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[Solution] Alt+Tabbing
By TheMaster1
A fix for being able to alt tab in-game for Patrician III
   
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Created by
TheMaster1
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Category: Modding or Configuration
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
31 Mar, 2020 @ 5:14pm
10 Dec, 2020 @ 1:22pm
1,609 Unique Visitors
12 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
INTRODUCTION 
DISCORD 
[STEP 1] LINKS - GITHUB 
[STEP 2] DOWNLOAD FILES 
[STEP 3] THE FILES WE NEED 
[STEP 4] COPY FILES INTO PATRICIAN III FOLDER 
[STEP 5] EDIT .INI 
[STEP 6] DISABLE COMPATIBILITY + RUN AS ADMIN 
[STEP 7] IMPORTANT 
Comments
INTRODUCTION


Hello and welcome. Here I will explain step by step how to fix the issue with alt tabbing which makes your game crash.

Remember that the game only crashes when in the menus. If you are not in the menus (main menu or when you press [ESC] ingame), then it does not crash. I recommend lowering the game speed if you want to go to windows :)

Enjoy!



CREDITS:
  • @Bartez' in discord who told us about it and did this step by step. Asked if I could publish it and he said its fine :)
  • Elisha Riedlinger created the solution to this and has it available on GitHub


DISCORD

https://discord.gg/6BHaRZm

We have around 150 members as of 31st March 2020!
Update: 488 members as of 10th December 2020!

Join our discord and say hi! We are a small community so any interaction helps!

-We have English / Spanish / German / Italian chat channels.
-We have available Guides / Links / GIFS / created maps / etc.
-Find others to play multiplayer with
-Get tips
-Make friends
-Port Royale 4 news section updated as new information pops up.
-Patrician IV guides/links too

[STEP 1] LINKS - GITHUB
Visit GitHub webpage

Installation guide page:
https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper/wiki/DirectDraw-to-Direct3D9-Conversion



Where you download the file for dxwrapper releases
https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper/releases





[STEP 2] DOWNLOAD FILES
Download the file from https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper/releases



You will arrive to this link, so you can simply click here:

https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper/files/3674094/DxWrapper.zip


[STEP 3] THE FILES WE NEED
Extract the ddraw.dll, dxwrapper.dll and dxwrapper.ini files from the release






[STEP 4] COPY FILES INTO PATRICIAN III FOLDER
Copy those 3 files into the game folder

To find your game in Steam, simply right click on it --> Manage --> Browse local files.

[STEP 5] EDIT .INI
Open the dxwrapper.ini file and enable the Dd7to9 feature by deleting the 0 and putting a 1 there, as shown in the image below:



Additionally, in the dxwrapper.ini change DdrawLimitDisplayModeCount to 145




[STEP 6] DISABLE COMPATIBILITY + RUN AS ADMIN
For this to work, you have to disable the compatibility settings in the Patrician III exe and check "run as admin".

Note: Not having the compatibility setting might cause issues with the resolution mod or "parcher". I don't know.

Want to help?

Based on the quote below, I am unsure if this GitHub addition may allow Patrician III to run in Direct3D 9 or higher? Can someone confirm? Quote from the webpage:
  • "Over the past 12 to 18 months I have been working on creating a feature to be able to convert ddraw's DirectDraw/Direct3D to Direct3D 9 (d3d9). The goal of this project is to fix compatibility issues with older games that use ddraw, as well allowing these games to use newer tools that require Direct3D 9 or higher."
  • "The feature is built in dxwrapper and is called Dd7to9. So far most of the DirectDraw APIs have been implemented, while only a handfull of the Direct3D APIs have been implemented."


[STEP 7] IMPORTANT
The most important step.

Start the game and enjoy :)




6 Comments
< >
Ser AseR 4 Feb @ 1:19am 
It works! With HD resolution as well! 10/10 guide
Also, i did not disable compatibility or run as admin, i think it might help.
kollba 16 May, 2021 @ 11:38pm 
@TheMaster1. The problem with having the game running while doing Alt-Tab is that I am using Excel for calculating what material each city needs, what I produce in each city and what space is needed for each convoy. That will take some time because I am calculating more than one city at the time (when the population has grown so the old numbers are obsolete). So I will have to save, ignore what happens in the game and then load the game when I am finished. It is not a very big deal but it is a bit annoying.
I will have a look at Discord.
TheMaster1  [author] 13 May, 2021 @ 12:01am 
You should install the higher resolution mod tho, which makes the game nice to play. If you have more doubts pop by the discord we can try help u out
TheMaster1  [author] 12 May, 2021 @ 11:52pm 
@kollba at the end of the day, you can ignore this guide completely to alt tab since you can alt tab either way as long as you are not in the main menu, or in menu whilst ingame. I do it with no problems playing multiplayer and in singleplayer
kollba 11 May, 2021 @ 11:42pm 
It fixed the problem but created another problem. The game is no longer fullscreen. It is compressed from the sides so people look like the are 3 meters tall with a weight of 50 kg, no matter what resolution I use in the game.
I have tried everything I can think of, including compatibility modes, DPI settings, parameters in dxwrapper.ini... I also tried a mod that allowed higher resolutions but same, same. Alt-Enter seems to be used for chatting (in a single mode game ??) so it is not an option.
Any suggestions ?
duelle 23 Aug, 2020 @ 1:52pm 
This seems to have resolved some starting issues I got recently.