For Id Software titles like Quake or Quake 2: There are sharewares and demos of them still available. I would just try it.
http://www.doomwadstation.net/gamedemos/

Edit: Those are OpenGL titles of course. So D3D might not be viable. But they should run in software mode on low resolutions.

If that Trident card is anything like the 3DImage line of cards, then it won't be pretty. D3D is largely awful, although many 1997 titles should run somewhat okay, hopefully. Expect many weird image quality issues, broken blending and alpha effects etc.

Quake and Quake 2 are indeed software rendered + OpenGL titles and I don't think Trident did OpenGL at the time, so you can forget having them 3D accelerated. But the CPU is fast enough, so they should at least run pretty well under software mode 320x200 or even slightly higher, especially for the original Quake.

In general, you should be okay with any 3D game all the way up to and including 1997, since they almost always had at least a software renderer and aimed at ~Pentium 133, and 2D titles, be it platformers or strategy games, should run pretty well even if they were released in 1998-1999. If you see a game requiring a Pentium II 233 and a 3D card, you're probably screwed, but you can always try and see if it is to your satisfaction. A good rule of thumb is that any game requiring ~P120-P166 without a 3D card should run pretty well on a PII 233.

F2bnp wrote:

If that Trident card is anything like the 3DImage line of cards, then it won't be pretty. D3D is largely awful, although many 1997 titles should run somewhat okay, hopefully. Expect many weird image quality issues, broken blending and alpha effects etc.

Quake and Quake 2 are indeed software rendered + OpenGL titles and I don't think Trident did OpenGL at the time, so you can forget having them 3D accelerated. But the CPU is fast enough, so they should at least run pretty well under software mode 320x200 or even slightly higher, especially for the original Quake.

In general, you should be okay with any 3D game all the way up to and including 1997, since they almost always had at least a software renderer and aimed at ~Pentium 133, and 2D titles, be it platformers or strategy games, should run pretty well even if they were released in 1998-1999. If you see a game requiring a Pentium II 233 and a 3D card, you're probably screwed, but you can always try and see if it is to your satisfaction. A good rule of thumb is that any game requiring ~P120-P166 without a 3D card should run pretty well on a PII 233.

I actually was able to run [at least] the demos pretty well, I got a solid 55-56FPS-ish on the Quake II demo @ 640x480, and OG Quake demo ran like a charm, easily 60FPS+, also on 640x480.

And thank you for the advice, I'll copy and paste this somewhere to make sure of this when I'm out purchasing games!

~55fps at 640x480 in Quake 2? Are you quite sure? Could you provide more info, I find these numbers hard to swallow as even with a Voodoo3 I don't think you can reach that kind of performance with this CPU and you are probably using software rendering, unless I'm missing something.

F2bnp wrote:

~55fps at 640x480 in Quake 2? Are you quite sure? Could you provide more info, I find these numbers hard to swallow as even with a Voodoo3 I don't think you can reach that kind of performance with this CPU and you are probably using software rendering, unless I'm missing something.

Yeah, never mind about that, I thought it defaulted in 640x480 but apparently not, it's on 320x240 and indeed running in software. Still getting a decent 45-55 FPS, it dips a little bit more than that when there's explosions sometimes but it's very well playable.

My only problem is that the colors are washed out and look close to sick dog feces (especially when you're in a darker area), and I kind of want to fix that. 😒

I do know at least the early Trident 3D chips' drivers benefitted from GLDirect performance-wise. Their D3D HAL > GL ICD

Good idea, you can get it over here :
Gldirect v5.0.2 released as freeware! (actually the links are down over there so try here instead)

Funny seeing you on that thread leilei saying the same thing essentially 🤣

F2bnp wrote:

Good idea, you can get it over here :
Gldirect v5.0.2 released as freeware! (actually the links are down over there so try here instead)

Funny seeing you on that thread leilei saying the same thing essentially 🤣

Stupid question, but how do I actually use it? I tried to configure it but when I change my video options to "OpenGL" in Quake, everything still looks the same. My apologies, but it's been quite a while since I've last used a GPU emulation software/wrapper (I used dgVoodoo a couple years back). However, there's also something concerning me in the config notes:

I honestly don't know what to tell you, I've never the wrapper myself. It may be a driver issue or perhaps an older version has to be used?

F2bnp wrote:

I honestly don't know what to tell you, I've never the wrapper myself. It may be a driver issue or perhaps an older version has to be used?

I tried it with v2.0 and it's even more broken, and I don't got a clue where to find updated Trident Cyber9388 driver software. I guess I'll just stick to the sick dog feces graphics when I get my hands on an actual Quake II copy.

It could definitely run SkiFree but may not run Cuphead or Far Cry 5