StarCraft PTR now with DX9 support

[pyf]

With version 1.18.8, DirectX 9 support has finally been added to the PTR version of StarCraft.

Announcement and download link

 

[Dr Super Good]

And what does this do? Increase performance with hardware acceleration (of a game that even a toaster can probably run)? Or is it to improve compatibility with Windows 10 (iffy old D3D support)?

 

[pyf]

Starting with StarCraft 1.18, Blizzard dropped DirectDraw 2 (and the 640x480 8-bit rendering mode) in favor of modern OpenGL rendering only and higher resolution / BPP modes. The problem is that many many users complained, because they now could not run the game at all.

Adding DirectX 9 (read: D3D 9) support to the game will help improve compatibility with some Windows PCs. Laptops with poor OpenGL compatibility and technical support come of mind here.

Therefore, more people should now be able to run and enjoy this free game on more computers.


Fyi, the patched version of StarCraft officially does not run on a toaster anymore...
StarCraft System Requirements

It may be worth pointing out that StarCraft 1.18.x also runs on XP and Vista. But be aware that battlenet based play isn't supported with these OSes as of this writing.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Fyi, the patched version of StarCraft officially does not run on a toaster anymore...

I suspect that is more for it to be minimally compatible, not so much that the game needs that... It probably can still run on a modern toaster.

 

[pyf]

I am guessing that those new official requirements also take into account the upcoming StarCraft Remastered, which should ship later this year.

 

[Dr Super Good]

I am guessing that those new official requirements also take into account the upcoming StarCraft Remastered, which should ship later this year.

I suspect that will use more memory. Sprite graphics are notorious for high memory usage, especially HD ones. GPU and CPU usage will probably be as good as the same.

The minimum supported processor is a Pentium D, which is the rather bad dual core version of Pentium 4 (before Core2 Duo, 2005-2008). This either comes from Windows 7-10 needing it (Windows 10 will not work on very old processors) or that they are compiling with an instruction set that requires at least Pentium D.

The minimum memory is more for OS+file cache than the game. I would not advise running Windows 7 with less than 2GB ever. Windows 10 with 4 GB is about the minimum for decent performance with file cache and a light weight game.

The minimum GPU is defined by the APIs they use. The 256 MB memory is probably needed, and a tad high, due to them loading all sprites into memory (probably no dynamic loading of only what is needed). SC has a lot of sprites and for decent GPU performance they must be in memory directly accessible by the GPU.

 

[pyf]

When dealing with AAA video games, the Recommended Specs are the only ones which deliver an enjoyable gaming experience, provided one doubles the amount of RAM advertised as being recommended.


For those interested, the original system requirements for Brood War are here:
StarCraft: Brood War System Requirements - System Requirements

According to Blizzard, the minimum OS requirements were raised at some point, but I personally find this information to be dubious:
StarCraft System Requirements

Therefore it is my belief that Brood War 1.16.1 can also run on W9x OSes.