I just got my most recent WINE update to version 1.3.12, and as I always do when WINE gets updated, I checked to see how well Blood II runs with the latest version. I have been doing this fairly routinely since late 2007, and have since a wide variety of results, from it working almost perfectly to not at all. In early 2009 there was a brief period of working Direct3D, but by the end of the summer I was back to using the Software Renderer. It went through much of the past year with very little change, until last December when they managed to wrinkle out a few annoying crashes. Now, with this latest update, Direct3D is working once again!
The colours are a bit blotchy still, the mouse movement still is not completely fluid, and the image that appears in the Launcher is still quirky at redrawing, but all of these are very minor complaints. Considering how DirectX dependant LithTech and Blood II are, getting them working this well is still quite an accomplishment. Of course, this being WINE, one would not be surprised if these gains evaporate as they have done in the past. But it is still interesting to say the least.
