DXGL is a free replacement for the Windows ddraw.dll library, running on OpenGL. It is designed to overcome driver bugs, particularly in Windows Vista and newer operating systems. It also adds various enhancements to the graphics output such as display scaling and filtering options. DXGL supports the DirectX 7.0 graphics APIs, however it is currently under development and many programs are not yet compatible with DXGL.
If you upgrade from DXGL 0.5.8 or earlier, the configuration format will be changed, and earlier versions of DXGL will no longer recognize the profiles. In addition, any profiles generated by older versions of DXGL going forward will not be recognized by DXGL 0.5.9 or later. If you wish to migrate any old profiles generated after installing DXGL 0.5.9 or later, you will need to use Regedit to delete the "Configuration Version" registry value from the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\DXGL registry key to force the upgrade to be run again.
If you downloaded the DXGL source code from GitHub, please note that when compiling DXGL, the version number will not indicate the revision number. This issue is also present when compiling from a zipped source code distribution from the www.dxgl.info or www.williamfeely.info website.
- Windows XP SP3, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, or 10 (May work under recent versions of Wine)
- OpenGL 2.0 or higher compatible video card, with hardware accelerated non-power-of-two size textures
- OpenGL 3.2 or higher recommended.
- Visual C++ 2013 x86 runtime, available at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40784 (will be installed if not present)
- Visual Studio 2013, either full/community version or Express for Windows Desktop might work.
- The following components are optional. The build process will ask for these if they do not exist:
- TortoiseSVN (to fill in revision on SVN builds)
- HTML Help Workshop (to build help)
- NSIS (to build installer, requires TortoiseSVN and HTML Help Workshop to succeed)
These instructions assume that you do not have any of the required software installed. If you already have any or all of this software installed and set up, skip those steps.
- Install Visual Studio 2013 Community at https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/news/vs2013-community-vs.aspx
- Open the dxgl.sln file, select your build configuration (Debug or Release) in the toolbar, and press F7 to build.
For detailed progress information, please check https://www.williamfeely.info/wiki/DXGL_Features What works:
- DirectDraw object creation and destruction (versions 1 to 7)
- Display mode enumeration and switching (with emulated mode switching)
- Fullscreen and windowed modes.
- Basic Blt() functionality
- 8-bit color emulated with GLSL shader
What partially works:
- 3D graphics are only partially supported.
What doesn't work:
- Many functions are stubbed out and return an error
Run the installer. When the installer completes, open DXGL Config and add your program files to the config program. To uninstall, go to the Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features control panel and uninstall.
SVN readonly access is available at: https://www.dxgl.info/svn/dxgl/
There is a Mediawiki-based SVN log at: https://www.dxgl.info/wiki/Special:Code/DXGL
An AppDB system (similar to that on winehq.org) is now available at: https://www.dxgl.info/appdb/
This requires a user account separate from the other services.
Please note that the AppDB is now deprecated and will be made read-only once the new DXGL Wiki launches.
You may discuss DXGL at: https://www.dxgl.info/phpBB3/
You must create a forum account to post content. For bug reports, please refer to the next section.
Bug reports are managed by a Bugzilla system available at: https://www.dxgl.info/bugzilla/
A user account needs to be created at this site to post bug reports.