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Running Dungeon Keeper 2 in Windows 7

PostPosted: 19 Mar 2011, 00:31
by svenskmand
This post was spawened as a question to this post about running DK2 in this thread.

Bodsda {l Wrote}:I played DK2 yesterday and can confirm that you can drop imps on unclaimed tiles

Hey how did you install it? What OS did you play it on? It is a bitch to get working on any modern Windoze.

Re: [Feature Request] Force closest task on drop

PostPosted: 19 Mar 2011, 09:45
by Bodsda
svenskmand {l Wrote}:
Bodsda {l Wrote}:I played DK2 yesterday and can confirm that you can drop imps on unclaimed tiles

Hey how did you install it? What OS did you play it on? It is a bitch to get working on any modern Windoze.


I am running 64bit Windows7 Ultimate edition.

I downloaded the iso for Dk2 v1.7 and mounted it with Daemon Tools. Set the shortcut and the exe to compatibility mode of win98, run as administrator, 256 colours and 800x600 res. The game runs perfectly.

Bodsda

Re: [Feature Request] Force closest task on drop

PostPosted: 19 Mar 2011, 16:38
by svenskmand
What iso is that? Some special edition? I have the retail game, it works like crap in win xp, but i just installed win 7, I can try and see how it works there.

Re: [Feature Request] Force closest task on drop

PostPosted: 19 Mar 2011, 17:07
by svenskmand
Nope does not work on Windows 7 Professional using the retail game which I then patch up to version 1.70 :S

Re: [Feature Request] Force closest task on drop

PostPosted: 19 Mar 2011, 22:49
by Bodsda
svenskmand {l Wrote}:Nope does not work on Windows 7 Professional using the retail game which I then patch up to version 1.70 :S


Ill post a complete step-by-step tomorrow. For now, can you define "Does not work"?

Bodsda

Re: [Feature Request] Force closest task on drop

PostPosted: 19 Mar 2011, 23:22
by svenskmand
When I start it, it just flash with the screen and then it returns to my desktop :S

Re: [Feature Request] Force closest task on drop

PostPosted: 20 Mar 2011, 19:34
by StefanP.MUC
I have Win7 64Bit Pro. I can get to the main menu in DK2 1.70. But all the 3D (menu background and ingame) are just black. Sound works, however. I tried all the tricks that can be found on the net in all possible combinations (compatibility, registry hacks, parameter to the exe, ...), but no luck.

I think the main problem here is the graphics driver that can't be set in a "compatible mode".

Re: [Feature Request] Force closest task on drop

PostPosted: 20 Mar 2011, 20:20
by TheAncientGoat
Er, want to move this to a new thread?

[Moderator@A new thread was spawned :)]

Re: Running DK2 in Win 7

PostPosted: 20 Mar 2011, 23:43
by oln
Have you tried running it using a 3Dfx glide wrapper? I think i have done that in the past.

Re: Running DK2 in Win 7

PostPosted: 21 Mar 2011, 00:37
by svenskmand
oln {l Wrote}:Have you tried running it using a 3Dfx glide wrapper? I think i have done that in the past.

I do not know how to do that, care to explain? or link to some tutorials? :)

Re: Running DK2 in Win 7

PostPosted: 21 Mar 2011, 02:24
by svenskmand
How to run Dungeon Keeper 2 in Windows 7
  • 1) Install the game
  • 2) Patch it to v 1.7.
  • 3) Crack the game, find the crack at Gamecopyworld and ignorer the instructions about using Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit, (you need to own a copy of the game and check the legality of cracking a purchased game in your country)
  • 4) Right-click DKII.exe and select the "Compatibility" tab, select "Windows XP (Service Pack 3)" in the "Compatibility mode" section and finally check "Run this program as an administrator" in "Privilege Level".
  • 5) Copy D:\Data\Movies into C:\DK2\Data, where it is assumed that you game cd is in drive D and you have installed the game to C:\DK2. You can now watch the cinematic without the cd.
  • 6) Run Dungeon Keeper 2 using DKII.exe
High-resolution tweaking
You can run the game in custom resolutions by running regedit from the start menu, then navigate to
  • "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Bullfrog Productions Ltd\Dungeon Keeper II\Configuration\Video"
where you can change the fields "Screen Height" and "Screen Width", remember to hit the "Decimal" button before editing these fields. You need to make trial and error to find a resolution that fits you.

Unmessing the camera in high resolutions
I have a display with a native resolution of 1920x1080, but setting the height and width to that messes up the camera too much, so I have choosen to run in 1600x900, which my display actually still displays in its native resolution, so it sill looks nice, and the camera is not all to messed up. You can tweak the camera by selecting one of the 3 user camera's and then using these buttons:
  • User Camera 1 - F4
  • User Camera 2 - F5
  • User Camera 3 - F6
  • Camera Mouse Rotate - X + MOUSE LEFT/ RIGHT
  • Camera Mouse Zoom - Z + MOUSE UP/ DOWN
  • Roll Right (Free Camera / Set User Camera) - CTRL + DELETE
  • Pitch Down (Free Camera / Set User Camera) - CTRL + END
  • Pitch Up (Free Camera / Set User Camera) - CTRL + HOME
  • Roll Left (Free Camera / Set User Camera) - CTRL + INSERT
  • Yaw Right (Free Camera / Set User Camera) - CTRL + PG DN
  • Yaw Left (Free Camera / Set User Camera) - CTRL + PG UP

Even more tweaking
You can tweak even more settings using DK2Tweaks, which is just a program which calls DKII.exe using various commandline flags.

Re: Running DK2 in Win 7

PostPosted: 21 Mar 2011, 17:55
by svenskmand
Can anybody who have problems with running DK2 confirm if this works?
StefanP.MUC {l Wrote}:I have Win7 64Bit Pro. I can get to the main menu in DK2 1.70. But all the 3D (menu background and ingame) are just black. Sound works, however. I tried all the tricks that can be found on the net in all possible combinations (compatibility, registry hacks, parameter to the exe, ...), but no luck.

I think the main problem here is the graphics driver that can't be set in a "compatible mode".

I get the same problem if I enable any of the 32-bit rendering command line options, if they are disabled it works as normal. And if that does not work then run the game in software rendering, by disabling hardware rendering in the video options. In relation to this question then I have a Nvidia Geforce GTS 250 card, with the 266.58 WHQL reference drivers from Nvidia.

Re: Running DK2 in Win 7

PostPosted: 21 Mar 2011, 18:20
by oln
svenskmand {l Wrote}:
oln {l Wrote}:Have you tried running it using a 3Dfx glide wrapper? I think i have done that in the past.

I do not know how to do that, care to explain? or link to some tutorials? :)

There are several wrappers that translate functions from the glide API to d3d or opengl.
As 3dfx video cards was the shit around the time when DKII was released, a lot of games from that era look much better using the glide api than if set to use d3d or ogl. (Except the fact that the 3dfx cards were 16-bit only)
I think it should only be installing one of the wrappers, and setting the game to use 3Dfx glide instead of whatever else it's using for rendering.
Though since you got it to work anyway it might not be worth the trouble.

Re: Running Dungeon Keeper 2 in Windows 7

PostPosted: 23 Feb 2016, 07:39
by rasha
I tried all the tricks that can be found on the net in all possible combinations (compatibility, registry hacks, parameter to the exe, ...), but no luck.

Re: Running Dungeon Keeper 2 in Windows 7

PostPosted: 25 Feb 2016, 20:04
by Danimal
Hi Rasha, just surrender and buy it from Good Old Games or try the open version. But the open one is still no good.