Lag in WA3 and WA3E on Windows 10 version 1809 (FIXED!)

[Lazy Loof]

EDIT (02-05-19): THIS ISSUE IS FIXED! SEE HERE

Hello everyone,
So I also wanted to share a problem here, which I forgot to mention.

Actually, when I updated to the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, I tested out all the six Wonderland games. All the games except WA3 and WA3E worked fine... but in those games, there is a lot of lag. The main menu showed 60 FPS, but when I click on "Play Custom Adventure", I see nothing on the screen except the background. On POTZ, when I load a save, there is very very low FPS and the gameplay is jerky.

It seems to me that it is antivirus or a problem something like that.

I've tried:
-reinstalling the graphics driver
-disabling Windows Defender
-using compatibility settings
-reinstalling the game won't work

The only thing that can fix this issue for me is to reverting back to the April 2018 Update

[StinkyFTW]

Inb4; Every Windows 10 Update breaks WA for some time.

[PhoenixBlaze]

Edit: Sorry Aryan, I forgot to say which version of Windows 10 I use, I use 1803.

[Midnight Synergy]

They all work for me (on two computers) perfectly fine as well - hard to pinpoint a problem when I can't reproduce it. I'm still guessing that the next Windows update will fix it again (and probably introduce some other problem for some other game - haha!).

[Lazy Loof]

If someone else here has upgraded to the October 2018 update, then please post the message here. I am gonna be with 1803 unless anyone here upgrades to 1809 and says that WA3E is working fine.

[Sofoulini]

Sorry to disappoint you Aryan but the new version of Windows 10 (version 1809) didn't solve my problem so nothing had been changed in my graphic card.

Pfff...Windows 10 and their problems....Like Vista.

[john1013]

I just purchased potz, and when I went to play, I first experienced the graphics card issue, so I used dgvoodoo. The game opens just fine, but I have the lag issue making it very hard to play. My version is 1809 as well, but I cant revert back to 1803 because its been too long. If anyone has come up with a solution, I'm anxiously awaiting to play

[Lazy Loof]

Hello,

I have retargeted the Blitz3D runtime to the Windows 10 1809 SDK using Visual Studio 2017. And then I have updated the WA Editor with this runtime. If you can't understand what I meant, then you can say that I have updated the WA Editor v3.00 for 1809 platform.

Now I need the users having 1809 to test this update. Firstly, download the WA Editor v3.00 stand-alone by clicking here or with the archive by clicking here.

Now you can download the 1809 updated WA Editor v3.00 exe from this link - https://archive.zbots.space/files/wg_latest.zip.
Put wg_latest.exe into the WA Editor v3.00 folder (the folder where the player.exe file is). PLEASE RUN IT IN WINDOWED MODE!

Also, to run this new exe, you need fmod.dll.

Download fmod.dll by clicking here and put it in root folder of WA Editor v3.00 (the folder where the file player.exe is)

Try to run it without dgVoodoo2. Also, you can run the game in fullscreen if you want, but if the game freezes then don't worry, it'll automatically close after a while. Same happens in windowed mode too.

Hope it works!

Sorry for the messed up (and possibly rude) post, but I was not having any time to type all this stuff, so please excuse me!!!

[john1013]

I had to use dgvoodoo to bypass the graphics error we have all been getting, however all I got was a black screen and had to restart computer.

Edited: After setting compatibility mode for windows 7, it opened, but it also has lag.

[Lazy Loof]

I had to use dgvoodoo to bypass the graphics error we have all been getting, however all I got was a black screen and had to restart computer.

Edited: After setting compatibility mode for windows 7, it opened, but it also has lag.

I think you started the game in fullscreen. Whenever any error occurs, the game automatically freezes and closes (atleast on my computer). This behavior is not shown by the original exe, it simply displays the runtime error occurred in a small message box.

Anyways, thanks for the feedback! And I am really sorry for that black screen problem too.
Now, it seems to me that these games require internal modifications to be able to run on modern systems.

[john1013]

I have been updating all my drivers using driver easy to no avail. Still have lag in potz. I play about 2 minutes and get irritated and turn it off

[Lazy Loof]

I have another tip for people using dgVoodoo2:

1. Open dgVoodooCpl.exe from the dgVoodoo2 folder.
2. Set the directory of POTZ in Config folder / Running Instance.
3. In the DirectX tab, set the VRAM to the highest value you find.
4. Click Apply and then OK.
6. (Optional) Check beside "Fast Memory Access"
7. Try to run POTZ again.

Hope it works!

[Sofoulini]

Hey Aryan...I tried your last solution but unfortunately, it didn't work in my laptop.
Still lag with no difference.
I followed all your above steps but the game still lags and I don't know why.

[john1013]

Didn't work on my game either. But thanks for all you do to try to help.

