Problems with transparency in JK1

[Naelphin]

Hello,

I installed the FastVooDoo2 drives for 9x, but am having problems with transparency.

In Jedi Knight, there's a bit where you look through a window to look at the level of waste in it. However, with the drivers here it appears solid green. Including a screenshot of what it looks like

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This is what it looks in software mode. Ugly, but you can see through the window.

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[Glide]

Uhmm, try restorings default setting for voodoo driver and say me if rendering in now correct...Besides, repeat MS DirectX installation.

[batracio]

At last! Another voodoo2 user who's got the same problem!

I also noticed that transparency bug in Jedi Knight, please try to start a new game, and look through the bar window at the beginning of the first level... won't see anything? Bingo! I had Matrox G200 as primary display, so I could switch between it and Voodoo2 from PowerStrip 2.78: with G200 the window's glass is transparent, with Voodoo2 it's opaque. It's not a bug in Jedi Knight D3D code because it also happens in another game, at least: Alien vs. Predator. At the beginning of the first level, look through the lab's glass door (déjà vu?), and you won't see the room on the other side if you're on Voodoo2.

I found these bugs with FastVoodoo2 for Win9x installed (don't remember the version, maybe 1.5 for mismatched SLI), unfortunately I can't reproduce them again because I don't longer use those Voodoos (now I've got a Voodoo4), but I hope this info will confirm that it's not an isolated problem.

[Glide]

batracio, tnx for report, very useful for us too.
Only a thing: you must remember FastVoodoo2 version to help us fixing a possible issue.

But i repeat: do you get this symptom when driver setup is/was on default layer?

Tnx for answer in advance.

[batracio]

Well, maybe remembering the FastVoodoo2 version wouldn't be very useful... I've just plugged a Voodoo2 in my old P200MMX, with the latest 3dfx official release (3.02.02 for Win9x), all settings default (excepting refresh rates), and the transparency bug is already present in those drivers. Tested both Jedi Knight and AvP, same issue. Probably Voodoo2's Direct3D driver hasn't been updated or modified since 3.02.02, so all following unofficial releases inherited this bug.

[Nightbird]

this is not the same D3D core

[Naelphin]

Managed to get around it by removing the refernce drivers and going back to my vendor's drivers. Creative must have changed something on their card so that the reference drivers do not work properly. Do the other people with transparency problems use Creative's card?

It says it is for DX6, but it works with DX7 fine.

[batracio]

Hi Naelphin,

I don't have a Creative card, but Powercolor, and it also suffers the same bug, so the problem must be related to the Direct3D driver. Unfortunately Powercolor does not provide its own drivers for Voodoo2, they just offer the well-known reference drivers on their download page. But I can also test a Monster II with Diamond's latest drivers. As Creative's ones, they were originally suitable for DX6, but work with DX7 and should also be compatible with DX8.

More info tonight.

[Naelphin]

Problem fixed, another problem caused. Now Halflife is crashing when i try to enter the save menu.

The transparency problem only seems to happen with DX7 drivers. downgraded to DX6 and it disappeared.

I wish there was a way to uninstall DX, using DX6 drivers in dx7 causes quite a few crash problems. But with DX7 you can't see transparencies. Can't win.

[batracio]

Hi again,

we can definitively conclude that transparency bug was introduced with 3.02.02 official drivers. I have tested 3.01.01 official release for DirectX 6 and transparency works without a flaw. I've even discovered another problem in AvP, with buggy drivers you can't distinguish the highlighted option in the game's menu.

I bet the bug will affect every FastVoodoo2 Win9x release from 1.0 to 4.0. We should test all of them to be sure.

[batracio]

@ Naelphin:

I asume you want to play Half-Life using OpenGL renderer. Try downloading miniGL 1.46 or WickedGL 2.31b, they worked fine on me. Update Half-Life\gldrv\3dfxgl.dll with miniGL 1.46 version. To enable WickedGL, copy opengl32.dll from Wicked3D folder to Half-Life\gldrv\ and rename it to wickedgl.dll, then add a new line to drvmap.txt:

gldrv\wickedgl.dll WickedGL Driver

I find this setup optimal if your primary card supports OpenGL. If it doesn't, simply execute Wicked3D installation program and select Half-Life from the games list.

With some versions of Half-Life, the engine isn't able to locate the dlls and you must delete the gldrv\ paths in drvmap.txt:

3dfxgl.dll 3Dfx Mini Driver
wickedgl.dll WickedGL Driver
...

[Nightbird]

we can definitively conclude that transparency bug was introduced with 3.02.02 official drivers. I have tested 3.01.01 official release for DirectX 6 and transparency works without a flaw.
I bet the bug will affect every FastVoodoo2 Win9x release from 1.0 to 4.0. We should test all of them to be sure

hum, the D3D core in the FV is the 3.03.00b, a DirectX7 Beta core ; the problem would be older...

[batracio]

Originally posted by Nightbird
the D3D core in the FV is the 3.03.00b, a DirectX7 Beta core ; the problem would be older...

OK, I didn't know that... always thought FastVoodoo2 D3D was based on 3.02.02, but the problem is the same; if D3D core has never been updated, every new release will be flawed.

[Rolo01]

If you want a tool to remove DirectX go to
http://www.dxbuster.de/