How I got Gruntz working on Windows 10 64-bit (dgVoodoo 2)

[kamiledi15]

Also, remember that the game is not installed - I just copied files from cd, because Setup file doesn't work in Windows 10.

[GooRoo]

Jul 22, 2021 15:14:20 GMT -8 kamiledi15 said:

Also, remember that the game is not installed - I just copied files from cd, because Setup file doesn't work in Windows 10.

Doesn't matter. You can start Gruntz from File Explorer ... or better yet, create a desktop launch shortcut. If you copied everything into games/ (creating games/Gruntz/) and did all of the Windows 10 "fixes", you should be in business.

[kamiledi15]

Ok, I finally was able to find another resolution entry. Now it works perfectly, thanks for your help.

[swietymiki]

Jul 22, 2021 15:13:03 GMT -8 kamiledi15 said:

It's here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Monolith Productions\Gruntz\1.0

This is the same location that my game uses but I run the game as administrator. Without admin rights the settings would go to a different location (perhaps certain authorization is required to access some parts of the registry) - the game just has to store the information about its settings somewhere.

Jul 23, 2021 0:12:09 GMT -8 kamiledi15 said:

Ok, I finally was able to find another resolution entry. Now it works perfectly, thanks for your help.

Next time I recommend CTRL + F... That would make it clear whether there are any other places where Gruntz' resolution value is stored.

[GooRoo]

Somewhere (other than in this thread, where it belongs) there is a link to be able to download the latest version of dgVoodoo. The version I currently try to run under has severe limitations, such as (in the puzzle I am working on) preventing the movement of the opening Grunt from moving even ONE space to the right, or down! And if I move the screen up or to the left, I can no longer move to the right (or down) in order to do a partial screen grab. If I do a SAVE, then I have full freedom to move around ... but things may have changed from the initial design.

So if someone knows where the up-to-date link to the latest version of dgVoodoo is, please copy the link into this thread.

I certainly will appreciate it, and perhaps someelse has the same problem as I and will thank you for it as profusely as I will!

[swietymiki]

Mar 11, 2022 10:20:14 GMT -8 GooRoo said:

So if someone knows where the up-to-date link to the latest version of dgVoodoo is, please copy the link into this thread.

A link to the author's website is available in the first post: dege.freeweb.hu/

You can get the newest version of dgVoodoo in the "Downloads" page of this site, under "Latest stable version" (currently v2.78.1).

[GooRoo]

Mar 11, 2022 12:22:47 GMT -8 swietymiki said:

Mar 11, 2022 10:20:14 GMT -8 GooRoo said:

So if someone knows where the up-to-date link to the latest version of dgVoodoo is, please copy the link into this thread.

A link to the author's website is available in the first post: dege.freeweb.hu/

You can get the newest version of dgVoodoo in the "Downloads" page of this site, under "Latest stable version" (currently v2.78.1).

Downloaded the ZIPped file and extracted it. Tried to run the control panel, but Windows objected, saying it was unsafe (or something similar). Since I have NO IDEA what selections to make (General/Slide/whatever) I have not done whatever is necessary to use the "latest stable version". I have not been able to locate in the documentation any example of how to set it up for Gruntz.

Does the 2.78.1 version address the problems I indicated above?

[swietymiki]

Mar 11, 2022 13:02:02 GMT -8 GooRoo said:

Since I have NO IDEA what selections to make (General/Slide/whatever) I have not done whatever is necessary to use the "latest stable version".

It should work without changing the settings. Have you placed the DDraw.dll file in the game's directory?

Does the 2.78.1 version address the problems I indicated above?

It's possible that there was an error unique to the version you were previously using that is fixed now, because most people that are using dgVoodoo are not encountering this issue.

[GooRoo]

Mar 12, 2022 5:51:39 GMT -8 swietymiki said:

Mar 11, 2022 13:02:02 GMT -8 GooRoo said:

Since I have NO IDEA what selections to make (General/Slide/whatever) I have not done whatever is necessary to use the "latest stable version".

It should work without changing the settings. Have you placed the DDraw.dll file in the game's directory?

