SFFT alpha drivers - V3/4/5 - Join to Testing

[mhanor]

these is the table with the results of the tests I have made last night and today

Drivers           Electric 1.3.1             VoodooLights 1.2.9 rc2
3dfx 1.04.00           yes                            yes
sfft[20-23]            nope                           yes
sfft[24-33]            nope                           nope

"nope" for Electric means "the screensaver doesn't cycle the colors"; "yes" is the opposite of it
"nope" for VL means "the screensaver fails to create the OpenGL context in the screensaver preview area of the Display Control Panel"; "yes" means the opposite
the drivers were clean-installed using the 3dfxUnVer2.inf file and for alpha33 I used even Driver Cleaner Pro 1.3 (besides 3dfxUnVer2.inf). The drivers settings used were the default ones (set at the installation of each driver version, by the installation process). "3dfx 1.04.00" represents the last official 3dfx drivers for v4/5 and win2k...

I know these results contradict what I have said in earlier posts, but these are the results... It took several hours to complete the tests (not to mention attempts without clean-installing the drivers, in reverse order, from 33 to 31, to 29; then clean-installing 27, then 25 -> the problems were still there and I decided to make the tests of which results are displayed in the above table)

Glide, I know that the main goal is to make more games work with 3dfx hardware, but this issues are old and few; if game bugs can be fixed, why shouldn't these be fixed? I'm confident that the gliches  affecting these two screensavers may be affecting other apps. Also, I was expecting a little feedback from somebody... anybody... It's not so difficult to install/copy these two screensavers. It's a piece of cake... I'm sure that games are much more challanging at installing/testing/debugging.
I make the comparision between files from different sfft versions to try to understand what has changed and what has not, in my quest to understand what's the source generating the problems.
Also, note that I'm using a standard Voodoo4 4500 AGP video card, not a Voodoo2.

[SuperFurryFurryThing]

So it would seem that VoodooLights stopped working with the Alpha 24 and Drivers Electric may never have worked with the SFFT drivers. Both work with the last W2K driver from 3dfx though. Is this correct.

SFFT

[mhanor]

Is this correct.

if this is a question, yes... partially yes... with SFFT drivers, VL DOES work in fullscreen OpenGL... it fails to create the OpenGL context in the SS preview area (in Display Control Panel applet) and in VL's Normal Control Panel (the About tab)... I wonder if other windowed OpenGL apps fail

ps: my God... how many times must I repeat myself?

[SuperFurryFurryThing]

I was under the impression that non-fullscreen opengl, was something that was added in mesafx. Or perhaps fixed as it seems to have worked in the last w2k driver from your information.

SFFT

[mhanor]

I don't quite understand what you've just said (or what you've meant)
only the official 3dfx drivers (ver 1.04.00) and some old sfft drivers (<24)manage to create the OpenGL context in the Display CP applet and VL's CP Normal

[Raff3DC]

X3 – Reunion ... errm, runs.

http://img221.imageshack.us/my.php?image=x3v56jl.jpg

Greetings from Germany,
Raff

[SuperFurryFurryThing]

For anyone having texture problems, that have started with the Alpha 33, could you try the folowing test.
Test with Texture Management disabled. To do this add the following regsisty key.

A binary key named DisableTextureManagement and set its value to 01 00 00 00 to disable texture management.

Setting the value to 00 00 00 00 will re-enable it, deleting key will also re-enable it.

You will need to reboot after setting the key value.

You can find where to add the regsitry key by serching for the key name MaxTileBuffers and checking which instance the Set3Tile and Set4Tile utilities update. You add the DisableTextureManagement key at the same level.

SFFT

If you could post whether the problem is present with texture management disabled aswell.

[SuperFurryFurryThing]

Have people given up testing then.

SFFT

[ps47]

nope.just need to get another HDD for testing.

[Raff3DC]

Sorry. I "had to" test my new RAM. Now I'll try the texture management thing. =)

Greetings,
Raff

[SuperFurryFurryThing]

Is anyone intedning to test under Advanced Server 2003 or later or on P4 processors.

SFFT

[Rolo01]

Okay,
here are my first test results with my P4 system :

Gothic :
Main menu and ingame text is garbled and unreadable
When exiting the game I got a BSOD :
STOP : 0x0000008E ( 0xC0000005,0xBFA3088C,0xF27854D0,0x00000000 )
3dfxvs.dll - Address BFA3088C base at BF9C3000 Datestamp 43b8f67f

3DMark2000 :
Doesnt start ( tried DX7 and DX8 mode )

3DMark2001 :
no problems

Fear :
Game starts normal, but screen is black, sound is playing

GTA: Vice City
No problems

Aquamark 3 :
no problems ( except some texture flashing / floor disappearing )

With an old D3D benchmark I got some transparency issues, see picture below:
Image Insert:

57.88 KB
The shown object is a bridge over a river.

My system :
Pentium4EE 3400 Mhz
Asus P4C800E-dlx
1024 MB Ram
Voodoo4-4500 AGP
WinXP SP1

[SuperFurryFurryThing]

Rolo1 I presume that you are running with Texture Management enabled. How does your 3dmark 2001 score compare with that from the alpha 32. Have any of these tests showed different results from the alpha 32. basically have any of the test results changed significantly from the alpha 32.

SFFT

[Rolo01]

Yes, texture management was enabled.
I will run 3DMark2001 on Alpha 32 and 33 and post the results here on Sunday evening ( I am 2 days off ).

[SuperFurryFurryThing]

ok thanks.

SFFT