Is there any way to force MM7 with grayface's to not use the integrated intel card?

[Dziurkacz]

Hi Heroes!

I have a gaming laptop. It has 2 graphics cards: one integrated, the other a high-performance. How do I tell MM7 (grayface installed) to use the high-performance card? There is no option to choose it in mm7 setup, and selecting it in nVidia control panel doesn't help - my laptop works very loud when running the game in hardware 3d.

[Anubis]

https://pureinfotech.com/set-gpu-app-windows-10/

This might help.

[Dziurkacz]

https://pureinfotech.com/set-gpu-app-windows-10/

This might help.

It did not, but I did not know about this either, so thanks for that

[GrayFace]

Did you try compatibility options?

[Dziurkacz]

Yes, all up to Windows 7.

[NickMJ]

I have exactly the same issue. Did anyone manage to fix it?

[Pol]

Some notebooks can switch graphic cards right in bios. If you have nVidia you can use Optimus Manager. There's help from Asus. Which mentions also AMD.

The point is hidden, in GPU power manager. Where Intel should be still the most savvy. The same can be configured in Windows, at least in theory. (You need to see two GPU here.)

Otherwise this is not handled very by Windows neither I'm aware of any other GPU application. Where it's necessary, it's usually handled by app itself. These are Pro Apps though.

[tomchen1989]

Although you can force a program to use a specified GPU in the "Graphics settings" in Windows, for which you can read the tutorial in the articles Anubis and Pol mentioned: https://pureinfotech.com/set-gpu-app-windows-10/ https://mashtips.com/windows-11-default-gpu-for-apps/

You can't force mm8.exe to use your dedicated GPU if your computer has dual GPU. You can only select the integreted GPU in MM8Setup.Exe.

You can select the "High Performance" (dedicated GPU) option for mm8.exe and MM8Setup.Exe in the "Graphics settings", but mm8.exe will not use your dedicated GPU but the integreted one that is selected in MM8Setup.Exe. I can confirm this with Nvidia Optimus State Viewer, a tool to see if your dedicated GPU is being used. "Graphics settings" can force chrome.exe and other programs to use the dedicated GPU, but not mm8.exe.

I wonder if this problem occurs in all dual-GPU PCs, or just some of them.

[tomchen1989]

I don't know if it could work after user find the item in Registry and change the value. mm8setup.exe has no option to switch to dedicated GPU, but sometimes a hidden option in GUI is still settable in Registry and can be effective.

By the way it occurs to me that for ArcoMage HD, users including GrayFace who found it slow could force browser to use dedicated GPU if possible. Chrome uses integrated GPU if it is not forced. [Tutorial / solutions] What to do if the game is slow? In fact Anyone could force browser to use the dedicated GPU if it's generally slow browsing web pages.

[GrayFace]

I don't know if it could work after user find the item in Registry and change the value. mm8setup.exe has no option to switch to dedicated GPU, but sometimes a hidden option in GUI is still settable in Registry and can be effective.

It's "D3D Device" in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\New World Computing\Might and Magic VII\1.0] or [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\New World Computing\Might and Magic VII\1.0]. Setting it to 1 might help.

By the way it occurs to me that for ArcoMage HD, users including GrayFace who found it slow could force browser to use dedicated GPU if possible. Chrome uses integrated GPU if it is not forced. [Tutorial / solutions] What to do if the game is slow? In fact Anyone could force browser to use the dedicated GPU if it's generally slow browsing web pages.

No, it's the animations settings in CSS that are the problem. Plus all the delays, e.g. after AI gets the card, before making the move. It was very slow when I reported it, now it's much better, but still slower than in game and that doesn't feel right.

[tomchen1989]

Set that to 0/1/2 in Registry and it's still not working.

---

I expect dedicated GPU can boost CSS anim performance, although it's not guaranteed. With Nvidia Optimus State Viewer I can see dedicated GPU switches on and off during the game, but it's not sure if chrome uses GPU for CSS anim or for other processes.

I'll add a "Reduce effect" option

[GrayFace]

Set that to 0/1/2 in Registry and it's still not working.

Did setting it to 2 cause a crash?

[tomchen1989]

Did setting it to 2 cause a crash?

Yeah it got a buffer error before the 3DO video, resulting exit of the program

[GrayFace]

I think I'll make a test version for you to run to see what's the problem.

