GWX knights cross installation issues

[konekivääri]

I have followed the guide by wolfpack 345, but when I run it, it says: Error, cannot initialise 3d engine.
Can anyone help?

[Hooston]

"cannot initialise 3d" occurs when your graphics card/monitor combination cannot support the video mode requested by the game. GWX Knights Cross uses a "directX wrapper" which is a hacked local copy of d3d9.dll in the same directory as sh3.exe. it is configured with a file d3d9.ini in the same directory.
Knights Cross will ONLY run at 1920x1080. This must be one of the graphics modes your machine can support. Some screens (especially laptops) have strange aspect ratios or lower resolutions. Unfortunately the directx wrapper chosen always forces full screen, so you cannot run it on a window in a large modern display.
You could try an external display like a 1080p TV
... or try another supermod. Older versions of GWX and NYGM are designed around the original 1024x768 and are also compatible with optional extra GUI mods supporting different aspect ratios such as 1366x768.
Some day someone will come up with a better diirectx wrapper that allows clever things like display scaling and running in a window...
I suppose you could run GWX KC in a 1920x1080 window on a 4K or better display by using a virtual machine, but I've never heard of anyone trying this!

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by konekivääri

I have followed the guide by wolfpack 345, but when I run it, it says: Error, cannot initialise 3d engine.
Can anyone help?

In addition to what Hooston says, you do need a valid install of SH3 on your machine, else the DirectX v9.0c library and codecs are not installed. Also, you might have to adjust the SH3.exe "Compatibility" settings in the "Properties dialog for the file. You could try the Compatibility Troubleshooter to help there. Also, be sure and either empty the current Save folder (C:\Users \UserName \Documents \SH3) or use MultiSH3 and create a new Save folder, such as KC1 or whatever you want to name it.

[Hooston]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

In addition to what Hooston says, you do need a valid install of SH3 on your machine, else the DirectX v9.0c library and codecs are not installed.

..err no. I installed it on my new Windows 11 home machine with an Nvidia 4070 which has never seen SH3 or other games of that vintage. It ran fine. i think directX 9 calls and codecs were all handled by the Nvidia drivers. Other drivers may differ but I expect they generally still support the old stuff.
Compatibility mode has to be Windows 7 i tried Windows XP 64 and got a crash to desktop after about 5 minutes game time.
Of course you MUST own a copy of SH3 to appease Ubisoft and the gods of copyright.


edit - tried running it without "run as administrator set" and it runs fine. So it's just compatibility mode to windows 7 and install outside of Program Files.