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Hi everyone,

After hours of searching the internet I finally got hardware mode to work on my rig (using 2 radeon R9 270x). In theory the guide below should work with any setup. Disabling crossfire/sli on multi-GPU setups is recommended though. This guide should also fix any launching errors on newer systems. I am currently running Windows 10 x64.

STEP1: Install PTB or reinstall if you did any tampering with the .dll files OR used the widescreen patcher
STEP2: (optional) if you want to run the game in higher resolution, make a shortcut and add -alres to the target line. Be sure to adjust your resolution BEFORE starting or loading a game, the game seems to crash when you change the resolution ingame. I have not tried anything higher than 1280x720.
STEP3: Download dgvoodoo 2 (just google it, it's the first result, no installation required)
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.
STEP5: run the dgvoodoosetup.exe file from your PTB directory, before changing any settings click the "\" icon in the top right to make sure the .config file gets created in your PTB installation directory.
STEP6: Adjust the following settings: on the tab "general" select your primary (physical) adapter. On the tab "DirectX" change videocard to "Gefore4 Ti 4800", hit the apply button. You can disable the dgvoodoo watermark on the tab "DirectX" as well, but I would recommend leaving it on the first run to check if the wrapper is working.
STEP7: Launch the game via D3DPopTB.exe or the shortcut created in step 2 if you like to play in a higher resolution.
STEP8: Rejoice and bask in the glow of glorious DX6!

(edit) fixed a few typos
(edit2) fixed cmd tagline, thx to ZellSF for pointing that out.
Post edited October 13, 2015 by kevroman
OMG thank you! Been trying to get this gem of a game to work for a long while now. The only game I have bought off GoG that never would work. It works perfect now. I have the same video card, on Win 8.1 x64 . I'll be upgrading to Win 10 soon, so it's good to know it works on that too.
Thank you very much. I had tons of issues both with my HD5770 card and with the mouse, but using your guide now I can enjoy the game using Direct3D. This post should be added to the support section of the game.
If you have performance problems, either:

1. Force vsync off and set your mouse to a low polling rate.
2. Add /frameratemouse as a parameter to d3dpoptb.exe.
Quoting myself in case anyone needs this info and doesn't read any of the other topics where I've mentioned dgVoodoo2.
Thanks for the help getting this to work.

Perhaps dgvoodoo should be included with the GOG installer, so that the game works right away.


-resall in the shortcut didn't seem to have any effect though. 800x600 was still the largest resolution the game would allow.
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blind3rdeye: Thanks for the help getting this to work.

Perhaps dgvoodoo should be included with the GOG installer, so that the game works right away.

-resall in the shortcut didn't seem to have any effect though. 800x600 was still the largest resolution the game would allow.
Probably because the argument is -allres

The game won't remember the chosen resolution between restarts though. popres can fix this, but it does not work properly in NT.

The game will get also more glitchy the higher you go and UI does not scale properly for non-4:3 resolution.
Post edited October 12, 2015 by ZellSF
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blind3rdeye: Thanks for the help getting this to work.

Perhaps dgvoodoo should be included with the GOG installer, so that the game works right away.

-resall in the shortcut didn't seem to have any effect though. 800x600 was still the largest resolution the game would allow.
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ZellSF: Probably because the argument is -allres

The game won't remember the chosen resolution between restarts though. popres can fix this, but it does not work properly in NT.

The game will get also more glitchy the higher you go and UI does not scale properly for non-4:3 resolution.
Excellent. -allres works as described. Thanks for the info.

I really do think that these adjustments should be included in the GOG installer. In an ideal world, I imagine that I'd be able to play games from GOG just by pressing 'install' and then 'play', without having to search forums for help to fix little problems. As it currently stands, if I just install Populous 3 and press play, the game immediately crashes. It doesn't work at all. That's not a good situation... Maybe I'll contact support about it another day (I don't have time to do it today).
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ZellSF: Probably because the argument is -allres

The game won't remember the chosen resolution between restarts though. popres can fix this, but it does not work properly in NT.

The game will get also more glitchy the higher you go and UI does not scale properly for non-4:3 resolution.
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blind3rdeye: Excellent. -allres works as described. Thanks for the info.

