Try the Ultim@te Race Pro demo
according to here:
http://www.gweb.me.uk/gweb/powervr.htm

there is a matrox version of the tomb raider patch (1.06) powervr version is 2.0

hmm, anyone know a working link to this ultimate race pro demo or a working link to actual m3d drivers?

That m3d can be dead or in hardware conflict. We have PowerVR installation CDs here at vogonsdrivers- plenty of SGL/DX apps to test your card with.

You don't need the Windows drivers to run Tomb Raider with the PowerVR card under DOS. It is only if you run it in a Windows 9x DOS window you need the drivers. As you say, the game starts up, so I highly doubt drivers has anything to do with it. Most likely the problem is caused by some incompatibility with your G250 host card. I suggest downloading patch 2.1 as it has the following improvements:

1This version only adds support for the new UNIVBE support for AGP and the
2latest graphics cards. No other changes have been made since 2.00.
3
4This version now works with Cyrix CPUs, and fixes problems with
5800x600 modes on Matrox graphics cards.

The 2.1 patch (and all other PowerVR patches and info) is available in my thread: 3D Accelerated Games List (Proprietary APIs - No 3DFX/Direct3D). Here you can also find two other PowerVR demos (Moon Racer & PureVex) if you would like to test a Windows game.

If you want to test other Windows drivers you can download a compilation with alot of different ones here: http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=545. The best driver in my opinion is the 4.1.2 which is modified by PowerVR Revolution. I use this driver with my M3D.

Ultimate Race Pro demo I found very quickly on Google: http://www.ag.ru/games/ultimate-race-pro/demos/4340

looks like it may be a bad card. none of the demos work, I just get a black screen. tried the different drivers as advised and same effect. I really don't feel like hunting another one of these damn cards down again.

I think you are too quick to come to your conclusion. Try another host card and try another computer first.

vetz wrote:

I think you are too quick to come to your conclusion. Try another host card and try another computer first.

appears you were correct. I swapped the matrox for a rage pro but same issue. next I swapped it for a TNT card and I got the screen to come up for moon racer demo but it was froze. so I tried the m3d in my k6III+ board with a voodoo 3 and the demo fired right up and played fine.

now when I tried running tomb raider though I got an error (but at least its an error as opposed to a black screen) it says "cannot find file 'data\titleeh.pcx':no such file or directory

on anouther note that m3d card really heats up. tempted to figure out a way to slap a small heatsink on it.

Have you installer Tomb Raider in another directory than C:/tomb? If yes, read the readme.txt of the PowerVR patch to see hoe to fix it.

Everything was installed into the default C: directory.

Sounds like your running an older patch and the Gold version of Tomb Raider. If you run into problems like this always search on Google Groups:

> Well I got the generics drivers and the apocalypse 3d drivers. I tried > running tomb raider gold with each of them, and bot […]
Show full quote

> Well I got the generics drivers and the apocalypse 3d drivers. I tried
> running tomb raider gold with each of them, and both times i got the error
> "missing \data\titleh.pcx". Titleh.pcx is a picture file that loads up upon
> startup, that is in its proper directory. What is the deal? Is there a
> problem with the patch eiddos offers? I emailed them and they told me to re
> install both the game and direct X (6.0). Has anyone run this game using the
> power vr patches offered by eiddos for tomb raider gold? If so, what
> drivers/configuration were you using?
>
> Thanks in advance
> Hetron
Sorry Hetron,
That's a programming bug/oversight on my part when I did the Gold port. I
think a patch was released to EIDOS for this, but an alternative (if I
remember correctly) is to copy the titleh.pcx file from the CD to the DATA
directory on the hard disk.

Give me a yell, if that doesn't do the trick.

Simon Fenney
VL.

if that doesnt work, make sure you have the correct version of Tomb Raider.

Hmmmm I did google it. I must just suck at googleing. I'm using patch 2.1. Afaik I am using the regular retail release, I'll double check the cd. Maybe somone put a gold edition cd in my retail box and I've never noticed.

bizarre, my cd is indeed the retail version. overall i'm glad my card seems to be working but as to why TR is being so difficult. anyways I copied everything from the CD to the hard drive just in case. now I actually get a title screen but things are missing. I can access "Laura's home" or set any graphical details. I assumed maybe this was just a quirk of the PVR version. I do get the nice little powervr icon in the corner though. but when I start the game I get another error. "egypt.tub not found. this file doesn't seem to be on the CD, or else I cant see it. If I try to run the game via DOS it just locks up when I run the EXE for the pcx2 version.

software version runs fine. as a matter of fact Ive gotten just about every other accelerated version to work with the exception of CIF though that's probably due to using the wrong drivers and I did kind of got it working.

ahh, silly me. Ive been using the patch for unfinished business all along. my bad. got it working!

2 questions though, fist is the pvr version kind of dark or is it just my monitor? second is it normal to just have "N/A" as the only option in the graphic menu?

When you're used to 3dfx's high gamma (values of 1.3 through 1.7 by default) for every game it supports, you forget how accelerated gamma 1.0 looks leading to "game too dark" complaints, common for people switching from Voodoo to TNT/S3/ATI etc in 97-99

IIRC PowerVR version is at normal brightness.

soviet conscript wrote:

software version runs fine. as a matter of fact Ive gotten just about every other accelerated version to work with the exception of CIF though that's probably due to using the wrong drivers and I did kind of got it working.

You did consider the information on http://gona.mactar.hu/ATI_3D_CIF/ ?

idspispopd wrote:

soviet conscript wrote:

software version runs fine. as a matter of fact Ive gotten just about every other accelerated version to work with the exception of CIF though that's probably due to using the wrong drivers and I did kind of got it working.

You did consider the information on http://gona.mactar.hu/ATI_3D_CIF/ ?

yhep, this was several months ago. I tried different drivers and what should of been the correct drivers but I could never get the game to run correctly. it was detecting the card and I was getting new options on the title menu but the game itself didn't look very good and there were no shadows.