dithering with Nvidia in Windows 10?
 

I got this game to work in Windows 10 with fairly up-to-date NVidia drivers using a third-party wrapper recommended on this site. The only issue I seem to have is that many of the colors aren't being properly dithered, as the banding is terrible, particularly on the skybox. The game isn't unplayable since this isn't a 3D graphics heavy game, but it is quite ugly.


Any thoughts on this? I watch Youtube videos of people playing this game and I'm not seeing the sort of banding I am getting.


(in comparison, Fleet Command, which uses an older version of the engine, runs fairly well using a Glide wrapper and there is no banding on the skybox).

Try this:
https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...ighlight=DXWnd
IIRC video does not cover Glide wrapper but once you running in DXWnd it is rather easy to experiment.

I have used DXwnd in the past.



Dangerous Waters seems to have some atypical DX settings that causes problems on modern OS'es, so it is hard to configure. I'm going to have to track down a written description of the procedures to get it to run with DXwnd. As it is, I cannot get it to run with anything like default settings.


Also, any ideas what's causing mouse trails to randomly appear? It seems to mostly happen in the menus, not in the actual game.


Sorry if this sounds late. I did not play the game years ago because I perceived the difficulty as too hardcore. And it is fairly hardcore as far as sims go, but Sonalysts too steps to also make the game as accessible as possible.

DW is what ? ... 16-year-old game. Over those years DW got quite a lot of attention in database modding but close to nothing in maintaining and updating graphics to modern standards. (Except adding some models and interfaces of course).

It's not for a lack of trying. My understanding is that the database is the only thing that can be modded. The game is not open source so there is no way to modify the graphics engine or anything like that.

The graphic engine could be modified mostly as far as textures are concerned. Not much demand for that over the years as the current models and rather "rudimentary" textures seem to have been adequate. Yes one cannot make more serious changes except that in addition to little 3D model modifications if one has an access to 3dsMax 3.1.

If you are talking about the graphics engine of the game, it cannot be improved by modding.
It can only be adapted to new operating systems.
For Windows 10 (or 8), this is a known problem that many are trying to solve.

The DW graphics engine is old and there is no way to fix it.

In a nutshell, upgrading the rendering engine from DX9 to DX11 not possible without rewrite the entire old code. But possible if code available.

BTW, I just wanted to say thanks for your Youtube videos, they have been helpful in learning to play the game. A picture can be worth a thousand words. I am not a die-hard simulation fan (I'm more of the "Silent Service/Red Storm Rising/Cold Waters" school of subsims), but your videos have permitted me to get into this game.



Commanding the subs, the 3D graphics are almost irrelevant so I hardly use them. For now that's my solution to the issue. The 2D graphics are fine and incorporate dithering so that isn't a problem.


The sound engine is another thing that isn't really up to snuff. It wasn't even really all that good back in 2005. Silent Hunter had a much better underwater sound engine, without the constant pops and crackle of Dangerous Waters. But again, it doesn't really stop me from enjoying the game.

You're welcome! Glad to hear it.

Yeah I get the dithering. Not sure if it's an issue of wrapper or not. Tt has been so long since I played the game full screen on a system where a wrapper or d3d8.dll wasn't needed. Even before then, I was running the game in a window where only 16-bit color depth was possible and the lack of dithering was pronounced there, as expected. This thumbnail for a somewhat recent video of mine shows the lack of dithering, too.

https://i9.ytimg.com/vi_webp/CtdmNTJ...NBaXpu5_F3ew8w

Do you get pops and crackle that are like audio artifacts? Like when rotating a headphone's or speakers' connector in an audio jack? Those shouldn't happen. I'm trying to think of what those could sound like in DW but I can't think of anything unless I'm that much used to it. But it is indeed an old audio engine, the game sounds mostly identical to its 1997 predecessor 688(I) Hunter/Killer.