Waow, very impressive.
I'm working on, again, a solution for windows 98 based on virtual machine. I made a package previously for french people with and without 3dfx support. Currently i work with QEMU and Archlinux to have a minimalist environment on a usb key or ssd drive. I will try it tomorrow !
I hope it will work 😀. In all cases since the point you are ok to receiving feedback it still interesting even if it doesn't work immediatly.
Schwarz Wald-from France to Ukraine, from Denmark to Austria. Celts+German+Slavs melting pot.
@JH64
I tested new version with Vmware17..
During installation is some misleading info about not working PCI bus, i thing that it has to work because.. older version worked and other PCI virtual devices are working too..
Its not also compatible with Vmware windows resized, vertical lines got after resize 45 degrees rotated.. its keeps to be broken even after restart / machine shutdown, I dunno how to fix it.. and its really slow..
I returned to old HDD backup.. i installed new version but checker still reporting llvm pipe not Vmware as on your picture.. so no change..
Im old goal oriented goatman, i care about facts and freedom, not about egos+prejudices. Hoarding=sickness. If you want respect, gain it by your behavior. I hate stupid SW limits, SW=virtual world, everything should be possible if you have enough raw HW.
ruthanwrote on 2023-08-11, 03:57:@JH64
I tested new version with Vmware17..
During installation is some misleading info about not working PCI bus, i thing tha […] Show full quote
@JH64
I tested new version with Vmware17..
During installation is some misleading info about not working PCI bus, i thing that it has to work because.. older version worked and other PCI virtual devices are working too..
Its not also compatible with Vmware windows resized, vertical lines got after resize 45 degrees rotated.. its keeps to be broken even after restart / machine shutdown, I dunno how to fix it.. and its really slow..
I returned to old HDD backup.. i installed new version but checker still reporting llvm pipe not Vmware as on your picture.. so no change..
From my testing, You have to disable auto-fit on the settings. After that, you need to reinstall softGPU.
Hi, i stopped to try for QEMU i had too much problem, i need to be sure my installation is stable before, then i have problem about vsync in 2D with my archlinux core.
I tried with vmware instead, it's more easy to begin... but i would to feedback two or three things about your github. You say on this page https://github.com/JHRobotics/softgpu we must use windows 2000 server, and i read it the first time i read your tutorial but i totally missed it when i began to install. If i can give you an advice, use color or anything else (i don't remember if the mark down on github allow to do it), i saw you written in bold but it's not enough (sorry).
Feedback (perhaps i made mistake)
- Quake 3 it seems to be ok but mouse problem
- Croc: crash
- Unreal, i'm not sure with 3dfx.
- Gex 3D : only few colors, a lot of things missing.
There is no 3DFX logo in all cases.
OpenGL:
- Half Life works perfectly
Direct 3D
- Half Life: a bit slow then graphic bugs.
Anybody knows how to get wine9x + mesa9x working? I found the instructions on wine9x a bit unclear (just wine9x, no softgpu)...
1. Install latest DirectX redistributable (DX8 for Windows 95, DX9 for Windows 98/Me)
2. Copy ddraw.dll to ddsys.dll // which ddraw.dll? The one in \windows\system? or the one from wine9x?
3. Edit ddraw.dll in hex editor and replace all (ASCII) "DDRAW.DLL" to "DDSYS.DLL" // again which ddraw.dll?
4...
5...
edit: I was able to get dxdiag going by hexediting the ddraw.dll that's inside wine9x, and extracting all of the wine9x dlls into windows/system folder together with the mesa opengl32. DxDiag works, 3d games work, but I'm not sure if this is the correct way. The github page explicitly states not to just "simply overwrite" ddraw that's inside windows/system since some applications might have to use it. Note that I just want to get the software renderer going, i.e. not softgpu.
@JH64:
Also a bit OT, but which debuggers/programming tools/scripts/console programs/whatever did you find useful when working inside win9x? Given that you're working on a very low level I'm sure you have a bag of tricks. Are you using some sort of a remote setup for usermode debugging? Or it's all debugged inside win9x? If you don't mind sharing. For me, even simple usermode windbg was a godsend. And how do you do kernel debugging? Wdeb386? Or is there something more efficient? I guess what I'm asking for is something akin to Michal Necasek's articles when he was working on his drivers... 😄😃
JH64wrote on 2023-04-11, 00:06:TL;DR: VirtualBox/VMware GPU driver with OpenGL, DirectX and Glide, download: https://github.com/JHRobotics/softgpu/releases […] Show full quote
Some time ago I wanted create ISO with drivers and other support software for Virtual Win 95/98/Me. Also, I wanted include Mesa3D and WineD3D to run OpenGL and DirectX application and games (maybe slowly but they'll run). It wasn't as simple as I thought, I hit a wall a few times, but result is a bit complex package contain VGA driver, OpenGL driver (software or hardware), WineD3D wrapper (translating DX to OpenGL) and OpenGlide wrapper (translating Glide to OpenGL).
