Initial Graphics Config

[Vhati]

After installation, the default setup is fullscreen+Direct3D.
Anyone whose monitor doesn't support the game's resolution gets an error.

Windowed+DirectDraw should run on any system without issues, so that would be a safer default.

[pcj]

Hmm, pretty sure I set it to windowed by default, but I'll check it again. Thanks.

[mjomble]

It was fullscreen by default, I noticed that too. Thought it was intentional, although I also prefer windowed

Not sure about Direct3D vs DirectDraw, my gut feeling says that DirectDraw is just a backwards compatibility option for older systems and that D3D is a better default, but it's just a gut feeling and not really backed up by real data

[pcj]

DirectDraw is the 'classic' software graphics driver, that AGS has used ever since the initial Windows version was released. It's perfectly fine for simple games that don't use many large sprites, tinting or alpha blending. It's also quite fast at doing RawDrawing to the screen.

Direct3D is a new, hardware accelerated graphics driver. It uses the Direct3D 9.0 to render the game in a fully hardware-accelerated environment. This means that the game will run a lot faster if you use features such as alpha blending and tinting, which are quite slow to perform in software mode.

We don't have any RawDrawing but have quite a bit of alpha blending and tinting and large sprites, so Direct3D is definitely preferred.

[Vhati]

If I set it to Direct3D, it forces fullscreen.
DirectDraw honors windowed for me.