Does the 2.78.1 version address the problems I indicated above?

It's possible that there was an error unique to the version you were previously using that is fixed now, because most people that are using dgVoodoo are not encountering this issue.

There is a version date 3/11/2016 in the game drawer. I will check to see if the 2.78.1 version has a newer date and/or size and replace it if so.

[GooRoo]

I replaced the 80Kb version of DDraw.dll with the 219Kb version, and was able to roam the map without starting the game. That is the GOOD part. The BAD part is that the program does not clean up when it is closed. Left behind is a rearranged desktop in approximately 1/4 the screen's capability in the upper left corner. Since there is no task remaining that the "three finger salute" can remove, my only option was to do a restart. So my 'shortcut' to do a test was NOT the way to go. I will stick to my earlier plan from now on and edit the map on this Windows 10 laptop and 'SneakerNet' to do my testing on the XP laptop.

"New and improved" ... NOT! Microsoft products are designed to make existing programs that are NOT Microsoft obsolete. And they are very good at doing so.

A company with the best interests of its customers at the front of their minds would go overboard to ensure that their N&I version(s) were always backward compatible.

[gameretro]

Hey guyz, I installed the game and am able to start it it workz smooth and all... but my mouse right click doesn't work in the game. I can close info messages in the quick start with it but it won't make the grunt move. Any ideaz?

[swietymiki]

Does your left click work though? Can you select Gruntz?

[GooRoo]

Sept 13, 2022 4:42:38 GMT -8 gameretro said:

Hey guyz, I installed the game and am able to start it it workz smooth and all... but my mouse right click doesn't work in the game. I can close info messages in the quick start with it but it won't make the grunt move. Any ideaz?

One problem that I had was that my Grunt would not move! I discovered that the problem was that my Grunt was either outside the 32 tiles wide by 24 tiles tall area, or that I was trying to get it to move outside that area. One EASY solution is to immediately use F2 to do a SAVE. Once that was done, my actions worked perfectly.

[gameretro]

Left click works. Right click worked too but something happened and it doesn't work any more. Tried complete game reinstall. Tried PC restart. Haven't tried installing in a different folder though.

The issue I have is on the quick-start first ever map/tutorial trying to go anywhere it just doesn't get the grunt to move. It does however register the click when there is an info window open - i.e. it closes the info window with right click too. It just doesn't register the click on the game screen...

I guess a VM will be a better approach since I also don't like the options menus that alt-tab me from the game.

[swietymiki]

Sept 13, 2022 13:33:27 GMT -8 gameretro said:

The issue I have is on the quick-start first ever map/tutorial trying to go anywhere it just doesn't get the grunt to move. It does however register the click when there is an info window open - i.e. it closes the info window with right click too. It just doesn't register the click on the game screen...

That's very weird indeed. Perhaps your version of the game is corrupted somehow. We have an installer available in the List of Utilities, Tutorials and Custom Tilesets that installs a working version of the game with dgVoodoo.

I guess a VM will be a better approach since I also don't like the options menus that alt-tab me from the game.

Virtual Machine is also an option, but this issue could be fixed by setting Gruntz to windowed mode in dgVoodoo settings.

Edit: To get dgVoodoo windowed mode to work, the "Videocard" setting may need to be changed in the DirectX tab. I personally use the ATI Radeon 8500 option.

[swietymiki]

I thought I would post some new information here, as there's been an increasing number of people reporting a certain issue with dgVoodoo in recent years. The usual description of the problem is that large white bars are displayed in the menu instead of text and on the side panel of the game. Pink artifacts may also be visible in the game around various objects.

For a long time we had trouble finding a solution, but finally one of the users of our Discord server managed to fix it by messing around with dgVoodoo settings. Apparently the "Bilinear blit stretch" and "Apply Phong shading when possible" settings in the DirectX tab are causing the issue. Here are the full settings that eliminate the problem:



The Glide settings tab is only shown for completeness, as Gruntz uses DirectX instead of Glide so it should not have any effect on the software. Certain options such as "Config folder / Running instance" might be different on different computers because this location corresponds to your Gruntz installation directory.