Diablo Backwards Compatibility Guide

[Slayer_X64]

I finally got around to updating the main post in this thread.

What if one use 2 monitors? How does full screen programs work with sucha workup? Will the second (or first) screen work as a normal desktop to work with other programs?

I believe so. The program should occupy fullscreen on one display, unless they're configured for Clone. You might find the limited screen palette Diablo requires could unsettle the colors on the other monitor though. Not sure as I don't have multiple monitors myself.


I have found an alternative way to correct the discoloration besides registry fixes. It does the exact same thing as the registry fix, just another method. It's almost as simple, too.

First, get ddwrapper.zip from:
http://bitpatch.com/ddwrapper.html

OR once again as an attachment from my post, because these handy things on the internet tend to disappear all too often.

Place the ddraw.dll and aqrit.cfg file in your Diablo directory alongside Diablo.exe. Edit aqrit.cfg with a text editor and change the 0 after ForceDirectDrawEmulation to a 1. This achieves the same thing as the color registry fix and sets a DirectDraw compatibility flag, correcting the miscolorations. After you've done this and saved, so long as these two files remain in the Diablo directory the issue is fixed forever, and has the added benefit of carrying over to a new computer if you simply copy the Diablo directory instead of reinstalling. It also works with ANY version of Diablo, so you don't have to worry about a specific registry entry for each version.

As an added bonus though, there is another thing you can enable in aqrit.cfg that can fix another problem I mentioned here - the multi-core chat crash. Again, change the 0 after SingleProcAffinity to 1, save, and now Diablo should always run only on a single core, avoiding the random chat crash.

Two birds with one stone, if I may. You can also use this to fix the colors in say StarCraft. Note that if you run mods for Diablo out of different folders, these files will not take effect, so they must be included in mod folders as well (that includes the Hellfire expansion).

Thanks for posting this fix, its a lot easier to implement than previous fixes.