I really do think that these adjustments should be included in the GOG installer. In an ideal world, I imagine that I'd be able to play games from GOG just by pressing 'install' and then 'play', without having to search forums for help to fix little problems. As it currently stands, if I just install Populous 3 and press play, the game immediately crashes. It doesn't work at all. That's not a good situation... Maybe I'll contact support about it another day (I don't have time to do it today).
I agree, too much hassle imo. I wouldn't expect GOG to pack PTB with the dgvoodoo mod, seeing as they don't own the mod :p . Now all we need is a HD re-release with some 4k textures!
This works. It has a few issues for me, but it works.
The issues I have are related to using Multiple Monitors, the mouse will go over to the other screen while in game and click on it. Booting me to desktop. My Desktop is running the same Resolution as Populous, so I don't know exactly what the cause is. I could probably fix it with a AutoHotKey script or by messing with dgvoodoo a bit more.

EDIT: Basically the mouse cursor stays on the desktop at all times. But when under the game window, clicking doesn't harm anything. I got around this issue by using the AutoHotKey script at the bottom of this page.

As I can't post links, Just Google "Banditos Confine Mouse" and use the script at the bottom of the desktop page.
Though AHK is very useful, it's also a bit tricky so I would still look for a better solution so users don't have to learn how to use a complex scripting program.

Certainly not the most conventional means of fixing it, just remember you have to deactivate it after using it.. So I'd research this topic more if you have Multiple Monitors, I think the same issue affects Windowed users.
Post edited November 04, 2015 by 1chiro10
Worth noting that dgVoodoo2 uses DirectX 11 and DirectX10.1 feature set on GPU.

My GPU is an aging GTX260 which is only DX10.0, not DX10.1, so I wouldn't expect it to work.

There is an older version of dgVoodoo but this fix refers to using the new one.
Thanks for the guide. Works for me on Win 7 64bit with a Radeon R9 270x.

BTW you missed the second L in the command line option "-allres".
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kevroman: STEP2: (optional) if you want to run the game in higher resolution, make a shortcut and add -alres
Hey guys, i used the described solution for the game and now it works and start fine, mostly.

The reason im posting is that i have FPS stutter everytime i rotate the gameworld, even more pronounced when there is smoke on screen (through a rising obelisk as an example).

i dont really want to know what happens when there is actually fighting going on. Any ideas? its not really enjoyable this way.

the options are set to max, 1280x720 resoloution (but i would actually play it as "beautiful" as i can get it)

i have a i7 4790
Gefore 980 ti
16gb ddr 3 Ram

if you needs more data i will check back in the next few days. andy ideas are appreciated :)
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lordofriva: Hey guys, i used the described solution for the game and now it works and start fine, mostly.

The reason im posting is that i have FPS stutter everytime i rotate the gameworld, even more pronounced when there is smoke on screen (through a rising obelisk as an example).

i dont really want to know what happens when there is actually fighting going on. Any ideas? its not really enjoyable this way.

the options are set to max, 1280x720 resoloution (but i would actually play it as "beautiful" as i can get it)

i have a i7 4790
Gefore 980 ti
16gb ddr 3 Ram

if you needs more data i will check back in the next few days. andy ideas are appreciated :)
Did you try what I wrote? Again: two options:

1. Force vsync off and set your mouse to a low polling rate.
2. Add /frameratemouse as a parameter to d3dpoptb.exe.

Also remember it's a 30 FPS game and it'll never be smooth.
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ZellSF: Did you try what I wrote? Again: two options:

1. Force vsync off and set your mouse to a low polling rate.
2. Add /frameratemouse as a parameter to d3dpoptb.exe.

Also remember it's a 30 FPS game and it'll never be smooth.
sorry i skimmed through the topics on here and missed your post, thank you, that did the trick :P

its much appreciated.
Just wanted to say thanks! This works great! I did not know about the -allres parameter before, very nice to be able to play the game in higher resolutions, even though 1600x900 is the highest possible and with dgVoodoo the view is centered on my screen with black borders all around... Well, now I can choose between playing in d3d mode with black borders (unless there is a solution for this) on my desktop pc or keep playing in software mode on my laptop (since its intel HD chip is apparently too weak for dgvoodoo), but with 1366x768 resolution.

edit, ah, well now it scales the 1600x900 to full screen, maybe a graphics driver issue or something... anyway, with this tool I can even make it remember the resolution after restarting the game: https://www.popre.net/downloads.php?f=10 (edit2: I see it was already mentioned in this thread... anyway, here is the link)

Beware, it will not be shown in the options menu of the main screen and it will change back to 640x480 if you open the options menu from within the game. Higher resolutions than 1600x900 still don't work!
Post edited January 10, 2016 by Pherim