It can work on any virtualization software with supporting one of these virtual video adapters:
Software rendering is accelerated by LLVMpipe driver in Mesa3D and hardware rendering is possible in VirtualBox 7.0 and 6.1 though VMSvga/VboxSVGA video adapter (in theory it can work in VMWare and Qemu, but maybe need some work).
To use hardware rendering in VirtualBox you must set Video adapter to VMSvga (switch VM type to Linux because VirtualBox GUI forbids it). Set video memory to 128 MB and check Enable 3D Acceleration. Last step is turn off GPU10 feature, by this command:
1VBoxManage setextradata "My Windows 98" "VBoxInternal/Devices/vga/0/Config/VMSVGA10" "0"
Windows 9x don’t like to switch GPU very much so I am recommending create new, fresh installation. This package is designed for installation on new fresh Windows (98 SE is recommended).
More documentation here: https://github.com/JHRobotics/softgpu
Supported systems:
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows 98 SE
Windows ME
Not all application works and there are lots of bugs, I still need wrote some documentation and clean code a bit.
Please note that this is an alpha release. But on the other side I think it can help a few people to run old games and applications under virtual machine 😀
JH64wrote on 2023-04-11, 00:06:TL;DR: VirtualBox/VMware GPU driver with OpenGL, DirectX and Glide, download: https://github.com/JHRobotics/softgpu/releases […] Show full quote
Some time ago I wanted create ISO with drivers and other support software for Virtual Win 95/98/Me. Also, I wanted include Mesa3D and WineD3D to run OpenGL and DirectX application and games (maybe slowly but they'll run). It wasn't as simple as I thought, I hit a wall a few times, but result is a bit complex package contain VGA driver, OpenGL driver (software or hardware), WineD3D wrapper (translating DX to OpenGL) and OpenGlide wrapper (translating Glide to OpenGL).
It can work on any virtualization software with supporting one of these virtual video adapters:
Software rendering is accelerated by LLVMpipe driver in Mesa3D and hardware rendering is possible in VirtualBox 7.0 and 6.1 though VMSvga/VboxSVGA video adapter (in theory it can work in VMWare and Qemu, but maybe need some work).
To use hardware rendering in VirtualBox you must set Video adapter to VMSvga (switch VM type to Linux because VirtualBox GUI forbids it). Set video memory to 128 MB and check Enable 3D Acceleration. Last step is turn off GPU10 feature, by this command:
1VBoxManage setextradata "My Windows 98" "VBoxInternal/Devices/vga/0/Config/VMSVGA10" "0"
Windows 9x don’t like to switch GPU very much so I am recommending create new, fresh installation. This package is designed for installation on new fresh Windows (98 SE is recommended).
More documentation here: https://github.com/JHRobotics/softgpu
Supported systems:
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows 98 SE
Windows ME
Not all application works and there are lots of bugs, I still need wrote some documentation and clean code a bit.
Please note that this is an alpha release. But on the other side I think it can help a few people to run old games and applications under virtual machine 😀
JH64wrote on 2023-04-11, 00:06:TL;DR: VirtualBox/VMware GPU driver with OpenGL, DirectX and Glide, download: https://github.com/JHRobotics/softgpu/releases […] Show full quote
Some time ago I wanted create ISO with drivers and other support software for Virtual Win 95/98/Me. Also, I wanted include Mesa3D and WineD3D to run OpenGL and DirectX application and games (maybe slowly but they'll run). It wasn't as simple as I thought, I hit a wall a few times, but result is a bit complex package contain VGA driver, OpenGL driver (software or hardware), WineD3D wrapper (translating DX to OpenGL) and OpenGlide wrapper (translating Glide to OpenGL).
It can work on any virtualization software with supporting one of these virtual video adapters:
Software rendering is accelerated by LLVMpipe driver in Mesa3D and hardware rendering is possible in VirtualBox 7.0 and 6.1 though VMSvga/VboxSVGA video adapter (in theory it can work in VMWare and Qemu, but maybe need some work).
To use hardware rendering in VirtualBox you must set Video adapter to VMSvga (switch VM type to Linux because VirtualBox GUI forbids it). Set video memory to 128 MB and check Enable 3D Acceleration. Last step is turn off GPU10 feature, by this command:
1VBoxManage setextradata "My Windows 98" "VBoxInternal/Devices/vga/0/Config/VMSVGA10" "0"
Windows 9x don’t like to switch GPU very much so I am recommending create new, fresh installation. This package is designed for installation on new fresh Windows (98 SE is recommended).
More documentation here: https://github.com/JHRobotics/softgpu
Supported systems:
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows 98 SE
Windows ME
Not all application works and there are lots of bugs, I still need wrote some documentation and clean code a bit.
