This game doesn't play particularly nice with alt-tabbing - which is to say, it doesn't allow anything to be painted on top of it even if it doesn't have focus. In addition, it resets your videoLUT while active, which is a disaster if you have a calibrated monitor (as I do). I was getting increasingly frustrated with this, so I wrote a small proxy dll to force the game into a borderless window. It's pretty primitive - the window style (WS_POPUP) is hardcoded and it will always be placed in the upper left corner of the screen (you can use the setup utility from the GoG release to set the resolution and make it fill the screen if you want) - but it does the job and makes playing the game a whole lot more pleasant in my opinion. So I figured I'd share it here.

The first version includes some VSync handling and should be preferred unless you get performance issues. Links (remove the spaces, includes the source code):
www . mediafire . com / ?cjer3us34loaies
www . mediafire . com / ?jp6yqwj41nvd4b7

To use it, just extract d3d9.dll into the directory where "The Bard's Tale.exe" is located. You'll also want to disable some of the compatibility options that the GoG release ships with so that Windows' compositor, the Desktop Window Manager, doesn't get disabled. The attached image shows which compatibility options you should keep.

The game is still limited to 60fps internally somehow - I'd like to figure that out, but I'm not sure where to start. Something for another day, perhaps.

Sweet, thanks for contributing that. Was very annoyed not being able to alt-tab.

Thanks for posting this, it works really well.

You say to extract the dll but there are other files in the zip. Are we to extract the entire zip or just the dll?

I went ahead and put them all in the folder, checked the image, only have the two boxes checked (windows 8.1), but when I start it up, it is spilling across onto my right monitor like the resolution is too big. It also still keeps my mouse trapped on the game screen. I then tried removing all but the dll, and no change.

I am even reading [url=http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Bard%27s_Tale_(2005)#Windowed]http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Bard%27s_Tale_(2005)#Windowed[/url]

The black line approximates the edge of the monitor and the game screen spilling onto the other monitor.

Sorry to hear it isn't working right for you - unfortunately I don't have a two monitor setup myself so I didn't test that case. Is the mouse still trapped if you alt-tab out? It should get trapped after you click on the window, but my detection may be buggy.

Oh, and the other files in the archive are the source code of the hook; if you're not a programmer yourself it won't be much use to you. The dll itself is all you need.

As a workaround for your multi-monitor issue, perhaps you can use something like AutoSizer to force the window into the right position?

The mouse is only trapped when it is in focus. I guess there is no way around with some of these games.
I resorted once to using VMware Player with W98-XP installed, going into full screen, and then if streaming (OBS) the game window capturing that window. I then play off of that window so that it will fill the frame and have the ability to free the mouse using the key combo to get out of the VM.

Worked GREAT for me! Thanks a lot! I don't know if I could go on playing without being able to switch to my other monitor. I bought this game just for the classic Bard's Tale games that are included. I don't care for the newer version.

I tried going back to this again, putting just the dll in the folder, with only one monitor now, on Windows 8.1,
and it only comes up as a small borderless window the size of my palm stretched out, on the upper left corner of the screen.

The picture I assume is of Windows 7 or XP, as I am not able to change the grayed-out "disable display scaling on high DPI settings", which is checked.

Just goes to show how incompetent InXile is, they wont fix any old issues nor will they offer support. It's companies like them that give developers a bad rep.

Thanks for the fix, shame InXile wasnt smart enough to do that.

Thanks! Work great for me.

i bought this game but it says "not yet available" in my library and cant download it. Have you got any idea?

Thanks for this awesome fix. Fixed my flickering loadingscreens.

Thank you very much! Now game works much better for me!

Thanks! I had problems with my Steam version starting in 24p mode. That d3d9.dll fixed it for me.

Good lord, almost 10 years!

Ok, so d3d9.dll does work, but I have a dual display setup - main 2560x1080 and secondary at 1080p... the game start so huge that it spans both, and then some. The Bard's Setup also doesn't seem to work, it just runs the game. Ideas?