MX440 / V2 1000 - Weird

[nighty]

Hi everyone, just put together a gaming LAN thrown together with old parts and stuff.  3 PC's that have P3's, GF4 MX440s, and V2 1000's (single card).  All PC's are networked running Win98SE with all updates, video cards are running nVidia 77.82 and FastVoodoo2 4.6.  I have them all in one room on a router so that we can play fun old games like Diablo2, BG2, Rune, Q3A, etc.  It's great!  

The problem I'm running into is that sometimes a game will default to using the Voodoo2 instead of the Geforce for games that I don't want it to run.  A classic example of this is Quake3 - If I change the resolution or any video setting in the game, it will immediately change from using the GF4 to using the V2.  It doesn't exit or crash, it just changes to the Voodoo card.  It's really weird, lol.  I have to uninstall the V2 drivers and change resolutions and then reinstall drivers.

I guess my question:  Is there a utility or other method by which I can force the Voodoo2 to ONLY run GLIDE games and nothing more?  Any driver files I need to delete so that Voodoo2 won't run D3D or OpenGL?  Thanks in advance, having a great time with my old hardware.  

P.S.  Hi Arch, long time no see.  

[ps47]

there is a quick fix I have been using some time ago-simply create dummy 3dfx dlls in your quake3 folder: create a few text files,and rename them to glide2x.dll,glide3x.dll,3dfxVGL.dll,and move them to your q3 folder.that should convince quake3 that voodoo2 is not present

or (for quake3) you can just rename 3dfxVGL.dll (in your windows/system folder),that will remove the opengl capabilities of voodoo2 completely,leaving only glide and d3d..

[4eRNoBiL]

Select "Default OpenGL" driver in the Quake 3 options menu and make sure "config.cfg" is not read-only, so that the game could save settings. Or delete the file, start Q3 and set the options you wish. It should save the driver settings, and not switch back again.

or (for quake3) you can just rename 3dfxVGL.dll (in your windows/system folder)...

ps47, this will disable OpenGL for any game, not just Quake.

[ps47]

yeah,I'm avare of that (as you can read in my previos post ).disabling 3dfx opengl completely is actually a good idea,because as long as you have an opengl capable primary card (that is way better that v2),you should always run opengl apps on it..

[nighty]

Originally posted by 4eRNoBiL

Select "Default OpenGL" driver in the Quake 3 options menu and make sure "config.cfg" is not read-only, so that the game could save settings. Or delete the file, start Q3 and set the options you wish. It should save the driver settings, and not switch back again.

I do select the default opengl, but it switches back to the voodoo card anyways if I adjust any video setting.  The way I was fixing it was to delete the quake config file, then uninstalling the v2 drivers.  That would force it to stay on the Geforce no matter what.  Then I would reinstall the v2 drivers once I got it the way I wanted it.  

I may have to try the dummy .dll trick.  I'm hoping Quake is the only game with this behavior, otherwise I guess I'll try and disable everything else except for GLIDE if thats possible.

[4eRNoBiL]

nighty, Quake certainly doesn't behave normaly. Can you try another CD or update the game ? This might be some bug fixed in the next versions. Does it happen with other OpenGL games ?

[nighty]

Okay, I fixed Quake3!    I had to rename the 3dfxVGL.dll (to 3dfxVGL.old), which disabled the opengl for the V2 just like suggested.  The dummy files did NOT work, as the game still used the VGL.dll file and ran, switching from the GF4.  But now it works fine, and since the GF4 is so much faster running OpenGL anyways, it's no loss at all.  

So far, no other game seems to be exhibiting this behavior, although I though Baldur's Gate2 was but it turns out it is fine.  Thanks again for the help.

[ps47]

congrats
if you ever need 3dfx opengl,you can still throw the icd (or wickedgl,or mesafx) to the games main folder (renamed to opengl32.dl),and it will run on the voodoo2 again

[nighty]

Thanks, but I doubt I'll need it.  Running the Geforce4 is MUCH faster for D3D/OpenGL, I'm using the Voodoo2's for GLIDE goodness.  No matter how fast the friggin video card, there are just some games that run better on a 3dfx card using GLIDE.  Diablo2 is a good example of this.  BTW I'm putting together a 4th rig for another player, so we'll have a quad Voodoo2 gaming LAN, lol.  Rune, UT, Diablo2 - what else ya need?  

[ps47]

sounds perfect.glide is the way voodoo2 is meant to be played

[Nightbird]

glide is the way voodoo2 is meant to be played

Excellent, i will keep this sentence