vga-ddraw

A DirectDraw API re-implementation for smooth 2D gaming under standard VGA drivers in QEMU, v86, and other emulators.

Overview

• Based on FunkyFr3sh's cnc-ddraw 1.3.4.0.
• Includes the Windows NT driver components \\.\DirectVGA and \\.\DirectPalette as part of this project: \\.\DirectVGA accelerates rendering to the VGA framebuffer, and \\.\DirectPalette stabilizes 8-bit output by directly modifying the VGA palette.

Performance

When running the v86 emulator in a modern browser on a very old computer (e.g. 4th-gen Core i5), vga-ddraw easily reaches 900+ FPS (5~10x of cnc-ddraw's soft renderer).

Supported platforms

• Windows 7 (32-bit only)
• Windows 2000 / XP
• Windows NT 4.0 / ReactOS: DirectPalette is required for 8-bit mode
• Windows NT 3.51: DirectPalette is required for 8-bit mode; msvcrt.dll (from Windows NT 4.0) is required
• Windows 95 / 98 / ME: DirectVGA is not supported; soft renderer is used instead

Use case

This project targets legacy Windows gaming environments where the guest system only exposes a traditional VGA framebuffer. It helps DirectDraw-based games run more smoothly inside emulators and virtual machines that do not provide modern GPU acceleration.

The following demos were tested under Windows NT 3.51 using the v86 emulator:

• C&C Red Alert (RA95) Demo
• StarCraft Shareware

Note that vga-ddraw is not the only way to run these games in v86. ddraw-wrapper is an alternative solution.

Changes from cnc-ddraw

• Supports 24-bit and 32-bit color modes (24/32 bpp).
• Removes OpenGL and D3D9 renderers (retains the software renderer only).
• Removes screenshot functionality.
• Disables windowed mode, cutscenes, and stretching behavior.
• Improves compatibility for Windows 95, NT 3.51 and NT 4.0.

Why choose cnc-ddraw 1.3.4.0?

• It is the base used in FunkyFr3sh's Red Alert 1 Installer.
• Version 1.3.5.0 introduces a dependency on Detours, which makes it incompatible with Windows 9x and NT 3.51.

How to Build

NT 5.x Drivers

• Install DDK 5.1.2600.1106 into C:\WINDDK\2600.1106
• Run dvga\makefile.bat

NT 3.51 / 4.0 Drivers

• Install MSVC 2.1 into C:\MSVC20
• Install DDK 3.51.1057.1 into C:\DDK
• Run dvga\makefile_nt351.bat

DirectDraw

• Install mingw32 (sudo apt install gcc-mingw-w64-i686)
• Run makefile.bat or makefile.sh

Tests

• Install MSVC 6.0 (Visual Studio 6.0) or mingw32 (sudo apt install gcc-mingw-w64-i686)
• Run dvga\maketest.bat, test\makefile.bat or dvga/maketest.sh, test/makefile.sh

ddraw-wrapper

ddraw-wrapper is a lightweight DirectDraw interceptor that forwards DirectDraw calls to the real ddraw.dll from the Windows system directory. It is useful for debugging DirectDraw usage, tracing API calls, and modifying or replacing DirectDraw behavior in legacy Windows games.