Amigamerlin 3.1 R10 coming soon

Started by Glide, 04 May 2005, 15:42:03

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ps47

#60
sorry.I have just visited the steam forum,so I'm a little bit "steamed up" right now.seems like the people there get dumber and dumber every time I peek in..

about 3rdparty drivers: you know,it requires a little bit of magic to run voodoo cards nowadays,and there are usually flaws here and there.but if you can fix them simply by copying few files up and down,well,who cares? for example,I'm always reverting to default opengl and glide files no matter what 3rdparty driver I use. why? its simple,most games like this config more than anything.if I need mesafx,up in the games folder it goes,same for wickedgl.I have always liked doing things my way (btw,is that good or bad?)..

Raff3DC

#61
Yo. I often change between MesaFX and WickedGL too -- but Glide and Direct3D stay where they are because they showed an optimal behaviour before this little problem with NFS2 SE.

Well, I don't know how big the effort to fix this in the next driver release would be, but I'd be very pleased if this would happen -- no matter when, just at all. =)

What SFFT and Amigamerlin do is absolutely impressive and everybody who uses these drivers is obliged to tell his sincerest thanks. And with every bugfix the drivers make a little step further to "perfection". Just keep up the good work!

Greetings from Germany,
Raff
The biggest Voodoo5 6000 test ever: http://3dcenter.de/artikel/voodoo5-6000/

ps47

all you need to do is always keep the latest glides-the ones from that archive.no need to switch them.thats the trick ;).I have no idea why are the old ones still kept within the amigamerlin driver (maybe they are concentrating on D3D and overseeing it?)..anyway,it may need few tweaks,but its a great driver to have anyway ;)

r21vo

Quoteabout COD,if I understand it right,normal mesafx wraps s3tc to fxt1,and thats the reason why it is slower.mesafx with dxtn.dll should support s3tc natively,and run faster.but seems like ET doesnt think so..
ET doesn't use FXT1 either because the difference from DXTn isn't that big.
If i rememmer right, DXTn->FXT1 is enabled by "Enable Legacy texture compression" in 3dfx tools, if you disable that option, driver should use DXTn directly.

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Vanilias Ronk

#64
Is it safe to use modified DramINITO bios? Is it faster?

Ps.: CoD-UO freezes with Legacy Texture Compression - Disabled setting. [?]
 

Raff3DC

Another question concerning the DXTn.dll, because I still didn't get it: How do I use it? Which requirements does it have? Do I just have to copy it into the correct system folder, reboot, and then it works? Apropos working: Where? Every game that uses compression, no matter if Direct3D or OpenGL, detects the file an uses it? Could someone mention some games that definitely work so that I could test it with these? =)

Sorry, I don't know it ... ;-)

Greetings,
Raff
The biggest Voodoo5 6000 test ever: http://3dcenter.de/artikel/voodoo5-6000/

r21vo

#66
Raff3DC: did you read my manual? dxtn.dll is only for mesafx, sfft d3d has already dxtn in core. dxtn.dll must be placed in drivers directory when installing drivers, it will be copied to windows system32 directory, though, placing dxtn.dll in game directory along with mesafx could also work. i guess mesafx just detects if dxtn.dll is available and if it is, enables dxtn compression. dxtn.dll works for quake3 only you have to enable texture compression in config file, like this:
Quote
seta r_ext_compress_textures "1"
seta r_ext_compressed_textures "1"
seta r_ext_texture_compression_s3tc "1"
seta r_ext_s3tc "1"

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Raff3DC

Ah, thx. Does this also work with every Q3-based game like Call of Duty or Enemy Territory? Ah well, I'll just try it. :D

Thank you for your information! =)

Greetings,
Raff
The biggest Voodoo5 6000 test ever: http://3dcenter.de/artikel/voodoo5-6000/

r21vo

basically it should, also seems texture compression is enabled in Enemy Territiory by default.

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roflkopp

QuoteOriginally posted by r21vo

Raff3DC: did you read my manual? dxtn.dll is only for mesafx, sfft d3d has already dxtn in core.

So you mean, that SFFT Drivers do realtime-texturecompression for d3d?
 

r21vo

yes, 3dfx Direct3D core (this means also SFFT alphas) support DXTn texture compression without any external files, though this feature isn't forced - this means textures are compressed only if game/application requests that.

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SuperFurryFurryThing

In D3D the compressed textures are past down in a compressed state and rendered by the card in a compressed state, so no compression / decompression is necesary.

SFFT
 

r21vo

well is there possibility to make driver compress textures on the fly? not all games have textures compressed already.

