Enable full screen (DirectDraw)

[Violet CLM]

Download here (get.jj2.plus/misc_builds/plus_directdraw_registry.zip)

The Problem:
Sometimes JJ2(+) doesn't allow you to use fullscreen. Alt+Enter does nothing and it doesn't appear in the video options menu.

We think this is because later versions of Windows disable some DirectDraw functionality unless the special code DWM8And16BitMitigation is in a certain area of the registry. (DirectDraw is the technology that JJ2, and programs in general, use for fullscreen--I'm using them as synonyms here.)

This experimental build adds DWM8And16BitMitigation to the registry when you run it.

Caveats:

The string is added to the registry the first time you run JJ2+. Therefore, it won't work the first time, DirectDraw will still be unavailable. It should only start being available the second time you run JJ2+, and then continue to be available every time thereafter.
This needs to be set in the registry for every different path to Jazz2.exe you have. So if you have multiple copies of JJ2+ installed in different folders, you'll need to do this for each folder.


How to test this:
Download this ZIP (get.jj2.plus/misc_builds/plus_directdraw_registry.zip) and extract the plus.dll file into your JJ2+ folder. You may make a backup of the original plus.dll first, if you want.

Try running JJ2 many times in a row, to make sure that the fix doesn't stop working at some point.
Try renaming the folder to see if the fix can catch up to the new name/s. (Again, it may only start working the second time you run JJ2+ in each different folder name.)
Try other things that we haven't thought of!


Next Steps
If we hear that this build successfully fixes the problem for affected players, we will release it as an update to JJ2+, so everyone gets the fix, not just people looking at this particular forum thread.

If not, we'll go back to researching the problem. :(

[FawFul]

Works for me, but with some oddities. Playing on Windows 10.

- Confirmed that a fresh install Jazz2Plus folder lfrom GOG acks directdraw fullscreen as mentioned in this forum post

- Subsequent launches works as described above. Small note that GOG installs with HIGHDPIAWARE registry already in there and this new plus.dll gives it a second time, without checking if it's already present. So it ends up with the line "DWM8And16BitMitigation HIGHDPIAWARE HIGHDPIAWARE".

-Renaming the folder into different folders, or making a new folder and copying all files into it interestingly enough does never make directdraw dissapear. When launching and refreshing the registry DW8And16Bitmitigation is added to the new folder and it works immediately on the FIRST launch and subsequent launches.

-Thus the only way of removing directdraw (for one launch) I could find is if I remove the registry manually.

[Violet CLM]

Sounds like it works better than expected, then; off to a good start!

The double HIGHDPIAWARE should totally be fixable.

[Violet CLM]

It would really be great if people could look at this thread and help out. Full-screen difficulties are something that new players respond to, and if nobody but Faw is willing to try out a public test build--not even those same new players!--it's very difficult to move forwards with solving their problem.

[ShakerNL]

I'd love to help, but I can't replicate the problem. I know that I couldn't go fullscreen at times years ago, but I have no idea what caused that and how to trigger it.

[Violet CLM]

It usually seems to be caused by running JJ2 from a file path where you hadn't previously run it from, i.e. installing it in a new location.

[Violet CLM]

Is there really no one else who is willing to make a new JJ2+ install folder, or copy JJ2+ into a new folder, or rename JJ2+'s folder? I can tell you how to do these things in File Explorer if they sound daunting!

[ShakerNL]

I can try to do this later tonight and will let you know.

[ShakerNL]

I had an existing JJ2 1.23 folder somewhere where I could not enter fullscreen mode. I updated Plus on it. (it had an Oct. 2010 build). Still no fullscreen option. Then ran the dll from this page, still no fullscreen option. Relaunched JJ2+ again and it launched directly into fullscreen and all the DDRAW options were present. Ran JJ2+ several times and they were still present. Ran JJ2 vanilla from that same folder and there were no fullscreen options. Ran JJ2+ again and there were fullscreen options. Renamed the folder and ran JJ2+ and the options were still present.

Hope this helped.

[Violet CLM]

Thanks, yes, that's helpful! Even if we can't reach every computer or operating system through public testing, at least knowing it solves the problem on some computers means it's better than nothing, and it seems unlikely to have deleterious effects.

Ran JJ2 vanilla from that same folder and there were no fullscreen options.
I suppose it would be possible to apply the same registry change to Jazz2_NonPlus.exe as well, but we don't really go out of our way to encourage people to play that.