DgVoodoo2 Guide
Starting with Intel's 12th Gen line of CPU's, native DirectX 9 support has been dropped and the emulated DX9on12 implementation does not work with Phantasy Star Universe. In order to get PSU to run on newer Intel hardware, you will need to download and copy over specific dgVoodoo2 files to PSU's installation folder in order to directly translate PSU's DirectX 9 instructions to DirectX 11 or 12.
Preconfigured dgVoodoo files
dgVoodoo PSU Preset
Mirror Download
Download the above .zip and extract all the files into the same folder where PSU is installed and you should be good to go!
OR
If you would like to manually install and configure everything yourself, follow the steps below.
- You do not need to do these steps if you used the preset files above, however Step 6 may still be required if you are experiencing slowdown / stuttering or the game hangs on log-in.
Step 1
Download dgVoodoo
Source: http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/dgVoodoo2/
Step 2
Open the dgVoodoo2 .zip folder and copy dgVoodoo.conf and dgVoodooCpl.exe over to PSU's installation directory (the same folder with PSUC.exe, online.exe, option.exe, etc.)
Step 3
In the dgVoodoo2 .zip, navigate to the "MS" folder, then go into the "x86" folder. You should see four .dll files in there labelled D3D8.dll, D3D9.dll, D3Dlmm.dll, and DDraw.dll.
Copy all four of those .dll files into PSU's installation directory just like in Step 2.
Step 4
Open dgVoodoo2Cpl.exe and navigate to the DirectX tab. In the Videocard drop down list select GeForce 9800 GT, the default dgVoodoo Virtual 3D Accelerated Card option will cause improper "black splotch" rendering on transparent textures.
Uncheck dgVoodoo Watermark and click "Apply" then click "OK".
Step 5
Run the PSU launcher as normal and you should be good to go!
Step 6 if the game is running slow / stuttering or the game freezes trying to log-in
You may be required to set CPU affinity on PSUC to use a specific amount of cores due to the nature of modern hyperthreading. There are two ways to fix this:
1. With the game running, open the task manager and go to the details tab, find PSUC.exe, right click it and select "Set Affinity", then select at least two or more cores (but not more than 8). You will need to do this every time you run the game.
2. Download Process Lasso then install and run it. Launch PSU then in Lasso go to the Active Processes tab, find PSUC.exe > right click > CPU Affinity > Always > Select CPU Affinity. Choose as many CPUs cores as you desire (within reason, you shouldn't need more than 8 or you may run into issues.) You'll only ever need to do this once, process lasso will remember your selected settings.
Source: https://bitsum.com/
TLDR: If your game is running slow add more active cores, if it's freezing on log in reduce active cores. 8 is the magic number.