I finally found a good way to avoid the problems newer cards have with DDraw (artifacts, choppy framerates, stuttering). The solution is to use the D3DWindower program. This utility can help you run older games in a window, using ddraw emulation, thus eliminating any ddraw issues. You can find it
here. It's a partly translated version form Korean, but it's easy to figure out. In order to use it, push the "+" button, choose the game exe and then click on the settings button. Enter the resolution in which you have the game installed (height and width are misplaced). In the "DDL" box select the .ddl that was inside the archive, then go to the "Window Mode" tab and tick the "DDraw emulate" box. Finally press the "run program" button to run the game windowed.
This worked fine for
PST, I've heard it also works good for the Fallout games and I'm sure it will also work for Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. The above settings worked for Planescape Torment, but other games may need somewhat different settings. If you want the window to fill the whole screen, just install the game at your fullscreen resolution and then run it with D3Dwindower.
Some antivirus may mark the exe as a trojan but I think that's because it somehow hacks d3d/ddraw to make any application run in a window. Anyway, I haven't encountered any problems, but use it at your own risk.
Maybe this should be mentioned in the first post, since it eliminates DDraw problems regardless (probably) of the graphic card.
EDIT: Another thing i forgot to mention is to check the "Cursor Clip" box in the "Direct input" tab. This keeps focus on the window , so the mouse won't appear outside. Especially useful for scrolling.
Edited by ghostdog, 23 December 2009 - 09:21 AM.
