Universal fix for games using Gamemaker SDK 2024.11 on Windows 7

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ersatz
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Universal fix for games using Gamemaker SDK 2024.11 on Windows 7

Unread post by ersatz »

As of the latest version, games made using the Gamemaker SDK v2024.11 will no longer launch properly. Gamemaker studio is used by numerous Indie games, and although many of them are still using older versions that work fine some games are slowly updating to no longer work. There are two steps to getting them working again, and its worked on all the games I've tried so far.

Upon launch games will give the error "The procedure entry point MFCreateDXGIDeviceManager could not be located in the dynamic link library MFPlat.DLL." This function is only available on Windows 8+, so as far as I'm aware the games should still function on Windows 8.x without modification. There are two ways to resolve this first error on 7.

The first is to just use VxKex, I specifically tested this with the latest build from dotexe. For those who don't want to use VxKex the same effect can be accomplished using CFF Explorer to modify the exe. Open the full file in CFF Explorer, navigate to "import directory", then MFPlat.dll, and change "MFCreateDXGIDeviceManager" to "MFStartup."

At this point the game will likely crash, but there is a chance it will launch with just this change. However, there will be numerous graphical glitches and low level direct3d errors.

To fix this issue we need to use dxvk 1.10.3 to run the game under vulkan. Download "dxvk-1.10.3.tar.gz" from the linked repository and unzip it. Go to the x64 folder and copy both "dxgi.dll," and "d3d11.dll" to the same directory your game is installed to.

As long as your GPU drivers have good vulkan support this should be enough to get the game running again. I personally tested all this using the last nvidia security driver for Windows 7, version 475.14. Depending on how old your video card/drivers are this method may not work for you, sorry (⇀‸↼‶)

Mindwave v1.0.2.4 running on Windows 7:
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Duke
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Universal fix for games using Gamemaker SDK 2024.11 on Windows 7

Unread post by Duke »

ersatz wrote: 14 Apr 2025, 01:06 To fix this issue we need to use dxvk 1.10.3 to run the game under vulkan.
Naive question: why not the most recent version which actually is v2.6.1 ? 🤔

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Universal fix for games using Gamemaker SDK 2024.11 on Windows 7

Unread post by ersatz »

Duke wrote: 14 Apr 2025, 22:25
ersatz wrote: 14 Apr 2025, 01:06 To fix this issue we need to use dxvk 1.10.3 to run the game under vulkan.
Naive question: why not the most recent version which actually is v2.6.1 ? 🤔
I could be wrong but I believe its the last version of dxvk before the vulkan requirement was raised to 1.3+. The latest version of vulkan for windows 7 is vulkan 1.2.
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Universal fix for games using Gamemaker SDK 2024.11 on Windows 7

Unread post by Duke »

I see, thanks for the info.

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Universal fix for games using Gamemaker SDK 2024.11 on Windows 7

Unread post by ersatz »

I did a bit of testing and this method also still works for the newly released Gamemaker SDK v2024.13

Vivid/Stasis 4.4.0 (A game using SDK 2024.13)
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Universal fix for games using Gamemaker SDK 2024.11 on Windows 7

Unread post by Peacock »

ersatz wrote: 14 Apr 2025, 23:41
Duke wrote: 14 Apr 2025, 22:25
ersatz wrote: 14 Apr 2025, 01:06 To fix this issue we need to use dxvk 1.10.3 to run the game under vulkan.
Naive question: why not the most recent version which actually is v2.6.1 ? 🤔
I could be wrong but I believe its the last version of dxvk before the vulkan requirement was raised to 1.3+. The latest version of vulkan for windows 7 is vulkan 1.2.
There's a vulkan 1.3 runtime installer here:
https://vulkan.lunarg.com/sdk/home
VulkanRT 1.3.290.0 is the last RT version for windows 7.
You can't install version 1.3.296.0 or 1.4.

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Universal fix for games using Gamemaker SDK 2024.11 on Windows 7

Unread post by ersatz »

Peacock wrote: 28 Apr 2025, 22:38
ersatz wrote: 14 Apr 2025, 23:41
Duke wrote: 14 Apr 2025, 22:25

Naive question: why not the most recent version which actually is v2.6.1 ? 🤔
I could be wrong but I believe its the last version of dxvk before the vulkan requirement was raised to 1.3+. The latest version of vulkan for windows 7 is vulkan 1.2.
There's a vulkan 1.3 runtime installer here:
https://vulkan.lunarg.com/sdk/home
VulkanRT 1.3.290.0 is the last RT version for windows 7.
You can't install version 1.3.296.0 or 1.4.
I did see that certain versions of the 1.3 RT could be installed on 7/8 but whether or not Vulkan is directly supported depends on your video drivers. DXVK also doesn't directly use the RT. I don't believe Nvidia or AMD ever supplied any 7 drivers with full vulkan 1.3 support. If I'm wrong though someone tell me. Either way, DXVK versions 1.10.4+ do not work on 7.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic!

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