dgVoodooCpl.exe one found inside the zip file.
You may also wish to select a Scaling mode on the General tab. I set mine to Stretched, keep Aspect Ratio. Don't set it to Stretched like I did as this seems to cause the game to crash when loading Level 6, plus it causes other weird desktop switching behaviours.

For completeness, running Windows 10 1709 x64.
Post edited September 09, 2018 by IdeasMan
dgVoodoo v2.55.3 didn't work well for me. After playing around with the settings, I could get it to work, but it has issues and ran slowly with the laptop I am using (intel i5 2415m, HD 3000 graphics).

If found that the following worked much better.
Download the ddraw.zip file from this website (I used the version released on Dec 22, 2016).
https://github.com/narzoul/DDrawCompat/releases
Open the zip folder and copy the ddraw.dll file to your Populus - The Beginning folder.
Post edited May 17, 2021 by blarth
avatar
Bacon2890: I am still getting crash issues... can someone confirm it still works with the latest dgvoodoo2?

Running Windows 10 64bit
avatar
ZellSF: Yes, Populous The Beginning + dgVoodoo 2.55 works perfectly on Windows 10 64-bit.
avatar
JigenD: This dgvoodoo 2 lights up a ton of antivirus programs, more than even demoscene hacker stuff. I'd call it extremely suspect based on that.

Can GoG just fix this already? It's not right that they can sell things that simply don't work
avatar
ZellSF: The vast majority of antivirus programs do not flag dgVoodoo2 as a virus. That a small minority screw up their heuristics and get false positives on game hacks is not unexpected.
It is not a vast majority. 1/3rd of virus scanners say it is a trojan. Furthermore, these are NOT using heuristics.
avatar
ZellSF: Yes, Populous The Beginning + dgVoodoo 2.55 works perfectly on Windows 10 64-bit.

The vast majority of antivirus programs do not flag dgVoodoo2 as a virus. That a small minority screw up their heuristics and get false positives on game hacks is not unexpected.
avatar
JigenD: It is not a vast majority. 1/3rd of virus scanners say it is a trojan. Furthermore, these are NOT using heuristics.
https://www.virustotal.com/#/file/e641dc76a88dce9d6231bcb3592c20ca1ed384aef505a63d2a05c69cdfb8e674/detection

17/60 still counts as a small minority to me and most of all of them are heuristics. Anything labelled "generic" means they're guessing, meaning heuristics. That's 7 of the results.

"BehaveLike", "Riskware", "Unsafe", "Malware.Undefined" are quite obvious guesses. If they knew what it was, they would have a more specific name.

So obvious question here: if you trust antivirus companies, why would you distrust the vast majority of them who calls a file safe, in favor of the minority who are mostly just guessing wildly?
This is a thread I´ve used several times, thanks for the superb info!

When install on my atom x5 8350 tablet, performance was bad, after searching for a while I notice 1 of the 4 CPU cores was allways at 100% use.
Removed the compatibility mode to WIN95 fixed the bad performance and there is load across all the cores, although 1 is more used, obvioulsly.

This was using WIN10 but also worked on the desktop using WIN8.1. D3D worked on both!

Edit: Alt+tab works perfect now!
Post edited April 02, 2019 by Dark_art_
avatar
Raydell: Great guide, thank you very much for it!

The only very minor issue I have is that the campaign progress bar (at the bottom of the planet selection screen), which is supposed to fill up with icons of planets, remains empty (i.e. planet icons never appear in the slots) regardless of progress. It works properly in software mode, but apart from that, the D3D mode looks a lot better of course, so cheers!

(Win7 64-bit, HD 6870, for the record)
I have this same exact issue, the progress bar with the planets is bugged in Direct3D, works fine in software rendering mode. Is there any way to fix that?

Edit:
I recall when I had this game more than 2 decades ago the Direct3D solar system did display the planets but not the circle highlighting the currently selected planet. In software it is the same as I remembered it.

Any clues welcome! these glitches piss me off!
Post edited September 05, 2019 by Grunwaldt
STEP4: Extract the downloaded rar file and copy the contents of its \MS folder to your PTB install dir, also copy the dgvoodoosetup.exe file to the aforementioned directory.

It's no more true about the latest version of gvoodoo. Actually, there's 2 new files in it : x86 and x64 and you have to copy the contents of \x86 folder. Thank you very much anyway.
just wanted to say this guide is useless and unnecessary technically.

I can run the game with the default gog install perfectly fine at max resolution
Post edited March 27, 2020 by Stixsmaster