update: tried several 'solutions'' i found on the internet but they don't work
seems the windows versions don't like ALT TAB or any other way to switch to the desktop and back, every windows always accepted it and gave no problem, but windows 10 gives only problems and lots of them.


Anyway i need ALT TAB or a working solution cause after >15 years ALT TABBING i got used to being able to tab back and forth, ps: i'd rather not use tools or other programs ( exe files) to do the job windoze 10 ought to do.

update : i downloaded the Dxwnd from sourceforge. dot net
it says its the safest way to get it so i downloaded the file.

After spending nearly 10 hours ( 3 days (3 hours a day) i gave up ... there are too many options and combinations, and all i really need is a way to enable a proper ALT TAB under win 10.

I tried many settings/combinations and i almost founs a workingone, that is i was able to alt tav back and forth without the game and mouse locking so i saved it exported it and made a backup ( winrar)

I tried it today and after 1 alt tab back and forth it some how stopped working .... no settings were changed so....

Anyway i guess i stop trying to fix the ALT TAB cause it is only a waste of time, the names of the functions and options have no simple explanations in plain English it's all too technical .......the problems is after testing more old games like the ja2 games they also had same tab problem, most of them are win 98/se games , Fallout classic do tab back but have some 'delay'before they show the game again and sometimes the screen looks like a jijsaw puzzle that is missing some piecs (✖╭╮✖)

Conclusion: Windows 10 is the problem:

I use the same GPU , same Monitor , same games but a different Windows, the CPU has nothing to do with it cause the old quad was also faster than the P3i used during win 98se era .. and i never had game that run faster animation because of a fast CPU..

Hi gamesfreak64,

i had the same problems with the mouse and tried several things until I came across the following:
https://github.com/narzoul/DDrawCompat

It seems like there is some incompatibility between the newer direct draw releases from MS and the older games made for windows.

just download the latest release and install according to the descriptions on the github site.
(just put the ddraw.dll into the same directory where you can find the ja2.exe file)

It worked like a charm for me.
Fixed all the performance issues and also the Alt+Tab issue.

Cheers,
darkhyn

thanks for the reply ... so i download the things and put it in the gamefolder that needs it, in this case in the ja2 folder.

yes, that's right.

just be aware that if you alt+tab out of the game and return, then your mercs will do the strafe by default when moving them. you have to press alt again to disable the strafe move :)

strafe? like spraying with bullets while moving? or just autofire ?

Anyway i will try it out and see what happens.... thanks again.

update :

i had an old dgvoodoo 2.52 and 2.53 archived on my win 7 pc.... i ran a check with online scanners, AV, antimalware and they were all negative ......


I '"accidentally"pasted the ddraw.dll from the dgvoodoo in the ja2 folder because it was still in the clipboard :D
since there was no current file present with the same name i got no message do you want to replace ... blablablabla
( the usual messages).

I ran the game after i had tried some settings in deegee voodoo 2.52 and 2.53 but i forgot how to set things cause i havent used it for years so i dont know if the program autmatically copied the ddraw dll in the ja2 game folder....

I started the game and ALT TAB worked so i started to ALT TAB back and forth and close , open the game and sofar it kept working BUT... the savegame slots showed the number 0 to 9 to the left and i was unable to enter a name for the file to save the game under .... then i remembered i saw it before years ago same thing happend on win xp and win 7 i guess this is a flaw in the ja2 game....

Anyway it works , i alt tabbed 40 times and besides the weird sideffect'' of the game slot numbers showing up to the left and being unable to enter a name for the files the game seemed to be pretty stable
.
One little 'extra'is the deegee name that shows up and obscures my time so that is a little bit inconvenient

check attachment: ddraw.png

i resized the image to make the text more visible

My solution was more blunt: I got Oracle VM Virtual Box (https://www.virtualbox.org/). Free to use, no strings attached. Installed an old WinXPSP3, installed JA2 and it just works. Maybe give it a try if you have some old XP or Win7 CD collecting dust?

it also works fine with WINE on ubuntu in case anyone is wondering ;)

For those struggling with Windows 10, you can try this build from github.com/gtrafimenkov/ja2-vanilla-cp/releases

This is an open-source build of the game that tries to be as close to the vanilla as possible.

Dude.. you are my hero. THANK YOU, the game works finally on my Windows 11 XPS laptop with this. I had almost given up hope. You made my day!!

Same here. You're my absolute life savior in regards to Jagged Alliance II. I played for two days in constant slowmotion ! Your solution worked like a charm. Finally I can replay this awesome masterpiece before the Jagged Alliance III release.

Best Regards