[garirry]

I'd like to add my two cents to this matter.

For those who don't know I've had a dual boot Windows/Linux setup for a few months now, and only recently did my Windows install get the 1809 update (probably because I almost never use it anymore). I can confirm that, even on my relatively powerful computer with a 1050 Ti and i5 4460, I'm experiencing considerable slowdown in many areas, often making it unplayable. Prior to upgrading, the games ran fine. This only occurs with POTZ and the editor, MOFI works fine. Likewise, a VM running 1809 also suffers from this problem, so it's definitely not an isolated case.

However, this is not the most interesting part of what I've wanted to say as it seems that there's some issue with the games themselves that I can't pinpoint. Remember what I said about my dual boot setup? Well, on my Linux install, I've successfully installed (and even played entirely through) WA and MOFI on PlayOnLinux (which runs on Wine), and they run pretty much perfectly. Older games work as well. However, POTZ and WAE both have extreme slowdowns, to the point where the game runs at 1 fps or less when there's even any text on it. Now I know that I shouldn't be expecting a Windows title to work flawlessly under a compatibility layer, but I nonetheless wonder why the previous games that run on almost the same engine run almost flawlessly, whereas the newest games are literally unplayable. This problem can be reproduced with all versions of Wine, including those released before 1809.

I am really curious about this and I am interested in knowing what could have changed internally to create this issue. Maybe it could be potentially possible to recompile the game under old versions of Blitz3D or maybe targeted at an older .NET framework or something? I really don't know how Blitz3D works so that's just my guesses.

[Lazy Loof]

I am really curious about this and I am interested in knowing what could have changed internally to create this issue. Maybe it could be potentially possible to recompile the game under old versions of Blitz3D or maybe targeted at an older .NET framework or something? I really don't know how Blitz3D works so that's just my guesses.

I think I should now say what could be the main reason, behind all those slowdowns with BitDefender, 1809 and Wine in Linux:
The reality is that POTZ and WA3E are different from the other Wonderland games. Yes, they are.
Actually in Blitz3D, there are two types of builds of apps that can be made, one is release and the other is debug. Debug builds include some extra debugging releated things and do make the game slow down. The fact is that these two games are the debug builds, rest are the release. I think due to some things in Wine/1809, these debug builds cause these types of issues.
I asked Patrick why he compiled the games in debug, he said that they only worked in debug not in release mode (probably due to Z-Bots). I think if these games are compiled in release mode, they could possibly work.

[garirry]

I think I should now say what could be the main reason, behind all those slowdowns with BitDefender, 1809 and Wine in Linux:
The reality is that POTZ and WA3E are different from the other Wonderland games. Yes, they are.
Actually in Blitz3D, there are two types of builds of apps that can be made, one is release and the other is debug. Debug builds include some extra debugging releated things and do make the game slow down. The fact is that these two games are the debug builds, rest are the release. I think due to some things in Wine/1809, these debug builds cause these types of issues.
I asked Patrick why he compiled the games in debug, he said that they only worked in debug not in release mode (probably due to Z-Bots). I think if these games are compiled in release mode, they could possibly work.

Interesting, that would explain quite a lot, actually. It seems to me that whatever is causing the problems in the release versions should have been pinpointed and fixed prior to release, but I guess the potential issues with the debug release could have been overlooked since 1809 wasn't a thing, and Wine is a very specific setup that probably nobody had in the dev team. Maybe there's still hope for a non-debug build to happen, but I doubt it considering how the CD is being made now which makes updates inconvenient.

[nasko222]

Hey, I contacted microsoft for the problem, They are gonna fix the problem ASAP

[nasko222]

Deleted.

[nasko222]

Hey, sorry to tell but microsoft didn't found a good fix on 1809. They wrote a fix on my case issue: "Solved, Need to go back to previous build of windows to work'. The reason that they told me is Outdated engine. They told me to contact game owner to update the engine to be compatible with windows 10 1809. Also the compatibilty troubleshooter does not work because they are not setting for 1803 build. I made a fresh new installation to play the game. I have other graphics card problems for now but i am gonna fix it with updating the driver. Also i noticed bug in editor lag only on full screen. Anyone know how to fix it???

[Lazy Loof]

PROBLEM SOLVED!

View this page: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27819

Hope it works!
Aryan

[nasko222]

im on 1803 i wont change it the last time when i went back i lost some files. I dont want to lose them again

[Sofoulini]

Your last solution Aryan worked like a charm!
Thanks a lot for this!
Now everyone will gonna enjoy playing WA3 on Windows 10 without any lag!

[nasko222]

not for long. The latest windows update broke WA entierely on my computer. All wa games works with 5 fps. Im trying to remove the update but it doesnt seem to work. Maybe i need to reinstall windows....

[nasko222]

i reverted some updates back and now seems that its working fine. If not i will reinstall windows