[GrayFace]

Okay, first install MMExtension and set it "D3D Device" to 1 in the registry for MM8 (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\New World Computing\Might and Magic Day of the Destroyer\1.0).
Then save this script as Scripts\General\test.lua:

Code: Select all

mem.nop(0x49AFCD)
mem.nop(0x49DCCE)

[tomchen1989]

I did that and it showed:

Scripts/Core/RSMem.lua attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'n' (a nil value)

stack traceback:
Scripts/Core/RSMem.lua in function 'nop'
C:\game\mmmerge-2021-07-05_zh_CN\Scripts\General\test.lua:1: in function 'dofile'
Scripts\Core\main.lua:501: in function 'dofile'
Scripts\Core\main.lua:521: in main chunk

arguments of 'nop':
p = 4829133
n = nil

local variables of 'nop':
(*temporary) = 4829133
(*temporary) = "mem.nop(0x49AFCD) mem.nop(0x49DCCE)"
(*temporary) = (function: 0x03bd5840)
(*temporary) = nil
(*temporary) = nil
(*temporary) = "mem.nop(0x49AFCD) mem.nop(0x49DCCE)"
(*temporary) = "attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'n' (a nil value)"

upvalues of 'nop':
IgnoreCount = 1
u1 = (table: 0x03c6a630)

[GrayFace]

Yes, I wrote Pol when I encountered it. He has fixed it in chSilver and will fix it in other styles.

I forgot old MMExt doesn't auto-calculate size. Here you go:
mem.nop(0x49AFCD, 2)
mem.nop(0x49DCCE, 2)

[tomchen1989]

OK I did what you said. The game still doesn't use my NVIDIA GPU according to Nvidia Optimus State Viewer. And the NVIDIA GPU still doesn't show up in MM8Setup.Exe.

My integrated intel card seems good enough to render the game without slowing it down, so the fact I'm unable to use NVIDIA GPU does not bother me. I don't know if it's bad on OP or other users' computers. OP said "my laptop works very loud when running the game in hardware 3d", but perhaps it'll be louder if OP switches to dedicated GPU? If the game is not slow with integrated card, it's just the laptop is "loud", then I think it's not a big problem.

[GrayFace]

Here's a new one:

Code: Select all

mem.nop(0x49AFCD, 2)
mem.nop(0x49DCCE, 2)

local devRec

mem.autohook(0x49ABDC, function(d)
	local guid, pDesc, pName, dev, devHEL, rec = d:getparams(0, 6)
	print('(Enum)DEVICE:', mem.string(pName))
	print('Description:', mem.string(pDesc))
	print('Flags:', mem.i4[dev + 4])
	print('pDDrawGUID:', mem.u4[mem.u4[rec + 4] + 32])
	local p = mem.u4[rec]
	if devRec and p ~= devRec then
		print'changed devRec!'
	end
	devRec = p
end)

function ListDevices()
	for i = 0, 3 do
		local p = devRec + i*0x28
		local on = mem.i4[p] ~= 0
		if on then
			print('(List)DEVICE', i)
			print('Name:', mem.string(mem.i4[p + 4]))
			print('Description:', mem.string(mem.i4[p + 8]))
			print('pDDrawGUID:', mem.i4[p + 0x20])
		else
			print('(List)No device:', i)
		end
	end
end

After running the game press Ctrl+F1, write ListDevices() there and press Ctrl+Enter.
Then post (or send me) contents of MMExtensionLog.txt

[tomchen1989]

Code: Select all

Loading user settings from MMMergeSettings.lua
Cannot load user settings: MMMergeSettings.lua: No such file or directory
Can't remove MMMergeLog.2.txt: No such file or directory
Can't rename MMMergeLog.1.txt: No such file or directory
Can't rename MMMergeLog.txt: No such file or directory
(Enum)DEVICE:	RGB Emulation
Description:	Microsoft Direct3D RGB Software Emulation
Flags:	0
pDDrawGUID:	0
(Enum)DEVICE:	Direct3D HAL
Description:	Microsoft Direct3D Hardware acceleration through Direct3D HAL
Flags:	483
pDDrawGUID:	0
(List)DEVICE	0
Name:	Direct3D HAL
Description:	Microsoft Direct3D Hardware acceleration through Direct3D HAL
pDDrawGUID:	0
(List)No device:	1
(List)DEVICE	2
Name:	RGB Emulation
Description:	Microsoft Direct3D RGB Software Emulation
pDDrawGUID:	0
(List)No device:	3