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Pelger

hello,I have a question,I've read about amigamerlin 3
and the sfft drivers and that stuff,and I was wondering,
are they for 2k/xp only?
is amigamerlin 2.9 the final version for 9x or is there
going to be a 9x version of the new drivers?.
the sfft is "the most advanced directx core" but,
it's frustrating for 9x users (like me) that it's avaiable
onyl for 2k/xp. it should be avaiable for both platforms.
(is it that that core can't be done for 9x or is it some kind of
"nobody uses 9x anymore" factor?)
ok,I know,programming drivers and optimizing them and
everything is not a "ok,sure,I'll do it,I'll post the link in 5
minutes" thing,but I'm worried that even the community support for
v3 in 9x stopped.
I'm going to try anyway the sfft alpha 33 drivers,just
in case,I'll try both the legal/right way and the "ilegal"/"wrong" way
(replacing the amigamerlin 2.9 files and installing that
modified amigamerlin set,or manually replace the
files in c:\windows\system,that kind of stuff),
but I don't have any hopes.
btw,I'm using 98 first edition in an amd k6-2 500mhz
processor,64mb ram,and voodoo 3 2000 pci 16mb.
so far the amigamerlin 2.9 are the best drivers I've tryed,
(but with the original 3dfx glide?x.dll from the 1.07 drivers
replacing the ones that came with am2.9,they are A LOT faster
than those,koolsmoky files and the sourceforge open source ones,
and even than the same files but with its own drivers),
but I started looking for newer drivers since I saw something frustrating:
some weeks ago I was testing xp,(argh...don't get
me started about how much it SUCKS...),and I found
that the amigasport drivers have a "force 3d now" feature,
and I was amazed that the speed in max payne
really increased a lot!!,it was actually working faster
than with the amigamerlin 2.9 in 98,EVEN WITH THE
COMPUTER "underclocked" TO 400MHZ (xp refused to
complete an installation and/or boot at 500mhz.
?????????????????),
AND CONSIDERING THE OVERALL DECREASE IN PERFORMANCE BECAUSE OF XP!.
(it's slower,bigger,unusable,unbearable,unstable...
I'll choose a DOS operating system over a NT one any day).
anyway,I still can't believe max payne was faster
under that circunstances,and I bet it was the
"force 3dnow" feature in the amigasport drivers.
I tryed to install those drivers in 9x,edit the inf,replace
the files,etc etc,but I had no luck,so,am I stuck with
a slower performance or is there any hope of
even better drivers than the already good amigamerlin 2.9?.
btw,if you know of a patch or registry tweak or tsr program
or whatever that forces the use of 3dnow always,tell me.

my specs:
amd k6-2 500 64mb ram,voodoo 3 2000 16mb pci,win98 first edition "pack"
(the ms dos 7.10 operating system & the windows 4.10 front end gui),
and I'm using directx 9.0c,the amigamerlin 2.9 drivers (with the 3dfx
glide files from the 1.07 drivers and I'll choose the opengl32.dll file
for each situation between mesa,wickedgl,the minigl,the 3dfx one that
ends in "761",etc etc).

ps: don't take this as an impertinent feature-request or something
unpolite/unfriendly,it's the opposite thing,I'm glad there's a community
that still supports and develops drivers for the voodoo cards and
I thank you a lot for the drivers and optimizations and features not
present in the original reference drivers and that stuff.

 

Nightbird

#74
@ Pelger
No problemo :)
Quoteamigamerlin 3 and the sfft drivers and that stuff,and I was wondering, are they for 2k/xp only?
Yes
Quoteis amigamerlin 2.9 the final version for 9x
I would say : yes
Though an other beta core for Win9x exists but rather unstable (the 1.07.00 b - jan. 2001).
Quoteit's frustrating for 9x users (like me) that it's avaiable
onyl for 2k/xp.
You're right, unluckily
QuoteI'm going to try anyway the sfft alpha 33 drivers,just
in case,I'll try both the legal/right way and the "ilegal"/"wrong" way
(replacing the amigamerlin 2.9 files and installing that
modified amigamerlin set,or manually replace the files in c:\windows\system,that kind of stuff), but I don't have any hopes.
You can do what you wish on your pc, you will not be the first to do that.
But between the Win9x kernel and the Win2k kernel, there are "some"  differences in the D3D core ... but things are easier with Glide, MesaFx...
Quotebtw,I'm using 98 first edition in an amd k6-2 500mhz
processor,64mb ram,and voodoo 3 2000 pci 16mb
Your cpu is a bottleneck for your Voodoo 3, a Intel P3 or an XP cpu would be a best choice ;)
QuoteAND CONSIDERING THE OVERALL DECREASE IN PERFORMANCE BECAUSE OF XP!.
Perhaps you can try Win2k with a dual boot (Win9x)
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