Please note that this is an alpha release. But on the other side I think it can help a few people to run old games and applications under virtual machine 😀
I have a question: can you make a similar driver for Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10/11?
But why for post XP?
Under Windows XP, I did not find a third-party driver with 3d acceleration support. In addition, the latest versions of VirtualBox and Vmware Workstation Player no longer support their own 3D acceleration for XP. That's why I wanted to ask JH64 to port this driver to windows XP.
D3D and OGL work in 2000 and XP in Vmware. Enable acceleration in the settings of the VM and install the version of the vmware tools that is compatible with XP.
That's why I wanted to ask JH64 to port this driver to windows XP.
"post XP" means "after XP". Why are you asking for Vista up to 11(?!) when there's no need for them.
As DosFreak pointed out, and I mentioned in your other thread, 3D acceleration for XP works with VMWare.
It has some issues with d3d8 games, although the d3d8to9 wrapper can help with that.
The biggest problem is with d3d2-7 games, and there's no wrapper for that.
What is needed, is an XP compatible wrapper, not necessarily a 3D driver.
Saying that, d3d2-7 are predominantly 9x era games, so you're better off using SoftGPU under 9x, or use PCem/86box, or install such games on modern windows and use community fixes and a wrapper like dgvoodoo2.
I have a question: can you make a similar driver for Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10/11?
But why for post XP?
Under Windows XP, I did not find a third-party driver with 3d acceleration support. In addition, the latest versions of VirtualBox and Vmware Workstation Player no longer support their own 3D acceleration for XP. That's why I wanted to ask JH64 to port this driver to windows XP.
Windows XP needs an older version of VMware tools, mine is dated from 2016. VBox, I recall had lesser compatibility so I never went back to VBox. Win Vista+ probably has quite new drivers, if not the newest one. As eddman mentioned, you'll do good with a wrapper.
Under Windows XP, I did not find a third-party driver with 3d acceleration support. In addition, the latest versions of VirtualBox and Vmware Workstation Player no longer support their own 3D acceleration for XP. That's why I wanted to ask JH64 to port this driver to windows XP.
Windows XP needs an older version of VMware tools, mine is dated from 2016. VBox, I recall had lesser compatibility so I never went back to VBox. Win Vista+ probably has quite new drivers, if not the newest one. As eddman mentioned, you'll do good with a wrapper.
What if I decide to upgrade from Windows 10 to 11? I just don't know how compatible the old VirtualBox and VmWare Player will be with Windows 10.
Last step is turn off GPU10 feature, by this command:
1VBoxManage setextradata "My Windows 98" "VBoxInternal/Devices/vga/0/Config/VMSVGA10" "0"
Windows 9x don’t like to switch GPU very much so I am recommending create new, fresh installation. This package is designed for installation on new fresh Windows (98 SE is recommended).
More documentation here: https://github.com/JHRobotics/softgpu
Disable VMSVGA10
Open command line
(on Windows) navigate to VirtualBox installation directory (default: C:\Program Files\Oracle\ […] Show full quote
Disable VMSVGA10
Open command line
(on Windows) navigate to VirtualBox installation directory (default: C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox)
Enter this command where My Windows 98 is your Virtual Machine name
VBoxManage setextradata "My Windows 98" "VBoxInternal/Devices/vga/0/Config/VMSVGA10" "0"
Do you think I did the right thing? I used the
cd /d D:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox
command to go to the directory, since VB is installed on drive D.
PS: My Win10 is Russian
I am very grateful and happy at the pace that this project is going at. Sooner or later, this will be the definitive way to play classic games at full speed and full settings
Hello, information about new release is already here 😀
Only few notes:
- If you turn on GPU gen. 10, you can run 3Dmark03 and 3Dmark2001 without any glitches, and some DirectX9 games too (Colin McRae Rally 3, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2). But implementation in VirtualBox isn’t complete yet, so many older games have problems. So, I currently suggest only turn it for games that using pixel/vertex shaders.
You can turn on this by this command:
1VBoxManage setextradata "My Windows 98" "VBoxInternal/Devices/vga/0/Config/VMSVGA10" "1"
- HW mouse cursor is enabled now, so desktop rendering is smoother, but like all things, it works only in 32bpp (I hoped it’ll solve blinking cursor on some 2D strategies – Sims, Zoo Tycoon, etc. But they are unfortunately running on 16bpp so this wasn’t help).
- To get more performance I plan to complete implementation of Gallium Nine and if things go well, it’ll brings us closer to native DirectX/DirectDraw implementation.
And sorry for late and low responds to comments – I prefer less talk and more code and works on driver are much slower than I imagined 🙁 But thanks to all suggestion I really appreciate them! I’ll answer to them as soon as I find some time to it.
