I'm developing an unofficial patch for Empire Earth II. I have recently received many messages from players who are unable to play the game, due that the text is not displaying in game. All these players have new laptops with Intel CPUs. Most of these players are refunding their laptops for this reason.

After reading this page, I learnt that Intel is now using D3D9On12 in their drivers:

We use a D3D9on12 mapping layer, which maps graphics commands from DX9 to DX12. We do extensive compatibility and performance testing, and partner closely with Microsoft* and ISV’s (Independent Software Vendors) to optimize this solution continuously. Intel has been shipping this solution since our 12th Gen Intel® Core™ processor launch in 2021, and we'll continue to invest heavily in this technology for both integrated and discrete graphics solutions.

I managed to re-produce the issue on my computer using ForceD3D9On12 d3d9.dll. My unofficial patch already supports d3d8to9, so d3d9.dll could be placed in the game folder and was loaded successfully.

Screenshots showing the issue:

Steps to reproduce the problem:

• Install the game.
• Install unofficial patch.
• * Edit file UnofficialVersionConfig.txt and add: UseWorkingDirectoryWorkaround=1.
• Paste d3d9.dll from ForceD3D9On12 to the game folder.

* This step is required, so the Launcher copies the game executable to to the main game folder (as EE3.exe), instead of starting the game process from a different location. This is needed because otherwise the game would load d3d9.dll from the SysWOW64 directory.

As the patch developer, I'm usually trying to fix similar issues myself, using dozens of workarounds, assembly, etc. However this time it looks like the problem is in D3D9On12 itself, so maybe somebody could please check if this can be resolved? After all, the issue is quite serious since players who buy new laptops can't play the game.