This game supports D3D and it's old enough to run on every video card still working... why use a Glide Wrapper? It can only lead to problems.

It's true that emulation is never accurate as the real deal but I believe it has worked for some where D3D simply didn't work even if it was in the minority. Also, it offers some better eye candy but only 4:3 resolution (original at least).

Why Glide Wrapper?

Because this game was designed in the early days of Direct 3D when Glide actually offered more features and special graphical effects.

This is most noticeable in the lighting around lamps and candles, transparencies (windows and water), and reflective textured surfaces (the exception is that mirrors are reflective in all versions), and improved shadow effects which the D3D version does not support.

Try to look back through the topics and you'll find a couple which show pictures and discuss the bells and whistles of the 3DFX version.

No one has yet made a Directx 9/10/11 patch for the game to remap the bells and whistles to modern computers (as has been done for many other early Unreal games).

In anycase if you must still use D3D, it is included, and can be used. Just realize you will be disabling much of the atmospheric graphical effects.

http://www.gog.com/forum/clive_barkers_undying/differences_between_glide_and_d3d

Baggins, you don't happen to know if widescreen high resolutions is possible with Glide in any way?

Not that I know of. Glide wasn't designed for widescreen in mind originally. Other than a few wrappers that 'force' it, I can't think of any official patch for widescreen.

Forced widescreen resolutions though causes other issues, like stretched graphics.

There has been Directx 9/10/11 mods made for other Unreal games (to convert old bells and whistles to modern standards), but no one has made one for this one yet though, as far as I know.

Well, in the screenshot provided, the only difference is more lightning.

I'll stick with D3D, I can play in 1920x1080x32bpp with forced AA+Aniso... and the fewer lights make it more creepy :)

Which screenshot?

If you look at the photos provided here you can see a comparision of an indoor room;

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9091474

This room includes brighter lighting, better glow around the lamps. Brighter glow around the windows.

There are also rooms IIRC, where the ballroom floors are shiny and reflect the ceilings only on Glide (this was an Unreal I glide only effect I think).

In an immersive single player title? Not the way I would play but each to their own.

The nGlide glide wrapper is far more stable on modern graphics cards than the ancient Direct3D, at least in some games. I was thinking about buying this one and the glide wrapper is a selling point for me. For instance, I own a disk copy of Lands of Lore III, and it is practically impossible to run on any of my computers with D3D. CTD immediately in most cases, but sometimes can go a minute or two before crashing. I worked in IT for years and could find absolutely no way to run it stably until I found nGlide. Never had a crash with nGlide, it is completely 100% stable and awesome.

You can use the nGlide configurator bundled with the games shortcut to set a resolution. I set mine to 1920x1080 and then locked the aspect ratio to 4:3 so it doesn't get stretched. Yeah, its not widescreen, but it is presented in the manner is was meant to, but with the same pixel density of 1920x1080.

I immediately changed the configuration to Direct3D. It works without any compatibility issues for me and I just can't stand the ugly banding with the glidewrapper (because it's limited to 16 bit and modern graphic cards have no support for 16 bit dithering anymore). At the cutscene right at the beginning the difference is clearly visible in the clouds/fog (where the scene changes to the battlefield).

I thought nGlide had to run with 32-bit, I think I read at over Zeus Software forum.

Yes, that's true, nglide renders everything in 32bit, but unfortunately it's not perfect (not like back in the days with a real 3dfx-chipset). You'll see what I mean if you compare the mentioned fog in the intro movie between 3dfx (nglide or zeckensack's) and Direct3D. The 3dfx-specific additional effects show the same banding (the emitted light of the lamps have three "steps").

Isn't it a problem with directx 9 or 10 level hardware and up?

I understand there are many directx games that have similar 16 bit dithering issues, where 16 bit dithering is used by the games in directx mode.

According to this '16 bit dithering' has been fixed in glide wrapper since 2010 or so (.93).

http://www.zeus-software.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=52

My own tests, I see 16-bit dithering is actually worse in Directx Mode for example around the lamps (see attachment).

The image on the left is Directx, and the image in middle is 3DFX (NGlide), and the right is Directx 32bit.

While I certainly see a certain level of banding in both, the banding is worse in DirectX 16-bit mode (to the point of seeing noticeable dark outline in the outer edges of the glow, where as the 3DFx gradient smudges out the transparency a bit better)

32 bit still has banding, but there are quite a few more steps in the artwork. It looks like a different set of textures being used actually, rather than simply color issue (32bit is using higher definition textures, and not simply forcing 16bit graphics through 32bit mode).

As for the lighting, between Glide and Directx its subtle. Glide when it works has more light areas and more shadows. More use of 'colored lighting' effects. Whereas directx tends to keep the light more or less the same level each room.

For example while both have halos around the lamps, glide actually extends an actual glow around the wall (better way to explain this is its brigher on the wall near the lamp, and darker the further one gets away from the lamp, see attachment above Clive.jpg). Whereas, Directx has more or less the same level of light across the entire wall (and is overall darker, see above attachment clive3.jpg)..

I think the real trick would be to somehow mix the best of both methods. Somehow make use of the 32bit textures, and also activate any glide only bells and whistles.

It might take making a special driver set like was done for Deus Ex?