Just checked it and I'm still using the old 3.03.00 DirectX 6.1 reference driver on my Windows 98 testing machine. I don't think there's any reason to use a more recent driver on Win9x. Sure, FastVoodoo2 drivers have updated WinGlide libraries, but that's all. Every FastVoodoo2 version was released with buggy DosGlide and D3D cores. Bug in D3D was reported 8 years ago, affecting games like Jedi Knight or Alien vs Predator, but it was never fixed. Bug in DosGlide completely freezes Tomb Raider in 3dfx mode. Too many hassles when you want to play your old games on a Voodoo2 because it's supposed to be the most stable and fail-safe hardware for vintage 3D gaming. If you you want your Voodoo2 to work like a charm, follow my advice and use the old and trusty 3.03.00 DirectX 6.1 driver. You won't regret it.

The maximum framerate I ever got in Quake2 timedemo1 with Voodoo2 SLI was 78 FPS @ 1024x768. These cards are fill rate limited in Quake2 standard timedemos with any processor higher than Pentium II 400.

Hi,

The trouble with 2D is due to "buggy" Catalyst drivers. I've been using a couple of Voodoo2 in SLI under Win98SE with Matrox G200, S3 Savage4, Nvidia GeForce256 DDR (by Creative) and PowerVR Kyro II (by Hercules), and none of them showed any incompatibility problem with 3dfx cards. Recently I got an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro (by Gigabyte) and desktop began to show garbage, corrupted icons and mouse pointers, incomplete texts and general unstability. I tried different Catalyst drivers (3.8, 4.2) with 3dfx's official 3.02.02 and some FastVoodoo2 releases, but nothing solved the trouble. The garbage dissapeared only when I took both 3dfx cards off the system.

Moral of the story: don't mix Radeon and Voodoo2 cards together.

QuoteOriginally posted by duocast

I wish I didn't buy my girlfriend that stupid engagement ring

:DReconsider your priorities:D

QuoteOriginally posted by mei
XBitlabs has an article describing S3's "fast trilinear" :
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/s3-deltachrome_13.html

The advantage is that this fast trilinear has no penalty hit, even with multitexturing! There is no hit in any situation and is therefore quite attractive.

That so-called "fast trilinear filtering" is based on single MIP-level interpolation of 16 texture samples, and was already available on S3 Savage4 and PowerVR Kyro/KyroII years ago, so there's nothing new under the sun. Oddly enough, true trilinear filtering was dropped from Savage2000, Savage4's infamous successor, but it seems that DeltaChrome will support this feature again. On my Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 (Kyro II), enabling S3TC texture compression forces the chip to use the "fast" filtering method and gives a 50% performance gain when trilinear filtering is selected.

I used the Glide3x.dll that comes with the Voodoo1 drivers included in glSetup. Those drives should be the same than the latest reference drivers:

http://www.planetfalconfly.de/downloads/voodoo1-30100.zip

About the crashes, I must admit that my Voodoo1 installation wasn't very stable... it also had problems with 3DMark99&2000, but these ones could be a DirectX 8.1 issue.

I'm supposed to be capable of coding in C, C++ and even assembly, but it's been a long time since I learnt those languages, so don't expect too much from my skills

Oops, I didn't see that file, sorry...

Anyway, here are some tests made with Quake3-compatible glide3x.dll:


************* glQuake 0.97 *****************

settings -> 512x384x16, 8-bit high res. textures, lightmaps on, dynamic lights on; timedemo demo2.dem

3dfx minigl 1.46 -> fine, 37 FPS.

MesaFX 0.51d -> much faster, 49 FPS, but some textures are missing (mainly from models of some weapons and enemies).


************* Quake2 3.20 *****************

settings -> 640x480x16, 8-bit high/medium res. textures, lightmaps on, dynamic lights on; map demo1.dm2

3dfx minigl 1.46 -> 24 FPS with high res. textures, 26 with medium res.

MesaFX 0.51d -> a bit faster, 26 FPS with high res. textures, 28 with medium res. and no glitches at all.


************* Quake3 1.30 ****************

settings -> 640x480x16, 16-bit low res. textures, lightmaps off, dynamic lights off; demo four.dm_66

3dfx standalone 1.0.0.049 -> 40 FPS.

MesaFX 0.51d -> 40 FPS and same quality.


************* glExcess 1.1 ***************

settings -> 640x480x16, tests 1 through 4

3dfx standalone 1.0.0.049 -> 1312 XSMarks

MesaFX 0.51d -> System crash. Needed to reboot.


******************************************

I know that Quake games use a limited subset of OpenGL API so these tests may not be very useful for you. Tell me whether you you wish to test any particular demo (preferably 64k intros or similar lightweight stuff ).

I do, but... where's that Glide3x DLL for Voodoo1? Searching through that site I've found a glide3x.dll on /files subfolder, but it's quite old and supposedly intended for Voodoo2. Latest 3dfx reference driver for Voodoo1 (AKA "Quake3-compatible" driver) already came with glide3x.dll, ¿will this version be suitable for MesaFX?

This card is an STB BlackMagic 3D, labeled with the legend "Product of Mexico" (where STB had its factory), and uses 100 MHz chips for all memory banks:

http://www.iespana.es/meetjohndoe/jpg/blackmagic.jpg


The other card shows a "Made in Taiwan" serigraph and seems to be using 100 MHz chips only for frame buffer memory; texture memory banks would be made of 90 MHz chips. VGA-in and VGA-out show differences, too.

Price is quite low now, but I expect it to raise up to 30 € (~ $24) + shipping. I prefer to be sure about the vendor, and wait for a Powercolor or Diamond.

Hi,

actually I do not own this card, it's from an ebay auction. The seller doesn't know the card's vendor so he sent me this picture.

I've inserted the image as link to save bandwidth:

http://www.iespana.es/meetjohndoe/jpg/voodoo2.jpg

Thank you in advance.

You have OpenGL 1.3 for Voodoo5 available just here:

https://www.3dfxzone.it/dir/3dfx/common_files/downloads/mesafx_0.51/index.php

still no alpha release... anyway, I have a suggestion for 3dfx MESA 5.1, fixing T-buffer support for Serious Sam. Now it doesn't work when motion blur is requested via ogl_iTBufferEffect = 2, and Croteam says it's due to bad drivers from 3dfx.

QuoteOriginally 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.

@ 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
...