Troublesome DOS support of ATI Rage 128 Pro 32MB \ VOGONS

Troublesome DOS support of ATI Rage 128 Pro 32MB

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First post, by Paar

Posted on 2020-08-31, 09:44

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Hi. Recently I've built up a nice Pentium II machine and decided I would try to stick a Rage 128 Pro in there as these cards seem to be rather underrated. I must say I was quite satisfied with VGA image quaility and it's speed. It played everything I tried with it, the only problematic game was UT99 which crashed in Direct3D mode. It was a GOG version so I'm not sure it that was a problem. It could probably be solved with newer drivers.

My biggest problem is it's DOS capabilities. Tried three games - Wolf3D, Doom a Duke3D in VESA 640x480. Wolf3D had problems with weapon sprite flicker, e.g. part of the handgund flickered in and out weirdly. Doom had the same problem, the flickering even occured in main menu and HUD text after picking up items. Duke3D didn't flicker but was vsynced which was pretty annoying.

Any DOS experience with this card? Is is something that can be solved? I would like to use it as my main graphics card but I'm sticking to my trusty TNT2 right now for great compability with everything, DOS or Windows related.

Reply 1 of 8, by Cyberdyne

Posted on 2020-08-31, 10:14

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First how the hell can you get your Wolfenstein 3D to output VESA 640x480....

Second modern ATI cards do not have a good VGA compatibility. Better use something Nvidia based, but 6xxx series or older.

And trust your TNT2, nice compadible card.

I am aroused about any X86 motherboard that has full functional ISA slot. I think i have problem. Not really into that original (Turbo) XT,286,386 and CGA/EGA stuff. So just a DOS nut.
PS. If I upload RAR, it is a 16-bit DOS RAR Version 2.50.

Reply 2 of 8, by The Serpent Rider

Posted on 2020-08-31, 10:27

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Vsync in VESA modes can be disabled by NOLFB TSR. Didn't had any problems with Wolfenstein 3D and Doom on Rage Pro and Radeon VE. Both games are tied to 70Hz refresh rate.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 3 of 8, by Paar

Posted on 2020-08-31, 12:17

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Cyberdyne wrote on 2020-08-31, 10:14:

First how the hell can you get your Wolfenstein 3D to output VESA 640x480....

Second modern ATI cards do not have a good VGA compatibility. Better use something Nvidia based, but 6xxx series or older.

Only Duke 3D was running in VESA 640x480, not Wolf3D of course 😀. Either way RAge 128 Pro is hardly considered "modern" since it's a DirectX 6 card.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-08-31, 10:27:

Vsync in VESA modes can be disabled by NOLFB TSR. Didn't had any problems with Wolfenstein 3D and Doom on Rage Pro and Radeon VE. Both games are tied to 70Hz refresh rate.

Problem with NOLFB is that it noticably reduces FPS (at least it did when I tried it with TNT2). Not a problem with 1GHz CPUs and higher but with Pentium II you need any peformance advantage you can get 😁. To think of it I probably have the original Rage 128 lying in a box somewhere. Could be interesting to see if it behaves the same.

Reply 4 of 8, by The Serpent Rider

Posted on 2020-08-31, 12:21

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Problem with NOLFB is that it noticably reduces FPS (at least it did when I tried it with TNT2).

Not really, since NOLFB also will remove heavy FPS drops on scenes with sloped surfaces.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 5 of 8, by Paar

Posted on 2020-09-01, 07:39

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So I've tried Rage 128 16MB and in Doom it behaved exactly the same - flickering HUD texts. It's very strange that nobody ever mentioned this problem as Wolf3D and Doom are games that tend to be the ones of the most benchmarked and tested games considering DOS compatibility.

Maybe I'll try to fiddle with BIOS settings if I can do something about it but I'm not giving it much hope. I really liked the card but this level of graphics problem in DOS really breaks the deal for me.

Reply 6 of 8, by Oetker

Posted on 2020-09-01, 07:47

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I have a Rage Pro, so the predecessor to the 128, and it works great in DOS. I've had luck with fixing (or causing, depending on the game) flickering in DOS on a Voodoo 3 using MTRRLFBE though.

Reply 7 of 8, by Paar

Posted on 2020-09-01, 08:21

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Well, I tried MTRRLFBE without success. In Windows running this app restars my computer and in DOS it displays an error message that LFB is not supported and crashes. Tried Fastvid and even though I could see the performance being better the flickering remained.

Reply 8 of 8, by villeneuve

Posted on 2024-06-03, 12:30

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Question IMO is: was this on a CRT- or LCD-display.

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